Hello and thanks for answering my question?

Firstly, I've noticed that in the credits to Wind Waker and Nintendogs Satora Iwata's name appears. Is this the same Iwata who runs the company, if so what does he do on those games, and how would he have time.

Second, Nintendo has the gaming legend designer Miyamoto, eventually though he'll retire. I know that their are many talents responsible for the Nintendo games we recieve but what impact do you think this will have on Nintendo from a software prospective and image.

Lastly, I appreciate Nintendo's choice of bringing new ideas and quality over quanity, yet one can't help but wonder what would happen if they had equal third party support. Will this improve to the level of Sony support and if that happens will Nintendo lead the market? Also there's no chance of Nintendo being bought by Microsoft is there?

Thanks and keep up good work.

-UltimateTriumph3000

As president of NCL, Satoru Iwata is automatically credited as "Executive Producer" on all of Nintendo's games. Hiroshi Yamauchi received the same recognition until his retirement. Luckily, Miyamoto is still young and apparently in excellent health, so I hope he will stay at Nintendo for a long time to come. For the past several years, he has been diligently training other producers and directors on various projects, so hopefully his eventual retirement will have more effect on Nintendo's image than on the quality of the games.

There's very little chance of Nintendo achieving the same level of publisher support that Sony currently has, unless Sony makes a series of huge, huge mistakes in the market. Like the ones Nintendo made this generation that let Microsoft come in from nowhere and almost immediately win over more publishers for the Xbox. No, I don't think there's any chance whatsoever of Nintendo being bought out by Microsoft. Nintendo's business structure is designed to prevent hostile takeovers, and no proud Japanese company would willingly sell out to Americans.

What's up PGC staffers?

Alright, the last mailbag brought up some old memories. Someone was

talking about 3DO, and how someone had bought the liscense to one of their

games. Well, I neve really liked the Army Men series, but there was ONE

game that sparked my interest... Do you guys know if anyone purchased the

liscense of "Four Horsemen Of the Apocolypse"? That game had a seriously

kickass promotional site, and it looked like they were getting close to the

release date before 3DO went belly up. It pains me to think that this game

might have saved them all....

-Peace

I never got to play Four Horsemen, but it looked like a giant step up in quality over most 3DO games. Unfortunately, no one picked up the license when 3DO bid itself off...supposedly because the game would have cost so much to finish.

I loved the Pilotwings 64 game and heard some rumors about a sequel. Will

it ever be released? Also, will there ever be another Battle tanks game,

great multiplayer on the old 64 ones. The Body Harvest game was great too

and got no respect, I know it's unlikely, but will it ever get a sequel?

Lastly I want to know about my favorite RPG games, Ogre Battle. Any news on

new games in the series? Any news about it at all? Hope you can help me

out.

Of the games you list, I'd say that Ogre Battle has the best chance of getting a new sequel...and even that chance seems pretty low since the Square-Enix merger. Pilotwings has a slim but solid chance of returning one day. Battletanx died with 3DO, and Body Harvest bombed after a very long and expensive development period. If you love Body Harvest, be sure to check out the developer's recent games...the Grand Theft Auto series.

i read your new mailbag topic: Do you recommend the GBA Movie Player or

the Play-Yan for the Nintendo DS?.....and i was reading your hardware

reviews and it talks about them and gives good info but only for sp, it

explains how you can close the sp and use the L and R buttons which is

cool but this doesnt work for the DS. If you have the play yan or movie

player you would have to keep your DS open all the time becuase if you

close it, it would goto sleep. If i could close my DS with the play yan

and movie player still running i would buy it becuase i could hide it

or keep it in my pocket like a mp3 player but it would be dumb if i had

to keep it open all the time so i disapprove it for the DS. But anyways

do you think a DS movieplayer or play yan will come out?

Maybe DS sleep mode support is an undocumented feature in the new "Micro" version of Play-Yan? If anyone imports the new version, please email the bag with this information.

I already asked this on both nintendo.com and ign.com, but I honestly don't think I'll get answered on IGN, and Nintendo will just respond with some generic BS like:

"The Game Boy™®©®©™ Micro™ is meant to fit into the smallest pocket and It has the smallest and brightest screen we've ever produced. Nintendo is commited to providing it's customers with new gameplay experiences. Thank you for writing Nintendo™®©®™®©©™™!"

I'm really getting tired of Nintendo constantly speaking in circles but never actually saying anything! But oh well... onto my question:

Is Nintendo going to be making an NES Faceplate for the Game Boy Micro? And if so, do you have any idea as to when?? Probably you don't, so I was just wondering if you had any suggestions on which Micro I should buy:

I am torn between whether to buy a Black US Micro (I can technically get it for $52 because I sold my SP), or to import the Famicom version ($130 at Yes asia is the best price I've seen). The US one is much cheaper, but the Famicom one is just so dang cool! But if I knew an NES faceplate was coming out say.. within the next 6 months, I'd crap my pants with happiness!

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

Since Micro faceplates are replaceable and are supposed to be sold separately at some point, just buy whatever body color you want and either eBay the Famicom faceplate or wait for the inevitable NES faceplate.

Dear World of Gamebox,

What is this?

Sega's Next-Gen Sonic Demo from E3

Love,

Alan

Why, that's Sega's Next-Gen Sonic Demo from E3. It was running on Xbox 360 hardware at E3, but you can bet that it will come out on Revolution.

Hey PGC,

I was wondering what you thought of the posibility of having more than four

human controlled characters for the new SSB. It would work, since you don't

have to worry about a split screen. In SSBM, at some times there were 6

players on the field, except 5 of them were computer controlled, so I don't

see why they couldn't do it.

