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Wii Mini arriving in US with packed-in Mario Kart Wii
The Wii Mini is coming to the U.S. this holiday season, Nintendo announced today. The redesigned system will be bundled with Mario Kart Wii for $100, and is expected to arrive by mid-November. Nintendo announced the Wii Mini in November 2012 before launching it as a Canada-exclusive that December. The micro-console doesn't include Internet connectivity, limiting players to single and local multiplayer games. Nintendo sold 35,700 units in Canada across its first two months on store shelves before bringing the system to the UK in March. Though the Wii has been discontinued in Japan, Nintendo announced in October that the traditional Wi-Fi-enabled Wii system will remain on store shelves in America.
Mario Kart 8 drives us up a wall
Mario Kart 8 takes the series in a new direction, which is to say, "sideways." The Wii U's first entry in the franchise introduces the concept of relativistic gravity – an idea not entirely foreign to Mario himself – to the vehicular antics enjoyed by Nintendo's mascots. It also marks the console debut of Mario Kart 7's hang gliding mechanic and, by virtue of being on the Wii U, motion controls with the GamePad. Hang gliding is innocuous enough, but I had reservations about the implications of the GamePad's seemingly superior motion controls after a few test races in Nintendo's booth at E3.%Gallery-191096%
Mario Kart Wii bundle loses GameCube support, just in time for the holidays
"Racing fans start your engines, because Nintendo is releasing the ultimate Mario Kart Wii bundle this year," Nintendo's press release reads. Of course this bundle – featuring a black Wii, black Wii Wheel, and a copy of Mario Kart Wii – looks an awful lot like the existing Mario Kart Wii bundle. So what makes this bundle "the ultimate" one? Simple. It's got the "newly-configured" Wii console, of course! "This new Wii bundle not only offers great value to fans, but introduces a Wii console with a slightly altered configuration, which now stands horizontally, rather than vertically." For those of you just joining us, this new configuration doesn't just limit your console feng shui options; the new console is no longer compatible with GameCube games or accessories. This announcement is UK only for now, but just like the New Super Mario Bros. Wii bundle that introduced the new configuration last month, it looks like Nintendo is systematically gutting GameCube support from its Wii lineup.
Wii Mario Kart bundle drops to $134 on Walmart.com
If you've just gotta get those blue sparks, but also have to maintain your personal fiscal responsibility during these tough and uncertain economic times, Walmart.com has made your internal struggle between green-backs and green shells a little easier to reconcile by dropping both black and white Wii Mario Kart bundles to $134.00. Other online storefronts such as Best Buy and Target still have the bundle listed for $149.99, so this appears to be a Walmart-thing, rather than a Nintendo-thing. It will be interesting to see if other retailers follow suit, or if Nintendo will drop the price themselves ahead of the Wii U's launch, which would render Walmart's 15 dollar discount irrelevant. Either way, Walmart certainly seems determined to move some Nintendo merchandise out the door. [Thanks, Phil!]
Nintendo has one million seller per console in last quarter
The NPD suggested that audiences were receptive of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (by which we mean they bought it), but new data from Nintendo reveals just how successful the game was in its debut month. In its list of million-selling first-party titles for the last quarter (ending June 30), Ocarina of Time is the only 3DS game listed, having sold 1.08 million copies -- approximately 270,000 in Japan, 810,000 elsewhere. Nintendo's other platforms also feature one lonely million seller each ... well, technically there are two on the DS, combined: Pokemon Black and White sold 1.36 mllion in the quarter, bringing it up to a global life-to-date total of 12.87 million. And Mario Kart Wii repped for the Wii all by itself, selling 1.22 million in the quarter, up to a ridiculous 2.82 million lifetime total.
'Nintendo Selects' a slightly different set of games for Europe
Nintendo's new Mario Kart Wii pack is coming to Europe on May 20, at a "reduced trade price" around £129/€150. The budget "Nintendo Selects" line will launch in Europe the same day, featuring a slightly different lineup from the American version: Wii Sports, Animal Crossing: City Folk (under the overlong European title Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City), Mario Strikers Charged, and WarioWare Smooth Moves. Mario Super Sluggers isn't part of the series because it was never released in Europe!
Wii drops to $150 on May 15, bundled with Mario Kart and wheel
Nintendo has officially announced an impending price drop for the Wii. As of May 15 (confirming our earlier report), the Wii will be sold at a suggested retail price of $149.99, and will come bundled with Mario Kart Wii and the Wii Wheel accessory. The new price applies to both black and white system models. Now that Mario and his comical transportation have been crammed into the box, Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort are out. On May 15, the original sports collection will join the "Nintendo Selects" line of budget-priced software, alongside The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Animal Crossing: City Folk and Mario Super Sluggers. Expect to pay $19.99 for each of those (and accept the obligatory punishment of polluted box art). %Gallery-122793%
NPD: Guitar Hero 3 is this generation's highest-grossing game
Call of Duty: Black Ops might be the best-selling game by unit sales, but it isn't the US bestseller in terms of gross revenue. According to NPD data going back to 1995, and compiled by CNBC, the honor of the highest-grossing game of "this generation" goes to another Activision game, the Axl Rose-angering Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock. Black Ops is #2. The list of the NPD's top ten best-selling games by revenue (after the break) includes a second Guitar Hero game, too -- R.I.P. -- along with Rock Band and both Wii Fits, which suggests that the best way to make a lot of revenue is simply to make your game cost more. Although Wii Play and Mario Kart Wii are also on the list, so maybe people just really like finding peripherals inside their game boxes, like cereal box prizes.
