Being an action game does not make it thematically similar, which was the point I was making. Thematically, the two games could not be more different.

      Yeah, but as I pointed out with the Natutal Born Killers example most of the general public (the same people that would put Natural Born Killers in the crime or Devil's Rejects in the horror sections instead of the art or drama sections and that makes up the mass market) would take one look at a picture of Travis Touchdown on the cover of No More Heroes if it was on 360 see him wearing his shirt that is right out of Vice City and holding a sword, while having no idea that it was more like El Topo instead, and think, "Oh, its another good GTA type game."  It might not have had sales as high as GTA or as I earlier mentioned but I suspect it wouldn't have sold  any fewer copies than Saints' Row (close to 2 million sold) or Saints' Row 2 (well over 1 million) than the 500,00 NMH has managed so far on Wii.

....Since when do GTA-type games involve light sabers?

And since when do knock-offs sell as well as the originals, again?

Do you really think that No More Heroes with this artstyle would sell more on 360 or PS3? I think you're being silly, especially when usually graphics standard on those consoles is pretty high, i dont think people would look favourably on this title, we are talking about a game with small budget, no hype and no advertising an games that do sell well on HD consoles are opposites (with big hits taking most sales away from smaller titles) that game if developed for HD consoles would cost so much more

. Just look at prince of persia sales (gorgeous graphics, but cell shaded with specific artstyle), now thats dissapointing.

No More heroes did great, compare it to killer7 on GC or PS2, Games do sell well on 360 and PS3 but mainly the big hyped up, titles with great budget.

Oh and No More Heroes couldnt be made for HD twins why? Well the controller could never handle this game...

      I don't think that the game didn't have hype.  It was probably the Wii game that IGN and Play magazine talked the most about last year.  In Play's 2008 year in review they said it was one of the only two Wii games they liked in all of 2008.  And IGN gave it at least one of their End of the Year Awards on Wii and listed it as One of the Twenty Wii Games People Should Own.  If it was on the 360, Microsoft would have given it a pr campaign to offset anything about the graphics.  Of course, the graphics would have been tweaked a bit for the 360.  I can say that predominately as more of a fan of the hd consoles other than Zelda or Mario it is the one (make that two and maybe three with Madworld and Overkill)  only on Wii games that has really generated much interest in me so I'm sure it would appeal to others.  

It's ok OkeyDokey we know you have terrible taste, we're here for you so you can put down those crappy games you play come over to our side and know true creativity :P just kidding of course.

OT: Very few actual quality games don't sell and it's about like high quality on any system if it's new and odd people may or may not buy it, look at Valkyria Chronicles, great game new concept and deserves the sales ;_;

 Um, no. One is a sandbox game, and the other is a hack and slash. In one game the focus is on free roaming and doing missions in a relatively linear order if you feel like it with a ton of side content. The other is about mowing down large groups of enemies in order to get to the end. If they were books you might have a point, but they are not. They are video games. General feel of the game is nothing compared to the actual gameplay. The game you should be comparing it to is Ninja Gaiden 2. Compared to it No More Heroes did very well for itself. It had around a third the sales with a much lower budget and no brand name recognition.

I have seen a lot of sales discussion in this thread.

But what I have not seen is a definition of quality.

Because there is no single standard (regardless of what meta-review-scores tell us) and because "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" -- it is truly difficult to have this conversation.

I have seen people discredit games that most people praise. I have seen people elevate games that most people dismiss.

If we are to accept review scores as the Platonic form, than only eight games have achieved a rating of 90 percent. Of these, seven were retail and one Wii Ware.

1. Super Mario Galaxy 97.28% -- 7.91M sales
2. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess 94.52% -- 5.24M sales
3. World of Goo 94.39% -- 0.18M downloads
4. Super Smash Bros. Brawl 92.94% -- 8.44M sales
5. Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition 91.11% -- 1.66M sales
6. Rock Band 2 90.87% -- 0.49M sales
7. Okami 90.16% -- 0.21M sales
8. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption 89.64% -- 1.51M sales

Only World of Goo, Okami, and Rock Band 2 did not sell at least 1 million copies.

World of Goo is download only, which limits its availability.

Okami is a port of a two-year old PS2 game that did not sell well (VGC shows 0.15M). So its sales -- or lack there of -- are not surprising.

Rock Band 2 was released two months after the versions for the other consoles and requires a large investment in instruments (because of non-compatibility issues). (It was also beat to market by GH: World Tour).

Also, games No. 9 and No. 10 (GH: WT and GH: LoR) are both million sellers.

So if you make something the critics like, generally it will sell unless it is old or tough to purchase (because of price or availability).

Another indicator to success -- relative or absolute -- is sequels. Boom Blox and No More Heroes is getting them because people liked them and both received some critical praise. Meanwhile, EA is not releasing its bad NCAA Football on the Wii this year because no one bought it. This shows the wisdom of Wii owners.

Mike from Morgantown

Well if you want to be precise, the Wii doesn't sell any games. Stores do. The Wii by itself would be pretty boring. I mean Opera is OK but I really don't think people are going to shell out 250+ for an internet machine. The Wii does have some crappy games. It also has some of the best games ever made. I think that can be said of any system.............except the Atari Jaguar..........I can't really place any good games from that platform.

 Wii Ware and Virtual Console games are sold exclusively through the Wii. Some of the best games ever are for sale that way. Of course now we are just splitting hairs for the comedy of it I suppose.