Damn. That sucks.

I feel for you man.

Think smart with your wallet even if it's Nintendo. I don't buy everything they put out either. Had no interest in the e-Reader.

John Lucas 

I'm not so sure. I know I wouldn't have bought Wii Play (not even for 10 €) if it wasn't for the Wiimote. Isn't it a fact that everyone knows Wii Play as "that game which gives you another remote"? It certainly is mentioned in every single customer/professional review of the game. Granted, many people don't read reviews, but they still talk to the store clerks and/or look at the box before buying the game.

aye, Wii Play is selling purely because of the wiimote. I know I saw it as a chance to get some decent minigames alongside my wiimote.

"(Mario Party)They need to make the next one perfect and I think they could even double sales for 9"

Don't think so, All these party games have been a hugely successful fad. It is funny once, twice but you cannot make it "better". The next generation of party games will be selling well enough but it will run out (look at Rabbits arguably the best of the bunch). Does anyone here know Moorhuhn? It was a free marketing Duckhunt game in Europe, they made sequels, merchandise it was huge. For a while everyone was making Moorhuhn clones. The brighter it burns the shorter.

(at least I hope so, the world needs more Super Mario Galaxies not more Mario Parties). 

 Hey I would like more Galaxies but that isn't the issue.

Say for example they delay Mario Party 9 to 2009 to make it "perfect". Imagine a brand new game with in glorious widescreen 480P, and as many modes found in smash bros. brawl. Now imagine a Wii unserbase of close to 60 million. I think they could sell 5 million copies.

They may not do this and just pump out a mild upgrade. Even then it will be huge. It is not a fad. There are 8 mario parties and every one is a million seller. The last one has sold even more on a console that promises to have a much larger userbase with uses who like these games more. It is not going away.

As for Rabbits I own both and can say that the first one was superior by far, and got the boost of having little competition at launch. That said the second one is selling about as fast. These games are about legs. Look at Carnival games. That one is headed for 1,000,000 copies as well.

 These types of games will get better and better to stand out from the crowd, but remember these games are designed to have a group of people play together. The Wii was designed and is promoted as a social console.

 I think you are kidding right.

You just said it was only about getting an extra controller and the second sentence says that you got it because of the game. 

This proves my point of these two items selling each other. If they didn't sell them together they would have sold less Wiimotes overall. Say for example they have sold 10 million wiimotes and 4 million copies of wiiplay. Without Wiiplay they would not have sold 14 million wiimotes.

It is just like WiiSports and the Wii. Some people buy the system for the system and the game is secondary, some people buy it to play WiiSports and the system is just to play it. Combined the package is even more attractive. I am starting to question Nintendo's decision to not bundle it in Japan. It might push more consoles bundled. 

"Say for example they delay Mario Party 9 to 2009 to make it "perfect". "

I question the assumption that you could make these games decisively better. Few people will buy multiple of them. As you said the Wii is a social console and the fun is in interacting with others. Having 2000 new minigames with better graphics won't make the game experience better because thats not the point. Its like Tetris you couldn't improve it with more modes, it just got worse.

Some quick thoughts

1. The only game on the list that I don't have is Red Steel. Should I buy it?

1a. Hopefully Red Steel 2 will not fall into the trap of worse sequels.

1b. Is Rayman Raving Rabids 2 really worse or just got a lower score for "more of the same?" (Sequel disease).

2. There are some stores marking Link's Crossbow up to $25. I fell for that (Target -- thinking it would be supply constrained, I went out the night before Thanksgiving in the US to buy one. I returned it after finding a $20 unit at Wal-Mart two days later.

2a. There have been some supply issues with the Link's Crossbow as the local Gamestop sold out before Thanksgiving. That might have impacted sales.

2b. Shelf space for such a big item has probably limited display and stock during the holiday shopping season.

2c. Nintendo has not pushed this product -- that I have seen. They can be faulted for that.

3. Mario & Sonic should get a second boost before and during the Beijing Olympic games (I am old enough to remember when this was Peking).

4. Nintendo cannot be faulted for not pushing third-party games. In other words, it is under no obligation to advertise Zack & Wiki.

5. Cooking Mama – third-party game still at $50 – has sold 500K units. So it can be done. Trauma Center also sold 500K units, but it got a late-life price drop.

6. Dragon Quest Swords is just short of 500K – and has only released in Japan. That’s the next third-party million seller as soon as it hits EU and NA.

6a. Speaking of which, does anyone know definitely when it is coming out in the US? I must have that game (though I need to finish DQ8 first).

Mike from Morgantown

Red Steel had a cool concept, a pretty decent advertising campaign, and most importantly it was a launch game. A lot of people decided to buy it the minute they heard it was a FPS with sword fighting using the wiimote. The reviews probably came too late for most people to know it sucked before buying it too... I don't expect a lot from the sequel, since it's competing against a much larger library, and the name has a pretty bad reputation.

Zack&Wiki showed/reminded us that even a innovative and cheap game won't sell on internet hype alone. What advertising they did have was also pretty bad, I mean half of it was 5 year olds playing with their parents, even though it's a game with some serious depth and content. I remain confident that games like Z&W have a bright future on the Wii, but they'd do a lot better as downloadable titles.

Twilight Princess is actually the best selling Zelda game after the original LoZ and Ocarina of Time if you put the GC and Wii versions together. I don't think it has anything to be ashamed for.

Super Mario Galaxy has sold less than I was expecting, but should have monster legs like NSMB. I think the case with most disappointment is that we were blinded by the monsterous launch of Halo 3 and other top-heavy 360 titles, and now seem to think a game has to sell over a million on day one to be succesful.

The game that's sales I'm looking forward the most right now is Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles. From its strong launch it clearly had the potential to be the fourth 3rd party million seller on the Wii, and the second from Capcom, but the second and third week drop-off has been pretty heavy in all regions. Maybe the people who were waiting to buy the first lightgun shooter to hit the Wii were a majority of people who're going to get it after all? RE4:Wii had insane legs despite its relatively weak launch, so I'm still pretty optimistic.

 No, defintely try it first. Whenever you borrow it from a friend of rent it. It's a very polarizing game, people tend to hate it or love it. I personally loved it, but there's no denying it had many (many) serious flaws, but for some reason I had a lot of fun with it.