Hey Guy and Girls

This isn’t as much a question but more of a curiosity. I live in Quebec Canada close to Montreal and Wii’s are still pretty much impossible to find. I wanted one at X-mas but people were waiting outside stores weeks after X-mas to see if one came in a shipment. So now its March and my B-day was the 13th and I still want one! Myself and my parents went store to store a few days in a row with zero luck. All the stores (EB games, Future Shop, Toys R us, Zellers) said that they get a few a week and are gone before they hit the floor. After reading a little article about huge shortages due to buyers wants in Europe I was wondering if Wii’s are still hard to find all over the world of is it just in certain places? Oh Also we seems to be able to buy Wii motes now here but the Nun Chuck is pretty much impossible to find. Anyways I’m going to try and hunt on down Friday and Saturday morning, I’ve got a inside source that says a few are coming in;) Wish me luck!

And like always you guys are great! No wonder you’re my home page

- Diablo
North Hatley, Quebec, Canada

It's not just a Canadian problem. People all over the world are still having a rough time finding a Wii, although it's not totally impossible to get one. If you catch wind of a store getting a shipment, you can wait in line for a few hours to nab a system. Still, almost five months after the thing launched in North America, and four months after the worldwide launches, you would think that the initial demand would have died down enough for Nintendo's restocks to catch up. Apparently not.

For the record, this site and a lot of others assumed that it would only be a few weeks after launch until anyone could walk into a store and just buy a Wii without much trouble. At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if they were still hard to find through the next holiday season. That may sound ridiculous, but with what we're seeing with Wii demand at this point, and seeing the games that are coming later this summer, would you bet against it?

I have recently obtained a Wii and am anxious to rebuild my classic game library via the Virtual Console. Being a paranoid gamer, however, I insist on having backup data on all my games. I was just wondering if there was an “average" amount of memory that Virtual Console games (of each system) take as well as the Wii games themselves. This will be important in deciding which SD card I should buy. In short, how many games I can store in the SD cards available now?

- Mr. E

There really isn't a solid average, since game size vary between games on different consoles. Nintendo 64 games are obviously much, much larger than NES games. You can fit 8~10 or so NES games into the same space as an N64 game, the latter taking up more than 100 blocks of storage. The 16-bit systems are a little more consistent in size, ranging in the area of 20~50ish blocks of memory space. The Wii starts you off with something close to 2000 blocks with its 512 MB of internal memory. That's roughly 15 N64 games, or 50 SNES/Genesis/TG-16 games, or close to 100 NES games, if you don't mix and match.

You shouldn't need to worry about getting an SD card that's too small. A 1 GB SD card should be fine (that's twice what the Wii gives you); 2 GB would be overkill, but you can probably find one for cheap if you really wanted one. Don't go any larger than 2 GB, because the SD standard the system is equipped with may not be able to support such dense memory cards.

Then again, backing up VC games on a memory card may be pointless. You can re-download any game you purchased from the Wii Shop Channel any time you want, and even if you did somehow lose your Wii, the games on your SD card wouldn't work on a different system. If you intend on purchasing a card just for VC backups, you should reconsider. But I'm not going to stop you.

I read that Guitar Hero is coming to Nintendo and I was wondering if its going to be its own game and are the songs that will be on it going to be Mario style like the DDR Mario mix. I hope not because that’s just not Guitar Hero. Or is the Guitar Hero just going to be Guitar Hero 3 that will most likely be on the PS3 and Xbox 360.

- Master Guitar

Chances are it'll be an off-shoot of Guitar Hero II on the PS2, but with some Wii-exclusive songs and features. That's what the Xbox 360 version is, but unlike the PS2 game it's possible to download additional songs later on down the road. The Wii is online-capable, so hopefully it'll be possible to add extra songs to the Nintendo version as well. Though GH Wii won't be flooded with Nintendo characters and music as was DD Mario Mix, it would still be cool to see some classic Nintendo music rock-ified and included in the game as bonus tracks.

Hey guys. This is one thing that's been bugging me since they released the web browser for the Wii. And the menus in general really. Why do you think Nintendo doesn't at least run the interface and web browser and everything in a higher resolution, 720p or 1080i? I know it isn't powerful enough to do it in game with a decent frame rate, but it couldn't be that hard to implement it into the UI or at least the web browser. It would make the browser much more useful if you ask me. Just wanted someone elses opinion on this one, thanks

- Joe
Atlanta

I think having a separate resolution setting for the Wii browser only would be confusing for the average joe. However, that may be something advanced users would want, myself included. I don't know if it's technically possible, because if the Wii's video hardware can't output at 720p, there's nothing that can be done about it.

