N-Box for Wednesday, November 08, 2006
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USB Keyboard for Wii
Phillip
I was wondering if i would be able to use my USB Keyboard on the Wii to type while surfing the internet. If you could tell me i would greatly appreciate it, thank you.
Anthony
Phillip responds: If you can, Nintendo hasn’t announced it yet. And considering Wii launch is just under two weeks away now, it doesn’t seem likely. Considering Wii features two USB slots, though, it might be possible for Nintendo – or a third party – to release a keyboard peripheral that works with Wii.
Zelda Controls
Hi, Phillip I was wondering if you can still do Links death blow while the enemies on the ground by thrusting the nunchuck downward like in the e3 demo. I also wanted to know what directions Link can swing the sword in the game, although there not 1:1 I’m curious with what you’re able to do, the directions of swings mainly interest me. I also read on another sites hands on previews that you can only swing vertical while locked on, which I hope isn’t the case. If you could email me back with some short answers I would majorly appreciate it.
Thanks for all of your hard work with updates and news, keep up the great work.
Phillip responds: I’m sad to say I couldn’t make it up to Seattle to play The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess last week, so our Public Relations Master and Guru Sean O’Neill traveled up north to check out the game. I talked to him today about your question, and he says to the best of his memory, he recalls using the A button to do Link’s finishing move, not motioning the nunchuck. He’s not 100%, though, because he purged all information pertaining to Zelda as soon as he stepped foot back in San Francisco. Why that is I do not know.
As for your other question, you can swing both vertically and horizontally while locked onto enemies and targets. It all depends on 1) how you’re moving the Wii-mote and 2) which animation is triggered (this is random, from what we understand).
Cubeboy Scares Us
did you know that you look like cubeboy101 for real you could be brothers, his a pal of mine i think his still in germany but he did say he is getting bt broadband for his return he has been secretly posting on games pages on aol uk and basicly telling it as it is not as its hyped
he just sent me a email on the average joes ignorance on pro logic 2 and 2x clearly both stated as 5.1 and 7.1 on dolbys web site and clearly gamecubes dsp witch wii has maybe slightly upgraded supports 64,3d channels and x360s cpu crappy wma sound allso supports 64,3d channels how can wiis sound be weaker its not infact 360s is weaker it runs on wma and windows sound compresion wii uses sound tools by factor 5 THE BEST IN THE BUSSINESS dd5.1 and pro logic 2 5.1 are mearly formats its the acual sound processing and sound tools is the important part IGNORANCE IS BLISS I SUPPOSE bye bye
atb
FAN OF CUBEBOY
Phillip responds: I can only guess this e-mail was inspired by my conversation I had over IM with a reader that goes by the name of “Cubeboy,†where he ranted for about 45 minutes about how the entire industry is actually deaf and can’t tell that Dolby Pro Logic II actually sounds better than Dolby Digital. What’s more, if I were a betting man, I’d bet this e-mail was actually written by Cubeboy posing as a friend of Cubeboy, because there are some grammatical characteristics throughout this e-mail that are very Cubeboy-esque. If you don’t understand what that means, consider yourself lucky.
Anyway, for readers out of the technological loop, there’s an ongoing debate – or argument, rather – about the fact that, like GameCube, Wii does not support Dolby Digital because it does not have an optical or coaxial output. Instead, for your surround sound solution, Wii uses Dolby Pro Logic II, which is a surround sound mode that takes a stereo source and simulates 5.1 surround sound. Audiophiles like myself are disappointed by this sad truth, as Dolby Digital is the superior format, offering less compressed audio, clearer sound, better channel separation and overall better quality.
The subject’s been beaten more than any dead horses I know of, though, so we’ll leave it at that.
By the way – I just want to congratulate whoever wrote this e-mail, as you’re the first person to write to N-Box a letter this long using absolutely no punctuation whatsoever. Good job.
