Hello Jonathan!

Have you played Star Fox 64?

If yes, did you enjoy it?

And what do you think about Star Fox Assault?

Personally, I liked SF Assault, even more than Adventures, but it´s no match

for SF64, one of the best games for the N64.

Thanks

-Derek

SF 64 is one of my favorite N64 games, and it's the best game in its series. Assault had some fun sections, but overall it was underwhelming and felt like a step backwards from SF64 in some areas. Adventures is more consistent and more technically accomplished, but it's also insanely laborious and generally pretty boring. I think the DS is well suited to this series, and I'd really like to see a new Star Fox game for the system. Even a port of Star Fox 64 would be welcome.

Put your foot in your mouth, seriously.

http://www.planetgamecube.com/news.cfm?action=item&id=6321

-Michael "TYP" Cole

Thanks, it's in there right now. Luckily I can still type with my hands. My apologies for doubting this USB adaptor! I remember there being a lot of talk about it, but I'd forgotten this report confirming all that wishful thinking.

Whatever happened to Super Monkey Ball 3? Sega mus

have thought there was enouh life inthe old games to

release deluxe editions on X-box and PS2. Are they

just trying to get get hose games interested as well

or was it canned?

It never existed. The original report was apparently some kind of mistranslation from a Japanese magazine. I confirmed with Nagoshi-san around that time that a third game was not in the works, and that was in 2003, if I remember correctly. Hopefully a new sequel will come out eventually though!

Hello,

Nintendo has made it clear that they are concealing the Revolution controller design as long as possible because they are afraid their competitors will copy their ideas. They only have to point to their recent history of having innovations like the rumble pack and analog stick quickly stolen away by Sony. To this day, I still can’t believe how much of a rip-off the Playstation controller is of the SNES controller. My questions are as follows: How is it so easy for Microsoft and Sony to apply Nintendo’s designs/ideas to their peripherals when Nintendo creates patents for their creations? Do they find loopholes around the patents or does Nintendo just not do a good enough job of fighting it? Please make me understand because it doesn’t make sense to me...

Thanks,

~Kenny

Nintendo patents all of their technologies, which keeps other companies from using that exact same design. However, there is little to stop Sony and Microsoft from making slight modifications to Nintendo's ideas, thus circumventing the patent and "stealing" the idea. The best way for Nintendo to prevent feature theft is to keep the ideas secret until it's too late for the competitors to copy it for their own system launches. Nintendo could also build the new ideas so integrally with Revolution that there's no simple way for Sony and Microsoft to steal the features without completely changing their own systems. Then Nintendo would have no need of all the secrecy. The fact that Nintendo is definitely using the secretive approach makes me think that the Revolution's features will be relatively modular technologies that probably could be added to any system, as opposed to some bizarre holographic display method, etc.

I like Planet Gamecube alot but you have to be more pro Nintendo...I

read the summary for Sony's and Nintendo's PNL and I'm surprised that

I didn't read it here first...Sony as a whole lost $65 million, while

specificly their game division attributed to $50 million of that

loss...Activision lost $3 million...The "Biggest" publisher EA also

saw a $58 million loss...Nintendo's profit was down from last year.

However there IS a profit...The company in LAST place made $30 million

while most others lost...If Sony can sell 5 times more bananas that

Nintendo, they still lose so much more on things like advertising

Busta Rhymes for their bananas...The bottom line is who is making the

most money...I can't say that Nintendo made the most money because I

don't have Microsoft information...So why don't you guys put out this

information?...On another note Nintendo's new focus on Japan can be

attributed to Sony's new chairman...He's not Japanese

-niko

Being pro-Nintendo is not the same as being anti-Sony or anti-Microsoft. We usually don't run stories about what those companies are doing because we're a Nintendo-centric site. Editorially, we often have something to say about the competition, but I'm afraid that if we started to post random articles about PS3 and Xbox 360, PGC readers might consider those reports to be sufficient information about the competing systems. If you're interested in Nintendo's competition, I'd rather you get it at some other website that can give full coverage and do justice to the subject. On your other note: Nintendo's emphasis on the Japanese market is neither new nor having to do with Sony's new chairman.

