Howdy Bag,

Me and some friends have been thinking of ways to improve the Wii-mote's only problem: the D-pad. Specifically, the issue people had at E3 was that reaching up to press the D-pad, such as in Corruption or Twilight Princess, tended to throw off the targeting reticule.

So here's what we came up with: Switch the positions of the A button and D-pad, and move both of them lower down the remote. You'd use the D-pad with the underside of your thumb's knuckle, and the A button with your thumb's tip. So, what do you think, O mighty holder of postage?

Yeah, I had that same issue in a lot of the Wii games I played. If you've read my Red Steel E3 impressions you would have seen me voice my concerns about that.

I'm afraid your solution would be impractical, though. Remember, the Wii controller can be turned sideways and played in that NES-style control mode, which means the D-Pad must absolutely be on one of the outside edges. The placement of the pad and A Button would need to stay in the same place because of that. The only solution to the inaccessibility of the pad that I think would work is to move the B Trigger on the underside of the remote a little higher up, closer to the top of the controller. In that way, the hand would be in a position to where the thumb would closer to the D-pad instead of over the A Button. There are probably going to be a lot of games that will use the D-Pad directions as regular action buttons, so I hope Nintendo can tweak the controller just that little bit more to cater to those games.

I heard a few months back that a TNA wrestling game was being produced for all next generation systems, but I have never heard of any official comformation as to if it will appear on Wii, so if you have heard anything or know someone who does, an answer would be appreciated.

Anthony

Last month it was made known that the TNA game was well under way, and according to the wrestling promotion it "will be available for all new generation systems including Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3." There was no direct confirmation of a Wii version, but they did say it was for “all" of the new systems, which would presumably include Nintendo. However, if the game is in development for Nintendo's box, why didn't they mention it along with the other two? Midway doesn't have the game listed for any platforms at the moment, so perhaps even they don't know for sure at this point. I don't see the publisher passing up the opportunity to release their wrestling game on every system (just like a certain other company does), but will a Wii release be worthwhile if it's just going to be a straight port?

The game won't be out until next year, so we'll know eventually. For now, I would say that TNA on Wii has been unofficially officially confirmed. Whatever that means.

First and formost, Planetgamecube is my favorite site and it is set as my homepage. my question is about the metroid prime figures. I can't remeber if you posted a thing about this already but I was curious if you have heard anything like when they will be coming out and what they look like. i know they will be $70 which is alot of money for a statue, but if I could get a kickass metroid statue then I would probably buy it.

-MCMD

Actually, they'll set you back between $85 to $200 smackeroos, but they are apparently going to be some high-quality figurines and sets. They did promise the models would be shown off at Nintendo's booth at E3 this year, but the only things in that corner of the L.A. Convention Center's West Hall were Wii and DS games. I don't know for sure if they were anywhere at E3, now that I think about it. I certainly haven't seen what they look like.

They should still be coming out later this year, though. You may want to keep an eye on First 4 Figures' site to see when they provide more information on the statues, like when and how they'll be available.

I've seen articles explaining that Koji Kondo wanted to go with a real orchestra to provide the music for TP. But from what has been seen from the E3 demos, this won't be the case. Do you think these tracks were placeholders for the real deal, or do you think we're stuck with midi-esque samples yet again?

It would hope that at least the Wii version has orchestrated music. The DVD-sized Wii discs have plenty of room for that if Nintendo wants to do it, and really, they should do it. Even if the music was done before they decided to bump it up to the Wii, they could have gone back and redone things with that extra year of development time.

The E3 demo was just that; Nintendo is still working on the full game. The finished product will be better in most aspects, and hopefully an orchestrated soundtrack is one of those.

In the July 2nd mailbag, you said the Wii probably wouldn't be able to play GBA games. While this is likely true for the official Game Boy Player, what about Datel's alternative? That goes through the memory card slot, which the Wii will still have. The only potential snag would be the boot disc, I suppose.