Hey bag,

I was just wondering if you guys have heard anything about any new gba players choice games. I'd like to pick up all of the Donkey Kong Country games but all I've found is DKC3, and my best bet would be if they were added to the players choice lineup

- Sikboy1029
Illinois

The Player's Choice/Greatest Hits programs are meant to revive a game at retail that has run out of gas in its initial run, and because console games usually fade away a few months after release, you see a lot more of them get a cheap re-issue. Handheld games, on the other hand, are viable no matter when they were released. Some of the GBA games released in its first year are still worth buying today. The Player's Choice program has never been prevalent on handhelds, mostly because a) handheld games in general are fairly affordable as it is, and b) the front-running candidates for PC status still sell well, so there would be no need to drop their price. Out of the nearly 1,000 GBA games available, only seven of them are Player's Choice, or 0.7%. In comparison, 60 out of around 540 are PC on GameCube—more than 1 out of 10.

I would personally not expect to see any more GBA games become Player's Choice, especially since it looks like Nintendo is starting to kill off the handheld in favor of the DS. Speaking of, I wonder how long it's going to take for DS games to become Player's Choice? Will we ever see it happen, considering the high sales of many DS games?

I think you misunderstood the clicking question in the last mail bag. The click referred to is the sound of the Wii DVD-Drive engaging. The Wii isn't smart enough to remember what disc in the drive when you switch back to the main menu, so the drive spins up and reads the disk again. Since each channel change is basically a 'reset' of the hardware/software (watch your Wiimote), you get the sound.

- KO

This isn't a question, just a correction on clickers/remotes. Old remote controls didn't have electronics in them, they have a series of metallic cylinders that would be struck by the corresponding button on the remote and it was a very physical click. The television would do the right action based on the tone produced. The cylinders were of different lengths to produce distinct tones.

- mottsc

Two clarifications about the same comment last week. Works for me!

Hi NWR glad to see you have returned. :-) I am constantly playing games and buying new ones. My sister suggested I beat all my other games before buying a new one so I was wondering do you at NWR follow this philosophy?

My problem with that is when games are in low supply or stopped being made it is hard to find them. Look at some DS games early on for example Trauma Center,Phoenix Wright,Dawn of Sorrow yes all three finally got reprints but for me DoS was to late and I payed $45(U.S.) on Ebay. Also on the topic of beating games before buying new ones knowing my luck the sequel will be all the rage and I am still beating the other game in the series example MGS3 and its coming sequel MGS4. :-)Also on a side note I know I am getting ahead of myself but I thought when the time came a 1 year anniversary look at the Wii come this November and where you see its future headed. :-) Keep up the good work. :-)

- Brandy
Orange City,FL

If I encounter a great game, I usually wind up beating it rather quickly so that I can get some good trade-in credit at EB. The last two games I didn't finish were Baten Kaitos (got to a boss that totally made me want to stop playing) and Dragon Quest VIII (lost a few important items that made the game impossible to keep playing at the point I was at). I loved both of them, but I had to make a choice: Waste a lot of time trying to grind/recover to get past a few roadblocks, or move on to other games in my queue. I eventually gave up on them, albeit reluctantly. Had I more free time, I would have toughed it out. Alas.

The scenario you described is a problem, though. The longer you wait to get a game, the cheaper it gets (usually), but the danger in that is if you wait too long the game may go out of print and you'll either need to try to find a used copy at EB or on eBay. Especially for handheld games, you need to jump on them relatively quickly to make sure you get one if you want it new. At least console games can be had a year or two after the fact, especially the major ones, so waiting to finish previous games in a series isn't a problem seeing as how the sequels will be around for a while. For instance, I still need to play both God of War games, but I know GoW II isn't going to disappear any time soon, so I can take my time and get around to it eventually.

Hi guys!

Hows this for the ineptitude of Nintendo of Europe:

We still don't have Metroid Prime Pinball.

Ok so it may not be the biggest game to come out for the DS but from what I've read it's a damn good game. The Japanese have been enjoying it since 2005 and of course my American counterparts have been enjoying it since September 2006. When are we, the poor European, likely to see this game?

Any ideas? I've sent NoE an email but I'm pretty sure they'll just fob me off with some half assed answer.

Sorry I just had to get that off my chest.

