Ok so I have been watching third party support start to grow on the Wii lately and Nintendo is getting a lot of support from developers that over the past few years basically ignored them but I am kind of concerned with the titles they actually support the Wii with. Now as a Wii owner I am definitely down with the idea of exclusive Wii games, but what I am not liking right now is how the the Wii is being perceived as an alternative to series of games and their continuity in those particular series. For example Wii owners get Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles and the other systems get Resident Evil 5, and RE4 doesn't count in my book, that game even with better controls is just a cash in from Capcom, really how hard is it to take my Gamecube game and place it in my Wii! Next we have the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games. Wii owners get FF Crystal Chronicles and Dragon Quest Swords and now Chocobo's Dungeon Exploring but no real continuation from the main series. So do you think this trend of alternate games is going to continue? I cant really see companies saying that their series have to be on particular systems just because they have better graphics, because if we look at last gen the Ps2 was the worst of the three and it got all the games because of its install base, Well now the Wii has a huge install base and it doesn't seem quite fair. What are your thoughts?

- Anthony

Games like Umbrella Chronicles and Crystal Chronicles and whatever other chronicles off-shoot the Wii is getting are certainly not a bad thing. Any exclusive a system can get is always important. Just because that game might not be a part of the mainline series doesn't mean it's any worse of an entry in that series.

And like you said, even though the PS2 was the underpowered, most un-developer-friendly console out there, it had the largest user base. (To be fair to the PS2, it wasn't that far away from the Xbox or GameCube in terms of graphical ability.) And the gap from number one to numbers two and three was large enough to where publishers didn't need to make other versions of a game to see a good return.

So with the Wii kicking and taking, why aren't we seeing the big games in the main line series flocking over? For one, the 360 is still the market leader with something close to 12 million consoles sold worldwide. The Wii is gaining fast, but has only around 7.5 million. That is a lot, but not the 100+ million a lot that the PS2 reached. Additionally, some developers have stated that to create the games they want to create, they need the horsepower of the hi-def consoles to achieve their goals. There's absolutely nothing the Wii can do about that, and is one of the unknowns as to the long-term viability of the system.

The only thing Nintendo can do to keep that weakness in check is to keep selling Wiis like there's no tomorrow. There will come a point where developers may have no other choice to develop their big games for the Wii, or at least come out with Wii-specific versions a few months later. The unfathomable happened when Square Enix announced that Dragon Quest IX would be a DS game—everyone assumed it would be on either PS3 or Wii—but considering the number of people who own a DS, in Japan especially, you can't blame SE for making the decision. If the Wii becomes the far-and-away market leader in the next few years, you can bet you'll see a lot more big-time game series making their home on Wii. That's going to take a few years, though, so you're just going to need to wait and see if it happens!

First of all I'd like to say that you guys are doing a great job.

Just wondering as a South African gamer if Nintendo will ever set up operations and launch the Wii and DS in South Africa. It's the pits only being able to read about these great systems without being able to experience them. Both Sony and Microsoft have had successful launches in South Africa so I think that the Big N could have similar success.

- T.O.M
South Africa

Nintendo recently cut ties with Futronic, which handled its product distribution in South Africa. That probably delayed things some. As I understand it, Nintendo of Europe has taken over in the region, and in fact the whole of Africa and the Middle East, which will probably delay things even more. NOE is based in Germany, and I don't think you need a map to see how far away that is from your neck of the woods.

I don't think Nintendo will ignore South Africa forever, but NOE has a lot of territory to cover. Nintendo in general had a lot of territory to cover with its four-region Wii launch. I hope for your sake that Nintendo will finally get around to making Wii available to you guys by the end of the year.

Because you were asking, I was wondering how you go about doing the mailbag. Instead of making my question be very long and detailed, I'd rather your response do so.

-- Saturn

- Saturn2888
Kansas (Populated Area)

You people send me questions through the submission form. I read through them all, but since we get so many I can only pick the questions that will have answers worth reading. I pick the winners and plop them into Notepad one at a time, answering each as I go. I fact check, spell check, format, and presto! Instant mailbag. The process takes a few hours (there are a lot of questions to answer) but I try to get it up each Sunday evening. Sometimes it slips into Monday, but hey, it's here every week, isn't it?