Ah yes, I had forgotten about the Datel Advance Game Port. I suppose it will work fine provided the Wii can read Datel's GC boot discs. As has been a topic of discussion in the previous weeks here at the mailbag, the new system probably can. So yeah, if you really, really want to play GBA games on your TV with Wii, try to get a hold of that device.

Howdy,

Long time, first time (what, are we in Thailand ?). Quick question. Wasn’t Nintendo talking about a Wii webcam for a while? Can’t remember hearing anything from E3, though. I can imagine that it’s not at the top of Nintendo’s priorities given that the Wii interface makes waving your hands in front of a camera useless, but Sony is doing some really interesting things with the likes of Eye of Judgement (Pokemon anyone?) and Microsoft announcing that they’ll have a cam as well. Any thoughts or updates from your end?

Cheers,

DB

I don't recall Nintendo ever mentioning anything about the possibility of a Wii camera, either before or at E3. All reports about said device have been of the rumor or speculative sort. I would agree that if Nintendo was ever considering a cam of some sort, it would be toward the back end of their to-do list for getting the Wii hardware and its game finalized and ready for launch later this year. If a camera is planned in any way, I wouldn't expect to see it for a long while, however.

I must say that Sony is starting to come up with better ideas on how to use the EyeToy. Waving hands around was a fair start for the device, but I think using it as a card reader is a neat trick. Still, it's just a trick, and not something that people will flock to or something that would sell systems. (Aside: Card games, like Magic, Yugioh or the Pokemon TCG are supposed to leave it up to the players to picture what the battles would be like using their own imagination. If you take that aspect out of the equation and show players exactly what's happening, does that make a card game better or worse? I'm just saying.) The point here is that a game console camera is just an optional accessory to have, and only if there are numerous uses for it. Microsoft is planning on Video Chat and custom gamer pictures for the Xbox Live Vision camera, Sony has Eye of Judgment and some other things in the works, and both will probably offer face-mapping for games in the future. I would hope Nintendo eventually releases a camera to do face-mapping with the Wii, but I guess the face-avatar thing that will be included with the Wii hardware will partially satisfy those who want it.

Think we'll ever see and MMORPG on the Wii? Up until now, they've seemed a little scared to leave the PC, but they really wouldn't play all that differently on a console.

I don't think it will happen. For an MMORPG to work, you need either a lot of system memory or a lot of storage space to hold a persistent world, preferably both. The Wii will have neither come standard, so there would be no way to do a massive multiplayer online game. I would imagine it could still do not-so-massive multiplayer online games (such as Phantasy Star Online), but I don't think Wii owners will get anything of the scope that PC MMO players have.

The reason why PC developers aren't willing to risk the jump to the home console is because the genre is untested and unproven in that format. Developing an MMO is a monumental task, with games requiring a great deal of time and money to get working correctly. If a developer put all of those resources into a game and released it onto a console audience that couldn't care less, that would be big-time bad for them. Even if there was interest, asking people to pay a monthly fee for one console game for more than a few months could be difficult. The monthly money is where most MMO devs cash in. I suppose the PSO console games bucked that particular trend, but it's a niche game that doesn't enjoy the mainstream success that Blizzard has with World of Warcraft.

Final Fantasy XI on the PS2 was an alright start to real console MMORPGs, but then again, the Final Fantasy name has a history on the consoles and people wouldn't be too afraid to give it a try (it is a Final Fantasy game, after all). For a developer to bring a new MMO game to a console would be a big risk, and the reward might not be big enough for them to want to take it. FFXI is coming to the Xbox 360 as well, and other companies may use that as a measuring stick to see how deep the next-gen console MMO market may be. If the rumors are to be believed, a WoW console version would certainly help to drive people to the genre. It'll take time for MMOs to be viable on consoles no matter how you slice it, though.

Wasabi bag!

