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New Super Mario Bros. Wii Tops 10 Million Sales
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Well, my family and I have played and completed just about every Mario game imaginable (my parents are mad for it, but virtually no other game at all). We played through the Wii version just the other day and I can't say I noticed any delay in the controls at all. It *would* piss me off because I can't stand things like that (even if a good player learns to compensate for them very quickly) - SuperTux, for instance, annoys me because it's "not the same" as Mario jumps, etc. There's something about the Yoshis that is different but I can't pinpoint it, it just "feels" different to SMW Yoshi. I wouldn't say better or worse, just slightly different.
And Wii Mario is actually very good. It could do with a rethink of the "player dies if their friend pulls the screen too far" part (Gauntlet used to handle that exact situation much better nearly 20 years ago), but the game mechanics are pretty solid and traditional. I wouldn't call Wii Mario highly graphical at all - I view it in the same class as Mario All-Stars - an old game, with some revamped but virtually identical graphics, and the same old gameplay. All they've done is tuck some moves from newer Mario games into it and upped the animation / graphics a little. I actually found it pleasingly traditional, as did my parents who have never really enjoyed the 3D games... they still like to trounce each other on All-Stars Mario 3 Battle Game. The only question that remains, really, is when is Super Mario War coming out for the Wii? :-)
It is a fucking game, I am supposed to enjoy my time while playing it.
If only there were more people like you in game development and design.
I simply don't buy games anymore for several reasons, aside from the asinine price tags, but one sticks out most above all: I shouldn't be punished because I suck.
A very large number of games that I've tried lately have punished me for failure. I won't go deep into details about this one or that one, but the latest Wolfenstein title comes to mind as the last one I played for about an hour and then quit. My "allies" and I were sieging a train station, and, just as in the opening cut scene I had just watched, I tried to sprint around and go Rambo on all of the Nazis behind the door. I must've reloaded the game fifteen times and tried a different approach every time I got through this door, but alas, I kept dying. Hiding under cover to reload and recharge my "stamina" just aren't my kind of thing.
At the very least, in NSMB, when you fail too many times--and yes, even if it's because you're trying to play in a manner that's just too cavalier for your skill level for you to pull off correctly--you at least have the option to skip the level by watching Luigi one-up your ass and breeze through it. Ironically, even if you can't win it the way the developers intended you to, you can still play, have some fun, and at the very least, feel like the game was worth your money by beating the damned thing.
....I'm gonna go play some DotA and kindly get back off the hardcore gamers' lawns.
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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
Wait, are you saying that the game isn't innovative? Coin battle and 4 player co-op are two of the best innovations in the Mario franchise since 1985. Rather than just throwing the best textures and shaders their artists could make on top of the flavor of the month physics engine, Nintendo sat down and figured out how to take the classic side scrolling adventure game and make it fresh and fun again. It's not the most original game to ever hit the market, but it's sure as hell a lot more innovative than something like Modern Warfare 2. In an era when most game studios simply shit out an incremental improvement over whatever worked last year with slightly better graphics, NSMB Wii was a breath of fresh air to me. ***Disclaimer: I love MW2 even though it's not original. I also don't think NSMB Wii is the greatest game ever, but saying it's not innovative is ridiculous.
I'm using all of my mod points to mod ancient memes down. Please join me.
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.
This came out the day after I 100% completed NSMBW, It was worth the money, totally.
Im a troll because I disagree with you.
Your concept of "game" is foreign to me. A game is a contest with rules. You play by discovering/learning/developing the ability to win the contest within the rules. An activity that lets you progress without challenge or accomplishment isn't a game.
I am playing through New Super Mario Bros myself and while I appreciate the ease with which I can advance without ever losing, it does detract from the sense of accomplishment.
On the other hand, I do respect your definition of fun. As an amateur game designer (Starcraft maps, mostly) I've learned that players bring a wide variety of goals to each game. Some want to win by the intended rules. Some want to win by breaking rules. Some want to spend time socializing. Some want to give other players grief.
So I accept that NSMB is not a hardcore game. But I'd be sad if all games were as easy and forgiving as NSMB.