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Nintendo Wii Games

New Super Mario Bros. Wii Tops 10 Million Sales 164

According to a report from Japanese publication Nikkei Net, Nintendo's New Super Mario Bros. Wii has now sold 10 million copies worldwide. The game needed only 45 days to pass the already impressive sales numbers of Super Mario Galaxy. Quoting Gamasutra: "NSMB Wii has sold 3 million units in Japan, where it launched on December 3; 3 million copies in Europe, where it launched November 20, and 4.5 million units in North America, where it launched November 15. Super Mario Galaxy has sold 4.1 million units in North America since 2007. The game's design hearkens back to the two-dimensional, side-scrolling style of earlier Mario titles ... The numbers would seem to suggest that these traits successfully generated more mass appeal for NSMB Wii than for the three-dimensional and far less familiar Super Mario Galaxy, which sent the plumber navigating more innovative spherical space environments."
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New Super Mario Bros. Wii Tops 10 Million Sales

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  • by JackieBrown ( 987087 ) on Tuesday January 26, 2010 @01:46AM (#30900966)

    It is very similar to Mario World and is a lot of fun.

    A cool thing is that you can play two player where you both navigate through map together.

    One of the few side strollers I really enjoyed.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      You can play up to 4 players at a time...you knew that, right?

      • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 26, 2010 @01:58AM (#30901034)
        Shhh... he doesn't have 3 friends, don't make him feel bad.
      • I don't have 4 controllers but that is good to know in case I do. :)

        We are a family of three so this game will be that much more fun once I do get another controller.

        I like how they mapped it like the old style Nintendo controller as well.

        • I like how they mapped it like the old style Nintendo controller as well.

          Indeed! The Wiimote was laid out the way it is specifically to accommodate that kind of controller layout, which is quite handy. Honestly though, I think it was done so, though, to allow play of $5-a-pop virtual console (read: buy me again :-P) titles.

          Never underestimate the power of sales.

      • by tepples ( 727027 )
        Why is it that all the fun games that use multiple controllers come out for Wii and not, say, PC? The PC supports multiple USB game controllers, and TVs have PC inputs nowadays.
        • The average TV is much bigger then the average monitor.

          • TVs have PC inputs nowadays.

            The average TV is much bigger then the average monitor.

            I am aware of that. But TVs display PC video just as easily as console video, as long as the right cable [pineight.com] is between the two. A VGA-to-composite adapter for a PC is no more expensive than an official component cable for a console. If the problem is that the TV and the PC are in separate rooms, Acer Aspire Revo and other nettop PCs with an NVIDIA chipset solve that handily. So why aren't PC games designed to use TVs?

            • by osgeek ( 239988 )

              PCs are usually set up for one person at a desk. They don't come with any controllers or other gaming niceties, so typically gamers customize them in very one-player-specific ways.

              Consoles fit in with the "entertainment area" of homes where there's a lot of seating so everyone can view the television. That environment lends itself to being shared by the gaming system which has lots of cheap-to-add controllers.

              • PCs [...] don't come with any controllers or other gaming niceties, so typically gamers customize them in very one-player-specific ways.

                Wii consoles don't come with multiple controllers either. In fact, PC-compatible USB gamepads for players 1 through 4 often cost less than Wii Remote + Nunchuk for players 2 through 4 or Dual Shock 3 controllers for players 2 through 4.

                Consoles fit in with the "entertainment area" of homes where there's a lot of seating so everyone can view the television.

                As does a suitably installed Acer Aspire Revo or any of several home theater PCs. So why aren't video games designed to take advantage of home theater PCs?

                • As does a suitably installed Acer Aspire Revo or any of several home theater PCs. So why aren't video games designed to take advantage of home theater PCs?

                  Because no one does that. Seriously, there are what, 25,000,000 Wiis sold in the North American market? I'd be shocked if there were 150,000 Home Theater PCs properly installed and powerful enough for gaming on the continent.

                  Even if it is a million, its an embarrassingly small market. Its the same reason you don't see boxed Linux distributions at Best Buy.

