Nintendo Wii

Media Create Japan Software Sales: March 5th-11th

For the week of March 5th-11th the top 10 saw a few surprises and milestones. Firstly, the top spot last week belonged to Yoshi's Island for the DS. It racked in over 300k in copies sold. The next most notable mention is Monster Hunter Portable 2nd remaining firmly on the countdown at #2 with 93k games sold. What's surprising is that if you look over at the 7th spot, you'll notice that Gundam Musou has remained in the countdown and went on to sell another 31k copies, bringing its total to nearly 202k sold.

With that in mind, roughly 1 out of every 4 PS3 owners own a copy of Gundam Musou now. Also, last week finally had Wii Play reaching its million mark milestone, as the game is now the second Wii title to sell over 1M units. Lackluster week for debuts, as you can see - only two made the chart. And lastly, it's worth noting that Power Smash 3 (Virtua Tennis 3) debuted at the not-so-great 19th spot.

Position/Platform/Publisher/Game Name/Weekly Sold/Total
1. NDS, Nintendo - Yoshi's Island DS - 303,114 / Debut
2. PSP, Capcom - Monster Hunter Portable 2nd - 93,099 / 936,231
3. NDS, Level 5 - Prof. Layton and the Mysterious Village - 45,344 / 266,017
4. PS2, Spike - Kenka Bancho 2: Full Throttle - 42,131 / Debut
5. NDS, Banpresto - Super Robot Wars W - 36,310 / 175,620
6. WII, Nintendo - Wii Sports - 35,298 / 1,165,674
7. PS3, Bandai-Namco - Gundam Musou - 31,145 / 201,869
8. NDS, Square-Enix - Dragon Quest Monsters Joker - 26,452 / 1,228,264
9. WII, Nintendo - Wii Play - 26,340 / 1,002,628
10. NDS, Nintendo - More Brain Age - 20,716 / 4,060,566

Feb. 26th-March 4th
1. PS3, Bandai-Namco - Gundam Musou - 170,725 / Debut
2. NDS, Banpresto - Super Robot Wars W - 139,311 / Debut
3. PSP, Capcom - Monster Hunter Portable 2nd - 137,851 / 843,132
4. WII, Nintendo - Wii Sports - 39,639 / 1,130,376
5. NDS, Level 5 - Prof. Layton and the Mysterious Village - 33,957 / 220,673
6. WII, Nintendo - Wii Play - 31,702 / 976,288
7. NDS, Bandai-Namco - Iron Left Brain: Mistake Museum 2 - 28,495 / Debut
8. NDS, Square-Enix - Dragon Quest Monsters Joker - 27,236 / 1,201,812
9. NDS, Nintendo - New Super Mario Bros. - 24,545 / 4,193,532
10. NDS, Nintendo - More Brain Age - 22,854 / 4,039,850

Nintendo's Online Traffic Surges

The NetRatings division over at the Nielsen group has released a report in which they divulge web traffic information on Nintendo.com, PlayStation.com and Xbox.com. The report ranges from February 2006 to February 2007. Nintendo's official website saw the largest increase in traffic, meanwhile PlayStation's saw a moderate decrease. Read the clip below for the details of all three:

Nielsen NetRatings:

Among the most popular game console providers, Nintendo has enjoyed the fastest Web traffic growth over the past year with the much-anticipated release of Wii. Unique visitors to Nintendo.com increased 91 percent, from 856,000 in February 2006 to 1.6 million in February 2007. Xbox.com also saw significant year-over-year growth in February, increasing 47 percent from a unique audience of 827,000 to 1.2 million. Traffic to Playstation.com dropped 8 percent in the same period, from 1.1 million to 1.0 million unique visitors.

Nintendo Struggling to Meet Wii Demand

Nintendo Europe's senior marketing director Laurent Fischer spoke to GameIndustry.biz and admits that meeting the enormous demand for the console has been tought for Nintendo. "We are still struggling to deliver the right numbers of hardware  to cope with demand," said Fischer. Read the full article here.

Read: Nintendo: We're still struggling to meet demand for Wii

EA Releases Tiger Woods

If you're done playing golf with your Miis and are looking for a slightly more realistic approach, then you've got it. EA has began to ship Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 for the Nintendo Wii. You can expect to see the game available tomorrow at most retailers, and fully stocked nationwide on the 16th. PGA Tour 07 will allow you to play the game a number of ways, either with motion sensing enabled or by using the analog stick. Whichever method you choose, rest assured you'll be getting a fulfilling experience.

“Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 07 fits perfectly with the Wii and its innovative controller, so we’re very excited to bring our game to the platform,” said Todd Arnold, Executive Producer at EA Redwood Shores. 

