I've been playing some Red Steel lately and I feel like it would be a far better game simply if it was easier to turn. The broken turning mechanic detracts in a major way from the whole experience.

I have been thinking about this mechanic: Why the emphasis on strafing? What I mean is, all the FPS we've seen on Wii so far (Far Cry, COD3, MOH, MP3), have used the pointer to turn and the analog stick to strafe. Why not use the analog stick to turn and hold down a button to strafe? The remote would just control aiming. It would avoid these control problems hobbling every Wii FPS, and it worked with Goldeneye, which is still more fun to play than most modern FPSes.

- Koloth
NJ

Using an extra button on the Wii remote to activate strafing may or may not work very well. The first problem to overcome is the Wii only really has four buttons to work with, so if a game needs them all there may not be enough buttons to accommodate this option. Doing this may also confuse players not coordinated enough to switch between the two on the fly. The standard look/strafe setup is the standard for FPS games nowadays, and if a game deviates from the normal model it may be more frustrating to learn than it's worth.

I wouldn't attribute the Wii FPS problems to the traditional style not working well with the new controls. In Red Steel, I thought that the shooting controls worked pretty well. The interface was a bit rough, and the game lacked polish in general. I believe that the majority of the other control problems were more due to the fact that development teams are simply inexperienced on the subtleties of the Wii remote. As developers (and players) become more accustomed to it, I feel that things will eventually work great.

Until then, devs should make every effort to provide customizable control schemes, and a lot of adjustment options. Everyone uses an analog stick the same way, but everyone uses the Wii remote differently. Why should we be stuck with a single way to control the games?

I've found myself not wanting to play many Gamecube games on the Wii due to the machine's clunky handling of Gamecube software. I don't like that you can't return to the Wii home menu once you've started a Gamecube game. Having to reset the console whenever you want to change games is counterintuitive to the Wii experience, where everything is neatly contained in channels, allowing you to easily switch between all your games and applications.

Is this a problem that's a limitation of the Wii architecture, or is this something that can be cured in future firmware? I've searched the internet, but no one seems to know the answer. Can you get the official word from Nintendo on this? I'm ready to plug my Gamecube back in!

- Coolie Ranx

Yeah, that annoys me too. I'm fairly sure this isn't something that can be changed, since the Wii literally turns into a GameCube once you select a GameCube game from the Wii Disc Channel.

Here's the funny thing, though. If you hook your GameCube up again, you'll need to get up off your couch and turn it off. You need to do the same thing to your Wii running in GameCube mode. What if you want to change games? You're going to need to power off, eject the disc, put a new one in there and turn it on again. The procedure is the same on the old GameCube and the new Wii. I bet you didn't think of it that way, did you?

The Wii has spoiled us. Everything is wireless. Unfortunately, there's no way to turn off the GameCube wirelessly, so you're going to need to do it the old fashioned way, regardless. It sucks, but having one machine be two systems in one is more convenient than hooking your GameCube back up.

Hiya NWR,

I was just wondering what that weird click noise is when you change channels on the Wii . Am I the only one who hears that noise, or is it normal?

*CLICK*

- Mysteryman
US of A

There's a reason why you sometimes hear people refer to TV remote controls as clickers. Old TVs made a big ol' click sound when changing the channel, due to the turning of the channel dial. Flipping through the Wii Channels with the plus/minus buttons is a throwback to that.

Hey,

Well I was just reading about the rant that one of the developers on Spore, went on during GDC 2007. And wanted to see what your guy's response was to this. In my opinion, I think his rant is a crock of Sh*t! In all seriousness though, his accusations about the Wii being two GC's duck taped together and it sucking a** is comical. Nintendo is the only company even willing to try and develop a better gaming industry, by opening it up to non-gamers. Sony and Microsoft are just half-a**ing it with the exact same concept over and over again. Wii finally breaks the mold, something that has needed to be done since the era of the N64. What is your reaction to this rant?

- Slick_magee21

Well, he's right. The Wii is really nothing more than a GameCube with twice the processing capacity. The development community likes to have a lot of power and a lot of memory to work with, and compared to the Xbox 360, the PS3 and most gaming-level PCs, the Wii doesn't really have a lot of either.

Chris Hecker of Maxis, the man who made the "two GameCubes duct taped together" quip, later apologized for his choice of words. There's a little twist to the story, though. Maxis is owned by Electronic Arts, and EA is trying to appease its stockholders by showing they're getting on the ball with Wii development. Isn't it strange how fast one of EA's employees rescinded his comment?

A while back I heard of a Top down 2D shooter (Nanostray style) coming to the DS. It was supposed to be the most beautiful thing ever, and if I remember correctly supposed to have real planes and be WW II themed? Any games that you have heard of such as that? I remember it having Blue in the title but I can't find anything besides Lost in Blue which is an RPG. Help!

- tonythekitty
Alabama

No, I think the game you're thinking of is the game formerly known as Raid Over the River, from Nibris. Now it's called ROTR, and it'll be out some time this year for DS and Wii.

