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Downloads account for 5 percent of New Super Mario Bros. 2 sales in Japan so far
Nintendo's digital distribution scheme for retail games has had a relatively slow start in Japan. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told the Wall Street Journal that digital sales of New Super Mario Bros. 2, which was released in the region on July 28, have made up 5% of the total. Iwata seemed all right with this result: "This initial offering going forward, we've gotten a good reaction going," he said.The other new retail/digital game, the Brain Age sequel Demon Training, has sold approximately 20% of its total audience digitally. Iwata believes the reason more people opted for the downloadable version of that game is the convenience of playing the daily challenges without swapping cartridges.
New Super Mario Bros. 2 review: Gold, standard
New Super Mario Bros. 2 is a good platformer. Nobody doubted it would be. However, it's impossible to avoid holding a Mario game up to a higher standard than other platformers, and in that context it's a lot less successful.Three games in, the New Super Mario Bros. series is already set in its ways. Every Super Mario Bros. game used to define the rules; now I find the development team at Nintendo merely adhering to them. As a result, this feels less like something truly new and more like a remixed encore presentation of games you've played before.%Gallery-161520%
Downloadable Mario 3DS games go on sale leading up to New Super Mario Bros. 2
Nintendo is building to the first-of-its-kind downloadable launch of New Super Mario Bros. 2 by letting us download some older Mario games on the cheap. The "Month of Mario," as Nintendo calls it, puts one 3DS Virtual Console game on sale a week, from this Thursday through the August 19 launch of NSMB2.You'll be able to get Super Mario Bros. (NES) for $4 from July 26 to August 1. Starting August 2, Super Mario Land (Game Boy) will be $3. Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (Game Boy) will be on sale for $3 on August 9. Mario's Picross (Game Boy as well) will be $3 the next week, starting August 16. That's a dollar off the normal price of each.That's also a lot of Mario games to play before ... another Mario game!
Digital New Super Mario Bros. 2 customers get Donkey Kong in Japan
You might think it's neat that North American Club Nintendo members will net extra coins for downloading the digital version of New Super Mario Bros. 2, but Japanese fans get an even sweeter bonus: An entire game. Specifically, Japanese downloaders will get Donkey Kong: Original Edition, which features a factory level not found in the original NES release (pictured).As Wired notes, Donkey Kong: Original Edition has never been sold, though it was included as a pre-installed Virtual Console game on the Mario 25th Anniversary Red Wii bundle in Europe.
New Super Mario Bros. 2 download nets twice the Club Nintendo coins
When New Super Mario Bros. 2 arrives in August, Nintendo will give everyone who buys the downloadable version some extra Club Nintendo coins. Registering a store-bought copy of New Super Mario Bros. 2 will get you 50 coins, but if you download it you'll get 100 coins instead. Those looking to download will want to make sure they've registered their 3DS account with Club Nintendo first.As the first game to launch simultaneously at retail and as an eShop download, New Super Mario Bros. 2 is in a unique position to push Nintendo's new digital distribution system, especially with the promise of extra fake coins.
New Super Mario Bros 2 trailer full of coins, still free to watch
In this money-crazed, wealth-obsessed society of ours, New Super Mario Bros 2 stands as a metaphor for greed. Watch as Mario stomps on the 99% of the Mushroom Kingdom, stealing their gold and fattening his wallet. What does he need all those 1UPs for anyway?
Get an extra large hands-on with the 3DS XL at San Diego Comic-Con 2012
You and your buddy Peter always go to San Diego Comic Con, sure, but do you always get a chance to be the first people in North America to touch Nintendo's next handheld? The answer is no, because you don't. But this year, you totally will, as Nintendo's bringing the 3DS XL.The Japanese game publisher's also bringing a variety of games for you to play, including New Super Mario Bros. 2, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate, and ... uh, Kid Icarus. Okay, okay – outside of those three and a couple others, the rest of the games are kinda not so new. But hey, Just Dance 4 on Wii will also be there! Yeah!Head past the break for the full list.
Lets-a go look at nearly 70 New Super Mario Bros. 2 screens
Stop looking at whatever else it was you were looking at and start looking at this incredible wealth of New Super Mario Bros. 2 screens. No, seriously, you should start looking. It's gonna take a while.
UK's New Super Mario Bros. 2 pre-order bonus is a rad Mario coin case
New Super Mario Bros. 2 has more gold coins in it than the United States Bullion Depository and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York combined, but the only way to extract real, honest, actually completely fake gold from the game is to pre-order it from either GAME or Gamestation in the UK.The "gold" coin seen above is actually a small case for storing a single 3DS cartridge and is only available as a pre-order bonus from the aforementioned English retailers. By being so pretty and yet so impractical, the coin case satisfies the two most important bling requirements: Flashiness, and superfluousness.
Nintendo Direct trailers: Kirby's Dream Collection, Professor Layton, and more
Last night during the US Nintendo Direct presentation, we were treated to footage of several new games including the Wii Kirby's Dream Collection and Pikmin 2, the 3DS's Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, New Super Mario Bros. 2, and the DS's Pokemon Black and White Version 2. There's also a video detailing the eShop's Virtual Console promotion. Find them all after the break!%Gallery-158919%
New Super Mario Bros. 2 to offer paid DLC stages [update]
New Super Mario Bros. 2 will have special post-launch "Coin Rush" stages available as downloads, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has announced. In keeping with the theme of the game, these stages will be paid DLC.The "Coin Rush" mode is a series of three-stage courses, during which you have only one life. Records are saved and shared through StreetPass.
