The lucky bastards at Time.com have been treated to a sneak preview of GameCube before E3 starts, and their impressions are incredibly revealing. First and foremost: Luigi's Mansion, according to them, is a real and playable game. You guide Luigi through the haunted mansion; at his disposal are a flashlight and, get this...a vacuum cleaner. And you thought Majora's Mask was weird! (Note: We've had reports for some time now that Luigi's Mansion was in fact a real game and not just a tech demo or part of another game; with this Time article, we felt safe updating the Luigi's Mansion preview with everything we know and have heard in that regard. Unless the folks at Time are on serious crack or have totally mishandled the facts, Luigi's Mansion is its own real game and will almost surely be playable at E3. Yes, it is quite possible that Nintendo only showed Time a single stage of their complete Mario-Luigi game, but Time is referring to Luigi's Mansion as a game in itself, and we can't infer anything beyond that until further information is available.)

Time also says that Wave Race on GameCube has incredible water effects: "...its foam and raindrops on the camera lens will have you reaching for a towel."

However, Time was most impressed by Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron 2, and they note that the Death Star level has actually been made to look more plastic-like because Factor 5 feared Lucas's reactions to the game graphics looking better than the "real" Death Star! Maybe there'll be a code to upgrade them back to the original sheen...

Finally, a short comparison chart between GameCube and Xbox reveals a couple things about Nintendo's system. Time cites a price of $150-200, further confirming plans for a very affordable price point. Also, even more intriguing is that the game list includes something called "Blue Storm". What could this mystery game be? We honestly don't know. It may be a brand new game from Nintendo or a second-party, or it may simply be a new name for a game we've been expecting all along. Needless to say, we'll be looking for more info on Blue Storm and all this other stuff as E3 continues to approach...