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Nintendo isn’t waiting for E3 to announce its upcoming titles for the Wii and DS. Gamers will be treated to several old favorites with games featuring Mario, Wario and Kirby as well as another Mystery Case Files game.

Frankly I was hoping to see some new fresh titles, but it appears that Nintendo is playing it safe and putting its money on old reliable franchises. Still, the company knows what it does well and keeps doing it. Details on Mario Super Sluggers, Kirby Super Star Ultra, Wario Land: Shake It! and Mystery Case Files: MillionHeir follow the break.
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I’m a big fan of Boom Blox; it’s one of my favorite Wii games, and certainly the most fun I’ve had with any third-party title on the platform. The overall reaction to the game was quite positive, as the game garnered solid reviews. But according to the NPD Group (via GameDaily), the game sold only 60k copies in May, coming in at #25 for the month — surely that’s not what Electronic Arts had in mind for their Steven Spielberg-branded game had in mind, particularly in a month where sales of the system were so high at just over 675k.

Analysts have been split about what this means. Ben Schachter said, “While overall hardware and software trends for the Nintendo Wii continue to be strong, we would like to see more third-party hits on the platform,” before adding, “To-date, Guitar Hero III, Sega of America’s Mario and Sonic: Olympic Games, and TTWO’s Carnival Games are the only third-party Wii games that have sold more than 1 million units to-date according to NPD, and there are many third-party Wii exclusives that have come-and-gone with minimal reaction from the market.”

Anita Frazier disagrees and simply believes the game was caught in a month where the attention was directed to things like Wii Fit and GTA, which is the theory I personally subscribe to. “It’s still really hard for new IP to breakthrough the noise in the market, and there has been a lot of noise so far this year. Between Super Smash Bros. Brawl, GTA IV, Wii Fit, Mario Kart and the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 4 (to name a few), there have been some really high profile game releases. The game was really well reviewed so I’m suspecting the marketing just didn’t break through the clutter to the extent that they were hoping for,” she said.

Earlier this week, however, EA CEO John Riccitiello told the audience at the William Blair Investor Conference (via MTV Multiplayer) that sales were actually on target, and that it had actually “met our expectations internally.” He also remains hopeful about the game’s future, saying, “A title like this one — can it do several hundred thousand or a million or more units? Sure, it’s just gotta keep selling.”

I’ve gotta think that PR and marketing folks are as envious as can be of those who work at Nintendo. At the very least, when it comes to responding to the month’s NPD numbers, it’s the easy job there can be — there’s no need to spin the numbers to make things look good. The numbers speak for themselves and with the release of Wii Fit, Nintendo dominated both the hardware and software sides of the NPDs in May.

Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit ended up number two and three on the best selling software for month of May in North America, which Nintendo’s Cammie Dunaway attributes to the Wii Wheel and Balance Board accessories’ attractiveness to both new and veteran gamers alike.

“The Wii Wheel and Wii Balance Board accessories make game play fun for new gamers while presenting new challenges for those who have been playing a long time,” said Dunaway. “The diversity of the seven Nintendo games represented in NPD’s top 10 for May demonstrates how Nintendo has something for everyone.”

More than 5.8 million copies of Wii Play have been sold to date, according to Nintendo. I wonder what percentage of those purchased weren’t entirely for the purpose of securing a second Wiimote — could it be anything less than 99%?

One fact I found particularly interesting was that, of the top 30 best-selling games in May, 19 of them were for Nintendo platforms. That means only 11 of the remaining titles were for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, and PSP. (Without even having the numbers in my hands, I think it’s safe to assume none of the games were for the original Xbox.) Most of them can’t even begin to compare with GTA, but for there to be that many Wii and DS games selling well has got be playing a major role in future plans for developers and publishers.

While I’m always interested in seeing each month’s NPD results, what I perhaps like even more is getting to see each hardware manufacturer’s spin on the numbers. Although, really, Nintendo doesn’t need any spin with numbers like these.

Microsoft’s spin on the May numbers hones in on the number of copies GTA IV sold on Xbox 360 versus “the other platform’s version” (Why can’t they just say PlayStation 3? It’s said a number of times throughout the rest of the release) and how much money the system is generating for third party publishers.

