Mario Jumps Over Half a Million
The plumber's stock is on the rise around the world.
One of the cruel realities of living in Europe is that gamers often have to wait longer than their American and Japanese counterparts for games to arrive. This is doubly as vexing when the game is a good one, which is what New Super Mario Bros. is, if the latest sales figures are anything to go by.
After just over a month, Mario's new game on the DS has sold more than half a million copies in North America - that's around 20 copies per minute, by Nintendo's math. Add this to the nearly 1.7 million copies the game sold in Japan already and it's clear that Nintendo is on to something special.
Mario's new adventure plays out like a lot of his old adventures, which is just the thing to bring in people who may have played Mario games on the NES but have since lost interest. That's not to say that there isn't new stuff to do.
New Super Mario Bros. introduces new power-ups and challenging sub-quests that will keep you playing long after you've made it through the 80 or so levels that comprise the game.
For more on New Super Mario Bros. and the newly released DS Lite, check out Nintendo's site.
Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games
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