Mailbag - Issue 2

We've got a second round of questions that'll be answered. What's the deal on Crystal Chronicles DS? What's keeping Metroid from releasing in Europe earlier? Find out inside!

ROCKAMANIAC asks: Do you think FF Crystal Chronicles will be out by the end of this year or will we have to wait till next year like a staff member suggested for the FF3 release.... and also do you think it will be WIFI enabled?

Dennis: It all depends on what Square-Enix is planning to show us during the upcoming E3 event. Personally I believe that the game will hit Japan later this year and that the game will be localized and published outside of Japan near the end of 2006 or early 2007 (February 14 always seemed to be a nice date for the Final Fantasy-series). I'm pretty positive the game will feature some way of Nintendo Wi-Fi Connectivity. I do not expect anything in line of a MMORPG, but more in terms of determining who has the strongest party through battles like Golden Sun offered on the Game Boy Advance.

Jay: Well first of all here's what I know. The game appears on the list Nintendo Power printed shortly after E3 last year and so far every game on the list that has been released did used Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection in some way so I do know that this game will be online. Now, as for when it'll come out that is the big question. If we don't see it at E3 I'm going to take a big hunch and say that Game Designers Studio has put it aside for now to focus on the Revolution version since Sqaure-Enix is already working on two big games for the DS, Final Fantasy III and Mario Basketball Online.

Chris: You never really know with Square-Enix. They're notorious for consistently delaying their "big" releases. Final Fantasy XII was delayed numerous times before finally releasing in Japan in March, and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children had even more delays if I recall correctly. Crystal Chronicals for the DS was one of the first games announced for the system, and even still we're left with VERY few details and absolutely no visuals. To answer your question, the earliest I see for a release of this game would be Q3-4 2006 or early 2007. Also, the game has been confirmed for WiFi usage.

Matt: Right now, I'm going to say no. But anythings possible.

Jay: Sadly I doubt EA will bring much more of it's sports line-up to the DS after the sales of the other EA Sports game already released on the system. Aside from the launch title Madden 05, all other EA Sports games on the DS have tanked in sales so aside from Madden (which is released on every possible medium) I doubt we'll be seeing many more EA Sports games on the DS. At least not in the foreseeable future, you never know what will happen in a few years from now, after all they aren't know as, "EA Games. We must put our games on everything." for nothing.

Dennis: Hello John. You might want to check your keyboard, as I believe there's a piece of gum sticking under that shift-button of yours. In earlier reports, it became clear that Nintendo is planning to use the Revolution as a wireless router. This means that if your Revolution is connected to an internet connection, you can connect your Nintendo DS to the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service through the Revolution. Some bigshots are already speculating that the Revolution will also be able to send demo's to your Nintendo DS just like the kiosks can in certain gamestores. Continuing on this speculation, in theory it is possible to have Revolution-games to send a small program to the Nintendo DS allowing you to control the game using your handheld, just like the GameCube allowed you to play The Four Swords on GameCube and Game Boy Advance simultaneously.

Jay: There have been a lot of rumors about wireless connectivity between the Revolution and the DS, and Nintendo has never really turned down the thought of having downloadable demos made available for the DS via the Revolution. But will they have a connection for anything beyond demos? You'll have to wait until E3 to find out.

Chris: It been confirmed that, through the Revolution, youl be able to download demos of future DS games onto your DS (I assume this will be just like download play: turn off your DS and the demo is gone). I don think much else has been discussed regarding Revolution-DS connectivity. Here to hoping that wel be able to download classics from the Virtual Console onto our DS!

As my source, one of countless forums where you can download a ROM-patch to unlock all languages. I know, my source borders the limits of law, but I felt this sort of thing should be known.

Dennis: An interesting point you have there Ignacio. As a matter of fact, I had read about this 'hack' just before I had a dinner party with a few of my friends, including an employee of Nintendo of Europe. During the party I had brought up this very same topic asking why Nintendo is obviously stalling the release of Metroid Prime Hunters. While his statement is in no way an official statement by Nintendo, he did mention that releases are carefully planned and that "it is all about timing". It seems that Nintendo is simply thinking that a later release in Europe will only benefit sales.

Be sure to ask us more questions through the contact-form. Your question could end up in the next mailbag!

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Comments

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  Nice layout, I'll be sure to answer next weeks questions though.

  skarma, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  Nice job, can't wait to read the next mailbag.

  Ali/FireGalaxy DS-x2, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  this is a sweet mailbag, i think its pretty cool dennis has nintendo of europe friends =0

  darkshadow61, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  I agree with Ben, nice layout.

  Matthew DS-x2, 30-11--0001 at 00:00