Hey PGC, big fans of yours and couldn't be happier at the constant mailbag

updates.

So here's what's been bothering me: What ever happened to the sequel to

Skies of Arcadia Sega was talking about when the game was rereleased for the

GCN? SOA:L is hands down my favourite RPG on any console, due largely to the

wonderful story and cast of characters. I know the game got a lot of

critical praise both here in North America and in Japan and has a large fan

following.

So what happened to the planned sequel? It just plain fell off the map with

no message of cancelation or anything. I'd hate it if such a great game

faded into obscurity. Could you give me any info at all weither Sega is

interested in ressurecting that series again, be it on any Next gen system?

Thanks,

-Slimple

Skies of Arcadia has a devoted fanbase, and you're right, the games were well reviewed, but they did not sell great as I recall. The sequel plans were tentative at best and were mentioned by the game's developers before the GameCube version flopped in the U.S. Frankly, I can't see Sega wanting to continue the series. It's really too bad.

Hey bag, love the updates, always keeps me coming back for more.

first off, a quick comment to vudu, who wrote in asking about a forum to

sell/trade games ect. a new site opened up recently,

http://gameswapzone.com/ , which is like ebay, only just for video

games/hardware/accesories/ect, and for all systems, even back to the nes.

just thought id let you know.

my question is about the "action button" technique used in RE4. personally,

i loved it, using it to kick the zombies, knock down ladders, jump, stuff

like that. i also liked how it was used in cut scenes to run and dodge

boulders, even cut ropes to save you or dodge falling enemies. i especially

LOVED, LOVED, the entire action button cutscene battle against krouse. that

was sweet.

ok, so my question is, what is your opinion of that feature? like, dislike?

and do you think we will be seeing it used in future games like that? not

just the RE series, but perhaps in other games? thanks for your time, keep

the updates coming!

~Elders~

Thanks for the tip. There's also a new site called http://www.videogameauctions.com that serves a similar function. I haven't used either one and thus cannot make any claims about their quality or reliability.

As for RE4's interactive cut-scenes, I thought it was annoying the first few times I died, but eventually it made me pay close attention during the cut-scenes, always on my toes in case a button command popped up. For a tense game like RE4, I think it's a brilliant way to keep the player glued to the screen even during story sequences. I'm not so sure it would work as well in more laid back games.

Dear Bag,

Let me just say that your site is a pure pleasure to read; I take solace in knowing that my daily Nintendo news fix is just a click away! It’s worth noting too that I’ve been particularly impressed with all the new developments as of late, and as a testament to that fact, my patronage at PGC has shot up exponentially. I have no doubt that my rekindled interest is a reflection of the frequency with which you’ve been updating the bag! Thank you!

Having said that, I have a demographic question for you guys. What would you call the non-participatory “spectator” who doesn’t much care for the competitive nature of gaming (and the stress that comes with it) but enjoys being privy to all the exciting future prospects of what’s to come in the gaming sphere?

I ask because the person I’ve described above is me, and although apprehensive about actually engaging in the games themselves, I revel in knowing what potentialities lay out on the developmental horizon. My friends accuse me of being an “amateur” and an “armchair enthusiast,” and to a certain extent, this criticism is warranted. After all, the last console I owned was an N64, and even then I stopped playing regularly after the novelty of Mario 64 (my all-time favorite) wore out. Despite my thumbs not having touched a d-pad in years (they’ve probably atrophied as a result), my level of fascination with the genre “from afar” has only grown since I retired my old N64.

Am I alone? Does anyone else share the same reserved interest? I love Nintendo and all its franchises; just don’t ask me to sit down and play a round. I’m just happy to watch from the sidelines. ;o)

-- Fauxlosopher

Other than a few gamers' girlfriends who say, probably untruthfully, that they "just like to watch", I have to say that this phenomenon is new to me. But I bet there are others like you out there.

There's been several implications that the DS isn't

doing so hot in this mailbag lately... but from all

I've read elsewhere I've been given the impression

that it's been doing rather well in the US (and

obviously the Japanese sector, but that hasn't been

questioned).

Last I read, retailers were claiming the Super Mario

64 bundle increased DS sales significantly. A news

item about that appeared on several gaming sites. Did

that die down or something?

