Was there any information on Disaster: Day of Crisis at the Media Summit? What was your favorite title at the event?

- Maxi

Disaster info at the Media Summit? Nope. The latest issue of Famitsu in Japan has some new details, though, which you can find here. It's not much, but it's something. However, I can't help but wonder why Nintendo is taking so long to mention more about it. Don't forget that Disaster was one of the very first Wii games to be mentioned by name when the Nintendo made its first big Wii splash at E3 two years ago.

Last year, Nintendo purchased Monolith Soft, the developer of Day of Crisis. That means Nintendo sees long-term profits from the company, which presumably means Nintendo has high hopes for the sales success of Disaster. The game will be out in Japan on July 3, so expect to hear everything about Disaster: Day of Crisis at the next E3 in a few months, at the latest.

So what was my favorite game at the media summit? There were quite a few of them on display, including the likes of Mario Kart Wii, Samba de Amigo, LostWinds, Space Invaders Extreme, and others. However, the one that stole the show for me, and for a lot of other attendees, was EA's Boom Blox.

I first saw the game at E3 last year, when it was still codenamed PQRS, it was extremely early on in development. However, I knew right away that it was going to be extremely fun. After hearing good things out of GDC, I finally got to play it at the summit and was blown away. I only got to play a small portion of the game (read my impressions here), but what I played was so fun and addictive that I can't wait to get my own copy and play it again. What impressed me most of all was all of the content in the rest of the game; it looks like something you can easily pour dozens of hours into and still have plenty of things to do. There is so much potential in the level editor that I can't imagine what crazy stuff people will come up with. EA is going to have a big hit on its hands with Boom Blox.

Couple of questions regarding the US Wii Balance Board:

1) What is the (Max Weight) or (Load) of the US Board?

2) What types of batteries does it use? Are they user replaceable?

3) What type of recharging means are available if any?

Thanks!

- Shecky

The Balance Board will correctly register weight up to 330 pounds, but is built sturdily enough to handle loads of twice that, if necessary. Four standard AA batteries power the board. I don't think there will be anything official from Nintendo about rechargeable battery packs (like there aren't any official options for the Wii Remote) but third party solutions are already popping up at retailers.

Is the Gamecube obsolete? I am asking this question because I haven't seen any new games being released for the console. Also, I have noticed that there are new games being ported from the next generation consoles to the Playstation 2. However, the Gamecube's hardware, other than the its three inch optical disc technology, is a lot stronger than the Playstation 2's hardware. Also, I have noticed that many stores are removing their Gamecube games, but they still sell the old Xbox games.

- anonymous

The GameCube is dead. It has been dead since the 2006, when it was Nintendo's lame duck console ahead of the Wii launch. You're not seeing any new GC games come out, even with backwards compatibility on the Wii, because companies would rather spend those resources making Wii games and cashing in on the new audience the console is creating.

I do find it curious, however, that you're seeing GC games being phased out and original Xbox games still sticking around. The Xbox was dead once the Xbox 360 was released, and not all of the original library is compatible with the 360! If anything, I would think game shops would keep the old GC games around since a lot of people getting a Wii have never played GameCube games before.

But still, that doesn't answer the question why new games are still coming out on the PlayStation 2. Well, the answer to that one is simple. The GameCube and Xbox each sold about 23 million consoles worldwide in their lifetimes. The PS2? It's currently pushing past 118 million and still has a year or two left in it. There are tens of millions of people that don't yet have the new-gen consoles that are still wanting, and buying, new games to play. You're not going to accommodate them by making a GameCube or Xbox game. Sure, there's still a small audience on those systems, but the money it would cost to make those versions isn't going to get recouped by sales on those platforms. New last-gen games have to be put out on the PS2 (and only the PS2) if you want to reach all of those last-gen gamers and turn a good profit.

Ok here it is, do you think that Wii owners are getting the short end of the stick by getting mostly FF spin offs instead of the main FF game? Or are feeling like FF:CC should replace the main series since the main FF games are not as interesting as they used to be? Or should we instead be glad we're getting more FF games than the PS is getting?

- DJ Boy

Yes and no. It would be great to see a mainline Final Fantasy game return to a Nintendo console in the future, no doubt. But it's not going to happen for quite a while. Square Enix has married its Final Fantasy game series with pushing the limits of the hardware it runs on. (In fact, it even did this with the original NES Final Fantasy, which came out on an unheard-of-at-the-time 1 megabyte cartridge.) You can forget about porting FFXIII from the PS3 to the Wii, or even the Xbox 360, for that matter. As things stand now, the Square Enix vision for Final Fantasy games and Nintendo's hardware philosophy just don't agree with each other.