Thanks, and bye for now...

D.S.

Since the Revolution's controllers are wireless and thus aren't constrained by the number of jacks on the system, Nintendo could include support for more than four players and up to as many as the wireless bandwidth would allow without interference. Of course, online games can support tons of players simultaneously.

Hey bag, long time reader, first time writer (I bet you get that a lot).

I've got two questions for you.

1. Is there any chance we'll see the awesome pointing-finger stylus from Ace

Wright as a preorder bonus for the game? (Along those lines, what do you

suppose Nintendo might offer for preordering Twilight Princess?)

2. I've seen a few before, but what's a good site that lists multiple

reviews (Reviews from other game sites) for games?

-Getter-man

1. It would be nice, but probably not. Please, Capcom, surprise me.

2. I generally use GameRankings.

Hey guys and gals of PGC! I have both a comment and a question for ya.

Firstwith all the speculation that the REV will be reavealed at TGS ppl are

forgetting that Mario turns 20 the 13th of September in Japan, and every Big

N Hot Shot is telling us info will be coming "soon","very soon", and"sooner

than you think". Well my belief is they will unviel REVOLUTION info on the

13 if not a peek at the new Mario game for REV, and that keeps in line with

what they have been saying all this time because everybody "thinks" it will

be revealed at TGS and Marios B-Day is sooner than that, plus we all know

nintendo speaks very crypticly. Well there ya go theres my opinion. I was

wonder what yours was on when me may see the REVOLUTION reveal?

Thanks long time PGC fan

M@jorM@xiM

PS thats also my XBL gamer tag if any of you fine folks play LIVE throw me a

request always lookin for a more "mature" crowd to play with :)

Sounds like a good theory to me!

Love the mailbag. I was wondering what your opinion was in regards to a

(100% hypothetical) Dr. Mario DS game. Do you think this would be a viable,

decent selling game? I know there's always the danger of Mario

oversaturation, but I have to admit that I'm intrigued with a Dr. Mario

game with WiFi + stylus + a fresh coat of graphical paint.

Alan

Could be, but traditionally, Dr. Mario games come out late in a system's life.

Hey Bag, I wrote you last week about my Game Boy Micro

theory which you quickly shot down, but I would like

my rebuttal.

You said that you didn't believe that they would stoop

too such lows to "boost demand", however, in a way

that's exactly what they did when they released R.O.B.

with the original NES way back in the mid-80's. If you

recall after the video game market crashed no one

wanted to make shelf space for them, so they released

a half-hearted attempt at a robot that would play

along side you, they made one game and never looked

back. I really wouldn't put it past them to try

something like this again, after all this is big

business we're talking about.

I do, however, concede to your point that the iPod

shuffle seems to be doing well. Anyway, thanks for

answering my question and possibly posting this letter

back to the bag, as absurd as it may sound.

--I am, Redeema

Nintendo's business have changed a LOT since the late 80s, after a series of lawsuits made them more wary of applying Japanese business practices in another country. Besides, there are two games for R.O.B., not one. :-)

Dear PGC Mailbag,

I was wondering if Nintendo ever thought of making a Golden Sun 3 for

the DS. I loved 1 and especially 2. So maybe Nintendo may have though of

number 3. The graphics were always smooth and crisp (and I'll like to

see how the game looks on the DS). I don't mind if its a direct sequel

to number 2 or a prequel (or a whole new adventure would be awesome

also). So maybe you can send in a good word to Nintendo/Camelot about

considering a Golden Sun on DS. ;)

-ZeroWil

P.S. I think I read an article for Revolution that Nintendo will be

making new video game series and that they MAY be bringing back some

classics. I think Ice Climbers, Kid Icarus, and another Custom Robo game

should go on to the Revolution.

Forget Custom Robo, it tanked hard in the U.S. Golden Sun rumors have been flying around for years. Surely Camelot will continue the series at some point.

Whatever happened to Shenmue? Is it true Shenmue 2 for the XBOX sucked? Maybe that's why there not making anymore? Hmm.. whatever it is, I hope they make a come back to Nintendo.

Shenmue 2 didn't light up the charts on Xbox, but Sega has been moving ahead with a massively multiplayer version for the past few years. It's caught up in a legal battle right now, so who knows if it will ever be finished.

I was watching videos of the new DS Castlevania. It seemed that at time there was lag and frame rate drops. Have you noticed this in test plays? Is this a concern?

That's probably just a side-effect of the video capture and compression process. I don't remember seeing those problems at E3.

Hello PGC,

Do you think Nintendo would ever re-release the original Gameboy Advance with a built in light? The original Gameboy Advance is so much more comfortable compared to the Micro, SP, DS and even playing games on the GameBoy Player. I love the original GBA design i just wish Nintendo would of added a light from the gekko and i really don't want to take apart my GBA to add a light.

Also what are the chances of seeing Seaman and Nights into Dreams on the DS?

You should try the Micro before giving up. But the answer is no, it's not happening. Nights...someday Yuji Naka will get tired of answering questions about it, and he'll just have to start making a new one. Seaman was so niche that it's far less plausible.

Hi. In the past, Nintendo has viewed America's consumers as less skilled (or, at least, less tolerant of challenge) than the Japanese. I'm sure you know a few of the stories: Super Mario Bros. 2, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, Vertical Force, etc. Anyway, I was wondering about the DS game Adult Brain Training. I'm worried they might do the same, and I want the most strenuous brain work-out imaginable. Thanks!

- Grad

No one has played the English version of Brain Training, so we don't know yet.

Must sleep! Send new questions!