The DS did really horribly in May and, from what I can tell, better in June but still not as well as PSP. July sales data won't be released until mid-August. But compare this situation to Japan, where the DS is kicking the PSP's ass all over the place. Don't get me wrong, the DS is performing okay in America, but its dominance in Japan shows what it could be doing in America if we had the same kind of software release schedule.

Some forum buddies and I have been wondering whether

Nintendo might ever use the GBA media bay to make

expansion packs for DS games. I do know that it has

been confirmed that both media bays can be read

simultaneously. But will this be put to use? In

particular, we've been talking about how cool it would

be if Nintendo made an expansion pack for Advance

Wars: Dual Strike to make it online-enabled, rather

than having to wait for a next game in the series to

have online play (cause it's Advance Wars... online...

you know it'll happen sometime). What do you think or

know about any of this kind of stuff, and not just

about Advance Wars?

-Try4ce

In Japan, Nintendo has already announced an expansion pack for a DS game, Band Bros. So it could happen with other games. (Thanks for setting me straight, TYP!) You will also see the GBA port used for things that the DS game card slot cannot do. For example, Metroid Prime Pinball had a rumble pak cartridge at E3. There's no word on whether that will actually come with the game when it's released this fall, though.

Dear planet gamecube...

Great job on the mail bag ive been a reader eversince ive found this site....anywho now to my questions

1 - from a recent report also from the workers on EB games that i talk to they say that the prices on games may go up....i know that the xbox 360 games will deffenitly be worth $70 and sometimes the games arent even worth it like Black Hawk Down which really sucked (all that waiting for nothing).....so when the revolution hits do you think well be forking up $70 for a mario game.....I dont mind paying as long as the games is good.....

2) - I have a ds and a psp...basically i own all systems....but i have a yahoo modem which supports wireless networking which means i can play my psp online and i get great reception and im always playing twisted metal head on online....but will the ds work the same or will i have to go to star bucks to play against someone from around the world.....

P.S.: Im not buying the ps3 and the xbox 360 until I have the revolution

NINTENDO ROCKS

THANKS

1 - I expect that multiplatform games will cost the same on every platform, so if EA decides to sell Madden 2007 for $60, that's how much the Revolution version will cost, too. But games designed for Revolution will hopefully be no more expensive than current games, since Nintendo has stressed making development cheaper on Revolution.

2) - That wireless router should work fine for your DS. Are you playing Twisted Metal online over a dialup connection? I'm impressed if that runs well. Maybe there will be hope for DS dialup play after all.

A few days agp, MrCHUPON said that there might be some problem with the DS

only being 802.11b, but the speed of "b" is much faster than most broadband

connections operate at, so that should not be a problem at all.

-fishboyinguam

Yes, Mike Sklens mentioned that as well. I think MrCHUPON's other points are valid, though.

Thanks for reading and answering my question!

I bought a broadband adapter for my gamecube and got about two nights

of fun with my buddies for mario kart. Aside from that, now it's just

there.

My question is, what are you doing with yours to make it useful? Or

is yours just a port collecting dust?

Thanks!

Nhan

You can try importing Homeland, although I have no idea how well the online feature works from America, since most of the users are in Japan. Otherwise...maybe the broadband adaptor will be a collector's item in a few years?

Hey,

I've just one simple question. What do you know about the mega man X collection other than that its in development? I first heard of it in your mailbag not too long ago and i was ecstatic. to this day i still replay my mega man X and X2, and if i still owned my Saturn, X4. Honestly, i'd be more excited to play mega man X3 again, over than X4 and beyond, which i've NEVER played. I only played X3 once, when i borrowed it from a friend of a friend, and i loved it. Its my only regret in life not owning it. so whatever information you have, like a possible release date, would be awesome. thanks

It contains Mega Man X 1-6 plus Mega Man Battle & Chase, a PSone kart racing game never released outside Japan. The compilation is supposed to come out this fall.

For the person that ask about your site having a trade listing on the forum, one is already set up for years. www.cheapassgamer.com on their forum. The main part of the site as you can tell by the name tell of good cheap price games.

Jason

CAG is also a great place to learn about retailer price drops and bonus deals.

I think in a recent bag you mentioned that the Mario 64 DS bundle didn’t do a lot for sales. Well, my girlfriend went into a GameStop not too long after the promotion had started and was told that it was already over. I checked both EB and GameStop’s sites, and neither was offering the bundle anymore, despite the fact that Nintendo was still officially promoting it for about another month.

