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Nintendo drops DS Lite to $100, makes it easier to (Mario) party
Hot on the heels of a Wii price drop from about two weeks ago, Nintendo has announced that it'll be lowering the DS Lite's price to $100 (from about $130) starting on June 5th. The big N claims that its pushed over 48.9 million DS handhelds to consumers in the U.S., adding that many of the Mario DS titles have also sold well into the millions. To highlight the achievements, six of the best selling Mario themed games for DS will be getting a red makeover to their packaging -- see above right -- for easy pickin's at your favorite retail shop (no discount apparently). It may not have 3D, but the drop in price, added with less eye strain, and a long lasting battery should be enough to make the 3DS a little jealous.
DS Lite drops to $99 on June 5
The 3DS just got more competition. Not from Sony or another competitor, but from another, now impulse-buy-priced, DS. Nintendo just announced that the DS Lite has been officially dropped in price from $129.99 to $99.99, effective June 5. Perhaps the old SKU at the old price was what GameStop was clearing out? The same month, six Mario games (New Super Mario Bros., Mario Kart DS, Super Mario 64 DS, Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem!, and Mario Party DS) will be re-released in red boxes, to " make it easy for [consumers] to find their favorite Mario titles." Not that anyone ever had trouble finding any of these -- Nintendo announced that more than 9.25 million copies of New Super Mario Bros. have been sold in the US. No price drop was announced for the games. Just fancy new boxes.
Nintendo announces orange, green DSi bundles for Black Friday
In honor of this week's consumerist holiday, colloquially known as Black Friday, Nintendo is unleashing two new colors stateside. The pumpkin orange and mint jello green DSis include a copy of Mario Party DS at a suggested retail price of $150 (and retailers seem to be taking the hint). It may be $30 more, but we still like the Super Mario Bros. 25th anniversary DSi bundle more, which comes with Mario Kart DS. 'Cause, Mario Party DS? Yikes. %Gallery-107992%
Sears Black Friday ad reveals Green and Red DSi hardware, new PSP and PS3 holiday bundles
Okay, guys. It's time to get yourself into a mental place where you can accept the fact that Black Friday is just around the corner. You there? You ready? Okay -- the entire Sears catalog for the holiest of shopping days has apparently leaked onto the web, revealing a whole mess of gaming offers, including: Black Friday Deals Hub Best Buy GameStop Sears Target Walmart Limited edition Red and Green DSi bundles for $150, which include Mario Party DS 160GB PS3 bundle for $300, which includes Uncharted 2 and a Blu-ray of (the new) Karate Kid PSP 3000 bundle for $130, which includes LittleBigPlanet and a UMD of (the new) Karate Kid 4GB Xbox 360 bundle for $200, which includes Halo: Reach $10 off the standard black Wii bundle Discounts on games like Medal of Honor, Fable III and Halo: Reach, all of which will be available for $40 We've contacted Sears to get a comment on the catalog's authenticity. [Update: It's legit!] Check out the relevant gaming offers posted after the jump! (Side note: A full-on ping-pong table for $260? Don't mind if we do.)
Amazon's Gold Box is full of DS treasures [update 5]
Hey, guess what? You can buy Super Smash Bros. Brawl on Amazon today (and today only) for $25.99! What a minute -- why are we posting about a Brawl deal on DS Fanboy, of all places? Because, friends, that's just the tip of the iceberg. Amazon is offering up nine Nintendo deals today, which (if our guesses are correct) includes five DS games. Since all of the said games are published by Nintendo you might own most of them already, but if not, they're games that are definitely worth getting for cheap. So, all you stingy folks that are able to order from Amazon.com should check past the break to see what Gold Box sales are in store for you today.
Another Week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 4/28-5/4
We realized today that we don't know Japan as well as we thought we did. With our reasoning, a new Gundam game + the popularity of the DS = cha-ching. While the debuting Emblem of Gundam had decent sales for its first week, though, taking the twelfth spot isn't all that impressive -- especially since there was only one new release cluttering up the top ten. On the other hand, We're Fossil Diggers, Pokemon Ranger, and the Taiko Drum Master DS sequel continued to shine, giving the DS a nice piece of top ten representation. Batonnage managed to reach the half-million mark, while the other two games neared 100,000 copies sold.For hardware, DS numbers went up since last week, but the handheld is still convincingly behind the PSP and Wii in recent sales. If you want to see the numbers, though, just click past the break. You can check out the software listings there, too.
