Dear PGC,

When will we be able to preorder a Wii?(I love that name!!!) I would really love to get a jump on things by ordering one now!

P.S. If you can pre-order them then where at?

Love your site!

JG

As of right now, there is no way to pre-order a Wii from any of the major game retailers. They don't want to do it this far away from launch because so many people would pre-order, and there would be no guarantee that those who did would get one anywhere near launch day. On top of that, retailers really don't know the critical info they need to offer the pre-sales, such as system price, pack-in accessories or games, launch day titles and other Nintendo accessories. You know that every online retailer is going to force bundles on the early adopters, and the sellers can't put proper bundles together until knowing the price and specifics of everything.

If you really can't wait, you might want to check any local game shops you have in your area to see if they'll set aside a Wii for you. It pays to stick with your local place and get to know them, because there will be times they can do favors for you, such as coming through on the launch day of a new game system. Of course, you could just plan to wait in line overnight before launch day, which is the option I'm looking at to secure a Wii on day one.

One of the trends in recent years is to have video game hookups in mini-vans, and we've always rigged up our GameCube for long trips - it's been a great way to pass the time for the kids on cross country drives. It is also nice to bring the highly portable GC and Wavebirds into the hotel, and it was even convenient to carry it onto airplanes so that you didn't have to worry about the TSA damaging it in checked luggage.

Wii seems to change all that, though, at least for the Wii titles, as I don't imagine you'll be able to position the sensor bar anywhere in a Minivan to make it usable (both due to obstacles and close quarters). Or am I missing something?

Has it been confirmed that the Wavebird controllers will work with GC titles? I know Wii has GC controller style ports built in, but I can't tell, from the pictures I've seen, if the form factor will allow the wavebird sensor to be plugged and seated properly.

Dave

It's true that the small size of the Wii makes it extremely portable, but only in the sense that it's easy to transport it from place to place. Playing games on the console en route might be a different story because of that sensor bar. It's one thing if the bar can be positioned near the monitor inconspicuously, but then the issue of being to close to the sensor comes up, which can screw up the bar properly picking up controller moment. I don't think there's any practical way Wii games that require the sensor bar could be played in such close quarters, unless the final (non-E3) Wii hardware refines the tech in a way where distance from the bar won't be a major issue.

There has been no official confirmation of WaveBird receivers properly fitting into the GameCube ports of the Wii, but they should still work. Even with the curved contour of the receiver's plug side, the GameCube wireless controller fits just fine on the flat-faced Panasonic Q (though the plug does stick out slightly). Wii should be no different, although it might look weird with the flap stuck open at 90 degrees and a WaveBird receiver jutting out beyond the console's form factor.

Hey PGC, hope I'm not too late for the second edition of the post-E3 mailbag here. I'm not sure you would have a definite answer for this, but maybe you can figure it out. I have a 36 inch 3:4 Sony Wega HDTV. I chose this set several years ago based on the fact that not enough games utilized widescreen mode. Despite Nintendo's lack of HD resolution, I'm more than satisfied with their dedication to widescreen. My TV goes into widescreen mode through vertical compression, which squishes the widescreen image with a really beautiful effect that allows a 480p image to use up some of the TV's extra lines of resolution. However, I'm worried what this might mean for Wii games. Some games, such as Wario Ware, apparently don't have widescreen modes. If I want to play Wario Ware and then turn on Twilight Princess, will I have to recalibrate my controller, since my TV's visual space will stretch to different borders?

-Try4ce

A little late for last week, but not for this week! Anyway, I actually have a similar television as you do (mine is a 32" Sony HDTV) and I'm glad Nintendo is going the widescreen route for their own games, as well as the third party stuff. But your concerns about widescreen re-calibration? I wouldn't worry about it. Remember, all the console cares about is the controller's position relative to the sensor bar. Television size and format is irrelevant.

