Nintendo doesn't much care for bees

Nintendo's unusually amusing this month. With Metroid Prime: Echoes due out on GameCube in the States on November 15th (and in Europe on November 26th), the platform holder has struck upon an unusual method of promoting its prized first-person adventure title. Fake websites.

First of all there's Channel 51, a conspiracy theorist's, um, dead end, given that most of the footage is from Metroid Prime, and that the site's principle correspondent is a young lady called Samantha "Manus" from "Sumas, Washington". Then there's Orbis Labs, which specialises in futuristic military technology including a "Battle Sphere"...

But the one that's been causing the most amusement amongst the childish likes of us is probably the simplest, and at the time of writing it's something that Nintendo UK representatives weren't taking responsibility for. You'll remember Microsoft's ambitious www.ilovebees.com campaign for Halo 2 (outlined in detail here if you've let it pass you by). It's clear Nintendo - or somebody on its side - does though, judging by www.ilovetease.com, www.iloveseas.com and around 30 other variants, which up until they became unavailable to us this morning had been carrying a very simple proclamation suspended under a picture of Samus' visor: "All your bees are belong to us. Never send a man to do a woman's job."

Whatever next?