I absolutely must second the opinion found in the last bag about wanting a gba with a backlit screen. I absolutely hated the SP and I stuck to my gba. The GBM really intrigues me but I haven't gotten to play it hands-on. I wish stores could have demo units by now but they don't so I'm going to go ahead and assume you guys have had hands-on time with game boy micro. I have big hands and the game boy advance still feels perfect. I especially love the clicky shoulder buttons, nothing like using those for some Super Street Fighter II: Turbo Revival action. My question is basically: does the GBM have the clicky shoulder buttons that GBA has and will people who loved the GBA like the micro? I know it's tiny but Nintendo wouldn't be silly enough to revamp a game boy without thinking of people with big hands, would they? If it's as good as the GBA but smaller, I have to admit that I'm willing to pay the steep price of 100 smackers. Keep up the stellar work.

- Gag

If the main reason you want a Micro is the backlight, keep in mind that both screens on the DS are backlit, and you can play GBA games on either screen. But to answer your questions, judging from my limited time playing the Micro at E3 (as we're still waiting on the final unit from Nintendo), the system was surprisingly comfortable in my very large hands. I don't know if I could hold it for long periods of time, but to tell the truth, none of Nintendo's handhelds are comfortable for me after an hour or so of playing. I don't remember anything about the shoulder buttons, but Billy Berghammer's impressions of the final device say the triggers are more like those on the original GBA than the SP's super-clicky ones.

Hey great job with the mailbag. I was wondering if PlanetGamecube is gonna change urls after the Revolution has a final name and we get some real info on it, or are you just gonna stay at PlanetGamecube.com and report from there? Thanks again.

-Dark Link

We are planning to have a new name, look, and URL for the site once Revolution is fully announced (probably a bit later, realistically), but we have reserved our current domain name for quite a while, so you should be able to use it to find us for the foreseeable future, even after we move over to a new primary domain.

I own RE4 and love it. I am curious how the PS2 build is and what if anything they will get that we don’t have. I wonder how this game will look and play on PS2. I have heard the PS2 ports of Killer 7 and Viewtful Joe have been choppy at times. While PS2 can do great graphics its usually with exclusive games and has trouble with ports. If Sony couldn’t even make Killzone have a constant framerate how could we expect Capcom to make RE4 playable on PS2? Will it have less characters? Will load times pop up everywhere? I am very curious I know you guys cover Nintendo stuff but as a fan of RE4 I am very curious to see how this port works out. -Adolph Vega

I haven't played the PS2 version of RE4, nor am I planning to buy it, but I do know that it has some new bonus features (including a new gun and more missions for Ada). The graphics are not as good as on GameCube, but it's still a very pretty game. Overall, I think God of War will end up being the best-looking PS2 game of this year.

Hi guys, thanks for the frequent mailbags!

A couple of months ago, my wife bought Another Code: Two Memories for

the DS (Trace memory in America) and loved every minute of the

afternoon it took her to beat it. Is there any similar (adventure)

game in development for the Nintendo DS?

Noentiendo 64

Surprisingly, the adventure genre is off to a slow start on the DS, a system that seems perfect for such games. But adventure games are uncommon on any platform these days. The closest thing in the near future is Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Trauma Center: Under the Knife is more of an action or puzzle game, but Mike Sklens has played the entire game and tells me that there is a LOT of story, so you might consider it a quasi-adventure as well.

Hi,

First off I will say that I just recently discovered

your website and was so impressed I made it my new

homepage. Now heres my question. I emailed thsi to

Nintendo Customer Service and I included their resonse

but I was wondering if maybe its possible that they

wouldn;t know the answer or if they can't asnwer for

whatever reason but my question was if its likely for

teh DS to get a Web Browser sorta like PSP where youc

an read emails, view websites and use teh chat online?

I asked Nintendo if its possible and thsiis what they

said.

"Thank you for your e-mail. It's great to hear that

you're enjoying the Nintendo DS.

While it is possible that a web browser could be

developed for the system, we haven't heard of any immediate plans to

offer this capability within the foreseeable future."

SO do you think that Nintendo will do this and iof so

could it be released alongside the launch of their

online service? It sounds more to me like they just

ahvenet heard anything but then again the peopel at

customer service don't always know everything anyways.