                  • by tepples ( 727027 )
                    So what should an indie developer with a concept for a video game for multiple players on one screen, and possibly even a proof of concept implementation for home theater PCs, do in order to grow to meet Nintendo's requirements [warioworld.com] for a WiiWare license? This includes having "relevant video game industry experience" and affording a "secure office facility".
                    • So what should an indie developer with a concept for a video game for multiple players on one screen, and possibly even a proof of concept implementation for home theater PCs, do in order to grow to meet Nintendo's requirements for a WiiWare license? This includes having "relevant video game industry experience" and affording a "secure office facility".

                      I'm not sure, it's a tough question. I'd love to see PC gaming flourish in that area -- I'm not antagonistic to the idea of home theater PC's, though my original post may have come off a bit mocking in nature. I was more just pointing out the current reality.

                      I think a good start would be a standardized HTPC implementation, so you don't run into the configuration/settings/"will my machine run it and at what quality" nightmare that PC gaming is for non-technical users.

                    • Simple: develop for XBox Live Arcade first. It's a much more open market. Won't work if your game includes motion control, obviously, but otherwise that seems to be the way to go.

        • Because 3 sets of keyboards and mice, all crowded around a single monitor, doesnt sound like a recipe for fun?
          • by tepples ( 727027 )

            The PC supports multiple USB game controllers

            Because 3 sets of keyboards and mice

            Who said PC game controllers have to be keyboards and mice? They could be Logitech USB gamepads, or they could be Xbox 360 gamepads.

            TVs have PC inputs nowadays.

            all crowded around a single monitor

            I play video games on a 32" monitor made by Vizio. Say I have a Wii, three Wii Remotes, an Acer Aspire Revo (Wii-size PC), and three PC gamepads. What makes New Super Mario Bros. Wii or any other Wii game played around this monitor any less crowded than a comparable PC game played around the same monitor?

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      Really? I have found the multiplayer is next to impossible. You just end killing each other. The more players you have the harder the game becomes, even when your not trying to do each other in. If you try t kill each other, its hard to get anything done.
      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Zerth ( 26112 )

        And if you like slapstick humor or playing Dwarf Fortress(losing is fun!), you'll love it.

        The first time I played it solo, I found it kind of meh; but the first time I played 4 player, we played until the wee hours of the morning in the middle of the week and then set up a schedule to do it again when it wasn't a work night.

        I suppose after the 8th or 9th time it might get a bit boring, but we played one level(the death cloud) for an hour and we didn't get sick of screwing up.

      • You can also play cooperatively and jump of each other for secrets.

        I need to read the manual, though, as I have not figured out how to use all the power-ups.

      • I think you're missing the point... The idea with multiplayer is to do stuff together and just have fun. It doesn't matter if you keep dying all the time. :)

        I play with our 5- and 3-year-old kids. The younger ones can basically jump and go into the bubble. But they still enjoy being part of doing stuff together.

        Winning isn't everything, and we still get through a level occasionally so the game slowly keeps advancing. :)

      • Ha! That's part of the fun and the challenge. It's easy for tensions to rise, but at the same time, death is less serious, since you just come back in a bubble.

        I really enjoyed that game.

      • it depends on who you play with.. there are friends i play hockey with (screw the puck i wanna put as many people as i can through the glass) and there are the people who are actually trying. sadly, the break everyone on the other team method is the one game where that sort of person excels at hockey! halo just makes me give him the humidor and lock him outside till we're done.

      • You're missing the point. I don't even think we're past the sand world.

        It has to be one of the last times I can remember actually falling out of my chair laughing because of what was going on. I don't know if it was the picking up of people or shaking the controller or picking people up and shaking or just random other interactions that you never could make an AI do.

        All of us grew up with the original NES. I remember when SMB3 came out and spending time at a friend's house trying to beat it.

        Nintendo seems t

      • by dzfoo ( 772245 )

        At any time, whoever is lagging behind, can hit the "A" button which encloses them in a bubble. When bubbled, they can safely gravitate towards the other player when he reaches a safe spot.

        That's how my wife and I play it, and it is loads of fun!

              -dZ.

