Your questions about upcoming GameCube titles, answered! Well, most of them. If you asked a question that isn’t answered here, look for a similar one. We didn’t answer any question that is already answered in our Summit coverage (or that we just don’t have an answer for), and we consolidated a lot of similar questions. Yes, this will be a very different Mailbag than you’re used to (i.e., no names of submitters), but then again, this is also very special.

On with the show!

Eternal Darkness Questions

Q: Which game do you think is better … Eternal Darkness or Resident Evil?

Rick says: Eternal Darkness. Resident Evil is a great game; the folks at Capcom did an outstanding job updating the game with the best graphics for any GameCube title, including Eternal Darkness. The game is different, harder, and very much a Resident Evil game. Resident Evil is the “scarier” game, but it delivers that fear in a completely different way. Eternal Darkness isn’t supposed to be Horror movie scary. It’s supposed to be scary on a psychological level … an enduring fear as opposed to a quick jolt.

That said, Eternal Darkness has it over RE in spades. It’s full 3D with a dynamic camera, a much better musical score, better acting, and a story that beats it over the head with a rubber mallet. The big kicker for me, personally, is the fact that Resident Evil has significant load times (although shorter than on the PlayStation versions), but Eternal Darkness has almost NONE.

If I had a choice, I’d get ED before RE. But at the same time, you can have RE in just a couple weeks, where ED won’t be out until the end of June. If you can afford both … GET BOTH, you won’t regret it. If not, you’ve got a tough decision to make, but I’d lean toward Eternal Darkness if I were you.

Q: Did any of the games on display use the “digital click” in an innovative way?

Rick says: Eternal Darkness uses the Digital Click on the right shoulder button. Pressing the button cycles between body parts that you can attack, but the “click” changes which enemy you are targeting. Very cool.

Q: How many of the games will be rated “M”? Is Nintendo really trying to ditch the kiddy image?

Rick says: Only Eternal Darkness and Resident Evil were truly rated “Mature”, however, every other game shown is either a Teen or Everyone title. The only game that I think will appeal primarily to kids is Animal Crossing, and ironically Nintendo claims that the game is selling very well in Japan to men over 30.

But I’d say that Nintendo is indeed serious about approaching the Mature market, they just will not do it at the expense of a market they dominate and no one else seems to want. At the same time, I think Eternal Darkness is going to go a long way towards redefining what a true “Mature” title is. Kids just won’t have the level of knowledge or understanding to get all out of this game that they could. Maturity means more than your age, and Eternal Darkness is about more than killing.

Q: Tell us more about the graphics and features in ED. Specifically, the particle effects, the magic spells, unique enemies, shadowing, etc.

Rick says: The magic spells are spoken in a foreign language (Latin, I surmise), and a series of runes are emblazoned on the floor, casting colored light on the surroundings. Little particles of light erupt form the floor, and fly around, casting dynamic lighting all over. VERY cool effects. More I won’t say.

The characters and enemies I believe are self-shadowing, but I can’t really remember for sure. Sorry about that, but I’m sure Denis will correct me when he reads this.

There are some VERY unique enemies in the game, but I’m not going to talk about them at all. Spoiler material for sure. There are definitely more than the generic zombies, and the two others that are frequently mentioned.

Q: Is there more to Eternal Darkness than just slashing up zombies?

Rick says: The answer to that is a resounding YES! I can’t say a whole lot more about it, but while there aren’t any platform jumping elements (that I’ve seen, as far as I can tell, you CAN’T jump), there is a great deal more to the game than hack and slash. It’s NOT Resident Evil.

Q: Is five hours of cutscenes a lot?

Rick says: Yes, it certainly is. Bear in mind, this is five hours spread over approximately 60 hours of gameplay. Five hours is more than Metal Gear Solid 2, and likely more than Final Fantasy X. It’s also likely that the total time of cutscenes will approach nearly six hours by the time the game is finished. In our interview, Denis alluded to the fact that not all the movies were in yet.

Q: Over five hours of cutscenes? I hate movies in my games! Can you skip past them?

Rick says: Yes, most of the FMV you can skip, but I’d suggest QUITE highly that you don’t. Read my impressions for more reasons why. The plot isn’t exactly hidden in the movies, but clues are. Look at it this way: many games are heavy-handed in how they deliver the story to you, making movies unbearable to watch. Eternal Darkness is NOTHING like that. Denis touches on this in our interview with him, to be posted soon.

Q: FMV? I thought the game was using real-time, in-engine movies?

Rick says: Mea culpa. When I say FMV, sometimes the game uses pre-rendered video, sometimes it uses the engine. It depends on how many polygons the movie needed to push. Obviously, the real-time cinemas aren’t “compressed”.

Other Games

Q: YOU SAW WRESTLEMANIA X8?!?! TELL US ALL ABOUT IT!

Rick says: Settle down, fanboy. What THQ showed of WrestleMania X8 was INCREDIBLY limited. However, there is a lot of information here, so listen up.

The game is a grappler, much like No Mercy. THQ told us that RAW was supposed to be the “wrestling sim”, SmackDown! is a “button masher”, and WMX8 is a “grappler”. Only five characters were shown at the Summit: Kurt Angle, The Undertaker, Steve Austin, The Rock and the Undisputed Champion … Triple H. However, this is ALL that was shown. They used the SmackDown! set, and there was no music or entrance movies in this build.