Thanks for having such a cool site and I hope you

guys stay that way.

thetransformerscollector

Unfortunately, I can't tell you much more than Nintendo did. There is no web browser for DS announced by Nintendo or any other company, but with Nintendo WiFi Connection launching this fall, surely it won't be long before some third-party slaps together a touch-activated browsing program and sells it for thirty bucks. And Nintendo might even create their own browser in the future, if the online service is a big success. I personally would really like an online, color version of PictoChat, and I would gladly pay for it.

With everyone talking about the next home console

from the big N, and with nothing new to say about

it until the TGS, why not set our sights on the

next Gameboy, which will surely be out between

X-Mas 06, and X-Mas 07.

After literally seconds of thinking about it, I

decided to design (crudely) what I think the next

gameboy should be. Please tell me why I have no

life...oh I mean, tell me what you think about

it.

Thanks for always answering questions (even

though this isn't a question).

-The Big Pale Machine

NINTENDO GAMEBOY3

Nice drawing and design. I've been saying in this mailbag for a while that I'd really like the next Game Boy to be compatible with GameCube software, so new software for the handheld would automatically be playable on Revolution and even our old GameCube systems. On your design, I would probably remove the touch screen and microphone since those will be useless for all the backwards-compatible software, and the DS already has those features covered for new software. And why would you need a converter for old GB games? Those cartridges fit just fine into all the current handhelds, even though the DS and Micro won't actually load the games.

Don't be so sure of when the next Game Boy will be released. The period of time you suggest seems reasonable, but it will likely depend on how successful the DS becomes and whether the GB Micro is able to keep the GBA software market going strong.

Greetings Bag,

In the last edition of the mailbag, someone asked a

question about a US version of Adult Brain Training,

and to my surprise, you did not give the expected

"there are no plans to release this game outside of

Japan" answer. Is this game really going to be

released stateside? I've hoped that it would be, but

was sure it would be one of those games that didn't

make it. It's long been my opinion that Nintendo could

help shed it's "kiddy" image by releasing more of

these practical software choices, like the

English/Japanese dictionary (any chance of that seeing

a US release?).

Also, I was wondering if you could shed any more light

on the current state of Katamari Damacy DS. The latest

rumor is that the listing in Nintendo Power was a

mistake, and an "inside source" has reported there are

no plans for a DS game in the series. I was hoping you

could find the truth to these rumors, and if they're

true, maybe use a little "muscle" to convince Namco

that it's in their best interest to... erm, forget

that last part.

-Arrow

I must have missed that part about Brain Training in the last bag. I really don't expect it to ever be released in the U.S., but it seems there is now a European version planned, so maybe it's possible after all. The dictionary is another story. As Dan Bloodworth explains in his import review, that application is heavily geared towards Japanese users who want to learn (or just use) English. To convert it for the opposite purpose would be quite an undertaking, and the program would lose some of its appeal since the touch screen is not as convenient for writing English characters as it is for writing kana.

Will we ever see Nintendogs stickers, bags, screen

protectors and stylii sold here, like Nintendo does in

their Japanese Nintendogs site?

BlueMeanie

NOA is generally not as merchandise-crazy as its Japanese parent company, except in matters of Pokemon. Still, we might see more Nintendogs-related stuff if the game continues to be a big seller. But if you just want stickers and bags with pictures of cute puppies, I'm sure you can find plenty of unlicensed stuff online or at any store with school supplies.

If you imported a DS system from Japan, and within a

year it turns out it needs to be replaced, can it be

sent to NOA for replacement, or would they not except

it? -Lokno

Technically, imported systems are not covered under NOA's warranty. But I've heard a few reports of people getting imported systems replaced through NOA anyway. The two regional variants are nearly indistinguishable, unless you have a color that isn't yet available in the U.S. The replacement process requires your system's serial number to get started, so if you have a problem, try entering your imported system's number and see if it works. It can't hurt to try!

I know "Nintendo" translates roughly to "Leave luck for heaven." and I was wondering, what does "Leave luck for heaven." mean?

-Nemo

Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe it has more meaning to someone deeply familiar with Japanese culture. I have studied abroad in Russia, and they have plenty of sayings that make sense in the proper cultural context but seem silly when literally translated to English. Idioms are almost always difficult to translate with the original meaning intact.

Forgive the smallish bag update, but I'll have more this weekend! I'm a few days behind on the questions, but I don't want to throw decent ones away, so I'm trying to move through the backlog in chronological order so that all good letters will have a chance to be printed.