      • by crossmr ( 957846 )

        Yes. I didn't buy the claim that this was the hardest mario yet. I finished it with tons of lives left by myself. Add 3 friends to the mix, 1 of whom is drunk and another who isn't terribly good at these kinds of games and you've got a gong show.
        I spent most of the time carrying around the person wasn't that good and avoiding the drunk guy as he inevitably bounced us all into death.

      • by keytoe ( 91531 )

        Really? I have found the multiplayer is next to impossible. You just end killing each other. The more players you have the harder the game becomes, even when your not trying to do each other in. If you try t kill each other, its hard to get anything done.

        This is what makes the game incredible, in my opinion. As a single player game, it's a really good remake of the original Super Mario Brothers. Every time you add another player, it becomes a slightly more diabolical party game. By the time you're made it t

  • by mykos ( 1627575 ) on Tuesday January 26, 2010 @01:50AM (#30900992)

    If you're going to rehash old franchises, this game is the way to do it.

    Now I hope they'll give us a high-resolution, all-new, top-down Zelda game in the caliber of Link to the Past and Link's Awakening.

    • Just NOT a side-scroller like The Legend of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
      • Such a great game......except it was horrible when the game kept getting erased after you had to pull your cartridge out a few times to blow in it before it would work....
    • Dunno man, I'm a huge zelda fan and I actually enjoy the 3D scenarios and things. I would love the game to last longer though, twilight princess seemed short compared to OoT or LttP. Plus I'm a dork and I love watching Link fully rendered ;)
    • They already made that game [wikipedia.org], and it was glorious, but noone seemed to notice. Its a pain finding 4 GBAs + link cables, but totally worth it, the adventure mode was a blast, and the deathmatch was everything you could hope for in a versus mode zelda game.
    • by Fozzyuw ( 950608 )

      Now I hope they'll give us a high-resolution, all-new, top-down Zelda game in the caliber of Link to the Past and Link's Awakening.

      I've just read about a PS3 game called "3D Dot Game Heroes: Pixilated Parody [google.com]" or something that's suppose to basically be an original Zelda rip-off but in that "look, we're appreciating retro games" kind of way. However, it's in 3D, maybe partly in 2D, but the screen shoots looked pretty good. It was in Game Informer an issue or two ago.

  • by anss123 ( 985305 ) on Tuesday January 26, 2010 @01:51AM (#30900996)

    Not overly milking the core Mario franchise like Sega did with a certain hedgehog. In four or so years Sega puked out 7 similar Sonic games while Nintendo now have 8 since 1985 (Mario 1,2,3, World, Land, Land 2, New SMB and new SMB Wii)

    There has been a few misses (like Mario is missing) but overall Mario is a quality stamp and I think that's the reason why Mario Wii can see this well now.

    • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 26, 2010 @02:16AM (#30901110)

      You missed Mario 64, Mario Galaxy, Mario Sunshine and Paper Mario, not even counting the various Mario games for the various GameBoys, Mario Kart, Mario Party and the Olympics.
      You think, there's not many Mario games out the last few years? Think again: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mario_games_by_year

      • by Zerth ( 26112 )

        He already included the two Super Mario Land GB games. SML3 was actually a Wario game.

      • Was Mario 64 worth playing? I looked at it for about 5 minutes and couldn't figure out what I was suppose to do so quit.

        Is it worth going back to?

        • It's hard to say. Mario 64 is/was the definitive game that showed that 3D games could work. For the time it was spectacular and a great deal of the 3D platformer game conventions we take for granted today came from Mario. So, it's a great game but it's been a long time since it came out and time ages 3D poorly. So, how good are you at playing older tech?

          PS The goal of the game is to get the stars and save peach ;)

        • Absolutely. It's probably one of the best games ever.

          Hint: Run into the castle and go to the door with the blank star. Jump into the picture :)

      • You missed Mario 64, Mario Galaxy, Mario Sunshine and Paper Mario, not even counting the various Mario games for the various GameBoys, Mario Kart, Mario Party and the Olympics.
        You think, there's not many Mario games out the last few years? Think again: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mario_games_by_year [wikipedia.org]

        I don't think it's the number of games - it's the quality of the games. Super Mario Sunshine and Paper Mario were very well done and a lot of fun.

