WiiWare
– Toribash (Nabi Studios , 1,000 Wii Points)
– Zenquaria: Virtual Aquarium (Nintendo, 600 Wii Points)
Virtual Console
– Shadow of the Ninja (Natsume Inc., NES, 600 Wii Points)
DSiWare
– SteamWorld: Tower Defense (Image & Form, 500 Nintendo DSi Points)
– Crazy Golf (dtp entertainment, 500 Nintendo DSi Points)
– 2Puzzle It – Fantasy (Neuland Multimedia, 500 Nintendo DSi Points)
– Hair Salon Pocket Stylist (505 Games, 500 Nintendo DSi Points)
– 16 Shot! SHOOTING WATCH (HUDSON SOFT, 200 Nintendo DSi Points)
“What excites me even more [than 3DS games] is that there’s technology built in that device to really combat piracy. The problem with the DS market in the last few years, particularly with the DS Lite, is that it’s just been attacked by piracy. It’s made it almost impossible to shift any significant volume. The DSi combated it a little bit, but the 3DS has taken that a step further. I actually asked Nintendo to explain the technology and they said it’s very difficult to do so because it’s so sophisticated. They combated the piracy on Dsi, which they don’t believe is cracked yet – but they know they’ve been hurt across the world and they believe the 3DS has got technology that can stop that. Therefore the opportunity for people to invest more in product development [on the system] and bring more 3DS products to market comes out of that. It’s going to probably cost us more to do it all in 3D – so we want to make sure we get a return on our investment when we do it.” – THQ’s executive VP of global publishing Ian Curran
I think it’s pretty clear that piracy has been a huge problem on the DS. Nintendo certainly has their work cut out for them with the 3DS, but it sounds like they have something interesting up their sleeves.
White Knight Chronicles 2 (PS3) – 107,655
Wii Party (Wii) – 66,703
Harvest Moon: Twin Villages (DS) – 39,464
Crackdown 2 (360) – 10,777
Dead to Rights: Retribution (PS3) – 1,515
The Conveni Portable (PSP) – 1,249
Toy Story 3 (DS) – 853
Dead to Rights: Retribution (360) – 646
“I think the third-party publishers are taking this a lot more seriously. Certainly, the video game market has changed a lot over the last year. You know, a lot of the casual games that really bombarded the DS marketplace have now moved onto other platforms like the iPhone, so I think everyone looks at this as an opportunity to kind of bring something special back to the gamers. Everyone looked at the 3DS with just how powerful it was, and the new features, the analog stick and the 3D, as an opportunity to bring almost console-level quality games to this handheld because they could. On the DS, you really couldn’t. And that’s something that we’ve learned over the last six months. You can’t treat this machine as just a DS plus. You almost have to treat it like a console, because many of the things it can do are things that consoles can do. So, you know, why not bring a more ‘gamer’ experience to that platform, if it can do really well with it?” – JC Connors, studio head at Griptonite Games
The 3DS is a very interesting device. It’s the first piece of hardware to truly introduce portable 3D gaming, and it’s also one of the closest things we’ve seen to a handheld console due to the slide pad and enhanced graphics. Also, Iwata recently mentioned that development costs could approach Wii levels.
Nintendo Wii
North America:
1. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo)
2. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo)
3. Just Dance (Ubisoft)
4. Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (Warner Bros.)
5. Wii Fit Plus with Balance Board (Nintendo)
Japan:
1. Wii Party (Nintendo)
2. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo)
3. Wii Fit Plus with Balance Board (Nintendo)
4. Xenoblade (Nintendo)
5. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo)
UK:
1. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo),
2. Dance on Broadway (Ubisoft)
3. Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (Warner Bros.)
4. Just Dance (Ubisoft)
5. Wii Fit Plus with Balance Board (Nintendo)
Nintendo DS
North America:
1. Mario Kart DS (Nintendo)
2. Toy Story 3 (Disney)
3. Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (Warner Bros.)
4. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo)
5. 100 Classic Books (Nintendo)
Japan:
1. Tokimeki Memorial Girls Side 3rd Story (Konami)
2. Inazuma Eleven 3: Sekai e no Chousen!! Spark (Level 5)
3. Love Plus+ (Konami)
4. Inazuma Eleven 3: Sekai e no Chousen!! Bomber (Level 5)
5. Digimon Story: Lost Evolution (Namco Bandai)
UK:
1. Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (Warner Bros.)
2. Professor Layton and Pandora’s Box (Nintendo)
3. Professor Layton and the Curious Village (Nintendo)
4. Pokemon SoulSilver Version (Nintendo)
5. Club Penguin: Herbert’s Revenge (Disney)
Over the past few days, we have been experiencing some issues with our contact form as a result of a new WordPress upgrade. Unfortunately, the problem only recently came to my attention. We changed the contact form two days ago, though if you attempted to send an email our way, you may need to resend it. Please note that we did receive all emails that were sent directly to our address. Just wanted to make sure everyone was aware of the situation!
