Topic: Black bars when playing games

Hi,

I'm new to the forum, but I have been visiting this site on a regular base.

I have a question about my Wii console. I have an HDTV and the console is connected with a component cable (red, green, blue, etc). With some games this results in black bars around the image. My first thought this was due to the fact that certain games don't support ED/HD. Like Madworld and Metal Slug Anthology, but recently I bought Overlord : Dark Legend and this game does support ED/HD but still shows up with the same bars? What is the reason this happens? This doesn't seem to be a problem with any of my other games.

Only some games have 16:9 screen size, so i assume u have a widescreen HDTV

Yeah, but they even have bars under the image? And isn't widescreen the format of today? Like WTF is wrong with dev's?

Thanks for the quick reply!

lol well if u play a game like Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess, the bars might go away because it displays in 16:9, but other games with stay in the smaller screen size, resulting in black bars

Yeah none of the Nintendo games I own seem to be having problems with this. Jezus... I really don't get this... People spend a shitload of money for a big ass TV and then some lazy dev decides not to support widescreen, wich result back in smaller a screensize, due to the "lovely" black borders all around...

yea, that's developers for ya :/

Hmmm, that does seem odd. Maybe it's a bug? You could try emailing the publisher's support to ask.

The only Wii disc-release I've encountered that wasn't widescreen was Ghost Squad and that was by design due to a desire to be faithful to the screen aspect of the arcade, though most other arcade comps have simulated bezel art or mask out the sides on their own (Namco Museum Remix does this; I believe SNK Arcade Classics and Metal Slug Anthology do as well, but I could be wrong) so you don't need to mess with the tv aspect ratio. I have no clue why the VCA titles also do this, but VC titles don't; it's rather annoying. Gradius ReBirth is another 4:3 game that you need to manually toggle your screen aspect for; Contra ReBirth is presented pillarboxed already so you don't have to do this.

I had the same thing with MadWorld and was surprised too. But while playing I wasn't to bothered by it. I guess it made it feel more cinematic, but it's already widescreen so it is kinda weird. With Metal Slug Anthology, I thought it wasn't meant to be played in widescreen (since the games are pretty old). So I switched back my tv to 4:3, but I'm not sure if there were bars below the screen.