Topic: New Super Mario Bros. Wii Sets Sales Record in Japan

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Hating on things to drive site traffic works for a couple weeks.  But it's been 3 years already.

[Deguello]

IGN seems pretty angry about NSMBW being successful, their latest report on it makes a point citing all the critical response and whatnot.Yahtzee (Zero Punctuation) also seemed strangely angry about it for no reason though by now he seems to have turned hating the Wii into one of his trademark features.

Yahtzee's made a few PC games himself, I think.  Surely they are paragons of development to will leave all in awe and wonder.

(Surprise!  They're a bunch of crappy PC adventure games.)

[EasyCure]

"3D Mario just continued Nintendo's decline into irrelevance."
It still boggles my mind that Super Mario Galaxy selling over 8 million copies worldwide could be thought of as a failing. Apart from in Japan, SMG did very well commercially.

And I'm assuming critically as well, no?

That is until IGN and the like found a way to revert to prepubescent adolescence...

IGN seems pretty angry about NSMBW being successful, their latest report on it makes a point citing all the critical response and whatnot.Yahtzee (Zero Punctuation) also seemed strangely angry about it for no reason though by now he seems to have turned hating the Wii into one of his trademark features.

^yeah, that.

[Killer_Man_Jaro]

"3D Mario just continued Nintendo's decline into irrelevance."
It still boggles my mind that Super Mario Galaxy selling over 8 million copies worldwide could be thought of as a failing. Apart from in Japan, SMG did very well commercially.

And I'm assuming critically as well, no?

Oh, without a sliver of doubt. How does 3rd highest rated game of all time sound?

New Super Mario Bros Wii did pretty well on that front as well, mind you. The people who are angry at this game's success... oh dear.

[Ian Sane]

Super Mario Galaxy has kept Mario critically relevant and NSMB Wii has kept him commercially relevant.  No matter how you look at it he's on top.  And Galaxy still sold well and NSMB was still critically acclaimed so it ain't even like his games are one or the other.  This is like Mario's silver age (golden age would SMB->SMW era natch).

[KDR_11k]

Hell, if NSMBW hadn't put 2D Mario back on the map Mario would still have had Mario Kart to stay relevant.

[NWR_insanolord]

Galaxy has sold more than every 360 game except one, which it's less than 100,000 below, and it's sold twice as many copies as any PS3 game. It's crazy to say that it was not a huge commercial success.

[Mop it up]

I think people are "disappointed" with sales of Super Mario Galaxy because it hasn't sold more than Super Mario 64 despite being released on a system with a larger userbase, and it hasn't outsold any 2D Mario games besides Super Mario Brothers 2 (both versions). What will be interesting to see are sales of Super Mario Galaxy 2, which I expect to be lower than the first game for various reasons.

[Chozo Ghost]

Hell, if NSMBW hadn't put 2D Mario back on the map Mario would still have had Mario Kart to stay relevant.

2D Mario was already made relevant before back in 2006 when NSMB came to the DS.

[Luigi Dude]

According to Nikkei Net, New Super Mario Bros Wii has now sold 10 million copies worldwide.  The fact that it was able hit this in only 8 weeks on one console, makes it the fastest selling individual format title to reach 10 million.

I imagine the staff of IGN is now on suicide watch.

[NWR_Lindy]

I just think that the heyday of the 3D platformer is over.  The concept has been done to death and isn't really "fresh" any more, at least fresh enough to go beyond the built-in Nintendo/Mario/3D Platformer fanbase.

However, a good 2D Mario game hasn't been done on a console for a LONG time, and NSMB Wii's "retro"-ness immediately ropes in players in their 30's and 40's that probably haven't played video games since the NES/SNES days.  These people now have a Wii (mostly for their kids), and would like something to play after the kids go to bed, or with their kids, or with their spouse.  They know Mario, they like Mario, the game is a no-brainer purchase.

It wouldn't surprise me if it sells 25-30 million by the time it's done.  Wii Fit has sold over 22 million copies, and Mario has more potential for continued sales IMHO.

[ShyGuy]

Excellent insight from Lindy. The heyday of the 3D platformer is indeed over. So are a lot of other genres too. The problem is, new genres aren't exactly filling in the gap. We have the sandbox genre from last gen thanks to GTA, The music game genre which has been ran into the ground in the space of four years, and Resident Evil 4 updated the third person shooter genre.

