My GC had a laser disc problem a few years ago and the system was not under warranty. I called the Nintendo reps and they ask what is wrong etc. But then they asked what Nintendo products I own and when I purchased my GC...that’s where I think his jaw hit the floor and they said they would pay for my shipment and getting the GC fixed, free of charge for my brand loyalty. Sure enough my system was back in a little of a week and has worked perfect. Just a suggestion to try that route.

-Hamby

Wow, that's the first time I've heard of such a thing. Nintendo really does have great customer service, but I didn't know they would go this far!

What characters are there in DDR: Mario Mix. My friend imported it and

so far it seems that is just Mario and Luigi, are there unlockable

characters?

Yep, those are the only two, and they have the same dancing animations. It's really a shame, because Mario and Luigi are really funny when they dance. Bowser is even funnier, but he only appears as an enemy in the story mode.

Hey guys keep up the great updates!

I had a question about downloading games on

Revolution. I love my N64 but i find it hard to

go back and play some games because of the

sometimes bad framerate. do you think the

revolution will correct this? I would hate to

download Superman64 just to find out it suffers

from the same 10 year old problems.

thanks, and keep up the great work.

-the big pale machine

I would hate for you to download Superman 64, period. It would be a terrible game even without the technical limitations. As for your question, it's highly doubtful that a framerate boost could be built into the emulator without screwing up a lot of games that already ran fine on the original hardware, but if developers are capable of reprogramming the old games to enable online multiplayer, I suppose there's nothing to stop them from optimizing the old engines for more fluid graphics. But how many companies would actually put in the time, money, and effort to do so?

Dear Bag,

-Regarding this whole Zelda delay, I like your thought of TP coming out with, or near to, the Rev, like the Oracle Zeldas and the GBA. Then again, that means I have to choose between Zelda and Smash Bros....

-Are those screenshots for Prime 3 on IGN real? I thought we were still in the dark about what Rev graphics looked like?

-Are there any sports left that Mario hasn't had a game of? I keep my fingers crossed for Mario Skeeball, but...

-To the guy/girl who complained about there being nothing to play on GC from the Holidays to the Rev launch--what about Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance?

-Finally, has there been any word on Chibi Robo since E3? Release date? Anything?

-Save up for both!

-Yes, they're real. Metroid Prime 3 is the only 100% confirmed Revolution game that has been shown on video. (I'm not counting games like the next-gen Sonic that have not yet been announced for the Rev.)

-Basketball, American Football, Competitive Eating...

-I can't wait for Fire Emblem on GameCube, but is something of a niche game. Maybe this holiday season will force Nintendo into trying to make it a popular series, though.

-No. Nintendo still has Chibi-Robo listed as "TBA". Dan will have an import review very soon, but from what he's told me, it's best suited for people with some Japanese language skills.

Hi. I just finished a chat session with the Nintendo Power crew. It was part of Camp Hyrule, so there were 200-400 people in the chatroom at any given time. Basically, you could submit a single question and watch it slowly rise up the que to a dozen NoA grunts whose job was to ensure that no flavorful, interesting, or otherwise unexpected questions came through. If your question made the lucky cut, it was broadcast to the chatroom, and the NP staff responsed. They seemed like slow typists for magazine editors.

Anyway (this part is so sweet), when those devastatingly boring 45 minutes were up, I soon thought of you guys. PGC, you guys rock. The mailbag, forums, trivia, and other community interactions are so well done. Thousands of people appreciate what you're doing, so thanks and good luck.

- Grady

P.S. The rest of their little camp wasn't bad; you can win t-shirts.

Thanks for the kind words! I did Camp Hyrule once or twice, but I too found it to be pretty boring. There seems to be a lot of chat room role-playing, which just ain't my bag.

Dear PGC, i am a first time writer, but a long time

reader.

I wanted to know if gyro and tilt gab games like wario

ware and youshi topst turvy work on micro. I ask this

because unlike a gba, or ds, The micro's cartridge

slot is not in the center. I t is shifted to the side

a bit. Also, with the adapter, can it connect to gcn,

i still want to trade my mario golf saves.

Well i hope you answer my questions, and thanks in

GAMEBOY advance!