To all those wondering why Mario Kart DS would suck over wi-fi 56k

access... aside from what Jon already said, I believe there's also

added latency inherent to a wireless solution that would bog down the

already-slow 56k connection. On top of that, the DS supports 802.11b -

not the much-much-faster 802.11g. So you're dealing with an older,

slower Wi-Fi technology that has natural latency which slows down an

already-slow connection. That's not gonna go very well.

-MrCHUPON

There you go. As I've already said, slower-paced games might be playable over dial-up speeds, but unless Nintendo creates a special certification for such games, you'd have to manually test each one to see which games can stand up to the lag.

Dear Planet Gamecube,

Am I the only one who wants to see a GBA port/ remake of Metroid II and

Super Metroid? Actually, I would just settle for being able to play

Super Metroid with Fusion/ Zero Mission-style controls. I hope that

Nintendo are on the same wavelength as I am!

-Tim

You can probably forget a port -- series director Yoshio Sakamoto said at E3 2004 that Zero Mission happened because they wanted to completely remake the original game with new gameplay, new graphics, and new areas to explore. They would not be interested in making handheld versions of the second and third games unless the same process could be applied, and that takes a lot of time and effort. Hopefully it will happen eventually, though!

Hey, it seems that EB has a thing going where if you

trade in 4 GBA games you'll get a free copy of

Nintendogs. I'm not sure if it's all of them,but mine

has it and so does another one on the east coast where

my friends live. Just thought I'd give everyone a

heads up if you want Nintendogs,but are too

cheap/broke to buy it.

Yep, Mike Sklens just completed this deal today, and I'm probably going to do the same by the end of the week. Apparently EB will take most GBA games, though perhaps not all...and no, you don't need the boxes or manuals. If you've got some crappy old GBA games that you'll never play again, there's no reason not to use this offer! Most GBA games are worth $5 or less in store credit, much less if you're missing the box or manual. Obi's four games were worth a TOTAL of $4 otherwise, yet he traded them for this $30 DS game!

Hello PGC,

I've been looking at the only pictures of the Revolution and i was looking at the GameCube controller hookups and there doesn't seem to be room for the Wavebird receiver. Do you think or know if the Wavebird will be compatable with Revolution? I hope so cause i love my Wavebird.

I just picked up a WaveBird receiver and compared it to the photos of Revolution, and I think you're right. There isn't quite enough space below the port for the receiver to fit. But I wouldn't worry about it too much. The system shown at E3 this year was only a prototype, and Nintendo made it quite clear that the final design will look slightly different. I bet they make sure the real Revolution has enough room for us to use our beloved WaveBirds.

I seem to be one of the only ones, at least on most

gaming message boards, that isn't really looking

forward to Metroid Prime: Hunters.

I think the problem I see is that it seems as though

the developers are mainly producing this as a

multiplayer game, with single player thrown in as an

afterthought. That just seems...absurd, for a Metroid

game. It's fine by me if they want to make a good

multiplayer-centered FPS for the DS, but why do they

have to use the Metroid franchise to do it? I liked

Metroid Prime as much as the next guy, but because

they avoided the temptation to make it your typical

FPS. I'm not really all that stoked about the

multiplayer, which does look all right, but who would

I play it against? Maybe one or two people that I

could find with DS's. If they made it online that

might have been a slightly different story.

Of course, they have barely released any info on the

single player. Just a few hints here and there. Samus

being able to fly her ship, which might be cool.

However, I read somewhere that said the theme is that

sometimes Samus is the hunter and sometimes she is the

hunted. Well, you know what, I've played a Metroid

game where I was the hunted. Metroid Fusion was one

awesome, creepy game. (People may complain that it's

too different then previous Metroid games, but I could

go on and on rebuking that. But I'll spare you this

time. ^_^). Sure the encounters with SA-X were

scripted, but that didn't help any. It's amazing how

that little 2.5 inch LCD screen with the tinny sound

could cause me to become so drawn into that world...