Mario Kart symbols appear on bike lanes in Portland, Ore.
Some wily vandal in Portland, Oregon has painted Mario Kart symbols into the pavement there on one of the city's bike lanes. You can see them in action in this video (also embedded after the break). Unfortunately, the bananas, star and speed arrows don't actually confer the same powers they do in the game, but we did smirk to see that all of the bikers do faithfully avoid the banana peel, and hit the rest of the symbols head on. You can even wring some unintentional hilarity from the dry-as-a-Dry Bones explanation of what each powerup does by the KATU anchor. That's right, Carl Click! You might have read that script just fine, but admit it: You don't know a Red Shell from a Blooper.
Wii summer competition launches in July
Are you ready to totally destroy some people on vacation who felt like trying out a Wii game? Get to your local mall or Six Flags next month! This summer, Nintendo is holding a Wii Games: Summer 2010 competition, with initial matches held throughout the country, culminating in a final showdown in Los Angeles. The five events to get way too serious about include Wii Sports Resort's Basketball and Bowling, Wii Fit Plus's Hula Hoop Challenge, New Super Mario Bros. Wii's Coin Battle, and Mario Kart Wii's Time Trial. The schedule and locations can be found at the competition's official site. Not anywhere near one of those locations? A "home version" will soon be available on the site, so you can try out your inappropriately intense game and trash talk on your own family.
Dreams of inflatable Wii kart racing validated by video
When we saw CTA Digital's Inflatable Racing Kart for Wii, we had only one question about the device -- and it's one that, we suspect, many of you also had in mind, if secretly: Is it possible for an adult to sit in it? The promotional video after the break answers that tacit question in the affirmative.
Play Mario Kart Wii in your very own inflatable kart
CTA Digital has unveiled one of its largest Wii accessories yet: a $40 inflatable kart with an attached steering wheel controller, into which you can insert the Wiimote to play Mario Kart Wii and other racing games. Our first impulse is to make fun of this unnecessary accessory (an "unnecessory," if you will), but two things give us pause: CTA is using the item's marketing to publicize Kids are Heroes, an organization that encourages community involvement among kids -- even going so far as to use Ricky Springer, who races real karts to raise money and awareness for Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Disorder, as a spokesman. Unlike other plastic Wii accessories, there is no doubt in our minds that if our six-year-old selves had seen an inflatable car you could use as a game controller, we would have freaked out.
Wii Sports approaches 50 million copies sold
In a supplement to Nintendo's earnings statement yesterday, the company released some sales numbers for top-selling games in the last quarter. Four Nintendo products sold over one million copies between April and July, only one of which was a new release anywhere in the world during that time.Pokemon Platinum on DS, which came out in North America in March, right before the quarter started, moved 1.91 million copies in Q1, for a life-to-date total of 5.66 million worldwide. It was an even better quarter for the Wii's evergreens. Wii Fit sold an additional 3.6 million copies, bringing its LTD to 21.82. Mario Kart Wii sold 2 million, making its total 17.39 million. And Wii Sports sold an additional 1.91 million copies, bringing its total sales number to a ridiculous 47.62 million, including copies sold in hardware bundles.And that's why there's a sequel.Source (PDF)
Nintendo's Q1 fiscal results show sales slump
Nintendo released its latest financial earnings report for the period ending June 30 (Q2 to us, but fiscal Q1 to those business types at the house Mario built) ... and it could've been better. Don't be fooled: Nintendo still managed to make profits across the board, but compared to the same period last year, profits weren't nearly as dramatic.First, let's talk DS. Nintendo revealed lifetime sales of the DS has reached a whopping 107.75 million units and that the new DSi has managed to reach a respectable 6.68 million. Hardware sales for this quarter were lower than last year, however, as Nintendo revealed it only sold 5.97 million handhelds compared to the 6.94 million sold in 2008's fiscal first quarter. Even software was down quite a bit, with a mere 29.09 million units of DS software flying off store shelves this quarter compared to the more impressive 36.69 million of last year.On the Wii side, Nintendo revealed lifetime sales have reached 52.62 million units, but that 2009 console sales were down as well. Nintendo reported that during this year's fiscal first quarter, the company could only unload 2.23 million Wiis compared to the 5.17 million it sold during this same time period last year. Software on the platform also took a hit, as Nintendo recorded only 31.07 million units managed to find consumer's homes compared to the 40.41 million of last year. It's important to note that last year's sales were significantly boosted by the releases of Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit.So, as one can guess, Nintendo saw its massive profits shaved down quite a bit this past quarter. With all of the dips in hardware and software sales, Nintendo saw its net sales drop a staggering 40 percent to ¥253.4 billion ($2.65 billion) compared to last year's ¥423.38 billion ($4.43 billion). Nintendo also saw a drop in its operating income, which fell from last year's ¥119.19 billion to ¥40.4 billion ($1.25 billion to $422.5 million), a decline of 60.61 percent. So ... who do you call when your money-printing machine is on the fritz?