Take for example the Wii version of Twilight Princess. For the bow and clawshot, fine aiming is done inside of a circle that shows up on the screen. The camera view only moves when the aiming cursor is moved outside of that circle. The circle will be the same size on a 16:9 display and a 4:3 display, so the movement required to move the camera will also be the same. The only difference is that there will be more screen area visible to either side of the circle on the widescreen display.

The only thing that someone would probably need to do to compensate for a wider screen area is to move the remote a little bit more to either side, if there was a game that required that kind of aiming movement. Most games would more likely keep all the motion to the middle area of the screen anyway, like Red Steel or Metroid Prime 3. It shouldn't be an issue for the most part.

Hey Planetgamecube, I got a question about multiplayer games. How would a FPS like 007 or a game like that work with 4 Wii-motes? Let's say I go to a friends house and they have a 19 inch tv and we want to play 007. How would it work. Having four small screens on display with everybody pointing to the tv. And the screen are so same that one slight move of the Wii-mote and the crosshair would move without you wanted to. Does that mean we have to put four sensors on top of the 19 inch tv? Just curious!!!

One system, one sensor bar. If you have more than one player on Wii, the same sensor bar picks up the movements of all the connected controllers. And like I said above, the size of a display is not a factor to how much movement is needed to control the action on screen. Every game will be different, of course, but for the most part the movements required in a split-screen multiplayer game will be the same movements needed to smoothly control the single player, full-screen version. The only bummer is that split-screen on smaller TVs may require you to sit close to the screen to see what's going on, and therefore sit closer to the sensor bar. That could screw things up, as mentioned earlier.

Dear Planet Gamecube,

Nintendo has been tirelessly hyping up their new console as "revolutionary", and something everyone can pick up and enjoy. I have found though, since the days following the Nintendo 64, that the games they release are anything but. Many videogames nowadays are just recycled older videogames, with minute changes in their overall appearance and gameplay. Do you think with such a radical change promised in Wii's gameplay will come a new crop of original game ideas, and maybe even another hugely successful series of games, reminiscent of Mario and Zelda? Sure, I look forward to Twilight Princess' release, but, realistically, isn't it just Ocarina of Time shined up a little bit? Where's the revolution in that?

Erika

That's Nintendo's plan. Although they are number one when it comes to innovation in games, perhaps they were starting to run a bit dry when trying to come up with new things on a traditional game console. That was probably one of the reasons for the creation of the Nintendo DS, and ultimately the Wii console. New ideas are popping up all over the place on the handheld, with games like Meteos and Trauma Center being the best examples of games that would not be possible without the unique features of the DS.

Nintendo has been saying that they will bring new franchises to Wii. They know they can't keep giving us the same stuff every cycle, because even as awesome as Nintendo games are, they too can show similarities of previous games. Twilight Princess looks similar to Ocarina of Time, as you mentioned. (Then again, Nintendo could give us a dozen different Zelda games that feel like Ocarina, and we'd love every one of them to death.) With Wii, Nintendo isn't just challenging the development community to come up with new game ideas, they are also challenging themselves to come up with something console-defining. There will be a lot of new things from Nintendo in the coming years. Hopefully some of them will stick, and we'll have new Nintendo characters to love.

Dear Planet GameCube,

Have you heard any rumors to the fact that we could play DS/GBA/GB games on our Virtual Console? We have seen GB players throughout the lifecycles of these products and I think a GBA game would exist on par with a SNES game, etc.

Any idea?

Warm Regards,

Rilely

Oh sure, lots of rumors. But no real or factual information regarding the topic. Let me offer my humble speculation on the matter, though.

Full, downloadable DS or games aren't going to happen, so forget about it. The system is out and about, so why offer people the chance to play its games without the need to buy the hardware? It doesn't matter if a television and the Wii remote can emulate a touch screen and stylus, because from a business standpoint it's a bad idea. Demos downloaded to the DS unit is one thing, but offering to play them on the Wii console is something else entirely.

