As if those weekly hardware charts weren't enough to convince you, Next Generation has put up a report that once again underlines just how well the DS Lite is performing in Japan. The words "ridiculous", "ludicrous" and "criminal" certainly spring to mind when noting that the Lite sold 575,000 units last month, making for a grand total of 2.6 million thus far.
New Super Mario Bros. has been flying off the shelves with equal aplomb, right into the hands of 1.8 million nostalgia-craving gamers. It has become one of eight DS games to break through the meticulously guarded million sold barrier. As part of those who initially thought the DS to be a silly device that would be beaten to a pulp in the handheld gaming ghetto, we've been proven wrong again and again. And again.
Let's be honest now. Did you expect this to happen back in 2004?
From everyone here at DS Fanboy, we wish you fine lot a fantastic Fourth of July, one free of work stress, responsibility, and aliens intent on blowing up every recognizable landmark in sight. We recommend you play some DS games, but that you avoid using your DS Lite in the vicinity of fireworks displays -- it's hard enough spotting fireworks in broad daylight.
If, like me, you're not of the appropriate geographical position to celebrate this holiday, remind yourself that you don't always need a reason to avoid work and play DS games instead.
Not content with conquering Japan and America, the newly revamped, newly released, New Super Mario Bros. now set its non-insidious sights on Europe, land of collosseums, queens and curiously leaning constructions. Nintendo of Europe has announced that the game has shipped to stores, just in time to be snatched up over the weekend. Expect Mario to hit his presumed homeland of Italy in full force, devouring mushrooms and smashing bricks, though sadly not fixing leaky plumping. If you haven't purchased the game already, check out its updated official site and catch yourself whistling along to the music.
... the harder they fall. The Japanese population's brief rekindling of their romance with the DS Phat, showing a massive 1559% increase in sales last week, seems to have died out for now. Our obese friend takes the sharpest fall this week, with slimmer, trimmer machines like the Game Boy Micro and DS Lite faring better. The ranking, according to number of units sold:
The rest of the chart seems intentionally unremarkable, with the Lite reigning on top and the spinless Xbox sweeping the ground floor. Very soon, it will be expected to clean up the explosion of confetti and glitter accompanying the launch of the Noble Pink DS Lite.
Addictive cut-and-preserve hospital sim news now, with Atlus announcing that they'll be sending out enormous crates filled with copies of Trauma Center: Under the Knife to stores everywhere at the end of July. This should come as most excellent news to those who have experienced difficulty in getting their gloved hands on one of the best DS titles available, as well as to those who simply enjoy slashing a stranger's spleen into tiny, unrecognizable pieces.
Jim Ireton, the VP of Sales and Marketing for Atlus USA, notes that the "continued demand for Trauma Center: Under the Knife is both gratifying and overwhelming. We apologize to Nintendo fans who've had a tough time finding the game, and we hope this scratches their surgical itch until we ship Trauma Center: Second Opinion for the Wii later this year." Apology accepted, Mr. Ireton.
It's called the Noble Pink, and Nintendo will be unleashing it upon an unsuspecting (and overwhelmingly girly) population come 20 July 2006. We're not entirely convinced that pink is indeed a noble color, but we've heard that it sits well with royalty. Queens totally dig it.
Clarification: We jest. Being in possession of a pink, electronic handheld device does not indicate anything with regards to sexual orientation or manly vigor.
Capitulation: That was the final heavy-handed joke in this post.
Quite possibly the only sane thing we've received from Japan this week, the Japanese hardware sales charts show it like it is -- no silly comparisons, half-truths or fuzzy mathematics in sight. The ranking, according to number of units sold:
Aside from the soothing abundance of green, the most noticeable aspect of this week's chart is undoubtedly the DS Phat's performance, indicating either a surge in its popularity or a surge in desperation amongst those who couldn't track down a DS Lite. Perhaps it's time to import a black one from Europe?
These web browser things are fantastic innovations. We fully understand why Nintendo would want to have one on their DS. They no doubt envisioned situations such as these, where you could use the newfangled technology to actually look at images online, images depicting anything from adorable kittens to Japanese box art. The guys at Game Watch were quick to take advantage and have "uploaded" the two versions (one for each DS model) of the Opera Browser packaging. We know. Being at the helm of cutting-edge technology can be quite frightening.