>From Eliezer Barrios

That's a very good question for which I don't have a solid answer. I would guess that the tilt games will work okay, but not great, on the GB Micro. The cartridge slot is not as off-center as you might think, since the system is so small.

Did I read the press release for the GBM correctly? It only plays GBA games, no original GB or GBC games? Are you serious? *Crosses Micro off wishlist*........

Blue Metroid

I held out hope at E3, since there was no conclusive answer at the time, but the evidence against full Game Boy compatibility is mounting.

Hey PGC,

Im a first time writer, long time reader, and I love the site.

Quick Question,

Does Nintendo have any plans at all to release something that will allow you to watch movies, view pictures, play mp3s or anything like that on the GBA or Nintendo DS? And if so, how would they do it? Would you be able to buy the USB adapter thingy from the computer, and possibly wirelessly link to your DS and perhaps, get a blank DS card from various sizes (much like the PSP's memory stick Duo) and transfer media? Or what about the Play-Yan adapter?

I think if Nintendo did do something along the lines of this for the DS, more people would be swayed to purcahse a DS, because 130 bucks for an mp3 player, video player, and awesome game machine is a pretty good bargain.

What you're describing is exactly what the Play-Yan does. NOA has shown an interest in releasing the Play-Yan in North America, but there's still no date or price for it.

Has there been any news on FF3 since it was announced way back in

2004. Has any sort of date been announced for it's release?

Thanks in advance!

-Rain

Nope. I don't expect it until at least 2006. Maybe SquareEnix will try to release it at the same time as FFXII for marketing synergy.

Now that we know that Nintendo announced a fake delay in order to launch a

super-secret Zelda blietzcrieg in November to catch Microsoft offguard, I

see other news items falling into the pattern.

Fact 1: Reggie announced that a new Smash Brothers game would launch with

the Revolution.

Fact 2: It was long rumored that Diddy Kong would be a secret playable

character in Super Smash Brothers Melee for Gamecube as a sort of Mini

Kong. Surprisingly this did not materialize.

Fact 3: Sean 'Puffy' Combs announced today that he's changing his name

simply to 'Diddy' for future 'projects' and 'fans.'

Conclusion: Nintendo has been teasing the gaming community for years with

a long secret alliance with Sean 'Diddy' Combs, who will endorse Nintendo

Revolution by appearing as a fully playable character in 'Super Smash

Brothers: Hell Yeah. Bitch.' It's elementary. I also predict that Diddy

Kong will cross over into the rap world, as was foreshadowed years ago in

the Donkey Kong 64 Monkey Rap. It's all coming together.

Is that what's going on in the streets? You've left me with no choice. I have to shut down the studio.

Yo Mailo Baggins,

I'm well aware that the Japanese releases are in the Japanese language,

and the North American releases are in English, but Exactly what

language are the Europian versions released in? Esperanto? I've just

always wondered but never actually thought to ask. Diggin PGC hard

lately. My wife can't wait for our Nintendog to get here on Monday. I'm

glad Nintendo dropped the DS price cuz if the way she Coo's and Awe's

over the online movies is any indication I'll more than likely have to

buy another one so I can finish playing Mario64. Ah well, anything for

the cause...the marital cause, not the market share.

- -Scott

Many European releases either contain several language options through a menu or are released in several versions, each one in the primary language of a particular European nation. The multiple translations, as well as conversion to the PAL television format for console games, introduce often lengthy delays for European releases of Japanese or American games. Sometimes games and especially hardware can be delayed in Europe due to limited manufacturing capacities being devoted to the other two markets.

Hey PGC.

Ok Question about the Mailbag. I've noticed the Mailbag was turning more and more into a discussion board. Any Possibility that will be changed back to the old ways.

Secondly, this enigma we cal thel revolution controller. Is there any possibility that the controller will itself feature a touch Screen in the middle of it? I mean to me it sounds like an alright idea, look what it did for the ds. Why not take a controller and slap a screen right in the middle, maybe it'll turn out to be the next "rumble pack". the only thing i see wrong with it is stupidly high prices for it (or not).

Anyway Peace out

Justin

If you're asking whether we'll go back to the old system of the whole staff answering every question, that's unlikely. It took forever to get your questions answered, and as we've seen in the past few weeks, the mailbag functions much better when it runs consistently and frequently.