Miyamoto, DS take home some Famitsu awards
Hey, who doesn't know how awesome Shigeru Miyamoto is? Your grandmother? Shove her to the ground. Seriously, the man is a legend and your grandmother's frail, aged bones need to recognize that.Speaking of recognition, Miyamoto and select titles on the DS recently got themselves some, as Famitsu dished out awards to the gaming icon and some titles available on his company's handheld system. The games that got the nod were Mario Party DS, Phantom Hourglass, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Time and Darkness and Dragon Quest IV. All of these games received an Award for Excellence, where newcomer Professor Layton and the Curious Village got itself a Rookie award. Miyamoto himself received top honors, as he accepted his time in the spotlight and thanked everyone by stating that he was happy to "get an honor like this, it makes me glad to have worked so hard over the past thirty years. This is going to sound a bit like a lie, but it's like a dream. That said, I didn't think five years ago that I'd be making Wii Fit. I thought I'd be making more Mario and Zelda."Well, if there's someone who should be used to accepting awards, it's him.
Japan snaps up 100,000,000 DS games
In what is yet another statistical landmark for the DS in its homeland, the data gatherers at Media Create have revealed that Japanese consumers have purchased their 100,000,000th Nintendo DS game.* Considering the handheld itself hit the twenty million mark only last November, we calculate that to be ... a pretty good attachment rate! In total, 922 titles have appeared in the region, 21 of which have been million-sellers. Hit the break for the top ten best-selling games to date. * Rumors that the 100,000,000th game sold was Bangai-O Spirits are yet to be verified, and are suspected to have originated at popular Nintendo DS blog "DS Fanboy."
Another week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 12/24-12/31
We were finally able to get our greedy little hands on the Japanese sales numbers from Famitsu for the week of 12/24, and came to find that the DS had another great week.Unsurprisingly, the DS took the top spot in hardware sales, moving 195,000 units. While this was a drop from the week before's incredible numbers, it certainly isn't a bad showing for the three-year-old handheld.In terms of software, Final Fantasy IV is continuing to sell well, meaning that more remakes in the series are sure to follow. The other Square-Enix remake on the charts, Dragon Quest IV, managed to go platinum this week. Mario Party DS, meanwhile, was the only other DS game to make the top ten, as the Professor Layton sequel slipped to the number eleven spot.To see the hardware and software sales numbers for the the week of 12/24, check after the break.
GT5 Prologue scores third place in Japanese charts
You know times have changed when the top three spots in Japan's software sales chart are no longer occupied by traditional fare, but rather a miasma of Mario mini-games, a balancercise board and a glorified automotive demo. Gamasutra runs down last week's top ten, highlighting Polyphony Digital's Gran Turismo 5 Prologue which made its debut in third position with approximately 116,000 units sold. Professor Layton bully, Wii Fit, found itself parking off in second position with 124,000 units after having switched places with Mario Party DS and its 180,000 attendees. Nintendo proved the overall wii-ner, with six first-party titles accounted for in the chart -- in fact, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue was the only game not to be found on the Wii or DS. The two systems are expected to enjoy continued good fortune in the hardware sales chart due for release tomorrow.%Gallery-4884%
Another week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 12/10-12/16
Be careful with that DS of yours. It may be small and look all cute with its two screens, but that thing is a monster. How else could a system manage an 89,000 boost in hardware sales from last week's already ridiculously high numbers? The DS just continues to blow everything else away, selling 91,000 units more than the competing PSP (which also had a good week in Japan). As for software sales, however, only three of the system's biggest contenders (Mario Party DS, Professor Layton II, and Dragon Quest IV) managed to make it into the top ten. Not only did these three games do well for the week, but their total sales are pretty outstanding. We wouldn't be surprised to see all of them reach the million mark at some point.Check after the break to see Japan's hardware and software numbers for the week of 12/10-12/16.
Oh, oh-oh, oh, ohhhh! It's Mario Party DS!