Game Boy Advance games are probably in the same boat. There are a lot of GBAs out there, with more new hardware and software being sold weekly. Nintendo wants the GBA train to keep rolling as long as it can go, and giving people the option to play the games without buying the hardware would take a chunk out of Nintendo's profits. The GBA Player for GameCube is different, as people still needed to buy and own the GBA games, and buy the player hardware.

The only thing that would make financial sense for Nintendo is to offer all of those old-school four-color Game Boy games (and maybe Game Boy Color games too) for play on Virtual Console. All of those are long out of print, and even though you can still use them on a GBA, finding a particular title from the past can be tricky. Even if they charged a dollar or two per game download, they could make a killing. There are a handful of GB games I would love to play again (Mr. Chin's Gourmet Paradise is one), and I'm sure there are many people who share that feeling.

I suppose whether or not Nintendo does offer handheld games of any sort on the Virtual Console depends on how things work out with the old console games. We'll find out more when they decide to give us more info on exactly how VC will work, as well as the rest of the WiiConnect24 service.

Hey Guys…first time, long time…I have heard mentions of a Light Gun attachment to the Wiimote (personal note: great name) As soon as I heard of the light gun my thoughts turn to one game, perhaps the greatest light gun game of them all…8 letters…Duck Hunt…if any game deserves a sequel it’s the great Duck Hunt. Duck Hunt and it’s bastard cousin Clay Shoot, you could sell me a Wii on that game alone. Your thoughts? Keep up the good work guys. Love the podcast.

Actually, Nintendo had a tech demo in the Wii area of the booth that was for target shooting, and a section of that was basically Duck Hunt, with ducks flying around and players shooting at them. It just used the remote part of the controller, with no Zapper accessory. I didn't get to play it, but just looking at it gave me the same idea that you have.

I think it would be quite appropriate for Nintendo to turn that part of the tech demo into a full Wii game. Duck Hunt and the Zapper helped Nintendo to turn the NES into one of those game systems that you just had to have, and I think Nintendo is in a similar position now with the Wii. Everyone knows what duck hunting is, and everyone knows how to point and shoot. A Duck Hunt kind of game to along with (or be included among) the WiiSports titles would be another good thing to have to get more people to try the system. And hey, if it works with light gun option, I'd be one of the first in line to try to shoot that stupid dog.

Hey PGC! I just have a quick question.

Now that E3 is done and over with, and Nintendo has officially debuted their lovely little Wii console, how long do you think it will take to have Demo units of the system in Game stores and The Nintendo World Store in NYC?

I recall the Gamecube being on display back in early fall of 2001, but I'm curious if Nintendo has made any statements regarding this, or if you have any estimates...

Thanks,

-Rob J.

I would estimate that demo units start popping up in stores a month or so before the eventual launch of the console. That's soon enough for a lot of people to try it out, but not so late that it's too close to launch. With the system set for a November release before Thanksgiving, then a safe bet would be to start looking for those systems around the Canadian version of the holiday in October. The Nintendo World Store would probably see the system playable to the public sooner, so you New York folk should look out for that.

Will the Wii support Gamecube memory cards?

Since we can play GCN games on the wii, will we be able to load our games we have, or will we have to start fresh and save the games to the internal memory of the Wii?

Thanks in advance.

Rain.

The Wii has GameCube memory card slots under the flap next to the flap with the GameCube controller ports, so you can still use GC cards to save and load GameCube game data. However, I don't think it will be possible for GameCube games to use the internal flash memory to save game data like a giant memory card. GameCube games look for memory cards in memory card slots, so it would be tricky to tell a GC game that there's no memory card but still allow it to save data. You're probably going to need to keep GC memory cards around if you still want to save GameCube games you play on Wii.

