Hello. I went to E3 this year and had a chance to play Metroid Prime 3. I honestly didn't like the control scheme. I recently heard your podcast, and your editors seemed to love it. I had a really hard time turning and thought it was a chore to do so. Can you please send Retro an E-mail asking to have multiple options?

The that I would prefer is moving forward and back using up and down on the control stick. Left and right on the control stick should turn Samus. Holding the (Z) lock on button should also turn on strafe (just like the previous Primes). Moving the Wii Remote should ONLY move your cross air and not move Samus. It really does make it harder. Please help.

I think just about everyone on staff—myself included—thought Prime 3 handled perfectly once we switched the controller sensitivity option over the Expert mode. In Normal mode (which we imagine the majority of people played in) the cursor is a little slower to move, causing Samus to turn sluggishly. Expert makes the cursor move more quickly with smaller controller movements, which made a pretty big difference in how the game felt. You were probably in Normal mode, because I don't think there's anyone who used Expert controls who would share your opinion.

Multiple control options are being considered by Retro for Prime 3, like switching the blaster controls to the B trigger instead of the A button. Maybe Retro would also consider putting in a control mode that's more similar to how the GameCube Prime games worked to appease that set of people. I think it would be better if you wait until the final game arrives until passing final judgment, though, because by that time the controller will work a lot better and you can adjust sensitivity to your liking.

I have three questions:

1. The Wii is looking like its going to be a hit just like the DS the only problem is some games like jam with the band never came out in America and now they have a music game for Wii my only fear is that we may never see games like these in the us.

2. Do you think developers will treat the Wii like a last gen console, I mean I have heard about some games that are coming out for ps2, xbox, and Wii. what defines a next gen console graphics, game play, a lot of Wii games will have the same quality as xbox360 and also ps3, unless they want to make a game with real monkeys inside of balls, what do you think?

3. Is it true that most Wii games you don't point at the tv, but you point at the sensor bar if that is true then it will be kind of lame, may be they will make a new game a second person shooter where you point a something but shoot somewhere else I don't know what I'm saying but what do you think?

Thanks

Goober, aka the Goobster, or what ever you want to call me.

1. Jam With the Band (aka Daigasso! Band Bros.) never did an English version, and that was a tragedy. Then again, no one would have thought that a game like Ouendan would have come to America, and all of a sudden, there's a sequel to the game planned for a western release. It's just as awesome as the original, too. Point being, for every game you wish would come over, another comes out of nowhere and makes you happy. Publishers are a lot more open to bringing over Japanese stuff than they used to be, so hopefully the future will see less importing and more localizing.

2. Some developers are. Studios like Silicon Knights and EA Los Angeles have commented that they don't like that Nintendo's console can't output in HD. The games they are creating are being designed for HD graphics and lots of stuff on screen at once, so you'd expect those comments. I think the majority of developers are genuinely excited about Wii, though, and believe it's next-gen because of the controller. I don't think it'll be an issue after the hardware starts selling and the games start showing up in spades.

3. You put the sensor bar on top of, underneath or in front of the television. In essence, you'd be pointing at the TV. Very few things work in the second person (movies, books, etc.), so I think you should shelve that "SPS" idea for the time being.

Dear Mailbag,

Months before E3, Camelot was reportedly working on an RPG for the Wii. However, there was no news of this RPG at E3, let alone any news about what Camelot has been up to. Does Planet GameCube happen to have any updates regarding what Camelot has in the works?

William C. Maune

This is what you must be referring to. There's no official word as to what Camelot has cooking right now, although there's a good chance it could be something familiar.

Back in 2004, we posted a rumor about Golden Sun, Camelot's GBA RPG series, coming to the GameCube. It's obviously not going to happen, because the 'Cube is on its last legs going into what will be its last holiday season of merit. However, a console version of the game has a very good chance of still existing. Judging by the Takahashi brothers' comments in the rumor article, they still have aspirations of continuing and/or completing the Golden Sun story. Will it happen on Wii? Perhaps the DS? No way of knowing. If I had to favor one or the other, I think the DS would be a better fit for the Game Boy origins of the series, but I would wet myself it a Wii version saw the light.

Whatever it is Camelot is working on, they're still working on it. Maybe we'll get to hear what they're up to later this year as the Wii launch draws nearer.

Hi Guys - love the site.

I would love to know if the Wii is going to be region free. That goes for the downloads and the Gamecube discs and the Wii discs. Don't care about DVD playback as most people have a multi region player.

I think Nintendo are not very keen on importers but remember it's not piracy. I only consider importing anyway when there's a big delay on games and/or systems which was why I imported my Gamecube last time. Go on Nintendo you know it makes sense.