The nWo is in the game, and Hogan is no longer part of the nWo, while X-Pac is in. The roster will NOT be split, and the new RAW set will likely not make it into the game. THQ said that the WWF doesn’t tell them in advance what the storyline plans are, so they find out when you see them on TV. Easy changes (like removing Hogan from the nWo stable) are doable, but a new RAW set is not. I haven't asked THQ yet, but I'd imagine that the NEW Undisputed Championship Belt should be one of those things that is doable.

The animation was great, very smooth and authentic to real-life. The finishers are easy to pull off (by pressing A+B), and the AI learns your attack patterns.

Don’t ask why THQ showed such a limited version of the game when it’s nearly finished. I’m as upset about it as you are, but THQ said that they might be able to rectify that for us soon. Stay tuned.

Q: Does Super Mario Sunshine still look like crap?

Rick says: NO. The game looks great in motion. The game will FEEL like the N64 title, because it’s SUPPOSED to. Also, the textures in the background objects are PLACEHOLDERS. They are Mario 64 textures, and are just there until the final textures are in. The game is very smooth, running at 60FPS, with loads of animation frames.

Do yourself a favor. Ignore the trolls. Mario will be great. It’s the sequel to “The Best Videogame of All Time.” Nintendo is NOT going to screw this up.

Q: What was the most impressive feature of Super Mario Sunshine?

Rick says: Honestly? YOSHI. Mario walked right up to him, and it looked like the two were about to hold a conversation. It wasn’t apparent whether you could ride him (I didn’t see a saddle), but you never know …

Q: How can you say “Lost Kingdoms” looks stunning? It looks like a Dreamcast game.

Rick says: Actually, blame Billy for “mistranslating” that one. I never said the game looked stunning. I said it looked pretty good, and had an interesting art style, and I maintain that. You call it a “Dreamcast” game like that’s a BAD thing. No, it’s not breaking any ground, but it’s got STYLE, something I can’t say about every game out there.

Q: You haven’t written up any impressions of Bomberman Generations. How was it?

Rick says: Honestly, I didn’t have a lot of time to spend with it. I did see it, and I thought it looks great. Bomberman has gone on a bit of a diet, but the cel-shading fits the game surprisingly well … and it plays just like you’d expect it to. The screenshots you’ve seen don’t compare to the game itself.

Q: Dude, what was F-Zero like?

Rick says: F-Zero wasn’t at the show. Don’t you READ our site? We posted a list of everything that was there Tuesday afternoon.

Wave Bird Questions

Q: Will the Wave Bird have a docking station and rechargeable batteries?

Rick says: No, and that’s a good thing. Seriously. You can buy a set of four rechargeable AA batteries and a charger fairly cheap, and have two to use and two to trade out (the Wave Bird appears to use two AA batteries). Or if you get more than one Wave Bird, you can just get a bigger charger.

So why is that a good thing? Because where on earth are you going to plug in FOUR docking stations, if you get that many Wave Birds? Plus, it’s added cost.

If you simply must have a docking station and rechargeable batteries, a third party will probably have them available right after the controller launches.

Q: This may seem a rather awkward question considering I could ask a variety of other much more relevant things, but considering the events which took place at last years E3.(the famous GameCube controller robbery) I was wondering how exactly Nintendo managed to secure the wireless GameCube controller and prevented anyone from stealing it.

Rick says: They didn’t. This was very small exclusive media gathering. Professional journalists don’t steal controllers. There was nothing to worry about.

Q: Is the Wave Bird larger than a standard GameCube controller? Was it only in Gray?

Rick says: The lower part of it is solid and extends a bit, just like in the screens we have in the hardware section. It was indeed only available in Gray, for now. I’m sure there will be colors later, if they sell well.

Q: Is there any way to tell if the batteries are running low? It doesn’t just die while you’re playing, does it?

Rick says: That’s hard to say, since all the controllers worked fine the entire two days. I’d imagine that the power light on the controller (or perhaps the LED on the receiver) will blink or change color in some fashion.

Other Stuff

Q: I've always wanted to know what food and drink offerings are offered at Nintendo press events? Are they stingy, only allowing a single trip to the snack table? Or worst of all... is there no snack table?

Rick says: Nintendo doesn’t do anything halfway. They had catered food, and plenty of it, and an open bar.

Q: What the heck is the Gamers’ Summit? I’d never heard of it until your site mentioned it a few days ago.

Rick says: That’s intentional. The Gamers’ Summit is a press-only event where we get a very close and intimate look at some of Nintendo’s upcoming titles. Everything is generally “hush hush” until the event happens. Occasionally, Nintendo will show off a title they haven’t even announced, but in this particular case, we got to experience a game that no one else will play in this fashion until it launches.

Q: Were there any giant bananas?

Rick says: Yes. Ph33r.

Q: Why didn’t you bring a video camera and record the videos?

Rick says: Video and picture taking was not allowed at this event.

Q: Will we be seeing ANY media from this summit?

Rick says: Yes. Nintendo did distribute a Media Kit, however, some of the screens that have been released for Eternal Darkness I would consider spoilers. We are carefully going through the media and trying to determine what we should post. However, some other sites are sure to post everything unfiltered.