Larger images "after the break". Whatever that means.
Nintendo's most recent press release exhibits the interesting quality of simultaneously telling us something we already knew and something we didn't. The first part should be fairly obvious if you boast any familiarity with portly Italian plumbers: New Super Mario Bros. for the DS is a huge success in North America -- certainly nothing worthy of a collective gasp. Selling over 500,000 copies since its May release, the shell-smashing, block-bashing retro platforming trip has practically given Nintendo permission to nonchalantly reach into your pocket, feel around for a few seconds and make off with your wallet.
What we weren't aware of, however, is that Nintendo really should have been sticking their hand into your front shirt pocket. That's where your calculator is. Nintendo claims that after "just 35 days on store shelves," the game has had a sell-through rate of "more than 20 every minute since the game went on sale May 15."
O RLY?
Be sure to mock us if our primitive thought processes are incorrect, but let's consider for a moment that there are 24 hours in a day and 60 minutes in an hour. That's 1,440 minutes a day, and so the 35 days that New Super Mario Bros. has been on sale (even though it's been longer than that now) equates to 50,400 minutes. Divide 500,000 by that number and we get ... just under 10 copies sold per minute. Had Nintendo actually sold 20 copies per minute, they would have already hit over a million, and we're pretty sure that would warrant a press release all on its own. Dr. Kawashima is going to be so disappointed.
A new scan from Japanese magazine V-Jump reveals news that is sure to send some anime and manga fans into joyous poses amidst rapidly scrolling backgrounds. Yu Yu Hakasho is destined for our favorite dual-screen device, though our inability to decode the Japanese language prevents us from sharing anything further. Since Funimation's picked the show up for American distribution, there's a glimmer of a chance that this one might make it across the ocean, but don't hold your breath. You'll need the air to scream about that Bleach game which has yet to be localized.
While they eagerly await the release of the DS Lite this Friday, the fine folks at Eurogamer have taken it upon themselves to review Nintendogs: Dalmation & Friends and, in doing so, reevaluate the praise they heaped upon the game when it was first released. Though they still find it to be an innovative and remarkable achievement, they also discover that the repetition inherent in raising a puppy can be somewhat ... dogged.
Nintendogs certainly makes for an excellent showcase of the DS' technical abilities, but it's considerably less effective as a game. The interaction between polygonal puppy and player is amusing, even fascinating at first, but keeping your best friend happy soon starts to feel like a chore. And chores are never fun.
We already struggle to cram a few games into our hermetically sealed schedules -- a game that depends on you and requires constant attention doesn't quite fit in there. As a result, we now find ourselves in a situation exactly like the one Eurogamer is faced with. "The fact is, we haven't touched our original copy of Nintendogs for months now. As painful as this is to admit, our puppies are probably now completely, irretrievably mental and riddled with fleas. We're too frightened to boot up the game and find out, haunted by visions of their emaciated corpses being stripped to the bone by gargantuan rats (even though we know that Nintendogs cannot actually die on account of how much it would upset the kiddies)."
Poor Gonzo. If only your little puppy eyes could see my cold and uncaring heart.
We often consider ourselves to be the experts of touching, a label which has far more connotations than practical uses. Still, it has allowed us to become very intimate with Nintendo's latest portable, one that many would argue to be an open celebration of poking and prodding. In the above video, the esteemed and obviously mature Mark Slutsky explains why the DS has gained this reputation and why whipping it out in public is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.
The results of our rigorously unscientific poll are in and they reveal a shocking truth: our readers like the DS Lite. Almost half of you purchased a DS Lite on launch day, an interesting fact given that most of you likely already own a DS Phat. There were those that decided to stick with the old model exclusively (14%) while others decided to wait for a lower price or a more appealing color (21%). As for the 18 readers who didn't approve of the DS Lite, we'll deal with you soon enough.
A mysterious fellow, wishing only to be known as Spudstercool, managed to get his finely manicured hands on an unnervingly attractive Black DS Lite, several days before its anticipated European release. We're not sure what UK retailer he works for, but we now have to assume that trenchcoats and pencil-shaped cameras are integral to their uniforms. If you manage a games store and recently viewed one of your salesmen entering an office, only for bright shafts of light to briefly pour through the blinds, you'd best be suspicious. You've either got a spy or an unstable superhero in your midst.