Not sure if this particular issue has been brought up, but if it hasn't then kudos for me! Anyway, I was just thinking about the new Super Smash Bros Brawl game. I loved the first two games, but Melee missed something that gave the original SSB a bit more charm. Whatever happened to Captain Falcon swooping into the fray in his Blue Falcon? What happened to Fox jumping out of his Arwing as it flew past? What happened to Pikachu popping out of a pokeball? what happened to Link descending from the sky encased in that crystal light? What happened to Mario making his classic appearance emerging from a pipe? I loved those character specific entries, and I was just wondering if Brawl is going to bring that back.

Uber-huge SSB fan

I think the character entrances might have been removed from Melee because they took a little time to go through and couldn't be skipped, if memory serves me correctly. It works better in Super Smash Bros. Melee because once you select a level, the match starts two or three seconds later. No need to wait for the characters to make their grand entrances, you know? We would be much better served if that fancy stuff was kept to the single player modes, which were awesome in SSBM and should be beyond awesome in the upcoming Super Smash Bros. Brawl for Wii.

Hi folks,

I'm an RTS junkie who was thrilled when the DS first appeared thinking "A touch screen! Perfect for Real Time Strategy titles on a handheld!". A year and a half later I'm still milking "Mech Platoon" on my SP, waiting for an excuse to buy a DS. I guess "Lost Magic" has an RTS feel, but no resource management (the fun part!), and I guess there's that in-the-works Samurai RTS that's been talked about for about a year, but the last I heard, it wasn't looking promising. So I guess my question is, am I wrong in thinking that the DS is begging for a classic-style RTS title? Is there one in the works that I haven't heard about?

Along similar lines, from what you've experienced in your hands-on with the Wii, do you think it's capable of acting enough like a mouse that it could create a PC-style RTS experience on a console?

Thanks for all the great coverage,

Steve

There are plenty of turn-based strategy games in development for the DS, but the real-time variety doesn't have as many. Off the top of my head, Star Trek: Tactical Assault is an upcoming DS RTS. I think that may be the only real-time title of repute that's in the pipeline at the moment, though.

A lot of people shared your feelings as the features of the DS hardware were better understood following its announcement at E3 2004. Most people were thinking, map on one screen, action on the other screen, mouse-like controls...the DS would be perfect for an RTS! But, the first of the DS RTS games, Shogun Empires, got some bad reviews. I think ever since then, publishers took a step back and thought that maybe dual-screened handheld RTS games weren't such a good idea after all. I hope they come around, because I would die for a version of old-school Command and Conquer on DS.

RTS control on Wii would indeed be similar to a mouse, but you wouldn't have very many buttons to work with for commands and shortcuts and the like. There would also be the issue of television resolution, as commented on by EA Los Angeles (the C&C folks). It may be difficult to replicate the PC-style RTS on a monitor resolution many times smaller than the average PC screen size, especially since people sit much further away from their TV screens than their computer monitors.

Of course, Nintendo will eventually be making their own RTS game, Pikmin, for the Wii. Perhaps even on the DS as well. If Nintendo can show everyone how to do it on the new systems, then maybe everyone else will have a real go at it.

Since it appears that the Gameboy hardware is on it's last legs, do you think it would be wise for Nintendo to continue the Gameboy line as DS software. The software would add the Gameboy features that were left out of the DS. It might allow you to play Gameboy games with other people over the Nintendo Wifi Connection, or over other DS's. It could even come with some sort adapter that allows you to connect a GBA port to your DS so you could use the link cable or other accessories. Can the power port support data transfer?

Bonus Question: Is it just me or does it seem sad that Nintendo cut support for the original Gameboy games in the Gameboy micro. They are just letting all the classics die, even if they look like monochrome crud. I talked about it on Nintendo's forums about it, but no one seemed to care.