But anyway, I don't think MP:H will be able to even

come close to the feelings I had while playing Fusion.

But I digress--people thought Metroid Prime wouldn't

be true to the Metroid series, but look how IT turned

out. Of course, I'm not that optimistic about Hunters.

If anything will be the death of it, it'll be

overemphasis on multiplayer, in my not so humble

opinion.

Oh well. We can always look forward to the rumored

Metroid Dread.

Eh, sorry for the super-long, ranting letter. I meant

to be somewhat brief on the subject, but I guess that

didn't work out. ¬_¬

Anyway, great job on the mailbag! One or more mailbags

a day is awesome, although it's got to be a lot of

work. Especially when you have to read long ranting

letters like mine.

--NGBC

I couldn't agree more. Hunters is a fine handheld first-person shooter, and single-card wireless multiplayer is a big selling point for just about any game. But from what I've played, which is as much as anyone outside Nintendo has played, the game has very little to do with the classic Metroid gameplay or even the Metroid Prime gameplay. It's like the game designers played Metroid Prime and thought "Oh cool, this first-person view really works!" without actually understanding why it works so well or why the Prime games still feel like true Metroid experiences despite the drastic change of viewpoint. Maybe you and I will be proven completely wrong once the single-player mode is finally revealed, but I'm skeptical at this point. The fact that single-player has still never been shown after nearly two years of development, and that it dumps the classic formula of upgrades and exploration in favor of actual bounty hunter encounters which play out much like the multiplayer deathmatches, leads me to believe that single-player is just an afterthought. Then again, with so many delays, perhaps Hunters is being re-evaluated and will finally emerge with many pleasant surprises for us Metroid fans. I hope so. At this past E3, Metroid Prime Pinball felt more like a true Metroid game than Hunters did.

what do you think the chances of nintendo realeasing a gold gamecube with the twilight princess? kinda like the gold sp only realease it in north america. beacause with the price of a gamecube these days, if they put a triforce on the cube and controller and bundled it with the game it would sell like hot cakes. i (along with, im sure, many others) would buy a bran spankin new gold zelda gamecube even thogh i already have one.

I MEAN COME ON ITS THE LEGEND OF ZELDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They definitely should. There's already a gold GameCube, but it's only available in Toys 'R Us stores in Japan. Nintendo could easily slap a triforce label on that design and bundle it with Twilight Princess...cross your fingers! By the way, I've always wondered...who's buying all those hotcakes?

Heya!

Any chance of seeing a general thread on the Talkback board where we can

talk about things discussed in the mail bag?

Thanks in advance! -UB

Not a bad idea at all! Here you go!

This isn't exacly nintendo related but it is about the site.

The other day you answered aletter saying you have done tests with RSS and are looking into using it in the site. For those of us who don't know, what is RSS

Wikipedia to the rescue!

Hi,

I was thinking about games that look worth buying over the next 12 months, and shock horror it dawned on me… there is jack squat after Zelda coming out on GCN… So we were told Revolution wouldn’t be late, then we were told it would arrive “about the same time as the others” now it’s 6-12 months later if recent reports are to be believed. So basically what the hell are we supposed to play on GCN from December 2005 – May/ November 2006?? (I’m not even going to consider Europe, their gonna be lucky to see anything before 2007… poor buggers) I’m not a huge Zelda fan so I won’t be playing Zelda for 6-12 months. HELP!!!???!!!!

Damn good question. I expect that a few games will be announced for early 2006, but there won't be many, that's for sure. Short of buying another system, your best bet is to go back and pick up any old GameCube treasures you may have missed. We'll probably do a feature around that time to help you find the best old GC games.