18 championship courses and 35 pro and fantasy golfers are at your disposal, so there'll be plenty to play. Tiger Woods will retail for $49.95.

D3 and TOMY Announce Naruto Fighter

Tomy and D3 have finally announced Naruto: Clash of Ninja MVZ for the Nintendo Wii today. Clash of Ninja will be a head to head fighting game with content created specifically for the North American market. The announcement says the game will likely ship Fall 2007. Likewise, the fighter will feature characters never before featured in the Clash of the Ninja series and it'll also take advantage of the Wii Remote's motion sensing capabilities. 4 players will be able to compete across 9 gameplay modes. 14 fighters will be selectable, a Story Mode, various single player modes and multiplayer modes will highlight the package.

“For some time we have wanted to give NARUTO fans in North America something they could not find anywhere else, and in NARUTO: Clash of Ninja MVZ we have a game with original, exclusive content that will amaze them,” said Mark Shinohara, executive vice president, TOMY Corporation. “For TOMY, 2007 and the release of NARUTO: Clash of Ninja MVZ will mark a significant milestone in not only our relationship with D3PA, but in TOMY’s expansion in the video game industry.”

“NARUTO proved to be a significant brand on the Nintendo GameCube™ in 2006 staying near the top of the sales charts from the release of the first Clash of Ninja in March 2006, to the release of the second Clash of Ninja game in September 2006 and through the holiday season,” said Careen Yapp, vice president of licensing and business development, D3PA. “NARUTO: Clash of Ninja MVZ will take advantage of this exciting new entertainment platform and will reach out to a whole new audience for NARUTO.”

Wii Gets Dave Mirra Game

But don't get super excited. If the PSP version of Dave Mirra BMX Challenge is anything to go by, this may end up being something you'll want to avoid at all costs. We're holding out hope that this game is being  developed from the ground up. Here's what you can expect:

Dave Mirra BMX Challenge for the Wii(tm) video game system features, 12 different environments and 13 bikes to choose from. Each unique environment includes two race paths, and can be played in race or trick-oriented modes. Player characters are customizable, and BMX legend Dave is the featured rider. Dave Mirra BMX Challenge for Wii (tm) will feature several control options utilizing the unique Wii(tm) Remote and Nunchuk controllers.

“Dave Mirra BMX Challenge will be the first BMX game for Wii(tm),” said Jim Flaharty, senior vice president of Crave Studios. “The immersive Wii(tm) controls combined with the thrill of BMX racing will make Dave Mirra BMX Challenge a real treat for action sports fans.”

Two New Mii Commercials

We love our individual Miis and Nintendo knows that the feature garners quite a bit of attention. So here are the two commercials specifically dedicated to our Nintendo-ized selves. Enjoy them, my fellow Miis.

Three New for Virtual Console

A few new additions to the Wii's Virtual Console, folks. First off, is the cult classic Tecmo Bowl. Many of you should remember that Tecmo Bowl didn't make use of the NFL license, and only the names of the players. Well, now the VC release makes use of neither, thanks to EA and their death grip on the NFL license. The only identifiable trait the athletes have is their jersey numbers. Tecmo Bowl is worth 500 Wii points ($5) and can be played with one or two players.

The other debuts are Sonic Spinball, a not so great pinball game starring Sega's fainting mascot and a TurboGrafx-16 RPG game Double Dungeons. Sonic can be played up to four players and is worth 800 points ($8). Double Dungeons is a two-player first-person game and is worth 600 Wii points ($6).

Videogame Vets: 10 Most Important Games

Steve Meretzky, Christopher Grant, Warren Spector, Henry Lowood and Matteo Bittanti. Some of those names you may recall, some you may not. What you do need to know is that they're all part of a committee that is pushing for the historical preservation of videogames and their study. And it looks like their efforts may be paying off, as the Library of Congress is considering this. The first step taken by the group was to submit a list of the 10 most important videogames - games that shaped the indsutry into what it is today.

“Creating this list is an assertion that digital games have a cultural significance and a historical significance,” Mr. Lowood said in an interview. And if that is acknowledged, he said, “maybe we should do something about preserving them.”

“We have to be really careful here because the technology is just going to make this harder for us,” Mr. Spector said. “The game canon is a way of saying, this is the stuff we have to protect first.”

The full list is as follows:

Spacewar! (1962)
Star Raiders (1979)
Zork (1980)
Tetris (1985)
SimCity (1989)
Super Mario Bros. 3 (1990)
Civilization I/II (1991)
Doom (1993)
Warcraft series (beginning 1994)
Sensible World of Soccer (1994)