New Super Mario Bros. to Stop Nintendo Slump
Nintendo failed to make its predicted sales target over the lucrative Black Friday and Cyber Monday holiday in the US, selling just 550,000 Wii units over the long weekend.
The company had hoped to equal last year’s target of 800,000 units in the weekend, particularly with the attraction of the New Super Mario Bros. Wii game which has topped the Wii game charts in the US and UK.
Sales were down by nearly a third from last year, even though Nintendo cut $50 from the price of their Wii console to $199 in order to encourage sales over the Black Friday pre-Christmas rush. Online sales on Cyber Monday were heartening with eight of the top 10 bestselling video game categories taken by Wii products on Amazon, the massively successful Modern Warfare 2 struggled to make the top 10.
Leading the way was the new cheaper Wii console, followed by Nintendo’s ever-faithful plumber in his latest gaming adventure. Mario has also dragged up sales with the continued success of Mario Kart Wii and Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games.
Last year, Nintendo announced in their financial report that Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which sold 1.6 million units in Japan and 3.2 million units in the US was largely responsible for the awesome sales record of Wii consoles. In 2008, Wii had 26 titles which sold over a million units, New Super Mario Bros. Wii has big shoes to fill.
Fortunately for Nintendo New Super Mario Bros. Wii seems to be ticking all the right boxes. The game is full of retro fun but has cranked up the difficulty rating to challenge even the most hardcore of Mario fans. Once again, the moustachioed Italian with the head that can bust rocks is going to save the Japanese computer giant.
Games news posted by David Finklehorn on Tuesday, December 01, 2009
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Comments
Incorrect
The game you are referring to throughout the article is called "New Super Mario Bros. Wii". Note the "Wii" in the title. If you drop the "Wii", then you're referring to a DS game from 2006. Incidentally, the image at the top of this article and any image featuring a giant Mario are from that three-year-old game.
Comment posted by Phil Bond on 12/2/2009 10:03:50 PM
Re:Incorrect
Thanks for your comment, I have edited the text accordingly to clear up any confusion there might have been between the Wii and DS versions.
On the subject of images, I know the title image is from the DS game but I was looking for a nice big eye-catching image of Mario and this one fitted the bill nicely.
I could easily have used an image from Galaxy or Mario 64 or whatever, but decided this image was particularly good at highlighting the character if not the game.
DF.
Comment posted by Anonymous on 12/3/2009 10:51:44 AM
Mario
Ha, ha, gooo Mario! If anyone can save them, he can!
Comment posted by Anonymous on 12/2/2009 10:24:01 PM
What exactly are you saying?
Nothing you said suggested that the new Mario Bros. game is "stopping Nintendo's slump".
I apologize if I missed it but can someone please expand?
Comment posted by Anonymous on 12/2/2009 10:36:10 PM
Re:What exactly are you saying?
Nintendo's Wii sales are down from last year and are failing to meet the company's own expectations. This has prompted discussion of market saturation and the eventual decline of Nintendo.
Whilst I think it is too early for any such talk of Nintendo coming to the end of an era, I do think that Mario will improve disappointing sales during the recession.
Mario has been at the forefront of Nintendo's success and signature Mario games have always secured Nintendo's enduring popularity. The point I am making is that the new Wii game will undoubtedly sell well and will go some way to compensate for declining Wii sales.
I hope this makes it clearer.
DF.
Comment posted by Anonymous on 12/3/2009 10:59:46 AM
"... but has cranked up the difficulty rating to challenge even the most hardcore of Mario fans."
Funny, I've heard the exact opposite from everywhere else.
Comment posted by Anonymous on 12/2/2009 11:24:06 PM
Re:
Well that's interesting. Here are quotes from 5 reviews I found from the top ranking reviews in Google News which attest to the difficulty of the game.
"Make no mistake: New Super Mario Bros. Wii is hard, often surprisingly so. That's the classic Mario way, and the hardcore fans needn't worry about Nintendo simplifying the levels to cater to their lucrative casual market." Play.tm
"For a Mario game, New Super Mario Bros. Wii is surprisingly tough. It isn't overly difficult, but it certainly is about on par with Super Mario Bros. 3." Worthplaying.com
"And it can be brutally hard. Nintendo is walking a fine balance between giving hard-core players the difficulty they want and giving its new casual audience a break." Wired
"The game slowly ramps up to a frantic, undeniably difficult pace by the end." MTV Mulitplayer
"It's simple and devilishly fun, but also devilishly hard. New Super Mario Bros. has an uncompromising approach to tricky level design," Tech Digest
Comment posted by Anonymous on 12/3/2009 11:13:29 AM
Duh
As someone who works in retail at the moment, it sure would help if they had enough systems for everyone.