Higher Metacritic scores and the Nielsen report that 10-26 year olds play more on 360 than either the Wii or PS3 are also featured the Microsoft press release, so there’s actually quite a bit more variety than they had last month.

Oh, and they might mention that record-breaking attach rate. Again.

Hit the break for the full spin.

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It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise when you consider GTA didn’t have much time to sell in April, but it was a much closer contest for the top spots in May than you might have guessed. While the 360 version of GTA IV did take the top spot with 871.3k copies sold, Mario Kart was right on its heels with 784.4k and Wii Fit not too far behind at 687.7k. The PS3 version of GTA IV came in at number four with 442.9k and then there was a significant drop off to number five, Wii Play, which sold 294.6k copies.

Wii Play’s number is actually fairly low given the number of Wii systems that were sold in the month, but it’s quite possible that many of those Wiis were sold alongside a copy of Wii Fit, which isn’t a multiplayer-happy game like so many other games in the system’s library.

The DS and Wii also took four more spots in the top ten with Smash Bros., Guitar Hero III, and the two versions of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon coming in at numbers 6, 8, 9, and 10. Iron Man on the unkillable PlayStation 2 snuck in at number 7, no doubt thanks in large part to the movie’s great success.

May 2008 Software Sales:

1. Grand Theft Auto IV (360) - 871,300
2. Mario Kart Wii w/ wheel (Wii) - 787,400
3. Wii Fit w/ balance board (Wii) - 687,700
4. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3) - 442,900
5. Wii Play w/ remote (Wii) - 294,600
6. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) - 171,100
7. Iron Man (PS2) - 130,600
8. Guitar Hero III (Wii) - 116,800
9. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness (DS) - 107,000
10. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time (DS) - 102,000

Metal Gear Solid 4 is sure to come in highly with the June NPDs, and it’ll be difficult to overcome both Grand Theft Auto and a continued stream of Wii Fit copies. It’s definitely got a good shot at outselling them, though, and with those hard-to-come-by MGS4 bundles selling like crazy, the PS3 will be sure to see a nice bump in the first month of summer.

While poking fun at crappy box art is always good fun, the reason for doing it is simply because it’s so terrible. There’s nothing more than that to it — so GamesRadar decided to take a different look at it, and see how sometimes box art just gets stuff flat-out wrong.

For instance, see the above image. Now, I’m not a huge superhero buff, but I think I have to agree with GR’s assessment that Spider-Man generally uses webs, not ropes, to traverse the city. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Mario Kart Wii and its lack of karts in any way, shape or form also made the list, as did Fabio — but I’ll let you find out the rest for yourself.

With a month like Nintendo had in April, there’s really no need to provide any sort of spin whatsoever. Just look at the numbers: dominating performances by both of their systems, six of the ten best selling games were on Nintendo platforms, five of which were published by Nintendo. All they really need to do is regurgitate what the NPD released and bam — point made.

“Wii sales were buoyed in part by the strong launch of Mario Kart Wii, which sold more than 1.1 million units,” said Nintendo VP Cammie Dunaway. “Our belief in appealing to a broad, diverse audience of players continues to resonate with consumers, and we look forward to continuing our outreach to an expanded audience with the launch of Wii Fit next week.”

They even provided a handy bullet point list to describe how they beat down Sony and Microsoft:

• Mario Kart Wii finished as the No. 2 game of the month.
• Six of the top 10 games of the month are for Nintendo systems: Mario Kart Wii (No. 2), Wii Play (No. 4), Super Smash Bros. Brawl (No. 5), Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness (No. 7), Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time (No. 8 ) and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (No. 9).
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl crossed the 3 million sales mark in the United States.
• Wii and Nintendo DS again finished as the two top-selling hardware systems.

As it turns out, GameStop’s claim that 64% of all copies of GTA IV sold were on Xbox 360 was spot on — 64.9% is the exact number if you do the math with NPD’s numbers for the month of April. Between the 360 and PS3 versions of the game, GTA IV managed to sell 2.85 million even though it was released on April 29 — not too shabby.