Secondly, putting a touch screen on the Revolution controller is an obvious idea after the feature's success on the DS, but Satoru Iwata has gone on record to say that it's not going to happen. And yeah, it probably would drive up controller prices quite a bit. Whatever Revolution's controller does, I sure hope it doesn't cost fifty bucks like the Xbox 360 wireless controller.

OK OK. I understand you're probably frusterated with all the questions about Zelda: Twilight Princess, But, Because it's been delayed is there a possibility we could see some voice acting in it? Just curious i know that Myiamoto said he wasn't to fond of the idea but that he may consider it. I believe i read it in an issue of EGM when i was waiting for my girlfriend to get her nails done. I may just be crazy though.

I was also wondering due you edit and make corrections to the E-mail questions you recieve so that the senders don't look like idiots when they can't spell properly?

P.S. I know you get this alot but, LOVE THE SITE

Justin

Miyamoto is famously against voice acting in Zelda, but Aonuma said at E3 that he would like to look into the possibility. With this delay...yeah, it could happen. But I wouldn't bet on it, personally. The most I can see going into Twilight Princess is perhaps a fully voiced prologue and/or epilogue.

And no, I don't edit letters for spelling or grammar. My mistakes are out here for all to see, so yours will be too. I do sometimes edit letters for length, if some parts are redundant with other letters that I've already chosen to publish.

Hey mailbag guys,

I was reading GameSpot's newspost about the delay of Twilight Princess, when something caught my eye. The date that they'd written as the supposed new release date for TP was April 1, 2006. That would be April Fools' Day. I know it's highly unlikely and I'm probably reading too much into that, but do you think it's possible that this is some sort of joke for publicity? I know that's probably not the case, as most people make jokes ON April Fools' Day, but still...

Anyway, forgive my paranoid ramblings. Keep up the good work on the site!

Ricky

NOA's Perrin Kaplan said that Zelda is being delayed until some date beyond the current fiscal year, which ends on March 31st, 2006. So April 1st is simply the earliest possible date that Zelda could be released. The actual date will probably be at least a couple of weeks (if not months) later than that. Just so everyone's clear on this:

THE ZELDA DELAY IS NOT A JOKE, MARKETING STUNT, OR CONSPIRACY.

Heya, I have three questions.

First off, I heard on a forum I frequent that Animal Crossing DS was not going to be a true MMO, but would instead just allow you to invite three of your friends to your town. I thought this wasn't real at first, but then I looked at your preview and it indeed seems to be the case. This makes me a sad panda. Now, I was wondering, do you guys have any idea how the whole town thing works, and how other people can visit your town?

Next question, about the DS's capabilities. Sort of a follow-up on the last question. Would the DS hardware be able to handle an actual MMO with 50+ people playing together in the same world, or will online play be more-or-less restricted to smaller things like a Mario Kart race or having four people in a town?

And lastly, I was wondering: Whatever happened to everybody's favorite cat, Louie? The last time he made a rumor report was over a year ago... Did you guys run over him or something? ;_;

Thanks,

Stu L Tissimus

P.S. Sonic Team seems to like the DS, with FtM, its' sequel, and Sonic Rush. We also happen to know that Sonic Team likes online games and extras and things. Is there any chance at all that we'll see a Phantasy Star Online DS? That is my dream game... >_>

First off, it's true that Animal Crossing DS is in no way a MMORPG. The way the online mode works is that you invite three other players to visit your town, or you go visit someone else's town. There is no communal area where everyone hangs out together to form parties and slay the dragon.

Next answer, I do think the DS is capable of handling a true MMO game. But it's not surprising that such a complex genre would take longer to be announced. And considering the infrastructure necessary, publishers probably want to see just how many DS owners will actually use the WiFi Connection service before committing to such a project.

And lastly, Louie is doing just fine but has taken a long break from rumor reporting. We're still trying to decide how to handle rumors in a responsible and entertaining way. Until then, I highly recommend GameSpot's weekly Rumor Control feature. It's probably my favorite thing about GameSpot these days.