Have you all heard any more about the DDR game coming? Do you think they'll incorporate the Miis as the dancers?

Its so much fun having lots of Miis, but not enough games are using them. Even if they were just background characters in Zelda that would've been great!

- sloshake
Maryland

There are so many opportunities for third parties to incorporate Miis into gameplay, but last we heard Nintendo was still secretive about the means to do it. Dancing Miis in DDR Hottest Party would be terrific, but if Nintendo doesn't tell Konami how to do it, it's not going to happen.

I hope it does, though. It would be great.

I just started listening to the podcast, the show is funny and interesting because of all the different opinions and (what is to me, obscure) game references.

I about a month ago I brought a Wii! I have Wii Play, Zelda and Paper Mario. I beat Paper Mario and am enjoying the system a lot. However it's put me into the battery game again because the remote doesn't use rechargeable batteries. Can you think of a way around this environmental conundrum?

I'm more into portables than home systems and the DS is the ace. I just brought Pokemon, I decided to play with my brother and hate the game the whole way through. In my opinion the games that utilize the full functions of the DS are Animal Crossing: World Wide and Electroplankton. The worst game is Final Fantasy III and I don't want to write a book, but seriously, it's as if Enix ignored the touch screen altogether. Sim City is going to be fresh and you haven't mentioned Duck Hunt for the Wii, what's up with that, yo?

- Fleecebeast
New York City

Wii remote conundrum: Buy rechargeable AA batteries for your Wii remote. Mystery solved!

DS capabilities: Since the DS came out, I've constantly thought about how the best games on the system use the its feature set. Ouendan/Elite Beat Agents or Meteos would not exist without the touch screen, but games like Mario Kart and Castlevania could have been made without it. Hotel Dusk, Sonic Rush and Metroid Prime Pinball really need to two screens to work well. New Super Mario Bros. and Final Fantasy III could have been made on a single-screen system and still have been just as good. Metroid Prime Hunters and Animal Crossing are games that use all of the DS functions (dual screen, touch screen, online) to their full potential.

All of those games are terrific, even if they don't all use everything the DS has to offer. Early DS games and some current DS games try to incorporate things like touch screen controls into gameplay when they make no sense whatsoever, like in Diddy Kong Racing. Forced implementation is far, far worse than no implementation at all. Final Fantasy III originally didn't have touch screen controls, and remake didn't need them. Why use the touch screen at all in that case?

This is a pretty global question. Considering how many times I've wanted to change the control setup in a game, why isn't control customization a universal feature? The way I see it, it could be standard in all games, or the console itself could allow you to create custom controller configurations for each piece of software. Is this harder to implement than I think it is for some reason?

- Larrio

It should be, and it shouldn't be very hard to do. From a programming perspective, having completely customizable controls should be relatively simple to implement. It would likely be a few extra lines of code, and in fact most multiplatform games already implement some of this code to accommodate for the different controllers of different systems. At the very least, there should be multiple control options to choose from.

To this day, TimeSplitters 2 remains the gold standard of customizable controls. Any function can be mapped to any button, literally. Want to shoot with D-Pad right? Want to strafe left with the A Button? No problem! Games don't need to be that customizable, but we should at least have the opportunity to choose what we want in most games.

Hi NWR you seem very knowledgeable in not just Nintendo but gaming in general and so I thought I would as my question to you guys. Almost all FPS games for me from Timesplitters 2-Half-Life 2 sadly aswell as Nintendo's own Metroid Prime games give me nausea. (It's sad since I love the Metroid franchise.)I bought Halo the other day for my new 360 just to see what it is all about and to my surprise I did not get nausea one bit (except after an almost all day session to finish the game my dad saw I had red eyes LOL!)

I started reading different reviews and a review on Gamespot said the framerate was 30 frames per second and this might be good for those people who get nausea from first-person shooters. Do you know the science behind frame rates and maybe my nausea dilemma? Thanks NWR I hope Halo 3 and Metroid Prime 3 do not give me that same nausea effect.

