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Nintendo Top Japanese Game Charts
Thanks to Reuters for the news that Nintendo have recaptured the top of the videogame software charts for the first half of the business year in Japan. According to the piece, "Konami, which shoved Nintendo aside in the April-September period last year thanks to its popular soccer game [the Winning Eleven series], slipped to No.2", as the two companies "sold a total 3.1 million and 2.9 million units respectively", with Super Mario Advance 4 and Wario Ware, Inc particular sales highlights for Nintendo. The story also notes: "As for hardware, sales of Microsoft's Xbox game console remained in a slump in Japan, selling only 28,656 units, well below Sony's PlayStation 2 at 1.1 million and Nintendo's GameCube at 319,037."
They have games that are still just plain FUN. It seems that the more popular American games (mostly for Xbox and PC), and the more popular PS2 games are darker, and focus on cool instead of fun. Nintendo doesn't seem to care about the latest fashion trends in games. They just keep making games that are simply fun. I just got F-Zero GX, and it's simply an incredibly fun experience. I just started playing Max Payne again, however, and it's not so much fun as it is "hey, bullet time, cool." Nobody complains about weak stories on Nintendo Games, because that's not their main focus. On the hardware end, that purple plastic cube and the grab-and-go controller both exude a "just-play-me" aura. The buttons are all unique on the Game Cube, "A" is a huge green one, "B" is a small red one, "X" is a horizontal bar, and "Y" is a vertical bar. The right analog stick is clearly, and typically programmed to be, a camera control. The left is obviously where your thumb goes. People hardly ever complains about controls in a Nintendo game!
Congratulations and best of luck to Nintendo, for being the last company to hold out and keep gaming as a fun pastime that everyone can enjoy.