        Of course, I still occasionally play Super Mario Brothers 3 on the Wii, so maybe I'm just a sucker for the franchise.

        • by dzfoo ( 772245 )

          I think he meant classic-style Mario games: side-scrolling 2-D like the old Super Mario Bros. NES game.

          Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy are fantastic games in their own right, but they are 3-D "adventure" games, in the style of Ratchet and Clank, Spyro, etc.

                    -dZ.

      • by wgoodman ( 1109297 ) on Tuesday January 26, 2010 @05:01AM (#30901854)

        wish i had mod points.. for some reason haven't seen them in ages.. wtf? have excellent karma and can no longer mod? there are indeed far more mario games.

    • Not to mention the advertising, at least here in Japan. Nintendo had very high profile TV commercials showing the gameplay and the fact that people of all generations enjoyed playing it. And, of course, it was and is plastered all over video game store shelves. 3 million of those 10 million copies were sold in Japan, so they must be doing something right.
    • Yoshi's Island (Super Mario World 2 I think) was also a great game in the franchise. Different concept, but still a very similar playing style. Plus it kept you coming back to unlock new levels, similar to NSMB DS and Wii. Probably the first game in the series to do that.

      Ah, nostalgia.

  • by rsmith-mac ( 639075 ) on Tuesday January 26, 2010 @02:11AM (#30901092)

    For anyone trying to grasp just where 10mil would fit in, here's how it would compared to some other games based on VGChartz' data:

    Ahead of: Halo (any of them), Xbox 360 versions of Call of Duty (any of them), Myst, GTA4 (360), Gears of War (any of them), Final Fantasy 7, Gran Turismo 4

    Some games it's behind: Starcraft (11mil), Gran Turismo 3 (15mil), The Sims (16mil), Super Mario Bros. 3 (17mil), GTA: San Andreas (PS2, 18mil), Mario Kart Wii (20mil), a massive number of handheld games (which sell well because they're cheap), and several pack-in titles such as Wii Sports (60mil), Super Mario Bros. 1 (40mil), and Super Mario World (20mil).

    It's a good seller, but it's not close to being the best-selling game of even this generation of consoles (that would be Mario Kart). Unless it has long legs (which is entirely likely), it's not likely to cross any of the original Mario games other than SMB2, since it still needs another 7mil units to catch up to SMB3.

    • i'd be curious to see where the numbers would lie with used game sales as well.. i know i've bought and lost/scratched/etc FF7 3-4 times by now.

      still.. fairly amazing once you put in perspective like that.

    • by osgeek ( 239988 )

      I think the focus was more on the 45 day sales figure already reaching 10mil. Long-term, I don't think that anyone will be surprised if it breaks 20mil by next Christmas.

    • "Ahead of: Halo (any of them), Xbox 360 versions of Call of Duty (any of them), Myst, GTA4 (360), Gears of War (any of them), Final Fantasy 7, Gran Turismo 4"

      Which means it has now also outsold MW2 on every platform, including the 360, _individually_ (not all combined.) Just like Reggie bet that it would. [1up.com] He originally said it would beat Modern Warfare 2 on one platform by the end of January. (The person he was interviewing then specified the 360 and Reggie didn't seem to object. Which led to a lot of co
  • Especially Super Metroid.

    Though, there would be something to be said for a well-rendered 3D Samus Aran sans armor....

    • Especially Super Metroid.

      While all the details aren't known, they are working on another Metroid [metroid-database.com]. While part of the development team is Team Ninja, the other part is the same guys who worked on Metroid Fusion, which is the department which descended from the department which made Super Metroid.

      He's to a true sequel to Super Metroid that isn't a clone and doesn't withhold gameplay elements (eg: single-column wall jumps)

      /me holds up glass

  • by joeflies ( 529536 ) on Tuesday January 26, 2010 @02:28AM (#30901178)
    The reason that developers stopped making side scrollers wasn't because that 3d games were better. In some cases (sony) they pushed the 3d gaming capabilities of the PSX so hard that if I remember correctly, they forbid the publication of 2d games on it. The fact is that 2d games are still fun and can still be fun. Just because a particular console has a feature doesn't mean it's needed, and that goes for wii too, with too many games adding motion sensor to it even though it's not necessary. It's good to see some good old arcade action come back full circle.
    • by Hadlock ( 143607 )

      I think the PSX also didn't have dedicated hardware for 2D applications, so games like Marvel vs. Capcom ran particularly bad.

