Hi Bag!

The last mailbag made mention of the battery life of AA's in the Wii remote at 30-60 hours. Now Nintendo has stated for the Wavebird about 100 hours of battery life. I don't know about you guys, but I've definitely gotten far more than 100 hours out of each pair of batteries in my wavebird. I got the wavebird at it's launch and have only had to change the batteries 3 or 4 times despite owning over 40 gamecube titles, many of them being very lengthy or multiplayer oriented. It seems the 100 hour estimate was a conservative estimate (much like the distance the wavebird could perform at).

With that being said, what do you think the odds are that the 30-60 hour battery life is just Nintendo being conservative?

- Paul

Nintendo hasn't officially said how long the a set of batteries will last in the Wii controller. That 30-60 hours figure is supposedly from leaked Wii hardware documentation. If that's the case, it wouldn't be a conservative guess, bur probably a best-case scenario or a maximum. When Nintendo officially states what the expected battery life of the remote will be, it'll be a lower number, probably 25 hours or so. It'll certainly last longer than that, but how much longer may depend on how it's used. I would suspect that using the infrared pointer (Red Steel, Metroid Prime 3) would take up more juice than games that don't (Tony Hawk, Excite Truck). Actually, that could explain the large gap between the low and high ends of the estimate: 30 hours in IR pointer mode, and 60 hours when holding the controller on its side.

Been a long time since I shot a mail out to you guys. Anyhoo, to address the concerns of Brandon regarding rechargeable batteries - he cited the DS and 360 controller as having rechargeable. It should be noted, however, that while the DS does have a natively rechargable battery, the 360 controller does not. It uses AA batteries. Microsoft does manufacture a rechargable pack, but the point is that it doesn't natively come with it in the box. I say this because Nintendo could easily do the same thing and offer a rechargeable pack that slips easily into the AA slot, just like Microsoft's charge-n-play kit. So not only does the 30-60 hour AA battery life for the Wii-mote seem pretty good, but you've also got the possibility of a rechargeable pack outside of the box.

-MrCHUPON

Yeah, that's what I was getting at last week. Giving people an option for a rechargeable controller battery pack would be good for all involved. Nintendo wouldn't need to worry about spending more money on hardware than they already are; they would profit off of a separate controller battery. Retailers wouldn't need to worry about carrying a specialty accessory that people may not buy. Consumers don't have to sweat over potentially not being able to locate one, since they can just keep using the set of batteries that will come with the controller until they can get a hold of it.

If Nintendo does it, I hope they can come up with a better charging solution than the 360's Play & Charge kit. It takes forever to charge the battery through the 360 console, and it turns your wireless controller into a wired one. I don't know if a separate charge cradle would fly with most people, and you can't really plug in the controller to charge it as you play. There's always the alternative to that, of course...

Hi there!

Ever since it was revealed that the Wii Controller (I hate that remote analogy...) uses AA batteries, all hell seemed to break loose among Nintendo fans and gaming journalists. No matter if it's PGC, IGN or any forum - everyone keeps complaining about how they need to buy new batteries every two weeks or so. Now - as I really, really don't get it - please answer my question:

Why not use rechargeable AA batteries? Keep two in the Controller and two in the charger, and you'll never have any problems again. In fact, if one set of batteries is drained, you can immediately plug in the new ones, faster than any built-in battery could recharge.

I don't want to sound cynical, but everyone I know would think you're totally stupid if you'd use a device such as the Wii Controllers, a GBA or something similar with alkalines...

Best regards,

Markus

Rechargeable batteries would be good, but I'm sure that any battery that Nintendo would possibly come up with for the Wii remote would be better. But hey, you've always got a rechargeable option if they don't.

Sicne the Wii is back wards compatible with Gamecube discs, and it also has a some sort of internal storage for downloading classic content, is there any reason that Nintendo couldn't sell a downloadable patch to allow owners of the first two Metroid Prime games to play them using the Wiimote? It could require you to have the game in the system, and start from a loader that would reinterpret the wiimote input from the game. Sounds reasonable to me!

Dash Riprock

Retrofitting (pun) a GameCube game with the Wii control scheme would require a lot of time and resources that would be better spent finishing off Metroid Prime 3 or working on other future Wii projects. Yes, Retro got Prime 2 to work with the Wii controller back when Nintendo showed it off for the first time, but that was all done on development hardware, and probably required a good deal of re-coding. Something that sounds as simple as you put it probably isn't. Nice try, though.

PGC Bag,

Have you all heard anything about any new games in the Ogre Battle franchise in development? I know Square-Enix bought out Quest who developed OB, but that shouldn't necessarily end the series. I haven't heard of or seen any OB games since Tactics for GBA in 2002. Which is shame too since OB 64 was one of the better 3rd party titles on N64 and is easily the best in the series, IMO.

-edgeblade

I can't say that anything regarding a combination of ogres and battles have come across my desk. I've seen some battles, and maybe an ogre or two, but not both at the same time.

Allow me to talk a little about the possibility of another Ogre game, though. Square-Enix loves their RPGs, strategy games and all variants thereof. Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest are the heavy hitters, but they've got other stuff besides those two games. Kingdom Hearts, Valkyrie Profile, and Front Mission are under their wing, and they also have the rights to Ogre Battle, if they ever choose to use it. I'm sure they will one of these days, but the question is whether or not they'll release it for a Nintendo platform. I hope they consider the DS when they get around to do another OB game, because an SRPG would be well-suited for the dual screens and the touch screen.