What happened to Metroid, Day of Disaster, BWII? Those where all already announced so I mean, Nintendo could have talked about them, they weren't new games. Was anything said about them or shown? Wasn't Metroid due this spring? It's not there with the other spring games? Is wifi being added to it?

Thanks,

- draggingalake
Elm Grove

Nintendo not showing the games you mentioned at Game Developers Conference could have been because of the company's impending stock transaction, but more likely it was because Nintendo wasn't ready to show them off at the event. I'm sure we'll hear more about Metroid (for better or worse) very soon, but as for the rest, we'll probably need to wait until the new E3 arrives to hear more about them.

Hello mailbag.

My question is in regards to Killer Instinct. Is anyone on the NWR staff aware of who owns the rights to the KI franchise, and if either of the two titles may be rearing their heads on the Virtual Console in the not-too-distant future?

- Derek
Canada

Killer Instinct is all Rare, and therefore, all Microsoft. It has a better chance of showing up on Xbox Live Arcade. I'd rather see an all new game built for the 360, to be honest.

Normally i'm never one to complain about anything to do with Video Games, but considering that the Wii is the most physically-active machine around (and probably will be until Virtual Reality), my quam is somewhat notable.

After Enjoying my Wii for a good few months now, i've noticed my right wrist is getting quite sore, no doubt the result of constant sword-slashing in Zelda & Red Steel, as well as engrossing Wii-Sports matches. I know that the break warning comes up in most games, but for certain titles, you want to be able to play for sessions of at least an hour before resting, and the trouble is that now I've gotten to the point of where an hour is enough for my wrist to start playing up.

The trouble with this is, aside from the discomfort involved, that this kind of injury is a classic case of repetitive motion disorder - one that could cause a lot of bad marketing for Ninty if it got out, so I hope that developers will not overdo the gimmicky, slashing movements of the controller instead of the subtle, more accurate uses which highlight the Revolutionary advantages of the control scheme, rather than the repetitive aspects.

- Mick Dundee
Perth, Western Australia

I'm in decent shape, and even I found myself burning out my arm playing Wii Sports Bowling. That was probably because I was chucking the ball down the lane with all my might, but that's besides the point. Since then my arm has gotten used to the motion and I'm not putting as much effort into it as I was before, and the game still works the same way.

Making sure people don't poop out when playing Wii games is as much as a responsibility of Wii players as it is Wii developers. Games should be designed so that giant movements aren't required, obviously, but then consumers need to understand that it doesn't take all of your energy to perform simple actions. Swinging the sword in Twilight Princess was something I did over and over again, but my wrist never got cramped or sore because I was doing the action very lightly. I've seen others put some gusto into it. That's all well and good and fun, but people need to learn to not over do it, too.

Dear Bag,

On November 19th, I bought a Wii, a few extra controllers, and Twilight Princess. I got home, played Wii Sports for a few hours with my friends, then put in TP. My inner Zelda nerd took over, and when the title animation finished, I was nearly in tears. It was a good day.

However, as I went on through the game, I noticed that not only was the game not the perfect Zelda experience that EAD had been promising me for close to two years, but that it wasn't even on par with Minish Cap in terms of direction and emotional depth. Link's a brick, the wolf sections are too long fpr their own good, only one character comes close to how involving every character from Windwaker was (Midna), and in the end, I was disappointed.

Believe it or not, this all actually leads into a question. With seemingly everyone everywhere proclaiming TP as THE Zelda game, and so many of my fellows saying the same, I was at a loss. Why is everyone in America so enamored with such a flawed Zelda experience? Then I read your transcript of Eiji Aonuma's speech from GDC, and I began to wonder if the dev team's hearts weren't really in it. I don't know a thing about the internal development of Ocarina, Majora, or Windwaker, but just from playing them, I get the sense that when these crazy nuts over in Kyoto are allowed to do what they want (as opposed to just giving in and making a realistic Zelda for the sake of the money of North American gamers), they create the REAL Zeldas. The Windwakers, the Minish Caps, the Link to the Pasts.

Any thoughts? I'd really like to hear of more than one person who agrees, even in the slightest, with my view on this.

- Salvatore
Spectacle Island

I see your angle on this, and I agree with you on one point. The story could have been more fleshed out. I got to play through the first two dungeons a few weeks before the game came out, and based off of that alone, I was led to believe that the story would be the most epic in the series' history. After playing through the rest of the game and finding out the story stopped halfway through, I was let down. Overall TP definitely wasn't close to Wind Waker's story, especially when you compare the ending sequences.

However, the story was secondary to everything else the game brought to the table. I feel the action in Twilight Princess is second to none, and there's enough other cool stuff in the game to make up for the oversights in other areas. Link was never more bad-ass in everything he did. Every little thing he did conveyed a sense of maturity, from twirling his sword during battles to riding around on Epona. And oh-by-the-way, the game took a very, very long time to complete.

The extra year of development surely took a little something away from the overall package. The game was supposed to be done in October of 2005. It was probably perfected in the weeks leading up to the final stretch, at which time it was delayed. Twilight Princess, as awesome as it is, might be a case where it was worked on for too long. The story may have been stretched thin, and the complexity of character developments that might have been in place in the original version could have been lost in the 2006 retooling. We'll never know for sure.

