As I write this, the steady flow of news seems to have been temporarily staunched. My inbox has stopped racking up press release after press release; the stories from our Japanese correspondent have been posted. Nobody's calling me.

This won't last long. So I'll make it quick. I haven't had the time to think about anything for more than a few minutes at a time over the past few weeks. A story comes in, I drop everything to write it. Then I forget about it five minutes later.

The upside to this is that I have thought about a lot of different things. So here's your news analysis and opinion in bite-size chunks. Welcome to my world.

- I would like to point out that it is not some bizarre, out-of-this-world, how-about-that coincidence that the four biggest games of the year have all found their way onto the Internets prior to their retail release. Considering that pirates have mastered the art of ripping and burning PS2 and Xbox games, and that giant files are now easily spread all over within a day or so, what would have been amazing is if they didn't.

At this point, publishers have very little hope of stopping the spread of the games, because there's no specific place where the pirated software is located. At least with Napster or Kazaa, centralized servers list the files. With programs like BitTorrent, the downloads are everywhere and nowhere at the same time. It's like trying to stop the common cold from spreading. As soon as you figure out where it came from, it's gone and a whole bunch of other people are spreading it. All they can do now is step up security measures such that no future games get leaked in the first place.

Well. Or they could make their hardware more resistant to piracy. Nobody's going to be downloading Metroid Prime 2 anytime soon, now, are they?

- If allegations of bribery on the part of Jakks Pacific are true, then from what I read in the court filings, the WWE video game license that went to THQ all those years ago could actually have gone to... previous license-holder Acclaim. Well, they're certainly not going to get it now. But Acclaim hangers-on now have another scapegoat, for what it's worth.

- I'm really glad they're making another action adventure based on the Mortal Kombat franchise, because it worked out so well the last two times.

- Damn that Nintendo.

I say this in jest, of course. But damn that Nintendo. After I put down the cash for Metroid Prime 2: Echoes on November 15, then a DS and Mario 64 on the 21st, I'm going to have to buy anywhere between four and five import games. Because the DS hits Japan on December 2 along with the absolutely unskippable Wario Ware DS and the all-too-intriguing Jam With The Band and One-Line Puzzle. Wait for next year? I can't do it! And that's not all--one week later, Yoshi's Universal Gravitation (the Yoshi GBA platformer that uses the motion sensor) hits, and then a week after that it's Donkey Kong Jungle Beat.

Damn that Nintendo. They really should pay my shipping fees.

- This isn't to say that I'm at all upset with the US launch lineup for the Nintendo DS. It's not particularly tuned to my own strange, non-mainstream, Japanophilic tastes, that's true. But it is balanced much better--instead of just featuring Nintendo first-party titles or just Japanese games, the launch market is actually wide open for Western companies like EA and Activision. Say what you want about the games they're preparing, but any system would kill for Madden, Tiger Woods, Spider-Man, and Ridge Racer at launch.

- This has been a very Wario Ware styled piece with all its fast, transition-less cuts. Which is why I'd like to finish by talking about Mawaru Made In Wario, the new GBA entry in the series that uses a motion sensor. You might think you know how awesome it is. But you don't. Mawaru is entertaining to the point of actually distracting you from remembering to play it. There were multiple times when I was laughing so hard at the on-screen antics that I failed to complete even simple tasks.

In any case, Mawaru is no half-assed update. It kicks the ass of the original in graphic quality, creativity of the games, and extra bonus unlockables (especially the latter category).

Nintendo hasn't announced an American date yet. As soon as they do, I'll drop everything to write the story. Then forget about it five minutes later.