Rant over

- Benji Dude
Leicester England

You've only got two months to wait. Nintendo Europe recently revealed their Q2 2007 lineup, and on it Metroid Prime Pinball is listed for a June release. Relax, it'll get there in due time.

Ok, so there's been plenty of speculation about which games will be released on the VC. I'll just add my questions to the mix:

There was some worry that the DKC games wouldn't be released for VC because of Rare. Now that they've released the original DKC for SNES is there still any need to worry that they won't release the 2 & 3? Or is this just the next logical step?

Also, with the announcement of a new Nights game for Wii, will they preempt its launch with a VC release of Nights from Sega Saturn? I wasn't a huge Saturn fan, but that game was definitely a trip. I'd like to give it another go before the new, bigger and badder, Wii version comes out.

Your thoughts?

- ocneng
Florida

DKC: Nintendo has the rights to Donkey Kong, including Donkey Kong Country, so there was never any doubt of the games coming to VC. Nor is there doubt of DKC 2 or 3 coming to VC. We just gotta wait for 'em.

Nights: Well, first things first. Virtual Console doesn't even support Saturn games, so in order to have NiGHTS come to VC, Nintendo would need to add Sega Saturn emulation to the service. Is it possible when its games came on larger-sized CDs? I doubt many SS games were disc-filling monsters, but still one or two of them may fill up the Wii's storage in an instant. Despite that, I'd love to see it happen for a few reasons (Panzer Dragoon, Virtual On), so with any luck Nintendo will find a way. If the want to find a way, of course.

So, when do you think the Wii will finally stop getting so many half baked ports. The Wii's library right now is almost completely made up of ports from the PS2/GCN/XBOX. It's kinda annoying to buy a brand new system to only have a choice of games you can get at a cheaper price on your older system.

Medal of Honor Vangaurd, The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess, Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 2... I just can go on and on.

- Vashkey
Kentucky

So can I. Elebits, Excite Truck, Rayman, Red Steel, Sonic, SSX Blur, Downhill Jam, Super Paper Mario* and more original Wii titles that have been announced. It's not like multiplatform games are bad things, as long as there are plenty of original, exclusive Wii titles to balance things out. And there will be.

Yes, there were plenty of cash-in ports. (See: Ubisoft) There will continue to be. But what about the Wii versions of established franchises? EA is making a great effort, as Madden, Tiger Woods and Need for Speed Carbon have great Wii control schemes. Zelda may be a "port," but it's still a Zelda game. There are plenty of other Wii games worth playing, too, port or not.

Realize that moving forward, publishers are probably going to look to cut their development losses by making games for the Wii and PS2 concurrently. The smart ones will design a game around the Wii's strengths and then make some sacrifices or a different control scheme for the PS2 version. The systems are close enough horsepower-wise that it makes financial sense to do. Just as there will be Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 simul-releases, so too will be there Wii and PS2 releases. That's just the way it is.

*Super Paper Mario was never shown in its GameCube form, so I don't consider it a port.

I'm so excited for the remake of Resident Evil for the Wii. My friend has only played like 2 hours in the GC version and he says the controls are bad and that he's just going to wait for the Wii one because he believes that they are/should add the option of Leon running and shooting at the same time. My question is, do you think the gamecube controls are perfect like the game itself? Also, do you think the Wii version will have better graphics than the GC/PS2 version and that the Wii version will have solid controls? Thanks!

- draggingalake
Elm Grove

The controls in RE4 are perfect. But Resident Evil controls in general aren't perfect. A lot of people still gripe about not being able to strafe, or run and shoot at the same time. The amazing thing about it is the control scheme in 4 is basically the same as it was in the other main games. Moving the camera to the over-the-shoulder perspective is what really made everything come together. Such a good idea, it was, that many shooters since then have adopted it as the standard camera angle.

I'm kind of excited about the Wii edition of Resident Evil 4. I still have my GC copy of RE4, and I want to play the game again. But to think that I could get a version of it with all the bonus stuff that was added to the PS2 game, to have it look better than the GameCube version, to be in true widescreen, and most importantly of all, to be able to shoot at things with the Wii remote? I absolutely loved shooting at bad guys in Red Steel, even with all the problems in the game. What do you think will happen if you take those great pointer-shooting controls and put them in a game that is just about perfect in every other way? I'm likely to buy RE4 again for the Wii. Who knows, it may even come out at less than full price.

Let's not forget about Umbrella Chronicles, either. And then if you have one of the other systems, Resident Evil 5 after that. It's good times to be a zombie fan.

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