These "casual" games are garnering their sales due to incredible legs; no one wants to mention that legs are generally a sign of good word of mouth. In the case of games like MP8, BBA and Carnival Games, the WOM must be loud and overwhelmingly positive, because sales just refuse to quit.
And, with some games, a successful edition has resulted in good sales and better up-front sales for a future edition. Cooking Mama, Mario Party 8 -> DS, BBA, etc. This is a second strong indication that people are highly satisfied with their purchases.
And its strange, because there is a multitude of this type of game on Wii. One would think at some point, sales would start reflecting other over-saturated genres, with huge sales up front quickly falling off. But it hasn't happened yet.
Occom's razor:
1. Several dozen reviewers who have been playing certain, different types of games for years are wrong.
2. Millions of people buying games, and apparantly generating good WOM and brand loyalty, are wrong.
"[Our former customers] are unable to find software which they WANT to play."
"The way to solve this problem lies in how to communicate what kind of games [they CAN play]."
Satoru Iwata, Nintendo President. Only slightly paraphrased.