As a trade off, JRPGs, Strategy games. Flight sims, 3D Platformers, 3D fighting games, Survival Horror, Strategy RPGs, and even racing games to an exent are all faded/fading away.

Soon we will be down to FPS and Third person shooters with the occasional Third person action game thrown in.

This is why Nintendo went blue ocean and created Wii Sports and Wii Fit outside the stagnant waters.

[Stratos]

Yahtzee (Zero Punctuation) also seemed strangely angry about it for no reason though by now he seems to have turned hating the Wii into one of his trademark features.

Which is funny because from his earlier videos I got an impression that he was actually fond of the Wii. Maybe it was because he seemed to hate less on the earlier Wii games he reviewed.

Yahtzee's made a few PC games himself, I think.  Surely they are paragons of development to will leave all in awe and wonder.

(Surprise!  They're a bunch of crappy PC adventure games.)

I thought his adventure games were great titles that had great atmosphere and engaging stories. I was surprised how much I got into them in spite of their old, pixilated graphics. And the music just worked as well. I was genuinely freaked out my the monsters that hunted you.

[Ian Sane]

Excellent insight from Lindy. The heyday of the 3D platformer is indeed over. So are a lot of other genres too. The problem is, new genres aren't exactly filling in the gap. We have the sandbox genre from last gen thanks to GTA, The music game genre which has been ran into the ground in the space of four years, and Resident Evil 4 updated the third person shooter genre.

As a trade off, JRPGs, Strategy games. Flight sims, 3D Platformers, 3D fighting games, Survival Horror, Strategy RPGs, and even racing games to an exent are all faded/fading away.

Soon we will be down to FPS and Third person shooters with the occasional Third person action game thrown in.

This is why Nintendo went blue ocean and created Wii Sports and Wii Fit outside the stagnant waters.

Considering how milked first and third person shooters are I doubt we'll ever get to the point where just those will be made.  Their time will come and go like everything else.  I think it's all really a matter of effort and the Wii series is not the only option.  Hell, Pikmin probably could have had a bigger impact if the Cube wasn't so unsuccessful.  They make a new one on the Wii and it could influence a new genre.  Or maybe not.  You never know but it's always worth the effort.  We know new ideas exist because if you have a "design your own game" discussion on a forum like this new ideas pop out of the woodwork all the time.  It's a matter of choice.
 
And ironically if anyone contributes to making games stagnant it's Nintendo themselves.  They stick to their franchises more than ever these days.  The Wii series is the exception.  As great as NSMB Wii is it's one of Nintendo's least original games.  It's pretty much a cookie-cutter sequel to the DS game with very half-assed multiplayer shoehorned in.  And the DS NSMB was a supreme "play-it-safe" return to the classic Mario gameplay.  And we've got Super Mario Galaxy 2 on the way.  We didn't get a Super Mario 64 2 or a Super Mario Sunshine 2 but we are getting a very straightforward sequel to Galaxy.  It'll probably turn out great and I'm looking forward to it but it's a very low risk safe and unoriginal game.
 
If Nintendo put their creative effort to something besides non-games or sequels they could probably bust out some groundbreaking new genres.  It's all about whether you try or not.  They, like most videogame companies, are content with coasting.  Zelda with Motion+ however has a lot of potential to have a big impact.

[KDR_11k]

By the looks of it the game industry will cling to the xPS no matter how low it falls and if the xPS market crashes so does the game industry.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

We can hope.

[Ian Sane]

By the looks of it the game industry will cling to the xPS no matter how low it falls and if the xPS market crashes so does the game industry.

All it takes is one company to find success with something new and everyone will copy them.  If shooters cease to make money they won't be made as much.  You know why so many FPS games are being made?  It's because Halo and Call of Duty are hugely successful.  Even while other first person shooters are flopping and losing money SOMEBODY is very clearly making big money on them so the followers do the same thing.  It's no different than how Nintendo is making oodles of money off of the Wii series but the copycats are bombing huge.  The companies that keep trying to sell you a shitty rip-off of Wii Sports aren't looking at the poor sales of other games like that.  They're looking at Nintendo getting rich.
 