Dear Bag again,

Turns out that gWiFi only works for New York. Sport this quote from

the about section on the site. "This website is an attempt to make it

easier for the road-warrior's, students, free loaders etc to find

locations that offer free wireless internet access in the New York

City area by showing all free wireless nodes on a Map of New York."

Thus meaning us free loaders in the rest of America have to wait. Poo

poo.

A Dead Pixel

That explains it. If anyone knows of a better tool for locating hotspots, please do share.

Okay, IGN seemed to ignore my question so I'll ask you guys. You guys

seem to have more compitent, more serious answers anyway.

What's up with Final Fantasy III DS? Has Square Enix forgotten that they

said they were going to make it? There's been nothing stated since the

end of last year...and no one seems remotely concerned about this.

As far as I know, it's still in development. Square Enix seems to want to completely remake the game for DS, so that may explain why it's taking so long. You can bet that the English version will take even longer...there's never been an official English translation of this game, so they'll have to start from scratch!

Hey bag,

Love the frequent updates.

My question is pretty simple... could you add a little blurb to your reviews from now on about subtitles? Something like "subtitles: none" or "only in cutscenes"... I'm hearing impaired, and I'm tired of asking around every single time.

I think it's stupid how games are leaving out subtitles nowadays... how hard can it be to include the option?

Thanks,

Paladin

You never know, maybe in the next version of the site. It's not an easy feature to add, since it requires a new database field, but we'll keep it in mind. My own hearing is fine, but I always use subtitles if they're available, even on DVD movies. That way you don't have to turn the sound up incredibly high just to understand the plot.

Short and Sweet:

Are there any chances of Sega making Shenmue 3 for any of the new systems or

is the series dead after Shenmue 2's poor sales.

After the bomb that is Virtua Quest, I'd be surprised if Sega lets Yu Suzuki work on ANYTHING that isn't called Virtua Fighter. Actually, a couple of years ago there was an announcement about a Shenmue MMORPG for PCs and possibly Xbox, but I haven't heard anything about it since.

Wassup bag?

This is an excellent site. Your efforts are appreciated.

Regarding the Ultimate Destruction Hulk game, I was wondering if you

know if there is a block feature. I really enjoyed the first game but

it had no defense moves so I had to dodge attacks from the stronger

enemies . HULK NO DODGE!! Ahem...sorry.

Basically it took away from the combat. The strongest one there is

shouldn't have to side-step punches awkwardly.

Please let me know if this function is included. If it isn't please

use your vast influence to have Radical include the feature within the

couple weeks before it's released. Haha...*sob*.

Here's hoping

KJ

No, there is no block move. This game basically goes by the old saying, "the best defense is a good offense". So the best way to minimize damage is to smash the enemies before they can dish it out. It works fine though, for three reasons. First, Hulk regenerates health automatically in his primary lifebar. (He also has a secondary lifebar that doesn't regenerate but can be spent for super-powerful area attacks.) Second, many types of enemies drop health refills when destroyed. Third, Hulk moves really fast in this game, so if you're facing a huge enemy and are low on health, the best strategy is to keep moving and jump in for a quick combo when you see an opening. The only truly defensive move I can think of is a weaponization in which you pick up a large vehicle (such as a truck or ambulance) and flatten it into a shield that blocks projectiles and reduces physical damage. You can also throw your shield like a boomerang so that it usually comes back for more, and with an additional upgrade, you can jump onto the flattened metal and ride it like a surfboard along the ground. It's absurd but really fun.

Hey guys, just wanted you to know that wednesday they

announced Naruto: Gekitou Ninja taisen 4 for the

gamecube, it was announced in the the japanese Shonen

Jump. Goto http://narutofan.com/ and scroll down

couple articles and you will see it entitled "Fourth

Naruto Game Confirmed for Nintendo Gamecube" hope this

helps and thanks for answering my question about it

before! peace!

-Mark

Nice find! Our top clown/ninja Ty Shughart is currently in Japan, so I'm going to ask him to pick up that magazine for a confirmation and to look for any additional info.