- Brandy
Orange City,FL

The reason people get nauseous playing FPS games is the combination of the movement and perspective. Unless you're experienced with the ways of the genre, you may find yourself losing your sense of direction from time to time. Not knowing which way is up can cause disorientation in most people, which can lead to nausea. The faster the screen moves as you try to right yourself the easier it could become to get a little ill watching the screen. Faster frame rates do help you see what's on the screen more clearly, but they can also make your head spin more easily.

This should go without saying, but if you start to feel the sick coming on while playing, you should stop playing immediately and take a little break. No game is worth vomiting or passing out over.

Recently, I read a comment by your very own Jonathan Metts that Nintendo of America doesn't announce release dates more than a quarter (a couple months?) in advance. Indeed, until they announce such dates, NFans have very little evidence that the titles are going to come out at all!

Is this a new practice by NoA or has it always been in effect? It seems like more and more, Nintendo is refusing to date their games in the long term, then springing it on us and not giving us a chance to save money!!!

- Kairon
Fremont, CA

All publishers are careful about announcing an official release date until the game hits the home stretch. Most movie games and launch games are usually produced with an exact release date in mind from the start, but past that games are made with the goal of completing it in a certain month or quarter of the year. If a game does get a release date early and then a game needs to be delayed, that could be damaging to a game's sales. On the other hand, if you give someone a general idea of when a game will release, there won't be any disappointment when the publisher hits their wide release period target.

Nintendo already broke its word on two rather important release dates: Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Both were supposed to be Wii launch titles, remember? A lot of people were disappointed that both got moved into 2007, and they saw a weaker Wii launch lineup as a result. Thankfully for Nintendo, circumstances were in its favor so it didn't affect Wii sales or image. But can you imagine what would happen if Halo 3 didn't come out on September 25? People waiting for it wouldn't be very happy. Microsoft wouldn't be very happy. And you never know what could happen between now and then.

Third party devs always whine about their games having mediocre sales on the ds and wii and then slap together more crap and tell the owners of Nintendo hardware that it is a gem. Reggie said it and miyamoto said it, nearly every game message board is full of users pointing it out. Guys like Cassimassina have not said it, you guys haven't said it but you have to work with the devs so it is understandable. That said haven't any game journalist ever asked why these guys are always pushing 3rd tier garbage as being worth of consumer dollars?

- Manwithnoname
California

We say it all the time. That's what reviews are for. The fact that game publications and publishers keep contact with each other is to benefit both. They get coverage for their games. We tell you, the reader, about the game in a fair, honest and straight way. This is why it's our policy to not put opinion into our pre-release game previews, only facts. We save our opinions for reviews. If publishers don't like our (collective) opinions, it's probably their own damn fault for releasing a crap game in the first place.

I totally agree with what Nintendo has been saying recently, however. Third parties need to stop with all the half-assed attempts and get with the program on Nintendo systems. Not every game is going to be a million-selling award winner, but more effort needs to be put into the general pool of releases that is generally referred to as a console's pile of shovelware. The fear that publishers have about making a good Nintendo game is that anything they put out will need to compete with Nintendo's own games. That's a risky proposition, because there's a chance the extra resources put into making a quality game may go unrewarded due to competition. Since Sony and Microsoft don't have nearly the first-party output, third parties find it easier to make a name for their games on the PlayStation or Xbox systems. That's one of the reasons why so many pubs jumped ship on the N64 and GameCube.

This perception of "we can't compete with Nintendo" is bull, in my opinion. Third parties made an absolute killing on the NES and SNES, and there are plenty of games that are just as good as or better the games Nintendo put out. Though companies were essentially forced to make quality games due to Nintendo's strictness, ultimately the game industry was better off. Now that the industry is going through another paradigm shift in public perception, and the Wii is going to be the thing they see first in this shift, it makes more sense than ever for third parties to do their part and create the games they are more than capable of creating. As the Wii's consumer base gets larger and larger, companies are going to need to shift a lot of their top teams to Wii development to get the largest piece of the very lucrative market-share pie that they can.

Electronic Arts, the largest third party publisher, has already realized this. It's more than making up for its early shortcomings by bringing a damn good lineup to the Wii, including original titles like Boogie. Of all the third parties who have released Wii games, EA was the only one I've seen putting an honest effort into making sure their Wii games were good. It's been around long enough to understand that's better for long-term prosperity on Wii. Now we just need to wait for other third parties to catch up and release their Wii games.