So that's the bummer. But here's the kicker: Square Enix knows Final Fantasy must be on the Wii. To that end, it's commissioning two Wii games: My Life as a King for WiiWare, and The Crystal Bearers for the Wii proper. SE seems to be happy making the Crystal Chronicles offshoot of Final Fantasy have a home in the Nintendo camp, and frankly, everyone starving for RPGs on the Wii should be as well. I hate the notion people have about the FFCC games not being "true" Final Fantasy games somehow makes them inferior. You can't really use the GameCube game as a good reference for this, since it was a connectivity game that a lot of people couldn't play the way it was intended to be. (I did, and thought it was great.) It's clear, though, that Square Enix wants to make the Crystal Chronicles branch multiplayer-centric and online, which is a perfect companion to the single-player, story-heavy traditional FF game.

All things being equal, I'd rather have something different than a watered-down attempt at the same thing.* That's what Square Enix looks to be doing with their game development on Nintendo systems.

*Now that I think about it, the GameCube and Wii parallel that way of thinking: The GC was a watered-down attempt at what the other consoles were doing, and the Wii is something different. That worked out well for Nintendo. So why not Square Enix, too?

This is a question that has been bothering me for quite some time now: Why do Japanese companies like Sony and Nintendo name their systems with english letters?

- yourmomeatswaffles85

Global branding. It's a lot easier to market something worldwide if a product has the same name in all parts of the world. English is the dominant world language, so any product meant for a global audience is usually named with English conventions. In Japan there's a lot of English language interlaced with Japanese, so it's not like they don't understand what's going on over there.

Why are all the cool games on the DS?

For example Call of Duty 4 is on the DS, but not on the Wii. Then there is Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword for the DS, and again not for the Wii.

So if you can tell me why I would be grateful.

- Tyler C S

U.S.

The DS has been out longer and developers have had more time to come to grips with it. In a year or two you're going to see some amazing games on the Wii. You just need to wait for them to be made!

So i am a big Guitar Hero fan and the new peripheral for guitar hero DS looks awesome. My only concern is will the grip fit onto the original DS model?

- Jstbcool

Indiana

Activision confirmed during the media summit that yes, you can play Guitar Hero: On Tour on the original Nintendo DS. The game will ship with a special adapter that needs to be screwed in to the GBA plug on the actual guitar grip unit. You can find more details about that, and the rest of the game, in our comprehensive preview.

So is WiiWare going to simply be a Nintendo version of Xbox Live Arcade? It seems like the most they've done so far is to throw new graphics on old games and give them online capabilities.

- Captain N

If Nintendo delivers on what it's promising, WiiWare is going to be what Xbox Live Arcade wishes it was. Xbox Live Arcade does have a lot of fun original games and some very nice ports and remakes of older games that are very much worth owning and playing, of which I have several. But you're right. Many games on XBLA are poor ports of really old games that probably have no business being on the service when everyone would rather see new stuff come about.

As I see it, Microsoft's problem is that any game that goes up on its service, be it an old retro game or a new idea, has to go through the exact same process. Old games need to be updated with hi-def graphics, leaderboards, and a bunch of other things that require additional development time. New games have a lot of red tape to cut through, if reports on the matter are true. In either case, some sacrifices need to be made to get the games to work with Microsoft's certification standards.

On the Wii, we know Virtual Console is for old video games are not changed in any way. All someone needs to do is sort out the rights and put it up for download, with little effort. WiiWare is for new games that can allow any developer with a cool idea get in on it. Nintendo said it was very easy for anyone with the money and the motivation to make a WiiWare game, something that was confirmed with 2D Boy's World of Goo. The two (two!) guys who made the game said they literally "lived in cafes and stole Internet" while it was in development.

WiiWare and Virtual Console are two different services featuring two different kinds of games that exist for two different purposes. I think WiiWare is going to have its fair share of ports, but original games should thrive on it more than anything else. Nintendo designed WiiWare specifically for that purpose. Xbox Live Arcade is doing well for Microsoft, obviously. But when the original Pac-Man and Pac-Man Championship Edition are right next to each other in the games list, there is going to be confusion for people wondering which one to buy. I believe Xbox Live Arcade will ultimately wind up looking like a poor compromise between WiiWare and Virtual Console once Nintendo gets going full steam ahead.