New Super Mario Bros. 2 is a cash grab, but not just a cash grab
The new emphasis on collecting coins in New Super Mario Bros. 2 may seem like an insubstantial change for the series – after all, there have always been coins everywhere, and it's always been a good idea to collect them. But I think that this subtle shift in goals subverts the nature of Mario more than it seems to.The chief goal in Mario games has always been survival. You're expected to traverse the level, defeating as many enemies as possible along the way, so that you reach the end without death. Coin collection, along with discovery of secrets and acquisition of points, have always been secondary goals. Now, coin collecting is front and center (well, still behind not dying) and those background elements are among the most important.NSMB2 increases the importance of coins by keeping a running count through your whole game. It also makes sure money is on your mind by putting coins absolutely everywhere. They curve around moving platforms like in New Super Mario Bros. Wii (highlighting some engine improvements over the DS game), they fill up secret areas inside special gold pipes, and they just generally make up an overwhelming presence in the stages.There's even a new powerup that's all about coins: a gold Fire Flower that causes everything in its explosive path (enemies, blocks) to turn into coins. The other powerup new to NSMB is the raccoon tail, which works just like in Super Mario Bros. 3. You know that one already. Coins were previously just a thinly veiled signpost to show you the path through a level, but now they're the central element of the level.Having only played a single level, I don't know how pervasive or interesting the greed motif will be in the full game. I just love that it's possible to tweak a single element of a very familiar series to make something new. I also love coins, so it's a promising game.
New Super Mario Bros. 2 headed to 3DS on August 19
Mario's getting "new" yet again on Nintendo's 3DS this summer. EVP of sales and marketing Scott Moffitt took to Nintendo's E3 press conference stage this morning to unveil an August 19 launch date for New Super Mario Bros. 2. He also showed a bunch of gameplay that ... well, looks pretty nice.
Nintendo expects to double 3DS sales by this time next year
Call it ambitious (if you're feeling nice), or potentially bananas (if you're feeling realistic), but no matter what you call it, Nintendo's clearly not joking around with its hardware sales forecast. The company let loose a variety of predictions for the current fiscal year (ending March 31, 2013) this week, which predicts movement of 18.5 million 3DS units into consumers' backpacks and purses worldwide.That's not a huge increase from the console's first fiscal year (April 1, 2011 through March 31, 2012), which saw 17.13 million 3DS units sold. And with big hitters like New Super Mario Bros. 2 and Animal Crossing on the way, it seems likely that Nintendo will surpass those numbers and get to "adjust" their forecast upwards come investor call time. "Ooops, we made way more money than we expected," Nintendo head Satoru Iwata might tell investors, with a coy smile. "Please forget about last year's major financial issues." At least that's how we picture these things going.
Nintendo releasing retail games on 3DS eShop, starting with New Super Mario Bros. 2
Satoru Iwata dropped the proverbial bomb today in an investor presentation, announcing plans to distribute certain retail 3DS games on the eShop download service, where they will be stored on the SD card. The first game to receive this dual release treatment is New Super Mario Bros. 2, due worldwide in August. In addition, the "Onitore" Brain Training game will be sold in this manner.As for the kinds of games Nintendo wants to distribute digitally, Iwata offered the following explanation: "Nintendo publishes various titles that enable you to enjoy daily communication, such as 'nintendogs,' 'Animal Crossing' and 'Tomodachi Collection,' in addition to the ones like 'Onitore' (temp.), with which you might like to practice every day, and database-type software like 'Hana to Ikimono Rittai Zukan' (sold in Japan only). It must be easier for the Nintendo 3DS owners to feel the merit of being able to carry around only the Nintendo 3DS system with, in particular, these kinds of software titles stored inside."He added that even other, non daily-communication-related titles stored on a single system would be "handy."Nintendo plans to sell codes for downloadable versions at retailers, in addition to directly through eShop, in order to avoid cutting its retail partners out, and to avoid alienating users who prefer to buy everything at retail. "Furthermore," he said, "we recognize that one of the biggest hurdles for the expansion of our digital business is the limited methods to expose digitally downloadable products to potential consumers. This recognition is one of the reasons why we are taking this sort of approach."
New Super Mario Bros. 2 also hits North America this August
The Japanese release of New Super Mario Bros. 2 this August will be mirrored by a semi-simultaneous release here in the colonies, according to a press release issued by Nintendo of America after last night's Nintendo Direct event.The full PR, available after the break, calls New Super Mario Bros. 2 a "traditional side-scrolling adventure game" designed "specifically as a pick-up-and-play experience." Judging from these new screenshots below, "traditional" seems like a very apt description – granted, we're intrigued by what appears to be the return of Raccoon Mario, the original flying power up.%Gallery-153735%
New Super Mario Bros. 2 hitting this August in Japan
New Super Mario Bros. 2, a new game from Nintendo, is coming to 3DS this August in Japan, Satoru Iwata announced at tonight's Nintendo Direct livestream. Pictures – the first of which you can view below, courtesy of Nintendo of America – showed the 2D title running on the 3DS.