Link’s a Righty
I saw on the site that you said that Link was right handed in the original legend of Zelda on nes. Ok, I hate to sound like a fanboy, but im pretty sure that Link was left handed even in the original nes game.
Phillip responds: Actually, Link was in fact right-handed in The Legend of Zelda on NES. The picture below proves it.
Nintendo Pushes Technology
I would first like to say, I actually didn’t know you would put this in the mailbag — 😀 But thanks for the warning.
Second off, your right on the iPod comparison, I kind of new you would say that, but I couldn’t’ use Nintendo DS as my only example — because it is, yet again, a Nintendo product. I wanted to show it with another product, and as it seems, iPod is the closest thing.
Your right on about Nintendo, to a point. They aren’t about advancing technology, like Sony and Microsoft, when it comes to processing power. But when it comes to gameplay? I think they are. You sued Mac’s to prove your point. You used them because they are powerful. You know, I use Macs as well. Why? Not just because of the power behind it, but more so because the GUI is a lot better then what Window’s offers. Windows GUI us boring, and in my opinion, bland. Mac’s OS X is interesting and continues to move forward with every major release of OS X.
With Nintendo, they care more about gameplay then they do processing power, and I do hope thats not always the case. But for now, Nintendo has found a niche and they are sticking with it. They saw a problem with their company, and they sought out to fix it. They saw that the market wasn’t growing at a fast rate, and they wanted to take a stab at it. I personally hope they can make the market grow, I think they can, but nonetheless gamers will buy a Wii along with another console, if not at launch then later down the road. Therefore, Nintendo will win this time around. Why? Well, think about it. If everyone who buys a PS3/Xbx 360 buys a Wii, then who has the most sales? And in this case, Nintendo would have made much more then Sony/MS, and can afford to do the proper ad’s next-next gen, plus buffer specs (I hope Nintendo does this, because this niche will not work next time around. People will want better graphics).
But Nintendo didn’t really enhance the technology they used. With the touch screen on the DS, it works just like a touch screen, it isn’t partically better then other touch screens, and with the motion sensor controller, you can say they moved it forward because this controller works a lot better then what was available before. But, the actual technology they used — did they advance it? I don’t think so.
Anyway, I may have blabered on too much, but who care’s. I said what I had to say, and thats what matters.
Phillip responds: I can’t remember exactly what I said in my response about the Nintendo vs. Apple comparison, but during my rant, I am pretty sure I too mentioned that Nintendo might not push technology a whole lot when it comes to graphics, but the company does when it comes to things like gameplay, or more specifically in regards to this generation of gaming, controllers. It’s true both Microsoft and Sony are pushing the envelope when it comes to processing power, RAM, hard drive sizes and whatnot, but Nintendo’s pushing technology when it comes to its controller. The Xbox 360 controller is about as traditional as it can be. Wii’s, on the other hand, is unlike anything we’ve ever seen. It’s truly “new†and “innovative†in every sense of both words.
Yesterday, when I was playing through Gears of War, I was thinking about this very subject, and I began to ponder whether I’d rather have draw-dropping visuals like I was seeing in Epic’s title or a totally new way to play games like Wii offers. My answer was both. But, seriously, if I had to choose, I’d probably go with the latter. The potential Wii’s new control method offers could seriously change the way games are played, and if the controller is good enough to do that, isn’t that a good thing?
Zelda and Mirrors
First off nice mailbag. Secondly I wanted simply to say that yes the entire game has been mirrored. How do I know? Well simply the newest trailer on IGN’s page has everything mirrored. All of the characters including bosses and even the hylian ghosts are now all left handed. While I may be complaining a bit but I am very upset with the changes. Having everyone left handed and the entire game flipped just makes the experience seem out of place. Sure I have yet to play the game but from what I can tell it’s not going to be perfectly ok. I just hate that Nintendo is rushing my most anticipated game just to have it as a Wii title. In fact I will likely buy both the Wii and GC version of the game and most likely make the GC version my standard one. Wii version just looks out of place and the controls have not gotten that much of a positive reaction as of yet.