      • by tepples ( 727027 )
        The PS1 didn't have enough RAM. A lot of the 2D games that looked better on the Saturn than on the PS1 required the Saturn's RAM expansion cartridge. It was less of a problem of the N64 or the DS because of their lightning-fast seek time.
    • I just downloaded a bunch of old Nintendo Power magazines for some nostalgic reading, and I was browsing one from after the N64 came out but before the Super Nintendo was retired.

      Holy shit, the letter section was dominated by people complaining about some 2D game on the N64. "I didn't get an N64 to play 2D games!".

      That may be part of why they stopped making the 2D games for a while--they weren't "next gen" enough for people

    • by dzfoo ( 772245 )

      Well, the problem back in the 1990s, when 3-D games started getting popular, was a matter of perception: 3-D games were the new-fangled rage, and anybody who made a plain-old 2-D scroller was thought of as being behind the times and totally uncool. The tacit understanding was that 3-D games where a priori more sophisticated and innovative than any 2-D side-scroller.

      I remember this because when "Oddworld: Abe's Oddyssey" came out, some gaming magazines gave it a bad review just because it was a 2-D side-sc

    • While I agree with you, I should point out that the new Wii Super Mario does use motion sensor; a few actions, like using the propeller hat, require you to shake the controller.

      • by Hatta ( 162192 )

        They should make a Mario game that requires you to throw the controller across the room. I'd be great at that one.

      • While I agree with you, I should point out that the new Wii Super Mario does use motion sensor; a few actions, like using the propeller hat, require you to shake the controller.

        True, but I get the impression that this is because Nintendo planned poorly with the Wiimotes. You basically need a couple extra buttons for SNES-level Mario gameplay. Failing that, they hacked in a few things (like lifting POW blocks) with the motion control.

        I don't want the Nintendo controller to look like the double-shoulder button mess that the Playstation input devices have become, but a SNES style 4 buttons would probably have been a good idea. 2 is just a bit limiting.

        • by Sancho ( 17056 )

          I think that the more buttons you add, the more you alienate players. For a lot of casual players, more than a couple of buttons is honestly hard to deal with. "I want to pick this up, which button do I press again?"

          But shaking is a completely different action. It's not a matter of "which button", but a matter of "what do I do?" People can remember this more easily than remembering yet another button to push.

          That's not to say that Nintendo necessarily planned things this way, but they may well have.

    • In some cases (sony) they pushed the 3d gaming capabilities of the PSX so hard that if I remember correctly, they forbid the publication of 2d games on it.

      Then explain to me why there were so many Mega Man X [wikipedia.org] games for the PSX.

  • Good game. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by miffo.swe ( 547642 )

    Its a really good game with excellent levels and layout. The real fun starts when you play it with a couple of friends. I really hope there will be more games like this coming out.

  • by PhiberOptix ( 182584 ) on Tuesday January 26, 2010 @08:20AM (#30902982)

    On the latest Iwata Asks (where the president of Nintendo interviews his staff) there's a lot of interesting info about how Miyamoto came up with the sound effect for the propeller mario, why mario wears overalls, why use a mushroom as a powerup, why turtles as opponents and other interesting info.

    http://us.wii.com/iwata_asks/nsmb/vol1_page1.jsp

  • Good game, but... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by VickiM ( 920888 )
    It's a really fun game. I'm only in World 7, but I look forward to the rest. My only problem has been when I tried to take it to a relative's house this past weekend. They're in one of the infamous dial-up bubbles all over the country, so they haven't bothered setting up wireless. The disk required a system update before it would play, so we couldn't play it. I scoured the box for a warning, expecting better from Nintendo, but couldn't find it.
  • Funny (Score:2, Insightful)

    by smd75 ( 1551583 )

    This came out the day after I 100% completed NSMBW, It was worth the money, totally.

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