Any ideas on this guys?

Cheers.

Steve

I think Nintendo is going to stick with region protection on GameCube and Wii games. Having the ability to play games from any region would be another door pirates could use to play copied games, which is the last thing Nintendo wants. Being able to play imports without any system modification necessary would be swell, but it's a feature that less than 1% of people would ever use. There's no reason for Nintendo to include such a feature unless they feel it will save them money in the long haul, which is unlikely with the piracy problems that might come up.

Virtual Console games are another story. Like I've said previously here in the mailbag, it's unknown if Nintendo will even let people download and play old Japanese-only games to any region. It would be possible since it's all done through emulation and the hardware in different regions are all exactly the same on the inside (region protection on cartridge-based systems was done by having different notches on cartridge moldings for games), but it's up to Nintendo.

whats the front flap for on the wii? do you think this is the last secret to be revealed, if there were an sd card slot then whats to hide?

It's pretty clear that the front flap is where the SD cards for expanded memory storage will be inserted. I don't think Nintendo withheld this for a reason, it's just that they didn't use E3 to demo the Wii hardware, just the Wii controller and games. Nintendo did say the console would support SD cards, and the front of the console seems like the best place to insert them, so what else would be under that flap but an SD card slot? Well...

I would like to know even though E3 is over I am still wondering about the DVD support for the Wii how will the DVD system look for the Wii. And when will it be released when the wii coming out and if so how much will it cost.

Take care

Kyle

They didn't mention anything about the DVD playback functionality of Wii at E3, so that's another thing we still don't know about after the show. I believe Nintendo mentioned something about a dongle that would allow playback functionality. It could be a USB dongle, or perhaps something that's inserted into a port that's located under the front flap of the Wii console? Maybe, maybe not. We'll find out eventually.

Wii will be released sometime in November, before Thanksgiving, and be no more expensive than $299. The smart money is on $199, though.

Is it just me, or is the light gun shell absolutely perfect for a FPS? The analog stick would be used to strafe, and then the gun would turn you and aim. Am I the only one that is getting really excited for this? Also, you would be able to switch weapons and the like, if not by moving the gun, then by the accessible buttons. I am very excited about a FPS that would use the light gun shell in this way, or am I missing something/crazy?

Using the light gun accessory for an FPS would take away the independence of both halves of the nunchaku controller setup. The accelerometer in the analog stick half would need to move at the same time as the remote half would, so that could mean limited or restrictive control options. Resident Evil: Dead Aim for the PS2 used the GunCon for both moving and shooting in the manner you are imagining, and it didn't work out all that well. Obviously, the Wii remote is more capable of controlling a game of that manner than a light gun, but I would imagine the results would be similar.

After somewhat lackluster sales of Pikmin 2, do you think there's a chance we'll see a Pikmin game for DS or Wii sometime in the next few years? I'm a huge fan of the GC Pikmin games, and I'd hate to think the franchise is done.

Andy

Des Moines, IA

The DS and Wii would both be good fits for the real-time strategy nature of Pikmin. Selecting multiple troops with a drag of the stylus or flick of the wrist would mean faster gameplay and maybe some more challenging tasks to tackle. Plus, it would be cool if a Wii version allowed for thousands of Pikmin to be displayed on-screen at once. Nintendo created a new franchise with those little guys, and surely Nintendo will milk some more money out of the series with a few new games down the road. So yeah, really good chance.

Hi Planetgamecube,

Does Nintendo own the rights/patents to any of the technologies in the Wiimote? How hard would it be from a legal standpoint for Sony/Microsoft to copy the full concept behind the controller? We all know Sony will now have 6 way tilt motion sensing in the PS3 controller, but how hard would it be for them to go the whole nine yards? Also, while we're on the subject, what about DS and all it's features? How hard would it be (again from a legal standpiont) for Sony to rip off these ideas for it's next portable system? Sony disgusts me, the only reason I buy there systems is because they have the best Final Fantasy games under lock and key. I wish that wasn't so. =(

Thanks for your time,

Brian

Nintendo owns the rights to the concept of using the controller technology for playing games, but they may not own all the patents to the guts inside the controller. XGaming.com has a writeup of the tech present in the Wii remote (or at least, the E3 version of it) and you'll be surprised to see how much of it is actually “off the shelf." Indeed, a lot of the things in the Wii controller aren't new at all, but rather, refinements of existing technology all rolled into one wonderful game playing device. To that end, Sony or Microsoft could probably offer similar devices without an issue, sort of how like just about everything else Nintendo has come up with has been used. (The D-Pad, shoulder buttons, analog stick, and controller rumble, just to name a few.) The DS is no different. Touch screen devices already exist, it's just Nintendo figured out how to make a blockbuster handheld out of it. So you never know.