Daniel Bloodworth

Yeah, I've heard other tales of inconsistency in the locations that offered that deal and for how long it lasted. It seemed to be thrown together without much organization, perhaps as an emergency maneuver after the dismal May sales of DS.

Hey mailbag,

So here is my problem.While I was at work the other day my wife

decided it would be ok to let my kids put my DS in the Washing machine

and give it a good cleaning.Oh what a sad day it was to see my poor Ds

soaking wett.Now it didn't look broke and it refused to turn on

but,after a day of drying I was able to re-charge the battery and the

power and touch screen would come on for a second.So my question is

this. Is there anything I can do to bring my poor Ds back to life and

Also when is Animal Crossing DS coming out?

Thanks for your time.

-Scot

It's possible that your battery is still damp and needs to dry out more before it can hold a full charge. Or you may need to replace the battery. Regardless, the rest of the system is probably fine. You can order a new DS battery from Nintendo of America at this page.

Hey bag,

Do you think Zelda:TP's sales will become the number one selling cube game of all time? Personally, I think it's possible, ut not extremely likely for that to happen.

No, probably not, but it will be a big hit. At this point, it's hard for a current-gen game to do giant sales numbers when many people in the market are starting to concentrate on the next systems.

i posted a comment on some nintendo community livejournals about how

much i love planetgamecube and the new contant mailbags, everyone

seems to think that the site needs to have RSS and embedded comments

similar to engadget.com and other blogs.

LOVE PGC, KEEP IT GOOD, DON"T BE BEHIND THE TIMES.

I appreciate the word of mouth, but PGC is not a blog, and neither is the mailbag. I did start a Talkback thread about the mailbag in our forums, if you want to discuss it with other readers. Like I said recently, we are looking at RSS, so it may happen in the future.

Love the mailbag. First question is how close to a hotspot do you have to be to use its wi-fi? I live in a tiny town in Missouri and the nearest hotspot is 17 miles away.

Second, do you think Nintendo will release a bundle with a Ds and Nintendogs? That would be awesome because I have a Ds and a copy of Nintendogs reserved but my sister wants to play together on bark mode.

Third, when will the other Ds colors ever get here? My sister really wants the pink.

- JG233

You need to be within a couple hundred feet of a hotspot to use it. Sounds like you'd be best off getting your own wireless router or this mysterious USB adaptor that Nintendo plans to release. A Nintendogs/DS bundle will probably happen later if the game sells well, maybe even as soon as Christmas. NOA is releasing new DS colors, but at a slower rate than in Japan, as usual. I expect the pink one to come to America eventually, but who knows how long it will take. You could always import one from Japan...it's only a few bucks extra. Our partners at Lik-Sang are offering free shipping on DS systems right now, so that really helps to even out the price difference. A Japanese DS system will play exactly the same games as a US or European system.

Love it how the PGC shirt ad still has "t-e-h Billy!" any who onto the question, with all this new downloading classic games on the Revolution I was curious if you with your cornucopia of knowledge could point me in the direction to purchase a refurbished/working NES. I know eBay is there but for the system I do not want to trust random people if I do not have to. Another note, I know SK will never make a Rev game but I think when Too Human comes out I will have to buy a 360 even though now I only have 5 games for my xbox...online pc games such as Call of Duty and clan work has sucked my time away but hopefully I can devote more time to my console endevours with a new DS...anything on Starcraft?

-chris hamby

Working NES systems are becoming harder to find, that's for sure. If you want to avoid eBay, you might check your local gaming stores to see if they have any used systems. That way you can take it back if it doesn't work properly. As for StarCraft, Blizzard has never said a single word about a true sequel to the original, but StarCraft: Ghost is still coming to GameCube. I played at E3 and came away quite impressed. It's definitely looking and playing a LOT better than it was last year, before Blizzard brought on a new developer to fix the game.

Hey

I live in australia and want to order Nintendogs from America. If I do, will the American version be able to interact and connect wirelessly with the Australian version?

Vinnie

Probably, since they'll be using the same language, but cross-region compatibility is always hard to predict. There is a risk that it won't work with the Aus version.

Alrighty folks, refill the bag for more answers tomorrow!