The sheer volume of words being displayed on the front page of this blog is, quite frankly, entirely ridiculous. It's time for a change. It's time we inundate you with the accountant's best friend and the alphabet's greatest foe. It's time we unleash the Japanese hardware sales charts for the week ranging from 5 June to 11 June and thoughtfully observe their effects on the human body. The ranking, according to number of units sold:
For those perplexed by the friendly arrows, rest assured that their intention is only to indicate whether a platform's sales have increased or decreased since the last week (followed by the exact difference and a percentage). For those perplexed by the previous sentence, we politely suggest that you try attending school for once.
As if those weekly hardware charts weren't enough to convince you, Next Generation has put up a report that once again underlines just how well the DS Lite is performing in Japan. The words "ridiculous", "ludicrous" and "criminal" certainly spring to mind when noting that the Lite sold 575,000 units last month, making for a grand total of 2.6 million thus far.
From everyone here at DS Fanboy, we wish you fine lot a fantastic Fourth of July, one free of work stress, responsibility, and aliens intent on blowing up every recognizable landmark in sight. We recommend you play some DS games, but that you avoid using your DS Lite in the vicinity of fireworks displays -- it's hard enough spotting fireworks in broad daylight.
Not content with conquering Japan and America, the newly revamped, newly released, New Super Mario Bros. now set its non-insidious sights on Europe, land of collosseums, queens and curiously leaning constructions. Nintendo of Europe has announced that the game has shipped to stores, just in time to be snatched up over the weekend. Expect Mario to hit his presumed homeland of Italy in full force, devouring mushrooms and smashing bricks, though sadly not fixing leaky plumping. If you haven't purchased the game already, check out its updated official site and catch yourself whistling along to the music.
... the harder they fall. The Japanese population's brief 
15,535 (10.98%)
12,616 (55.46%)
Addictive cut-and-preserve hospital sim news now, with Atlus announcing that they'll be sending out enormous crates filled with copies of Trauma Center: Under the Knife to stores everywhere at the end of July. This should come as most excellent news to those who have experienced difficulty in getting their gloved hands on one of the best DS titles available, as well as to those who simply enjoy slashing a stranger's spleen into tiny, unrecognizable pieces.
Quite possibly the only sane thing we've received from Japan this week, the Japanese hardware sales charts show it like it is -- no silly comparisons, half-truths or fuzzy mathematics in sight. The ranking, according to number of units sold:
These web browser things are fantastic innovations. We fully understand why Nintendo would want to have one on their DS. They no doubt envisioned situations such as these, where you could use the newfangled technology to actually look at images online, images depicting anything from adorable kittens to Japanese box art. The guys at Game Watch were quick to take advantage and have "uploaded" the two versions (one for each DS model) of the 
Nintendo's most recent press release exhibits the interesting quality of simultaneously telling us something we already knew and something we didn't. The first part should be fairly obvious if you boast any familiarity with portly Italian plumbers: New Super Mario Bros. for the DS is a huge success in North America -- certainly nothing worthy of a collective gasp. Selling over 500,000 copies since its May release, the shell-smashing, block-bashing retro platforming trip has practically given Nintendo permission to nonchalantly reach into your pocket, feel around for a few seconds and make off with your wallet.
A new scan from Japanese magazine V-Jump reveals news that is sure to send some anime and manga fans into joyous poses amidst rapidly scrolling backgrounds. Yu Yu Hakasho is destined for our favorite dual-screen device, though our inability to decode the Japanese language prevents us from sharing anything further. Since Funimation's picked the show up for American distribution, there's a glimmer of a chance that this one might make it across the ocean, but don't hold your breath. You'll need the air to scream about that 
While they eagerly await the release of the DS Lite this Friday, the fine folks at Eurogamer have taken it upon themselves to review Nintendogs: Dalmation & Friends and, in doing so, reevaluate the praise they heaped upon the game when it was first released. Though they still find it to be an innovative and remarkable achievement, they also discover that the repetition inherent in raising a puppy can be somewhat ... dogged.
