This week’s Switch eShop charts are as follows:
Software
1. Snipperclips
2. Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove
3. FAST RMX
4. Snake Pass
5. Graceful Explosion Machine
6. Has-Been Heroes
7. ACA NeoGeo Metal Slug
8. Zelda: Breath of the Wild
9. The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+
10. LEGO City Undercover
11. 1-2-Switch
12. Blaster Master Zero
13. ACA NeoGeo Metal Slug 3
14. ACA NeoGeo The King of Fighters ’98
15. Mr. Shifty
* Note: similar to our usual Wii U and 3DS eShop charts, the data above is based on North American sales.
Source: Switch eShop
Over on Amazon Japan, the official boxart is posted for Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star. Have a look at the packaging image above.
Earlier today, Nintendo confirmed that the NES Classic Edition is ending production in North America. Final shipments for the year are being sent out to retailers throughout this month. We’re hearing that the situation is somewhat similar in Japan.
On the official Famicom Mini website, Nintendo writes that the hardware has temporarily ended production. It’s not made clear if and when production will resume. Given the situation in North America, it wouldn’t be surprising if this ended up being a permanent move.
Atlus released the opening movie for Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology, its updated version of the classic DS RPG redone for 3DS. View the video below.
In 2015, The Pokemon Company generated $2.1 billion in retail revenue. That total saw a big rise in 2016, jumping to $3.3 billion. It was a $1.2 billion increase, causing Pokemon to move up ten spots comparatively to 2015 numbers.
Pokemon GO’s launch last year was naturally a catalyst, as were Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon. The series also had its first Super Bowl commercial ever which was no doubt seen by millions of people.
License! Global writes in a new report:
“Pokemon enjoyed an incredibly strong year at retail in 2016, which marked the brand’s 20th anniversary. The milestone, which recognized the first introduction of Pokemon video games 20 years ago, catapulted the perennially popular brand into the global spotlight and kicked off with the first-ever Pokemon Super Bowl commercial. The company also introduced the mobile game “Pokemon Go,” which became a global phenomenon and was downloaded 650 million times. Pokemon followed this success with “Pokemon Sun” and “Poeémon Moon” for the Nintendo 3DS, which became the third best-selling Nintendo 3DS titles of all time, adding to the 280 million Pokemon video games already sold.”
The Switch sold 906,000 units in the United States during March, Nintendo has revealed. Today’s information comes straight from the NPD Group.
According to Nintendo, Switch is “one of the fastest-selling video game systems of all time.” It also comes “in a nontraditional month for a console launch.”
The infamous NES series Ninja Gaiden may be primarily known for its unforgiving difficulty, but it also had an excellent soundtrack. While much of the music for the series was never released, the entire soundtrack has now been restored and is available for listening.
Called “Ninja Gaiden The Definitive Soundtrack”, the digitally restored album is split into two volumes, each of which includes 59 restored songs. The first volume covers the soundtrack from the original game’s NES and arcade versions, while the second covers both Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos and Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom.
According to Bravewave page for the album, each song has been rerecorded and restored to sound exactly the same as they did upon the release of the NES titles. Furthermore, the entire restoration process has been overseen by the original composer for the series, Keiji Yamagishi.
For the first time ever, the soundtracks for Ninja Gaiden on NES and Arcade and Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos are available exactly as intended by the composers originally and true to the original releases. This also marks the first time ever Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom has received an official soundtrack release in any format and in any territory.
The soundtrack will also be available in vinyl and CD formats. You can buy the digital release through Bandcamp here.
It seems the New 3DS eShop will be graced with another strange exclusive – featuring a character based on the legendary musician Alice Cooper, no less.
Releasing today, Scoop’n Birds is a New Nintendo 3DS exclusive which tasks the player with – you guessed it – scooping birds. Players will run a pet store and scoop birds to sell them to would-be bird owners. Due to being created in Unity, it’s locked to the New Nintendo 3DS as the original 3DS unfortunately lacks Unity support. Players will work under the owner of the store, Alice Scooper. Clearly meant to evoke Alice Cooper with his appearance and name of the character, developer TwinSky Games has a bizarre story behind the inclusion of the musical legend.
In an email to Polygon, Tim Winsky of TwinSky Games said this about the inclusion of Alice Cooper:
“I had previously met Alice Cooper (or Vince, as he’s known IRL) when visiting my artist’s church,” he said. “Later, when agonizing over the character that should own the bird store and guide the player, the character Alice Scooper came to me. When we approached him about this, he fortunately thought it was funny, so it’s been smooth sailing.”
It seems the best things in life really don’t make any sense. You can find the release trailer for Scoop’n Bird below, and can check out the full article from Polygon here.
Our video coverage of Mr. Shifty has mostly come to an end, but we’re sharing one last, lengthy gameplay video. Watch an hour of footage below.
Update: As expected, Nintendo has responded to this month’s NPD report – specifically Switch and Zelda sales. See their comments here.
Original: Preliminary data is beginning to be reported for March 2017. In the United States, we’re hearing that Switch was the top-selling platform, beating out the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The system sold over 500,000 units in North America during its first week alone.
Nintendo previously confirmed that Switch experienced the best first 2-day sales in the Americas for any system in its history. Records were outpacing the Wii, and continued to be broken.
Nintendo may have more to say about Switch’s sales within the next week.