Hey, let me first just say that the mailbag is great, a lot of people ask a lot of questions I don't think of but I want to know the answers to. Anyway on to my question:

When I first saw the DS I thought FINALLY the perfect system for RPG's the touch screen would be ideal for quickly accessing usually complex menu systems. So... where are they?? I haven't heard/seen anything for any DS RPG's, I'm hoping that they are there and my ear just isn't close enough to the ground, you know of any??

Oh don't worry, they're coming. RPGs are long, complex games, and it's completely normal for a system to be out for a year or so before it starts to see any RPGs released. I just wrote a preview for Mario & Luigi 2 that should be on the site tomorrow; that game will be one of the first DS RPGs. There's also Final Fantasy III, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles 2, Slime Mori Mori 2 (oh please come to the U.S.), and a handful of small studio RPGs that may or may not ever be published. I'm probably forgetting a few, too.

Dear PGC,

Thanks for all the mailbag updates, but I digress. Do you see any improvements to the DS hardware, like what they did with the GBA and the SP? I’ve seen original pictures of the DS in this sleek, shiny silver painting that makes it look like the PSP’s casing, and it looks great. I’d even buy a new DS for that look. Also, talking about the new GameBoy that is likely to come out in the next few years, what would YOU like it to be? I’d like to hear a journalist’s point of view on this issue.

Matt L.

I would love to see a Nintendo DSP. I think the current system is too bulky, and the D-pad and face buttons are too small. An upgraded system could also include cool firmware updates like a color and/or online version of PictoChat. I'm sure the system will be revised eventually...it is Nintendo's way, after all. As for GBA 2, I used to think it would come out not long after the DS, but if Nintendo is really serious about the GB Micro, they may wait a while longer to truly upgrade that "pillar". At the top of my wishlist for the system would be better controls, including at least one analog joystick (and not that disc crap on the PSP).

Hey Mailbag,

I have two for you; First, do you think The Legend of Zelda:T.P. will

support GBA connectivity? I know this is the last thing on peoples minds but

I had fun with that option in Wind Waker. More importantly, regarding the

DS, what is the access radius of a wireless hotspot,that is, how close do

you have to be to one to use it? Thanks to your link gwifi.com I found a hot

spot right in my apt. complex area!

Thanks,

Dru

At this past E3, Nintendo said they are not planning to include any GBA connectivity with Twilight Princess. I'm not really surprised, seeing how much bad press Nintendo got over the whole connectivity push. FF: Crystal Chronicles sold well, thanks to it being such a landmark game for hardcore Nintendo fans, but Zelda: Four Swords Adventure did horribly in the U.S. Then again, maybe that's because it looks like a Super NES game and wasn't given a fair chance by most gamers. Oh hey, good to see that someone found gWiFi to be useful!

i was just wondering with the revolution being online and all wouldn't it be a great idea for nintendo to do a massive online sort of game maybe with zelda or even metroid. say for metroid you could have the choice of either being a bounty hunter or a space pirate or possibly even a federation trooper. not sure what you could do for a zelda online game but any way, what do you think?

I really, really doubt either of those series will ever go "massively online". The Zelda series is about immersion in the adventure and puzzle solving in dungeons, and Nintendo wants to tightly control the content in this series, especially as the stories become more important. Metroid is literally an entire series build around the theme of being alone. It feels downright weird to play any sort of multiplayer Metroid game, and I'm sure going massively online would greatly amplify that feeling. Honestly, most massively online games up to now have revolved around types of gameplay that Nintendo has never shown much interest in creating. Perhaps if a new type of massively online experience starts to emerge, Nintendo might get into that field.

...did you really make it to the end? You should get a cookie or something. At least take a restroom break. You deserve it. Actually, here's a real reward: Flash movies of Mario kicking all seven flavors of ass. My backlog is completely cleared out now, so I need lots of great new questions for tomorrow! JUST DO IT.