I like WarioWare NGC a lot. I didn't own the GBA one though. Finally got to play the multiplayer some these past weeks though, and its a blast. I don't know why people are ripping on it's single player. It was my first time playing through it and I liked it a lot. It's too bad it didn't sell.
Anyways, I think the most interesting thing in those sales figures is looking at the top game sellers. Fight Night 2004 (which I've never heard of) and NBA Ballers (another Sports game I've never heard of) dominate up there. A couple of Baseball games. The ever present Halo (probably driven up a bit by the XBox price drop). It seems like if Nintendo really wants to peak out the sales charts they're best of to sell themselves as a Sports game company, something they weren't even back in the NES days I think.
Then theres a few franchises: Pokemon, RE, Hitman, and Splinter Cell. Seems like MGS could easily have been in that group. I don't really blame lack of advertising on that though. I don't know why they sold, but I ain't seen to many ads for those games. I'm guessing its word of mouth that sold 'em more than anything. I don't think advertising drives sales in this industry. Actually, I take that back, Ad's do work, but not TV Ads. Demo disks at stores, and big standup posters drive hype more than anything. At least that's how I've always felt. Cool posters at every EB across the country could have upped MGS:TT's sales I bet. A clever/slightly ambiguous magazine ad gets me way more excited than a fast paced TV commercial. Maybe I'm just weird though.