Mysteryman

I don't think it's possible to allow GBA games to access the hardware features of the DS. Once a game boots in GBA mode, the DS becomes a Game Boy Advance without a link cable port. DS games can access GBA the cartridge slot, but only if the DS card was booted and the system is running in DS mode. The extension connector only supports the battery charger cable, so Nintendo couldn't make the DS a multiplayer GBA system unless they changed future hardware revision of the DS, something that wouldn't be worth it. If a studio wanted to make a GBA game with all the bells and whistles of a DS game, they might as well just make a DS game. It would be cool if I could somehow play my older GBA games online, though.

Cutting out legacy Game Boy support on the GB Micro (and the DS) is too bad, but I don't think it was possible for them to include that functionality and get the Micro down to the size they wanted. The GBA and the SP can play all the old games because they have the original Game Boy chipset inside, and although it's not that big, it still takes up space. The Micro itself was an experiment by Nintendo, to see how small and chic they could make the GBA, and also to see how many people they could sucker in to buy it at almost twice the manufacturing cost. Well, they got me and a lot of other people, and I think the Micro is going to start fading away unless Nintendo drops the price to a more reasonable level. Anyway, not having universal BC on the little guy wasn't a selling point for the device, and it's not like people don't have any means to play the old games. There are a hundred million or so GBAs out there in the world, after all.

I just wanted to know if Wii games can be played on Gamecube. That's all i need to know.

Nope. You must have a Wii to play Wii games. Here are three reasons why Wii software won't work on the GC hardware, among many others: 1) 12cm Wii game discs won't fit inside of the 8cm GameCube disc tray. 2) Even if you managed to cram it in there, the GameCube is less capable than the newer, more powerful Wii hardware, so the games wouldn't work. 3) There would be no way to control Wii games without the Wii remote controller and the sensor bar, devices which the GameCube can in no way support.

So now you know...and knowing is half the battle!

Hey pgc,

I just want to hear your opinion on an issue I have with the new wii controller. While I think the motion sensing tech is genius why do you think nintendo brought back the d-pad as the main directional button on the right hand? I know the nunchuck has a joystick, but with a joystick on the wiimote instead of a d-pad developers could make both motion sensing first person shooters, as well as traditional dual analog style shooters. Nintendo has yet to make a first person shooter friendly controller. (damn the person who thought up the design for the c-stick) In my opinion another joy-stick could still serve as button layout like the d-pad, just you could use it to direct motion as well. What do you think?

An analog stick on the Wiimote would be overkill. Nintendo wanted to design the thing to look like a regular television remote controller so the non-gamer wouldn't be intimidated by it. 99% of TV remotes don't have a joystick sticking up out of them, and those that do confuse all but the most tech-savvy of people. Similarly, a stick on the Wii remote could confuse the people Nintendo wants to attract to the system. In addition, it might detract attention away from the controller's primary functions, which are the the infrared direct pointing device and the internal accelerometer/tilt sensors.

I don't know why anyone would say Nintendo hasn't made the Wii controller FPS-friendly. The analog stick nunchaku attachment is for analog movement, and the remote pointer is for precision looking and aiming... what more do you need out of a controller for a first-person game? If developers really wanted to make a game that sported a dual-analog control setup, they could add simply add support for the Wii classic style controller—which attaches to the Wiimote for motion sensing—or add support for GameCube pads. (Or, they could just stick to the PS3 and Xbox 360.) However, just about everyone that has used the Wiimote is saying it's going to be the standard for console shooter games, and it might even rival the mouse and keyboard setup that PC players have enjoyed for years.

For me personally, I can't wait to play FPS games on the Wii, like Metroid Prime 3 or Red Steel. I haven't played many FPS games on consoles lately because I can't quite decide on whether or not I like my look controls regular or inverted... I like it different ways for different games, it seems. People won't ever need to complain about Y-axis inversion on the Wii, though. Anyone can pick up a Wii FPS and start playing without worrying about which way is up. I think that's a good thing for Nintendo in the long run...you may one day see your parents online, fragging people left and right using the remote.

Maybe.

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