Hey PGC,

I have a question that most pretains to WiiConnect24, and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. In your preview of this game you said that Retro Studios isn't interested in going back to the MP2: E multiplayer formula. Don't get me wrong, I think this is a good thing because the multiplayer in that game seemed like an after-thought. However, I don't think they should rule out multiplayer entirely for Corruption. Even if it is an online only kind of thing, because we all know LOZ: TP won't have multiplayer, and the next game that we know of that will that is made by nintendo is Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and that doesn't come out until sometime in 2007. So I think it would be foolish of Retro to not include it at all. I just want to know what your thoughts are on this.

Also, do you guys know anything about the features of WiiConnect24 other than the gameplay? Will there be voice chat support, or some other way to communicate with the other players during a game? If you hear something about this I'd like to know. Thanks a lot.

-bigamingfan21

The main games in the Metroid series were, are and always will be a single-player experience. The Metroid Prime universe doesn't quite fit with mutliplayer death matches (see Jonny's review of Hunters before sending in the hate mail), and that was pretty much proven with Prime 2. Sure, Retro could spend a lot of time getting decent multiplayer options going for Corruption, but that would take time away from polishing off the single player game. A Metroid game with a sub-par single player adventure is not a Metroid game in my book (and Jonny's), so I would rather Retro focus exclusively on making Metroid Prime 3 the best Metroid game it can be. If you're worried about there not being a multiplayer game at the Wii's launch, I wouldn't fret. Red Steel will have things covered for shooters, and I'm sure Nintendo has one or two other surprises in the months after launch.

Yesterday I mentioned that Nintendo didn't go on record for the features of WiiConnect24, but in fact IGN got some information out of Takashi Tezuka about what we can expect. (Thanks to Jason for pointing that out to me.) Apparently we should expect what we're seeing on the DS in terms of features, but Wii online games should be a lot more capable with the better hardware. Voice chat is possible on DS games, and Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam will let people talk to each other during a race. That's going to be possible on Wii, but there needs to be a microphone attachment for it to happen. I don't think Nintendo's service will be limited, it's just going to be up to individual developers and publishers (like Activision) as to what they're going to have their games do online. As long as you don't expect WiiConnect24 to be similar to Xbox Live (because it won't be), the features we'll get for free from Nintendo should be sufficient.

I've been wondering about Kirby Adventure for GCN that was announced I believe at last year's E3. There has been absoltely no word about it, and it wasn't even mentioned at this year's E3. I've come to the conclusion that it's been scrapped altogether, which is a shame, because Kirby hasn't had a console adventure since Crystal Shards. Have you heard anything at all about it? Was it cancelled? Was it moved to Wii?

Egore

If the game was still in development for GameCube, Nintendo would have definitely had it listed in the sparse GC lineup. That wasn't the case, and it doesn't look like it's on Nintendo's Wii games list, either. Looks like another Kirby game will never see the light of day, at least not until the next one is announced.

How you doin? If the game boy advance really is a "third piller" where in the universe was it at E3. I did not see a single picture of it being played there, and I heard almost no news about it. Why can't nintendo just admit that they are drowning the gameboy.

*bubble* Air! *bubble* ,

Mysteryman

Yeah, there were absolutely no Game Boy Advance games at Nintendo's booth at all. Granted, they only announced one new title for the system, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Red. Still, even with a game as big as that, why not have at least one little corner dedicated to it? It's pretty clear that Nintendo is starting to go away from Game Boy Advance development in a large scale, but that doesn't mean the death of the handheld.

Third parties are going to continue to capitalize on the millions upon millions of GBAs that are already out there, and the hardware units that continue to be sold every day. There will be over 80 GBA games from third parties released before the end of the year, with more planned for release in 2007. The GBA will be a viable, money-making platform for many years, but all of Nintendo's focus is going to be on the DS and Wii from now on. As long as Nintendo continues to release a GBA game once or twice a year, third parties will stay with it, and it'll stick around for a very, very long time.

Hey,

I've got 2 questions. Firstly, I know that there is some internal memory and some sort of memory card can be used, but I'm really rather concerned about the amount of memory. I and many others will be wanting to download a hell of a lot of games on the virtual console, and the N64 ones especially will take up a considerable amount of memory. Do you know of any mass memory device that will be available? I don't want to have to have a load of memory cards stacked up.

Secondly, I know there is a Gamecube controller port, but can the GC controller be used for 'standard' wii games (like SSBB) and virtual console games, or just GC games?