Well, now, Super Paper Mario sure does look enjoyable. I have some questions, however, that mostly stem from Aaron's impression page, which contained a few videos.

First of all, here's a personal question: Why do you think the time available for exploring three dimensions was made limited? I'm not going to hypothesize right now, so as to see your unaffected response.

Lastly, I recall seeing two of these Pixl creatures in the video with Peach, but I didn't see the newer one do anything. I remember reading that Peach cannot flip to 3D, so what is the other Pixl for? (Or will I have to wait and see...?)

- Suffix
TMK

Super Paper Mario will be great. It's going to be the ultimate throwback to classic 2D gaming, and it'll follow in the traditionally hilarious line of Paper Mario games.

In playing it at GDC, it's pretty clear to me why they limited the time you have to 3D flip. Switching to the side view is meant to help you solve puzzles and get through tough spots. If it was possible to play the entire game that way, it would defeat the purpose of making it a 2D side-scroller. Not to say it wouldn't be cool to play it like that, but that's not what SPM is.

That was one of the Pixls that Mario could use. Peach has another one, which was the ability to point the Wii remote at the screen and find hidden doors and such with a spotlight function. It seemed to work alright the few times I got to use it, but I imagine stopping every screen and looking for hidden stuff each time may get boring.

There are going to be other Pixls than those two, so we're going to have to wait and see for the others when the game comes out. It's only one week away, folks!

I have never played a Pokemon game before, but being able to play online with my Wii would be fun! I know I would have to buy either Diamond or Pearl for my DS, but is Pokemon worth all that trouble? Do any of you play Pokemon, or plan on picking this one up? Is it a good game?

- De3zie
New Orleans

I think everyone should try Pokémon at least once. It's a very well-done RPG series, and the collecting aspect of it makes it last a long time. After that, you become one of two people. You stay with it and catch them all, or you grow out of it.

I grew out of it. I played the hell out of Pokémon Red, and later picked up the Yellow version to augment it. I chose Silver when it came out with Gold, and played through most of that before I decided that I've had enough of the Pocket Monsters. I had a really good time with the series, but I felt I could be wasting my time with other RPGs.

I think the reason why so many people stick with it is because you can take it wherever you go. Pokémon and the Game Boy is the best combination in gaming since Tetris and the Game Boy, because the format of the game fits perfectly with the usage of the system. Got 30 minutes to kill on the way to school or work? Pull out Pokémon. Can't take games with you on the road? Your handheld can come with you. You can play it in little chunks or in big stretches, and in the end the game's the same. It's good.

I would recommend you get Diamond or Pearl for the DS, since it appears you haven't got on the train yet. It's going to be a good game no matter what. If you find that it's really not your thing, then you'll play it like any other game and get your kicks from it. However, if you like what it is Nintendo is offering, you'll find it to be one of the best deals in all of gaming.

I'm a huge Nintendo fan, and I have had a Wii since Day 1. The recent news about game-specific friend codes really irks me, and I can't understand what they're thinking. If the Wii already has a machine-specific friend code and friend codes are linked to the specific machine, what the frak is the point of adding more friend codes?! It seems like a horribly redundant way to screw up an already screwed up online system. Is there a way that they can fix their online plan and still keep the kiddies safe?

- Snoogans
CT

There's nothing broken about Nintendo's online system—it does function when everything is setup properly, at least in the more recent DS online games. The only reason why people complain about Nintendo's system is because it's nothing like how things work on Xbox Live, and as anyone will tell you, Microsoft's spoiled us all with how easy it can be to play games with others online.

Even if you look at WiiConnect24 on its own, the system is still confusing. I remember that the whole goal with friend codes was to make it like a phone number. If you want to play a game with someone, it should have been as simple as exchanging phone numbers. On the DS, it's acceptable that every game has a different friend code, but on the Wii? Each console has a friend code built in. Why should people need to exchange more than one phone number? It's not like the console is in a different location when a different game is inserted. It's confusing for online experts and new gamers, the latter of which Nintendo is trying to get to games online. Why befuddle them?

So, how can Nintendo make online gaming kid-safe? The exchanging of friend codes is still the best way to ensure it, since someone would need to physically exchange friend codes with someone they know. Once two people have exchanged one friend code, both sides know that they know the person on the other side. (Again, I ask this of Nintendo: Why do we need to do this for every game if we've already established a safe online friendship with the Wii console friend code?) Playing any game online against those on the friends list built up from exchanging of codes will be pretty safe. Being able to only communicate with friends would be perfectly fine, too. I can listen to 14-year-old brats swear at me on the Xbox 360 if I wanted to talk to strangers.

Alright, the mailbag is back. Our sincerest apologies for the downtime, but we had some issues to straighten out. Those are all squared away now, so expect to see updates every Sunday from here on out.

If you want to ensure that will happen, do your duty as an NWR reader and send in some questions. There are some submissions still in the bag from the past week, but we could always use some more! Get askin'.

See you next Sunday.