Mario Kart Wii, meanwhile, sold more than a million copies. That’s a million plastic wheels out there in the wild, imparing people’s ability to control the game properly. And of course, with the number of Wii systems that sold in April, you know you’re going to see a lot of Wii Play sales, and that we did. Smash Bros. had a big drop off, from 2.7 million in March down to 326k in April. Not that Nintendo should be complaining, with five of their games in the top ten, with six of the top ten on Nintendo platforms.

April 2008 Software Sales

GTA IV (360) - 1.85M
Mario Kart Wii w/ wheel (Wii) - 1.12M
GTA IV (PS3) - 1.00M
Wii Play (Wii) - 360,000
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) - 326,000
Gran Turismo 5: Prologue (PS3) - 224,000
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness (DS) - 202,000
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time (DS) - 202,000
Guitar Hero III (Wii) - 152,000
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360) - 141,000

Call of Duty 4 on 360 continues to do its best Mustafa impression, as it just refuses to be kicked out of the top ten. Could next month finally see it kicked out? I’m going to go ahead and predict a bold “no.”

Nintendo has issued a challenge to racing fans everywhere to join one of its new Mario Kart Wii Tournaments. The first tournament is today, on the new Mario Kart Channel. Today’s challenge is to compete for the fastest time on a modified Mario Circuit. you can compete as often as you like. Your scores will be ranked and compared with racers from around the world.

Tournaments will be available every few weeks, presenting racers with new challenges. Some events may require you to race with a specific character or collect a certain amount of coins. The only universal requirement is that you have an online connection.

via Press Release

We are all well aware that the giant that is GTA IV will be hitting stores on Tuesday. We also know that Mario Kart Wii will be released tomorrow, which is Sunday, which is a weird day for a game release, which is why I am using the world “which” so much.

Nevertheless, there ARE other games hitting shelves next week, and while they deserve just as much attention as any other highly anticipated title, whoever decided that this would be a great week to launch their game needs either a reality check or to lay off the sauce.

Here are the games slated to hit shelves next week. As always, we are not responsible for any changes to said dates - blame the publisher, not us. Since there are not as many releases as previous weeks, I did not break them down by system this time and listed the date instead:

• April 27: Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
• April 28: Corvette Evolution GT (DS), Requiem: Bloodymare (PC)
• April 29: Brain Voyage (DS), GTA IV & GTA IV Special Edition (PS3, Xbox 360), Let’s Pilates (DS), Let’s Yoga (DS) Polar Games 2 (PC), Riding Star (PS2) SNK Arcade Classics: Volume 1 (PS2, PSP) Toy Shop (DS) Winx Club: Mission Enchantix (DS)

For more information on any of the games listed above, just click through the links.

We always hear a lot about attach rates or tie-in ratios, which are basically the average number of games sold per system. So, if you’ve got an attach rate of 1, that means you would have sold, say, 10 million systems and 10 million games. Microsoft constantly boasts its large attach rate, but how do the rest of the current generation of systems hold up by comparison? You might be surprised to find out.

After Nintendo announced its global attach rate, Joystiq inquired with the NPD Group to find out their attach rate for the five major platforms. Xbox 360 of course leads the way with 7.5 games, followed by the Wii at 5.3, DS at 4.7, PS3 at 4.6, and PSP at 4.2. Honestly, I’m not sure if I should be more surprised by the Wii’s being as large as it is, or the PSP being so close to the rest of the pack. It’s rare to see a PSP game crack into the top ten best selling games each month, while games like Call of Duty 4 and particularly Wii Play have taken up permanent residence on the list.

The last time we got these figures, the PS3 was in the threes, so you can see that PS3 owners are slowly expanding their game library. (Well, either that or Blu-ray owners can’t help but pick up a copy of Uncharted.) With Grand Theft Auto IV, Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii all releasing very soon, you can expect to see the consoles’ attach rates jump. The only thing guaranteed aside from that is the next Microsoft press release touting their historic attach rate.