Thanks

Grant

First: The biggest N64 games were 64MB, but most weighed in at around 8-32MB. SNES games averaged in at 1MB, and the size of NES games are trivial. Unless you plan on getting nothing but N64 games, the initial 512MB flash memory should be sufficient. Adding in another 1GB or more of SD card memory should be more than enough to handle the majority of games. Even past that, there's a chance that Nintendo will allow more storage through the USB ports. I wouldn't worry about running out of space to store all those games.

Second: I hope so, especially for Smash Bros. Brawl and Twlight Princess. I don't think they'll work to well with Virtual Console games, though. You'd need more face buttons to emulate the N64.

Hey, great site. Always check for news here first!

So, how about the weight of the Wii (great name) controller? Is it balanced, light?

Thanks,

Trover

The Wii controllers I got my hands on at E3 were wired to the Wii stations and didn't have batteries. For what was there, though, it felt pretty good in my hands. I was actually surprised at how small the buttons on it were, but they still worked as well as anything else I've used before. It should still be lighter than a regular wireless controller with some AAs in there. Balancing issues may be a problem when using the D-Pad in the nunchaku configuration. Hitting a direction while holding the controller with one hand meant I had to move my hand out of the “pocket" underneath it where my hand naturally slipped in. That caused controller movement and undesired results on-screen. Hopefully Nintendo will get that worked out with the final (non-E3 demo) hardware if they're still looking at tweaking the controller. I hope they do.

hey wats up PGC? Long time reader, first time writer.

I do have a couple questions though. We all know the bad moves Nintendo has made with the expidenture with the Gamecube. Could you briefly restate, wat u think, were all the bad decisions Nintendo has made and what they are doing to correct them with the coming of the Nintendo Wii.

Also, after E3, i was a bit confused. I respect Nintendo and their strategy of witholding information untill the right time. Its just that, after Nintendo gave us the information about the Wii and told us that they're be a few more "suprises", i didnt really feel much more excited after the E3 show. What was so exciting about the information that wasnt given to us prior to E3?

thanks,

Insolent Fool

I feel Nintendo's biggest mistake with GameCube was to make a disc-based system in which they still controlled the disc media. GameCube development kits and debug units require either a special hard-drive type of cartridge, or expensive burnable GC discs (with special burners). All of that media and equipment could only be acquired through Nintendo. The test units for PS2s and Xboxes used standard DVDRs with regular DVD burners, so the equipment necessary to make games for those platforms was much easier to come by, and substantially cheaper. Besides the higher costs on the development side, Nintendo missed the boat by not giving out support for online games. It's fine if Nintendo didn't want to put their own games online, but they should have given the tools and guidance to publishers that did. More high-profile games would have been on the GameCube as it was starting to fade away if it was online in some capacity.

Those two problems are not going to arise on Wii. Obviously, 12cm discs are just regular-sized DVDs, so devs and pubs can afford to burn as many builds of an early game as they want without really feeling it in the pocketbook. It's also a bonus that Wii hardware is basically an extension of GameCube hardware, a development environment that everyone knows (though some better than others). Nintendo has their Wi-Fi Connection rockin' and rollin', with a load of online DS games coming soon, and many Wii launch titles promising online features. Big improvements in online interfaces come with every online game from Nintendo as well. Just in the scope of being developer-friendly and online-capable, Nintendo is doing a big 180 with Wii, and that's a good thing for everyone.

That brings us to Nintendo's E3 showing. Like a lot of people, I was totally expecting an information blow-out at the press conference. It wasn't there, and I was a little bummed out. Everyone still wants to know how WiiConnect24 will work. We want more details on the Virtual Console. We want to know exactly when the system will launch and at what price. Other promised features are still a secret for some reason. We know more about the console than ever before, the picture is still not complete.

Playing the games at E3 and seeing the Super Smash Bros. Brawl trailer did get my hopes up a lot, but that still didn't answer the all questions that were left unanswered. Nintendo delivered on their promise as to what the Wii will deliver, but I it wasn't quite the knockout people were expecting. In the end, I was satisfied with their E3 showing, but I don't feel they “won" (I say Microsoft had a better show). It just goes to show that even on the biggest stage in the world, only Nintendo can get away with holding something back and still have a strong showing. The only thing we can do now is wait until Nintendo lets slip the rest of what they're hiding (perhaps at Tokyo Game Show), and then start getting excited again as launch day approaches.

Whew, I'm beat. Thanks to everyone who sent in questions, and sorry to everyone I couldn't get to...there was a lot of stuff to read! That doesn't mean you still can't send questions in to the mailbag, though. The bag is always open for your questions (as are our forums), so keep them coming. See you next week!