We were pretty skeptical of Mario Party DS, having been nonplussed by the previous portable Party (and most of the console versions, as well). In fact, we had resigned ourselves to just not being Mario Party people. But then we saw this commercial, with its bouncy, nonsensical Kidz Bop song, and ... let's just say we were successfully advertised to. If the song is in the game, we're definitely buying it; if it's not, we're still buying it to show our support of the song. At first we thought this must be some other region's crazy Mario Party commercial with the speech overdubbed into English. It appears on the American Mario Party DS website, though, which means that it must be a U.S. commercial. Is the song even ... language? [Via GoNintendo]
Mario Party DS trailer and screens arrive fashionably late
Mario Party's last handheld outing did not end well. In fact, Mario Party Advance was an absolutely witless selection of dour, unimaginative minigames, the vast majority of which were way too simplistic/based on luck to be worth our time. Yes, muggins here had to review it; did you sense any bitterness? However, we maintain a degree of optimism for the arrival of Mario Party DS in just over ten days. For starters, we're looking forward to seeing how the DS's touchscreen tech is implemented, while the media you can see in this post and elsewhere shows potential. That, and the game has the bestest boxart EVAR. %Gallery-4736% [Via Games Press]
Nintendo's new gaming platform: Dual Tubes
In order to promote the new Mario Party DS, Nintendo has stuck some Mario imagery on tubes of Yoplait's Go-gurt. In case you aren't familiar with the product, Go-Gurt is yogurt that comes packed in plastic tubes. It's marketed at children because they're the only people who will gravitate toward a food product because it's disgusting; adults, on the other hand, would only choose to eat dairy products from a tube if they were aboard the Space Shuttle. But enough about the uniquely horrifying, and Go-gurt-- we're not Awful Food Fanboy, after all. The new Mario tubes feature not only character art of Mario and friends, but two Mario-themed puzzles on every tube. Each tube has both a "single player" and "multiplayer" game. The multiplayer game presented on this package seems to involve scratching off a space to reveal a powerup item, and competing to reveal the most powerful item. The single player game ... is not entirely visible. The games may be lame, but it's clever marketing to advertise a single/multiplayer minigame collection with cute example minigames.We'd love to know the circumstances behind the discovery of this package, however. The box states that the game is "Now Available," meaning that this Go-Gurt is intended to be in stores around November 19. In addition, the Nintendo.com/Gogurt URL on the box is currently inactive. Does GoNintendo have a secret Go-Gurt connection?
It's a party with all of these Mario Party screens
JeuxFrance has put up a slew of new Mario Party DS screens, depicting some of the different minigames and game boards within. Mario party DS is easily one of our most anticipated titles for the DS and we're incredibly anxious to get our hands on it and see how the gameplay transitions to the handheld. Be sure to hit up JeuxFrance and check out 16 fresh screens. %Gallery-4736%
New DS trailer blowout!
The non-disclosure agreements have just expired on what was shown at last week's Nintendo of America Media Summit; naturally, within seconds the Internet has become flooded with information about new games. Rather than post each trailer individually, we've decided to embed the newest DS trailers from this event into one roundup post-- because we're Bloggin' Cowboys! Above, obviously, is a new trailer for Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword. Check after the break for brand new material on Mario Party DS, Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings, EA Playground, Professor Layton, and Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker.
The latest look at Mario Party DS
Though we still aren't sure whether Mario Party on the DS will feature Wi-Fi multiplayer or not (though we so hope it does), we're still happy to check out new screens as they're released. Though the game is due next month, we really haven't heard a lot since E3. Then again, beyond the issue of multiplayer modes, is there much to say? We know the format for the game -- after all, we may have played a little Mario Party here and there over the years. And from the screens, particularly these latest, we know it looks good. So bring on the party!%Gallery-4736%
E307: Mario Party DS media explosion
Well, call it a controlled explosion, kinda like a smart bomb -- but we're still pretty pleased to see some sweet new media from a brand new DS game. Er, mostly new, considering it's a franchise title. Still, Mario Party on the DS sounds like a winner, though we would prefer more than just local wireless play. Mario Party could only make Game Night that much more fun, amirite? Oh well, enough complaining -- check out the images in our gallery and the spankin' new trailer after the jump. %Gallery-4736%
Mario Party coming to DS?
Mario Party might be on it's way to the Nintendo DS. Aussie-Nintendo writes: "In a recent interview with Hudson Soft, Shuichiro Nishiya expressed that he would like to develop Mario Party for the Nintendo DS. With its microphone and its two screens, Nintendo DS would be perfect to accommodate a game like Mario Party." The producer is said to be looking into the expansion on the DS and intends to make it happen. While not official, it's a safe bet we'll be seeing the party game grace the DS handheld soon based solely on the franchise's success.
