All Games

Nintendo’s New Super Mario Bros. Wii has sold 3,002,753 units in Japan, becoming the fastest game ever to reach the 3 million mark in that country. It accomplished the feat in seven weeks, says a Famitsu report translated by consumer weblog Kotaku. New Super Mario Bros. Wii launched in Japan on December 3, 2009, and had the biggest-ever debut for a Wii title. At that time, the title sold 936,734 units in its first week …

Ubisoft’s Just Dance has knocked Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 from the top of the UK all formats chart.

The Wii exclusive dance title – which debuted at 100 on the all formats chart seven weeks ago – recorded a 114 per cent increase in weekly sales to become Ubisoft’s first chart topper since Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 back in March 2008.

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Given that the original version of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom was released exclusively in Japan over a year ago and how long we’ve had to wait to get our hands on a (much improved) domestic version, it’s hard to believe that the time is finally nigh. Anticipation seems to be at its peak for the title, and hopefully it will make a good showing for Capcom on the Wii.

And it looks like they’re putting a little extra spit-and-polish on their promotion of this one, giving it the full television commercial treatment and everything. Check it out:

From Capcom: “Our ad agency had the idea to create this stop-motion short (a la Robot Chicken) to celebrate the zanyness of the game. Since it wasn’t something that I recall any other video game publisher doing before, we jumped all over the idea. We tried to keep it as true to the heroes’ characteristics as possible, so you’ll see some signature moves in there. You can see the spot in HD glory on USA, SyFy, Adult Swim and more starting next Monday.”

I’m just thrilled that MegaMan Volnutt got such a prominent spot.

Don’t forget to pre-order for the special lenticular trading cards, or if possible, check out the festivities of the Nintendo World Launch Event.

Despite challenges for mature games on the Wii, if a game is well-designed, the audience will come, says Kazufumi Shimizu, director of Hudson’s upcoming Wii horror title Calling. Comments from major publishers like Sega and Capcom in recent weeks have directly questioned the wisdom of developing mature content for the Wii, and Shimizu acknowledges the challenge. “When we started developing Calling, it was with the knowledge that the Wii marketplace might be a tough one …

Nintendo has released its post-NPD results statement, saying the Nintendo DS has had the best year in console gaming history and pointing to exceptionally strong sales of the Wii console in 2009. According to Nintendo, the Nintendo DS models — Nintendo DS Lite and DSi — sold over 11.2 million U.S. units combined in 2009, which the company says sets a new calendar-year sales record for a piece of video game hardware. The Wii, meanwhile, …

French-based publisher and developer Ubisoft has reported that sales targets for its third-quarter and full-year 2009-10 have been revised downwards to €495 million and around €860 million respectively, from the previously announced figures of €540 million and €1,040 million.

The company said that the revisions are due to a decrease in the DS market and a stronger focus towards AAA games adding that James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game and “several non-casual Wii titles” are reporting lower-than-expected sales.

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MadWorld was one of the year’s best games for the Wii: a short, yet broodingly violent adventure that was tons of fun, and extremely satisfying. Now, it looks like a sequel may in fact be in the works, if the game’s director is to be believed.

According to an interview with Official Nintendo Magazine UK, Platinum’s Shigenori Nishikawa reveals that “”I think MadWorld was very well received and was acknowledged for its innovative graphical style and gameplay. We would definitely be interested in making a sequel in the future.”

Of course, despite being “well received” the game was a bomb on store shelves, selling just around 60,000 copies despite a heavy marketing push from Sega. Of course, this mainly be due to the “Mature games on Wii” conundrum, but it isn’t a problem with him, apparently.

Third-party hardware company Nyko has a tendency to one-up Nintendo in many ways this generation regarding the console’s crucial controller, from releasing a Wii Remote battery solution to customizable controllers to a wireless Nunchuk attachment. Now, the company is doing something even Nintendo has yet been able to do: Offer Wii MotionPlus in a Wii Remote, built-in.

The Nyko Wand+ will feature the same form factor and size of the original Nyko Wand controller, adding in one very important addition: Wii MotionPlus compatibility. No more dongles or attachments, it’s right there for you when needed. The Wand+ will also make use of Nyko’s already-established Trans-Port technology, allowing for attachment controllers that don’t make use of the Wii Remote’s established buttons.

All this comes a darn good value, as the Wand+ will be sold for $39.99, just five bucks more than a standard Wiimote. If you’re not scared off by unlicensed peripherals, this could be worth a look.

Sony didn’t actually discuss PlayStation 3 and PSP very much during its mostly yawn-worthy CES 2010 press conference, but they happily released this number: PlayStation 3 sold 3.8 million hardware units worldwide during the five-week holiday period following Thanksgiving.

Nintendo announced earlier this week that Wii sold in excess of three million units during the month of December in the United States alone. No doubt worldwide figures are much higher.

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Nintendo recently expressed concern about lagging sales of the Wii console, but holiday results have the company publicly breaking out the sales stats once again. Nintendo Europe on Tuesday said the Wii has sold a total of 20 million units through December 2009 in Europe. The company said the hardware, launched in December 2006, is the “fastest selling home console in Europe,” having reached the milestone in about three years. The company also said that …

As Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIII fell from its top sales slot, so did its host system, the PlayStation 3, leaving the Wii to take the top slot by a significant margin. And just as PlayStation 3’s performance reflected Final Fantasy XIII’s, so did Wii’s mirror New Super Mario Bros.’s return to the top slot on the software side. According to tracking firm Media Create’s Japanese sales data for the week that ended December 27, …

[We round up the top console digital download news of the last week from sister console digital download site GamerBytes, including brand-new game announcements and scoops from the world of Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, WiiWare, PSP Minis and DSiWare.] It’s been a bit of a quiet week here at GamerBytes — heck, it’s been quiet everywhere. Still, we have some bits of news that’ll keep you up to date. Look forward to a lot …