Mario, meet Sonic (at the Winter Olympics)
Listen -- not every game at E3 is a winner. The Joystiq heavyweights get to go play all the big games and interview all of the developer hotshots, and that's the stuff you love reading about. But some of us are down in the trenches, doing all of the demos that no one else wants to do, checking out all the games whose names are read around the schedule planning table, and answered only with the silence of bloggers who have better games to play.That's not to say that Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympics is a bad game -- its audience will probably enjoy it. Just like the previous Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, it offers multiple Olympic sports-based minigames featuring popular Nintendo and Sega characters, controlled by various Wii and DS motions. People who like buying that kind of thing (parents wandering a videogame store looking for wholesome family entertainment) will probably enjoy it. But even though most of the Joystiq staff passed on this demo (and your faithful blogger bravely attended it), it was one of the more surreal things we've seen this week. Our strange experiences, let us show you them.
High schoolers learn life-saving lesson from Mario Kart Wii
How do you keep kids from getting distracted? One school thinks Mario Kart is the answer. In order to teach kids about the dangers of texting while driving, Colorado's Vail Christian High School has introduced the "distracted and drowsy driving program," in which kids play Mario Kart Wii while answering and sending text messages, in order to see how phone use adversely affects driving skill. As a bonus, the program teaches awareness of hazards like banana peels and turtle shells.The program, which also includes deterrents like a chair that simulates a 5MPH collision and a golf cart that simulates drunk driving, is part of Vail Christian's entry in a National Organization for Youth Safety contest. The school stands to win a $10,000 award if its program wins. Students who successfully demonstrate understanding of how dangerous texting while driving is will also earn college credit in Obvious Studies.[Via GamePolitics]
Analyst: Poor Wii Music, Animal Crossing sales stamina to blame for downturn
Wii sales have been the lowest they've ever been in Japan. Is the Japanese public losing interest? Screen Digest analyst Ed Barton told GameBizBlog that the Wii sales downturn is mostly due to the lack of staying power exhibited by Animal Crossing: City Folk and Wii Music. Barton says that the continued success of Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii only back up his claim. "These are older games that obviously have shown tremendous stamina, but Nintendo always needs to bring out new ways to drive console sales forward, and we just didn't see that with Wii Music and City Folk." Even though both titles sold decently enough (Animal Crossing was one of the region's top 10 selling games in 2008 and Wii Music debuted with 92,000 units sold in its first week), they lacked the necessary sales stamina of Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii. He says that there isn't much hope on the horizon either, despite the imminent release of Monster Hunter 3 on Wii. He warns that trying to transfer the user base from handheld to home console is risky and that the gamble may not pay off for Nintendo. Barton is of the mind that "it won't have the same level of success that it had on the PSP."
UK charts: Wii Fit, Call of Duty still on top, Professor Layton climbing
The week ending January 31st saw no movement at all in the top two spots on the UK sales charts. Wii Fit maintains its top spot on the UK sales charts for a third week, followed by previous champ Call of Duty: World at War. Skate 2, which debuted last week at #3, has dropped to #5 behind FIFA '09 and Professor Layton and the Curious Village, which, like Wii Fit, is experiencing increased sales due to long-awaited replenishment of stock. Mario Kart Wii rose two positions to #6, leading us to wonder if, over the course of 2009, the top half of the charts will steadily fill with Nintendo hits from 2008.[Via Edge]
Mario Kart Source: made by fans, for fans
If you're a fan of PC games, then of course you've heard of the Source engine. It powers Half-Life 2, which is the bee's knees. Well, an ambitious bunch has decided to use the Source engine to code a new Mario Kart racing game, Mario Kart Source. The best part about this project is that the team is looking at all of the previous games in the series and is attempting to take just the best bits for their new game. Our verdict? Awesome.Sadly, Nintendo won't likely be as excited to hear about the project, so we're sure they'll step in at some point or another and intervene. [Via Go Nintendo]
Nintendo dominates 2008 UK game sales
Mario Kart Wii was a popular title for the Brits and their neighbors, as sales data shows it to be the best-selling game in the UK under the category of "individual SKU" during 2008, topping a list that is comprised mainly of games available only on Nintendo gaming systems. Considering how many amazing games released over the course of this year, we believe this to be quite the achievementThe Wii is just so darn popular over there. So popular, in fact, that the top 5 best-selling games for the year were all on Nintendo platforms. Coming in at the second spot was Wii Fit, followed by Wii Play, Brain Training on DS, and our favorite game to poke fun at, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games. Full list is past the break.%Gallery-4772%
