NGF Mailbag - Edition #3
Dec. 5^th, 2000

Try Buy-Rite.com or Gamecave.com. Make sure, however, that you have an adapter to allow you to play Japanese games. For those of you that don’t know, Nintendo games do not have a ‘country code’ or ‘territorial lock-out’ like their competitors. Instead, they rely on the differences in the physical characteristics of their cartridges to prevent import gaming. On the N64, you can either take the lid off and remove the bed it sits in (which also removes the dust protector doors) or you can purchase a gameshark, which will sit in the bed and provide a pass-thru for your import game.

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This individual has sent numerous messages to me this past week, and I can only assume it was because school was out for Thanksgiving and he had some extra time. Many of them were explicitly vulgar, which I most certainly don’t appreciate, and in one, he made it clear that he was looking for me to subject him to my personal brand of humor/ridicule, so here goes.....

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Well, I seem to recall this title, but for the life of me, I can’t find any info on it either. If you know the developer and/or publisher, I may be able to dig some more up on it. Sorry bro. On another note, allow me to take yet another opportunity to thank a reader for making it clear they would like me to respond to your message, because the fact that you sent it to the mailbag didn’t get that intention across in the first place. Even better, you told me twice just to be sure.

Next!

Hmmm. In case our readers aren’t aware, this is the first e-mail from the individual who began sending me erroneous e-mails looking for ridicule. Surprisingly, this one is well-planned and, in fact, intelligently written. Add to that the fact that he shares my passion for all things Nintendo and is quite diligent in his quest for more information, and you begin to see that I am in a bit of a quandary over my desires to both help and hate him. I’ll try to be a better person for this response.

Unfortunately ‘Diffey’, I am unable to assist you. Aside from the fact that I have no clue how much information you have thus far gleaned from the web, thereby making it impossible for me to know what you don’t know, Nintendo is keeping themselves pretty tight-lipped. I do know that there was a website run by a third-party developer (Retro Studios) asking for resumés from people who wanted to work on the next Metroid, but that page has since been shut down, no doubt by the Big N itself. At least you know they’re making a sequel though, right?

Of course, I have another problem. I’m not about to personally e-mail you with every last piece of news I come across, because I would then have to do it for everyone. And if I were to do that for everyone, I would be better off making a newsgroup or web-page announcing these facts so that anyone who has an interest would be able to find out. What’s that? Oh my gosh, you’re right, we already have a website, not to mention all the other available sources of info on the web, available through a little perseverance and a few search engines. What was I thinking?

Next!

I have actually seen that commercial, many times, but I never bothered to get the name of the makers. This is mainly because I know from experience that these types of entertainment are notoriously poorly made, and the ‘fun’ they promise is suspiciously absent. I would encourage you to look elsewhere if you find this type of thing interesting. I say this for 3 reasons.

2) These types of games are in fact horrible for a single-player

3) The amount you would spend on this unit would be better served purchasing a dedicating gaming system, or a stellar title for a system you already own.

I’ll go out on a limb here and guess that you’re interested in this for your children, or children in your family. Taking that out to the next logical step, your motivation is most likely to either to provide a more physical activity that these children will play since it's still in front of the television (and the novelty factor plays a strong role) or because you have limited space, and don’t want to purchase a Ping-Pong table, since it would be expensive, and you doubt there would always be another person willing to play the game with the intended recipient.

Sorry to be so negative, but I really hate these goofy video game alternatives that these companies try to push on the unsuspecting. Tiger Electronics was infamous for their astounding range of trash-heap handhelds that they actually convinced people were more entertaining than a Gameboy. Don’t believe the hype. A good rule of thumb is, if the actors look like they belong in a Sears commercial, and their level of overacting threatens to spill out of the television, the product is usually lame.

Whew. Sorry for the Outpouring.

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Hey folks, it’s Diffey again! Enjoy the attention while you can Diffey, I don’t give people the spotlight for so little reason more than once. What you probably can’t tell, is that the message in this e-mail was entirely contained in the subject line. And poorly written at best. Furthermore, this is something that doesn’t really need my attention to answer, but I will endeavor to explain this mentality for those unfamiliar with marketing.

There are two main reasons that Nintendo can delay press releases for such lengths of time.

2) By keeping the info to a minimum, they keep people’s interest high. Sort of like ‘supply and demand’. The information is in short supply, therefore the demand goes up. And look at you. You’re a prime example of the audience and mentality they are trying to cater to.

Next sheep!

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It appears that Bilingual Literate Monkey has once again failed to bring about the demise of The Gamer Without a Clue!

When we last saw our hero, he was outside the Sega head offices searching for a way in to ask why they had delayed Metropolis Street Racer, only to discover that he had been tricked. Bilingual Literate Monkey had scrawled the letters ‘S’ and ‘G’ onto convenient spaces in the EA headquarters logo, and Gamer Without a Clue was beaten soundly by the staff there for reminding them that SEGA has survived without them.

Tune in next week when our hero discovers that the Dreamcast needs to be attached to a phone line to access the web, and that Seaman has been dating his girlfriend.

What will he do?

Will the bombs placed in his Maraca controllers by Bilingual Literate Monkey be triggered? Or doesn’t The Gamer Without A Clue have enough rhythm to activate them?

Tune in next week for the exciting conclusion!

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Tough call here. I’m going to have to go with Star Fox, because it has a plot, and the slowdown only occurs in minimal amounts. Also, polygonal games were horrendous on the 16-bit systems, and while Star Fox used the medium to enhance the game, Stunt Race was more of a gimmick. Look at it this way, would you put down Sega GT, Crazy Taxi or Gran Turismo because you see Stunt Race on the shelf? I know I wouldn’t. But I would still jump on a game of Star Fox if it was available. In fact, I think I’m going to do just that once I’m done with the mail. No offense to either of you, since I did enjoy each game, but Star Fox gets my vote.

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Jared answers: At this point the only evidence that Zelda 128 is in development is the "demo" we saw at Spaceworld. Like you said, it's still highly likely that Nintendo would produce a Zelda game on Gamecube anyway, with or without the demo. There are two reasons why we have it on our confirmed list:

1) Just take a look at the demo. Notice how detailed things are? Notice all of the special effects thrown into that little demo? Notice how even the background is fully fleshed out? Now, do you remember the N64 demo of Zelda shown at Spaceworld 1995? Remember how plain it was (the Link in that demo was a MUCH simpler model than the one that eventually turned up in Ocarina of Time), with just blackness for a backdrop and very few textures? This would seem to indicate that the title is in fact in development, and what we saw was early work on getting the character models and such in place.

2) Miyamoto himself stated (I forget which interview this was in) that the next Zelda title (for Gamecube) was in the preliminary design stages. Even if the demo we saw at Spaceworld turns out to be nothing like Zelda 128, you can rest assured that it's still in the works at Nintendo.

The rumored list of games is usually made up of games that developers have expressed an interest in developing, unless there is a special note after the developer's name. In the case of Super Smash Bros. 2, HAL has (again, in a past interview) expressed an interest in doing a Super Smash Bros. sequel. Given the fact that the first one sold so well and was such a "smash" hit, we don't see why Nintendo wouldn't approve it. Other games on the rumored list are either pretty logical (such as another Mario Kart game) or are inferred from clues provided to us or other sources by the companies themselves (such as Rare's hints towards "After Dark"). It's important to keep in mind that with any game (confirmed or not) plans can change, so there's no guarantee that any of those titles will eventually be released.