The Call of Duty series is one of the best selling series of the last 15 years.  So nobody looks at Haze bankrupting Free Radical they look at Activision getting rich off Call of Duty and think "I've got to get in on that."
 
So the industry won't cling to something that's not making money because they only cling to stuff that SOMEONE is making money off of.  Companies may go under but I think the industry will be safe.  Coming up with the next big thing provides a business advantage so there will always be a company trying to come up with the next big thing.  Money inspires innovation.
 
If the industry truly crashes Nintendo will crash with it.

[Chozo Ghost]

All it takes is one company to find success with something new and everyone will copy them.

Sorry, Ian, but that's wrong. Nintendo has been EXTREMELY successful by producing quality games on the market leading console. Third parties are not copying them and repeating their success.

Third parties get it wrong by either producing crap, or putting stuff on the competing systems which don't have the market share. Nintendo consistently gets things right, but is their successful strategy being imitated? Hell no,

[Ian Sane]

Sorry, Ian, but that's wrong. Nintendo has been EXTREMELY successful by producing quality games on the market leading console. Third parties are not copying them and repeating their success.

I never said copycats get it right.  But it's clear that WiiSports kicked off a trend of inferior knock-offs.  I don't expect them to repeat Nintendo's success, just to attempt to.  The fact that no one really has makes the most sense - the innovators are usually more successful.
 
Third parties see Nintendo's strategy as "glorified mini-game comps = $$$" and miss the point.  They miss the marketing and the fact that Nintendo's games are always of a high quality and that Nintendo doesn't just make non-games.  But they still make what they make because they see Nintendo succeeding and assume they can do the same thing, they just miss the details.  Same reason why everyone is shooter-happy on the other consoles and everyone was making GTA rip-offs last gen and we had eras of Super Mario clones and Street Fighter II clones.
 
Whether or not one actually succeeds in imitation is irrelevant.  It's probably more common to fail by doing so.

[Mop it up]

I just think that the heyday of the 3D platformer is over.  The concept has been done to death and isn't really "fresh" any more, at least fresh enough to go beyond the built-in Nintendo/Mario/3D Platformer fanbase.

I'm not so sure that 3D platforming has reached its full potential. Its hayday was on the Nintendo 64; besides Mario there have been very few released on successive systems. Lesser-known Nintendo 64 titles like Space Station Silicon Valley and Rocket: Robot on Wheels brought some really interesting ideas, which could be expanding upon using modern hardware. And I'm sure with a system like the Wii, there are some unexplored ideas to be found.

I love platformers of all kinds so I really wish they'd make a comeback...

[Chozo Ghost]

Now that we have a traditional hardcore type game (NSMB) with MEGA popularity we can only hope the 3rd parties will start imitating that. I must admit that I don't really care at all about Non-games, even if they are 1st party non-games of exceptional quality. I probably tinkered around with Wii Sports and Wii Play for a few hours before moving on to other games...

So 3rd parties attempting to imitate that doesn't matter to me at all. But now there's NSMB, and that is a genre of game that very much matters to me. I don't expect 3rd parties to produce clones of the same level of quality as Nintendo is capable of, but it would be nice if they would at least try. I hope they can have some success. I don't think anything they do could ever be as successful as NSMB has been and will be, but that doesn't mean they still can't do very well for themselves.

No more Raving Rabbids, please. But a few authentic Rayman games would be nice.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Is Sucker Punch still around? I never did get to finish Rocket: Robot on Wheels and would like to see a VC release.

[UltimatePartyBear]

They made Infamous.  They seem to be in the Sony camp, but I'm not sure if that's because of ownership.

[King of Twitch]

I'm not so sure that 3D platforming has reached its full potential...And I'm sure with a system like the Wii, there are some unexplored ideas to be found.

I love platformers of all kinds so I really wish they'd make a comeback...

We didn't get a Super Mario 64 2

Still waiting

[TJ Spyke]

They made Infamous.  They seem to be in the Sony camp, but I'm not sure if that's because of ownership.

They are an independent company, but they have only worked with Sony since 2000. Sucker Punch is best known for making the Sly Cooper games.