Hey, first off I must thank you guys over at PlanetGamecube. Your site has been my #1 source for all Nintendo news for about 3 years now, and now it's only getting better. Anyway, I was looking through my old SNES games today and stumbled upon Mario Paint. This made me wonder what Nintendo's plans are for playing their classic games on Revolution that used special devices, such as Mario Paint's mouse and Duck Hunt's gun. Most likely they will skip these games, but I thought it would be awesome if they could implement a touch screen on Revolution's controller that could simulate a mouse and a lens that could be used as a gun. Those technologies would be great on old and new games. What do you think?

- LinkMaster207

Revolution's controller won't have a touch screen (see above), and there's no way it can support all those weird old games out of the box. But maybe Nintendo or some third-party accessory companies will release Revolution-compatible versions of the old Zapper, Super Scope, SNES Mouse, etc.

I was curious as to whether Nintendo now owns a majority of N-Space, though Geist is a great game, it seems weird NIntendo would team up with a developer with such a bad track record!

-Patrick

As far as we know, Nintendo has no ownership in n-Space whatsoever. It's just a straight publishing agreement, similar to how Sega developed F-Zero GX and Namco developed Donkey Konga for Nintendo to publish.

Thanks Planet Gamecube for being a great informative site, but what is

going to happen to yall once the gamecube goes 6 feet under? Yall gunna

change to planet revolution or just continue coverage on the rev as pg?

Or worst case scenario die and disappear off the face of the net. Also

wat are your predictions on the rev's launch price. Seeing as all

nintendo home consoles have been launched at 199.99 since the nes days,

u think they will continue that trend?

Well thanx for ur time.

--kingfroman

I'm planning for us to be around for a long time, though we'll probably have to change names sooner or later. :-) For the moment, $200 is the de facto price for Revolution...it just jives with Nintendo's history and their comments about making the Revolution more affordable than the competing systems. But with Xbox 360 and PS3 being so expensive (especially when you include accessories!), Nintendo has room to move up the Revolution's price while still being the "price leader". It will be interesting to see how they play this card.

I was recently in Sams Club and spotted Army Men RTS (real time strategy) for the Nintendo Gamecube with only a $13 price tag on it. I thought the game would be really great to play. Out of the 80 some titles I own for the Cube, i realized that i didnt own one single strategy game for my beloved Nintendo. To make a long story short I ended up playing through most of the game the other night, and i decided to check out the review of the game. I literally never even knew that game even existed. I checked a few major sites, including yours and i cant find a review on this title. I was just wandering why this game hasnt been reviewed or even why i havent seen it at retailers. Is it just a really old title that i have just never noticed? Or did the game just flop and noone bothered with it. Thanks for your time and by the way....i love the mailbag keep up the good work.

Let's put it this way, I didn't know that Army Men RTS ever came out on GameCube. I just checked GameRankings.com to see how many articles are available on the game, but they only have PC and PS2 versions listed. So it seems you may have found a truly rare SKU.

People are talking about the Twilight Princess release date being very close to the revolution but havent we been promised a Zelda for the Revolution as a release title?

Thanks

No. Iwata only said that a Zelda game for Revolution is in the works. The only tentative launch title for Revolution is Super Smash Bros Online.

This is not really a question, but something cool I wanted to share

with you guys.

One of my most fondest memories of my childhood is playing Nintendo

and saturday morning cartoons.

The Nintendo tradition continues.. see attached pic.

I'm glad that my 4 yr old niece is able to have the same experience.

Thanks for your time and keep the mailbag rolling.

Very cute! Thanks for sharing. (Standard disclaimer: Don't start flooding the mailbag with cute baby pictures. First time's a charm.)

How many copies do you think that Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow will sell

worldwide, and how many copies sold do you think will be enough to satisfy

Konami, so we can see another Castlevania for DS in the future?

I won't venture to guess a number, but the previous Castlevania games have done very well on GBA, especially Aria of Sorrow, which Dawn of Sorrow is a direct sequel to. So I'm expecting the DS game to be a solid hit for Konami.

Hey there thanks for the constant updates. Tell me

what you think of this theory about the Game Boy

Micro. Basically, I think it's a win-win situation for

Nintendo, but my theory is that they're not really

going to put a big emphasis on it because they want

you to just spend the extra $30 to upgrade to the DS,

but if you don't they just made another 100 bucks off

of you. I also think they may underproduce these

intentionally and just chalk it up to "huge demand",

but since you're in the store and you're trying to buy

a handheld, why not buy the Nintendo DS? What do you

think of my little conspiracy theory?