I saw some reports that the Wii controllers are using Bluetooth to communicate with the console. From what I remember of the Sony E3-2005 conference, Bluetooth allows for 7 devices to be connected, right (7 devices + 1 for the hub)? You being the Bluetooth gurus that you are, does that mean theres a possibility that headsets could talk to the console independent of the controllers (i.e. you could have 7 controllers connected - 4 wiimotes and 3 headsets)? Buying yet another peripheral kinda takes away from Nintendo WiFi's everything-in-one-box premise though. Mybe its more likely they'll just throw a mic in the wiimotes?

Just because a technology is capable of something doesn't mean it's practical. Sure, the PS3 can support up to seven wireless controllers, but are there going to be many games that would take advantage of that many players on the same screen at once (that would be worth the price of the console and that many controllers)? Four players on one TV screen should be fine for Nintendo, especially because they don't have the higher HD resolutions to make it easier to see what's happening on each small quadrant. Anyway, unless Nintendo plans on a lot of multiplayer games in where each player uses two controllers, there should be more Bluetooth bandwidth for other devices, provided Nintendo supports the option for external Bluetooth accessories.

Of course, the big rumor going around at the moment is that there is a microphone built into the Wii remote to go along with the in-controller speaker. This would allow people playing online to talk to each other via VoIP (Voice over IP) similar to how DS players can speak to each other in Metroid Prime Hunters. If a controller mic isn't there, there still needs to be some way to talk to other people through Wii, as Nintendo confirmed that games can have voice chat like current DS games do.

So, I hear about a game like Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, which takes characters from a wide universe (Marvel Comics) and combines them to form something that is truly great. Fans of the comic book characters only dream of something like this. The concept behind a game like this is outstanding.

Nintendo has done something similar with the Super Smash Bros. series, arguably one of the top franchises Nintendo has to offer right now. It is no accident that Super Smash Bros. Brawl is the most anticipated Wii game as of right now. Nintendo has so many great characters from years of game franchises and put them in something simple like a fighting game. With the success Nintendo has seen with this formula, why not apply it to another genre and create a new franchise?

X-Men legends is on of my favorite games as I'm sure Ultimate Alliance will be as well because of the wide universe of characters available, the four-player cooperative play, and the action/RPG style of gameplay. How cool would a similar game be featuring Nintendo's best? Mario, Link, Samus, and Kirby are so much fun to pit against one another in Smash Bros, but what if they teamed up in an enormous adventure of RPG featuring cooperative multiplayer with four players on the Wii, or (this may be a stretch), online?

This is my dream game, and I'm sure many other Nintendo faithful would love to see Nintendo make such a game. It would be the perfect compliment to Super Smash Bros. After observing the overwhelming success of SSB, do you guys think this would ever be possible?

Thanks,

Matthew

An all-star RPG or something from a different genre than Super Smash Bros. would be awesome. It sucks that we only get to see the cast assemble every five years for a new game, but thankfully the games they do show up in together can be played forever and ever.

It's tricky, though. If Nintendo did release a new game with all the Nintendo characters, they would have to make a game that was just as good or better than Super Smash Bros. Melee or Brawl, which would be no easy feat. They shouldn't dare to do more than one game, either, because the second they start using the same concept for new games more than once, they run the risk of cheapening the series. All of those Mario games after Sunshine were alright, but they don't compare to New Super Mario Bros. and Mario Galaxy. It could turn into too much of a good thing.

So yeah, seeing a non-fighting game with all the Nintendo characters would be friggin' sweet. I just worry that if one were to be made, it had better live up to the fighting games, and it had better not tarnish the all-star cast concept. I suppose a Square-Enix developed RPG would be great. I mean, it worked for Disney...

Another mailbag is done. Remember kids, the mailbag is always accepting questions, so send in your question or other correspondence any time something comes to mind. Sending something in that has already been covered in a previous mailbag lowers your chance of getting a response to zero, so be sure check back a few editions to see if your question has already been answered. Don't forget to include your name (and location if desired) in the body text of your email so you can get some mad props for your mailbag writing skillz. I'll see you back here next week with another set of questions!