Anyways I checked out all the video feed from the two demos stages including the Goron Mines and Hena’s Fishing Hole and both are flipped. Cheaply enough Hena is now left handed along with everyone in the game aside from Link and Midna. I actually spent some time flipping some images and videos of the game and personally it looked out of place to me. Usually cutscenes are layed out to pan into a scene a certain way so having it do so from an opposite direction is likely to feel out of place. I will reserve my full judgement on the Wii version until release but I can confirm that the game will launch flipped.
Here is a question I wish could be answered:
Why did Nintendo flip the entire game just to add the ability to swing the Wiimote to swing Link’s sword? It’s not even 1:1 controls. You can only swing in a couple general directions and feels gimmicky from what I heard. I wish you had the option to play the regular left handed version opposed to the flipped right handed version. GameCube version for me. 🙂
-Kevin
Phillip responds: Kevin, I am actually right there with you. I don’t think that having the Wii version of Twilight Princess being “mirrored†will ruin the game – hopefully I won’t even notice when I’m playing through it – but I know that in the back of my mind, I’ll be thinking, “Hmm, this whole area has been flipped. I wonder what it looked like before.â€
Along with you, I wish there was at least an option in the Wii game to play it un-mirrored. I would rather play with Link’s sword in his left hand and still swing the Wii-mote with my right than play through dungeons and areas that the game’s artists designed to look the exact opposite of.
I don’t have any problem whatsoever with Link being right-handed in Twilight Princess. It’s just the idea that Nintendo opted for a quick solution and “mirrored†everything to pull it off, rather than re-coding everything or just leaving Link’s sword in his left hand, that bothers me a little.
With all that said, the Wii version of Twilight Princess seems like the way to go – despite both of our complaints about it being mirrored. The enhanced Wii-mote control one-ups the GameCube pad, and you definitely want to see for yourself.
Star Fox Wii?
Star Fox is one of my favorite Nintendo titles has there been any mention for Star Fox to appear on the Wii? Also have you heard any release date for Wario Ware smooth moves?
Phillip responds: Nintendo hasn’t announced a Star Fox for Wii just yet, but considering there’s been a new installment in the franchise on every Nintendo home console since the original was released, I’d be surprised if we don’t see a new incarnation of the franchise on Wii someday. Hopefully, though, the folks that made Star Fox Assault for GameCube (Namco) stay far, far, far away from its development.
As for WarioWare: Smooth Moves’ release date, you can look forward to getting your WarioWare groove on January 15, 2007.
XD Card with Wii?
Hi, my dad has a digital camera that uses a memory card; but it’s not exactly SD… it’s smaller and it’s called XD. It seems that ALOT of cameras use this format, and very expensive ones too. Will the Wii accept this different card? Considering the photo feature depends greatly on the card you put into the system… what do you think? And if it doesn’t accept it, do you think there’s a way to transfer data from one card to another?
Phillip responds: Looks like you’re going to have to drop some dough on an SD Card, because your XD Card won’t work with Wii. As for transferring data off your XD Card and onto your SD Card, you should be able to do that by moving the contents of the former to your PC, then moving it from your PC to your new SD Card. Easy as pie.
Zelda Pre-Order Campaign?
Do you think or know if there will be a Zelda-Twilight Princess Pre-Order promotional gift, as there has been in past? Thanks and keep up great work.
Phillip responds: It’s too late in the game now for Nintendo to do a pre-order campaign for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and it’s too bad. I was hoping they’d give out the Twilight Princess t-shirts they gave out at E3 2005, because the one I got back in 2005 is a size too large for me, and I want to snag a large.
VGA Support
Hey guys, I just a little matter cleared up once and for all. Can the Wii be hooked up to a monitor? Yes or No?
Phillip responds: Nope, unless Nintendo plans to announce VGA cables in the future.
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