Stephany reported yesterday Mario was going to be in New York City to promote the upcoming release of Mario Kart Wii by offering passing New Yorkers a free cab ride to anywhere in NYC. I decided to head out myself and see what all of the hubbub was about!

I arrived at the hotel 10 minutes before Mario was expected to come out. As I was standing there, I noticed there were 3 or 4 other people obviously waiting for Mario to come out as well. I can pretty much tell who’s a fellow video game journalist. It’s a 6th sense I have.

At noon, Mario finally emerged with his handler and personal security.

He posed for the cameras at first, but then it was time to get down to business.

Here’s Mario giving away the first cab ride. I felt like I needed to comment on Mario’s excellent cab calling ability. But not every cab ride was as smooth as this one.

All in all, the event was a simple one that I felt not many New Yorkers took advantage of only because I believe they live by the motto “Nothing in life is free”. There were some times during the event I saw a couple of people get in cabs on their own without even approaching Mario to get a free ride.

If you’d like to see all of the videos I took and pictures from the event, feel free to hit either of the links below.

Mario Gives Free Cab Ride 1
Mario Gives Free Cab Ride 2
Mario Gives Free Cab Ride 3
Mario Gives Free Cab Ride 4
Mario Gives Free Cab Ride 5

Pictures

To celebrate the launch of Mario Kart Wii Nintendo will send commuters racing through New York City when Mario treats unsuspecting resident to a free cab ride tomorrow.

Mario is in New York to promote Mario Kart Wii, which launches on April 27th and will be packaged with the Wii Wheel accessory. The game also introduces a host of new courses, vehicles and battle arenas, plus the ability to compete online with drivers from around the world using a Wi-Fi connection.

Starting tomorrow from 8-10 a.m. and 12-2 p.m at the Sheraton Hotel on 811 7th Ave, between 52nd and 53rd streets, Mario will be hailing down cabs for New York commuters, queuing up people for a free cab ride and more fun Mario mayhem.

We should receive assets for this sometime after the festivities so check back with us.

Via: Press Release

When you published the top selling game of the month – which sold 2.7 million copies – and have the two best selling systems in the industry, there isn’t a whole lot of need to spin the facts. As such, Nintendo’s issued statement on the March NPDs is nothing more than a rehash of the numbers that the NPD Group released.

“Nintendo systems represented 58 percent of all video game hardware sold in March in the United States,” said Nintendo executive VP Cammie Dunaway.“We expect our momentum to continue with big upcoming game launches like Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit.”

They also point out the fact that the DS has sold more than 19 million units in the US alone since it launched in November 2004, and that the Wii had three of the ten best selling games in March. This was the Wii’s best month in terms of console cycles outside of the holidays this past year (November and December), which is impressive, but begs the question: Why can’t there be this many Wii systems every month?

We received some new screens today for Mario Kart Wii and they show off some more of the courses you will be racing around. Like previous Mario Kart games, the Wii version looks like it is going to be a really fun game, and you don’t have much longer to wait, because it will be available in stores on April 27th.

Mario Kart Wii will include 16 new courses and 16 classic courses from previous Mario Kart games. For the first time ever, players have the option of racing with either karts or motorbikes. Players can also hit the road as their personalized Mii in addition to the handful of classic Nintendo characters found in the game. True to the series, the game features tons of racing, plenty of power-ups and oodles of objects for players to use to slow down other drivers, and the 10 battle arenas will keep players busy between trips around the circuit.

The Wii Wheel will also be sold as a separate accessory so that every member of the household can get in on the action. While the Wii Wheel is supported, so are four other control options: Wii Remote with or without the Wii Wheel, Wii Remote and Nunchuk controller combo, Classic Controller and even the Nintendo GameCube controller was not left out of the mix.

MORE SCREENS

This week’s 1UP Show features David Ellis sounding off on two of his favorite franchises, Mario Kart for the Wii and the Legendary map pack for Halo 3.

You can also look forward to checking out Square’s newest RPG, The World Ends With You alongside Jeremy Parish and Michael Donahoe.