For 3 years running now, I constantly have to turn customers away due to stock issues.
Comment posted by Anonymous on 12/3/2009 6:35:16 AM
I've had a Wii for a year now, used it two times. I didn't buy it, it was a gift. Though I have all consoles except NES64, with the Wii selections currently available (except a few titles), I'd rather replay old games.
Nes=Zelda, SuperNes=Zelda, GameCube=Zelda and now Wii=waiting for Wii Zelda.
Without a totally successful launch of the super-overdue Wii Zelda, Nintendo, I feel, will forever stay in Wii-Fit-land. And Nintendo devotees will go to one of two other game consoles, at I will.
Then it will be Nintendo's turn to wait, i.e.: profitability.
Scott
Comment posted by Scott on 12/3/2009 11:19:24 AM
Re:
Does Twilight Princess not count as Wii Zelda?
Comment posted by Anonymous on 12/3/2009 1:18:28 PM
Re:
Twilight Princess was released for the GameCube and re-released for the Wii. However, it has been announced that a new Zelda console game will be released October 2010 and it's supposed to be the most epic Zelda game ever (I sure hope so).
Comment posted by Anonymous on 1/10/2010 3:04:32 PM
Nintendo's slump will continue to mount until they realize they will always corner the market for the casual gamer. If remakes of Nintendo's old hits is what it takes for them to continue to have a foothold in the gaming market so be it. But until they realize that even the casual gamer needs a little change now and then, the end result won't change.
Comment posted by Anonymous on 12/3/2009 5:38:01 PM
Mario is the best!
If it's a Mario game you can be sure it's good! He is Nintendo!
Comment posted by Anonymous on 12/3/2009 6:07:51 PM
Great article
I like Nintendo, it's a great company with many games but Wii enough war games.
Comment posted by Anonymous on 12/3/2009 8:44:56 PM
Nintendo's own fault
For me, it was the fact that Nintendo was Mario-obsessed that I ditched the Wii over a year ago and purchased a PS3.
Mario and Mario games suck hairy balls and always have. I play all sorts of games, no matter how advanced or how childish, and Mario games just turn my stomach! And only pathetic teenage posers believe that Mario has ever been cool. The NES and SNES were always the pathetic poor kids' consoles. While everyone else had MASSIVELY superior graphics, sound and gameplay on Amigas, Sega consoles and Atari STs, the pathetic trailer trash played Mario in 16 colours with 6 FPS and blocky graphics... not to mention ear-bleedingly bad SFX and music.
I refuse to ever subject my children to Mario games. Nintendo will never have me as a customer again after the past two years of Mario feces.
Comment posted by Anonymous on 12/4/2009 8:22:55 AM
Re:Nintendo`s own fault
Well, it's funny how I sold my Amiga all those years back to fund my purchase of a SNES. And to this day I still regard the SNES as the best games machine of all time. Shove that up your pipe.
Comment posted by Anonymous on 12/4/2009 12:25:07 PM
Umm...
I too know very few people who think Mario himself is cool but the actual game is great. It's a platformer, not some RPG or FPS, it's not trying to be cool or serious. The NES came a few years before the Master System but I have to agree with the SNES being the poor kids' console.
In the end:
Super Nintendo Entertainment System/Super Famicom 49 million
Sega Mega Drive/Genesis 29 million
And finally the N64, it had more power than the competing console, and it was definitely the golden age for platformers. Really though, Nintendo consoles seemed built for platformers and RPGs (well first two were and the handhelds), so sure, if you dislike those genres don't get one.
Comment posted by Anonymous on 12/4/2009 12:23:48 PM
Consumer's own fault
While millions of Nintendo devotees suffer from the lack of hardcore games, I think it's because they are to blame. Where were you when MadWorld - one of the most creative, fun, unique experiences in any console - was being released? That game had more creativity in its credits than most games have in their whole entire franchise. Dead Space: Extraction sales sucked and you know what, it was an awesome game, not as good as the PC version of course, but it was a game that made you want to know more about the Dead Space universe.
If you want more hardcore games, than buy the hardcore games when they're released!
Comment posted by Anonymous on 12/5/2009 10:11:02 AM