--Redeema

As you all may be figuring out by now, I don't care much for conspiracy theories. Nintendo honestly thinks the GB Micro can be a big seller...they wouldn't go through this much trouble to create and market a new product just to boost demand of a different product. That's just silly. The Micro is priced near the DS because Nintendo plans to market the Micro to a completely different audience than the DS. If you never had any intention of buying a DS, it's not a big deal that the Micro costs nearly as much with less functionality. And Nintendo may be right. The iPod Shuffle seems to be doing pretty well, even though you can pay a little more money for a LOT more storage with the real iPod.

Hopefully you can clear this up for me as I haven't seen a review that really discusses it yet. In the upcoming DS game Nintendogs, how many save files are there?

I know my wife and daughter will both want to play this game and need to know if we'll all be able to save our own games with one cartridge, or will we have to share pets and the items we acquire.

Thanks,

WhoDey

Sorry, Nintendogs has only one save file per copy of the game. You can own more than one dog on the same file, but it takes some time and effort to earn enough in-game money to buy that second and third pup.

What is it with all the "hardcore" gamers talking

about story this and story that? Even on Sonic the

Hedgehog-themed message boards, people are talking

about how great or bad this or that story is, how a

game was good because of a story, and not even talking

about gameplay. Some have even said things like "it's

pointless to make a game with no story". By that

logic, the Super Mario series must be pointless. After

all, no multiplayer (co-op even!) or story...

I find it obnoxious. I admit I do genuinely enjoy the

story of certain games (Silent Hill 3, Killer 7,

Kingdom Hearts (and primarily for the interaction with

the movie worlds, not for all the convuluted

details)), but most games that people say have good

stories, such as the Zelda games, I enjoy for their

gameplay and atmosphere. I don't really care that much

about, say, Medli's lack of self-esteem, but those

types of details set atmosphere. Just as long as it

isn't portrayed in some droning cutscene that I can't

skip, I don't mind that much.

What is it with all the people on these gamer boards

talking about storyline storyline storyline and not

giving a damn about gameplay? I think I might have one

possible explanation, and it's a simple one - gameplay

isn't something you can talk about forever, whereas

story is something you can dig into in a conversation.

Quite frankly, "this game is so much fun, I love the

tricky jumps and hidden secrets, and playing it over

and over again" isn't conversation material. "What do

you think about when Riku turned evil" is conversation

material, however little most people may care about

it. Hence, the gameplay-first people tend to leave the

groups over time, while the story people stay behind.

Said story people then begin to, due to hanging out

with their own kind, think that story is all that

matters, and that everyone else agrees with them, even

though nothing could be further from the truth.

What do you all think?

Gameplay and story are equally rich topics for game discussion, but discussing gameplay in great detail requires some specialized knowledge and terminology that not everyone has access to. Story, on the other hand, occurs in many aspects of our lives, so most people who've made it through a few years of school can jump into a conversation about a game's story. I don't think many people play the Zelda games primarily for their stories; in fact, Nintendo has said many times that the overall style and gameplay ideas are developed first, and the story details are added in later. I think the Zelda games' stories appeal to fans because they are mysterious and incomplete, so you can use your imagination to fill in a lot of the details or interpret events in various ways. That's probably exactly the effect Nintendo is aiming for in crafting those stories.

Hi, I've been browsing the Japanese Nintendo site, and came across two

games, the tower SP

Translated Website

and the thousand year family -

Translated Website

is there any hope for a western release? PLEEEEEEEEEEASE?!

Haha, no. Not a chance.

First thanks for the updates to the bag and everything.....

Anyways, I just have one rather odd question. At E3 Nintendo said one of

the things that they were aiming for the revolution was "low power

consumption". I know why they were aiming for low power consumption with

their portables, but this things a home console. Granted, more power equals

more heat, but I just don't buy it. Are they aiming to have the Rev run on

battery power? Or are they just that worried to have the rev so small?

Anyway thanks for your insight for this perplexing question, Rognarok

As far as I know, the goal of low power consumption is just so they can make the system very small. Remember that Iwata said the final Revolution hardware will be even smaller than the prototype shown at E3.

Begone, backlog! Now send in new letters so I can get behind again!