The 1UP Show got to spend some quality time with Bungie this week, as mentioned above. How good was it? I think Matt Chandronait said it best in his blog this week:

A very big thanks to Bungie this week! Both to Writing Lead Frank O’Connor for his brilliant performance and to Multiplayer Design Lead Lars Bakken for both the candid interview and for being understanding (I hope) about me forgetting to put him in the “special thanks” section of the credits! Hey, it was my first solo gig! One should just be glad the 1UP offices are still standing and there were only scattered reports of mutiny :p

As always, FileFront is hosting the 1UP Show for your downloading pleasure. You can grab your weekly fix at any of the links below.

• QT M4V (Podcast)
• WMV 640×360
• QT 640×360

Mario Kart Wii launched yesterday over in the UK with much fanfare felt everywhere, including Ireland. If you happened to walk down Henry Street in Dublin yesterday, you may have seen Mario and Princess Peach (pictured above) celebrating the launch.

For those of you unfamiliar with Henry Street, it an awesome shopping district in the Northern end of Dublin. To be honest with you, when I lived over there, I was either at a pub drinking Bulmer’s Original Cider or spending my money on Henry Street. Either way you look at it I was constantly broke. Good times, good times.

Mario Kart Wii will be launching here in the States on April 27th.

Image: GoNintendo

Mario Kart is set to launch in the US later this month, so it was a natural fit for the latest Iwata Asks feature on Nintendo.com. This entry detailed the history of the series all the way up to Mario Kart Wii, including the development of the Wii Wheel. Kenichiro Ashida revealed that there were roughly 30 prototypes of the wheel before we get the present day Wiiel, which it seems to just be begging to be called.

Ashida said, “With regard to weight, we thought carefully about how many grams would best suit gameplay. When considering durability, we wanted to make something strong using thick materials, but increasing the weight by even 30 grams would have been considered too heavy for some people. We eventually designed it to be as light as possible so people could use it for a long time without getting tired too quickly.”

Miyamoto explained that a wheel is such a natural way of interacting, it was a perfect fit. “A steering wheel is so easy to understand. Almost everyone has the experience of using some kind of steering wheel, from riding toy cars with pedals as children, to driving real go karts at a theme park. Everyone knows how to turn the wheel right in order to go right. Besides, I kind of wanted to make a product that would come in a big box for a change!”

I’m surprised it actually took Nintendo this long to create a wheel. It seems more like they simply wanted to wait for Mario Kart to launch it, since third parties have been putting out cheap plastic circles and calling them wheels for quite some time now. It’s not like Mario Kart was the only driving game that could have used it; even the Wii launch game Excite Truck was using the same maneuvers as a wheel, only with nothing more than the Wiimote.

Nintendo has announced that the May 13 launch of the Wii Want More service for the Wii Shop will give players the opportunity to grab new downloadable content for Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Four new characters and two new stages will be available for free for one month after the Wii Want More launch. If for some reason you don’t take advantage of this sweet deal, you’ll still be able to grab the goods for 10 USD.

There will be DLC available for 27 games total at launch including The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, and Mario Kart. The new service is also offering third party developers the opportunity to offer DLC. All of you Rock Band fans out there that were disappointed by the announcement that there are no plans for DLC for the Wii version should make it your business to tell Harmonix how you feel about it.

UPDATE: The sharp eyes of a couple of our readers have spotted something that indicates this is a hoax generated for April Fools Day. I surely hoped it wasn’t, because not only would it be great to have DLC for these titles, but I believe that Nintendo needs to go this direction to compete with XBL and PSN.

via Nintendo Pressroom?

Eidos has announced that a game based on the older than dirt legendary Hanna-Barbera cartoon, Wacky Races, is coming soon to the Wii and DS. “Wacky Races: Crash & Dash” will have players racing each other across crazy courses from the TV show using a variety of oddball characters. Many of the cartoon’s characters will show up, like Penelope Pitstop, Peter Perfect, and Dick Dastardly. You’ll also be able to collect power-ups to gain an edge over your opponent. The game will ship in June…by which time you’ll probably be to busy playing Mario Kart Wii to care.

Via Press Release