Hey what's up mailbag guys,

I think its really kool that you guys take the time to answer questions from your readers. I do have an interesting ideas that nintendo might want to take a look at.

Picture this: why doesnt Nintendo consider seriously embarking in the sports games genre. Sega did it with the 2K series!! Well yea, anyone could say that Madden games, for example, are common commodities for Nintendo's systems, but SO WHAT! When it comes down to it, how much better can they make Madden games?? This may seem kinda biased, but I think EA merely regergitates(spelling?) the same Madden formula every year, but with graphics improvements and a few add-ons (and those add-ons are DEFINITELY highlighted on the back of the gamebox as to make people think that the game has greatly improved from the previous year). Seems like EA should just be releasing patches instead of robbing people out of their money. So my question to you is do you think Nintendo's development team can produce a sports game thats so innovative as to attract people that dont play football games as well as people like me that are sick of EA's lack of innovation??

Insolent Fool

p.s.- I even thought of a kool name: they could call it "Nintendo Presents Football" or "Nintendo Presents Baseball" etc. (keep it simple and likable, huh?)

Nintendo had a good sports lineup back in the day. Ken Griffey Jr. fronted their baseball games for the SNES, N64 and Game Boy back when he was with the Nintendo-owned Seattle Mariners. Kobe Bryant was the cover man for the N64 and GameCube NBA Courtside games until developer Left Field parted with Nintendo in early 2002. The Big N was going to get back in the baseball biz with Pennant Chase Baseball with the help of developer Exile (who made World Series Baseball for Sega on the Dreamcast), but the GameCube game eventually was canceled. It's not like Nintendo doesn't know how to do a sim sports game. In their current situation with the GameCube, though, can you blame them for putting Mario on their recent golf, tennis, baseball, soccer or basketball games?

Making a football sim would be a perilous task at this point in time for any company. EA has the NFL and NFLPA licenses locked up for a while, and without official teams, players and other NFL liveries, a new football game would be a hard sell to the casual market. Even if some people don't care for football, they know what the NFL is. Even if Nintendo oversaw the development, they have no experience in making a football game that is the scope of what Madden is nowadays. It would probably be polished and pretty, but lack the depth and the detail that EA puts into its game every year. If you want Nintendo to attract more people to sports games, look no further than WiiSports. Nintendo will definitely pull in the casual game player and the casual sports fan in with it.

I know that a lot of people share your opinion on EA, but cut them some slack. EA Tiburon does a good job of trying to put something new in the game every year. Although they don't always get it right, they're not afraid to tweak the formula. The problem is that in the years they get it wrong, people don't have any football alternatives. That may change in an ironic way; EA Canada looks like they're going to put together an impressive first Madden effort on the Wii, and if people aren't happy with the traditional version they could always try out the Wii game. EA can innovate, too...perhaps they just need an innovative console to prove it.

Whats up guys?

Boy am I in the mood for writing. I do have a lot on my mind and i want to know wat you guys at planetgamecube think. Ever since i heard about the presentation entitled, "Wii keep our promise" ive been wondering, "what else could Nintendo possibly have under their sleeves". I do respect the fact that nintendo keeps things quiet, but at the same time, it puts them in a far more difficult position than we think: consumer expectation skyrockets. I consider myself lucky as hell to have grown up in the old days of Super Mario Brothers (or Links Awakening for that matter) so my faith that Nintendo will deliver its promise is still strong. Xbox and Sony, on the other hand, seems to have laid everything out on the table so their future is atleast arguable. Nintendo future, however, IMHO is beyound me. Does this presentation, that nintendo is holding, hold the key to their "master plan"? Are we all getting our hopes up for a gigantic letdown? or is there truly a REVOLUTION!! I guess all we can do is keep an open mind and let things unfold.

Insolent Fool

You again! Well, since you've sent me two winners, I'll answer this one as well. Don't think you'll always get away with it, though!

Ten days from now Nintendo is going to speak at the German Games Conference. “Wii Prove Our Promise," their presentation is entitled. They promised that the Wii would change how we play games forever, and they promised us that playing is believing. Well, they pretty much nailed down the second part of that at E3, so whatever they say in Germany will probably confirm how exactly Nintendo is going to change games for the long haul. The only thing I can think that would satisfy their thesis is Wii's online plans. Nintendo hasn't given us any solid details on WiiConnect24, Virtual Console, or their general plans for online games. There's a good chance they still have some surprises for online, too. Nintendo must have something in the way of an online strategy that will help to change the way we play games, and we may get to see it when they speak to the world.

Since I'm guessing they'll spill the online beans, I don't think they'll have the exact launch details at the show. I think it would be better to announce that in Japan at Tokyo Game Show next month, when they have a stronger grasp of how many units they'll have available, what they should include with the system and what the best price would be. The launch day, the price and a list of launch titles would be in that announcement. Nintendo could reveal that info in Germany as well, though. Really, the last pieces of the Wii puzzle are online details and launch details, and I'm confident that we'll get one piece of it in Leipzig and the other in Tokyo. We'll all find out together!

So ends this week's mailbag. If you're sad that it's over, don't be. A new week is beginning right away! You never know what news will pop up in the middle of a seemingly quiet week, so keep it tuned to PGC. If turns out to be another boring week in Nintendo Land, send us some questions to make it less boring! The email address is at the most bottom portion of this page. Don't venture into the tiny legal text, if you do that you've gone too far.

Buh-bye.

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