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Hello, love the site.

I have noticed by watching the E3 footage and a few trailers, that the transition in and out of morphball doesn't seem as smooth as it did on the original prime. Particularly coming out of morph ball. It seems as though samus can't move and just stands rigid until the camera pans back to 1st person view. Have you noticed this while playing the game?, and if so do you think retro studios will address it.

Thanks

Matt responds: No, sorry, I haven't noticed that. In my experience with the demo of the game, and with various previews Nintendo has shown us, the morph ball functionality is as intuitive as ever. Really, the transition is fast and responsive. You can quickly flip around while rolling around and then Samus will be facing the correct direction when you change back. Feels good. Don't worry. Be happy.

let me get things straight. when u said that metroid runs exlusively at 60hz,does that mean tha if i my tv runs at 50hz i wont be able to play metroid prime 2 echoes?

Matt responds: Reportedly, yes. I confess ignorance on the subject because I've rarely had the chance to play around with PAL televisions, or the standard at all. But from what some of readers on the IGN message boards are posting, older PAL sets can only run the game in black and white, or not at all. I can't verify the validity of these statements for obvious reasons, but it's definitely something to be keep an eye on. Or two eyes, even.

Hey Matt,

Has the split between Nintendo and Silicon Knights ever been confirmed? There talk about it all being a Sanity Effect:) There homepage still has this big nintendo logo on it and i heared the news about the split was released at 3:33. Do you know something i don't?

Greets, Jaap

Matt responds: That people continue to doubt the validity of this news is probably the biggest insanity effect. It doesn't get any truer. Please read this story, which features quotes from both Silicon Knights' president Denis Dyack and Nintendo of America that confirm the split. And for the lazy…

"Silicon Knights and Nintendo have agreed to mutually part ways," Silicon Knights' president Denis Dyack told IGNcube.

"Nintendo and Silicon Knights have reached an agreement allowing Silicon Knights to pursue its vision of videogame entertainment with other companies," said a Nintendo of America spokesperson. "Nintendo respects the creative work of Silicon Knights and the parties have left the door open to work on future projects that meet the creative vision of both companies."

I think we're bound to hear more about Silicon Knights' next project, which I suspect is for Xenon or PlayStation 3, by the end of the year.

I read your Dream Games: Legend of Zelda Fighter - article, in which you explain, why Soul Calibur II sold more on GCN than on any other console. You tell us, it's because of Link. But that isn't (totally) true. It's because the Gamecube has a few fighting games, and even fewer ones that are outstanding or even good. Not so on Xbox and PS2 where the player is flooded with them. The GCN-owners didn't have any other choice than buying Soul Calibur II, so don't tell us all that Link is the one and only (glorious) reason.

Matt responds: I disagree. I think Link was the major factor in the stronger sales of Soulcalibur II. Don't get me wrong: I think the game would have performed on GameCube with or without Link because it's a great fighter. But the addition of the exclusive character made it a must-have for many GCN owners and as a result the Nintendo version outsold both the PS2 and Xbox versions.

Hi, I love the regular mailbag updates, at least on the cube site that is...is the DS/GBA editor dead or something? Anyway, I've noticed a trend in the run up to Christmas for companys to release games as quickly as they can. This means games are only hitting the shops days after the reviewers get their hands on a copy, far too late for a review to be released before the game (even pushing it for internet sites). With games like Grand Theft Auto this does not seem to matter to the public because the game has so much hype surrounding it. However for games like Metroid Echoes which has minimal hype, and certainly none in England, wont releasing a game before a review only stunt opening sales and fail to attract new fans?

Matt responds: It's really a matter of having product to ship. Oftentimes we don't get games until the last minute simply because publishers don't have them to send. There are also publishers who absolutely won't give us any games that they think will get a bad score because they feel that it's better to have no reviews than negative ones.

Nintendo is usually pretty good about getting us product. I expect that we'll get Prime 2 Echoes, for example, in the next week or so, which should give us a good while with the game before we have to lay down the review.

You have to remember that Nintendo and other publishers create calendars and attempt to plan how the media will cover their games. Magazines come first. Nintendo will oftentimes send out barely-finished, or even not-quite-finished code to magazine outlets weeks before we get them online because magazines have long lead times. So while I have yet to play through Prime 2, you can bet that the folks at say, EGM, have already beaten it.

Based on all of this, you're going to see reviews hit online before the game ships. And I can assure you that some gamers are already plenty excited about Metroid Prime 2 Echoes. Just check out GameStats and you'll see that the game has consistently been one of the most popular among readers. The hype will come to your neck of the woods as Prime 2 draws closer to release overseas.

Great site guys!

Quit raggin on Fran! Russians are the best. Cept for the whole communism thing. Whatever.

Anyways, this screen shot has been bugging me, and after you answered that guy in the last email, i figured, maybe you'll tell me who this guy is.

Click here for the image

He doesn't look luminoth, Ing, Pirate, or Federation, so whats up?
Quagmire

Matt responds: There are new types of Space Pirates in the game. That's one of them.