Wii Sports, Super Mario Bros., and Tetris, to my knowledge, were all bundles.

I'm still confused with your point. You act like "fun" is some blunt object, and you repeatedly jab at your readers with it. The definition I got was that the highest selling games have been games you can pick up and have fun with immediately...

That may not have been exactly what you meant, but that's what I inferred.

Okami is a perfect example of this sort of game, and it certainly is not one of the best selling games of all time. In Okami, after the short bit of story, which is necessary in any game, you can run around, make trees bloom, defeat demon gates, feed animals, learn moves, and do all kinds of other random things.

Hell, what about Pokemon? I've been spending nearly 6 hours in Pokemon Pearl just planting berries. I'm not rushed into the story. I can pick it up and have fun, and I don't have to advance in the plot at all.

The Smash Bros. series DEFINITELY fits your criteria perfectly. It's so easy to pick up and play, it's ridiculous. The whole game is all Nintendo's most famous icons beating the crap out of each other. No gamer can resist.

Can Animal Crossing fit too? Its a play a bit each day game, easy to enjoy, and sell a LOT.

RE: Bundling... these types of games make the best bundle games because they feel so enjoyable to play and are complete system sellers.

It doesn't matter that they were bundled... don't act like Mario only sold because it was bundled... its the reason all those people bought the NES in the first place... just like Tetris people bought the GameBoy to play the tetris that game with... and Wii sports also... just look at the success of the non bundled Mario games, SMB3 and SMW they sold huge numbers yet weren't always bundled...

Its hard to explain but it's not really pick up and play immediatly...

More pick it up any time and not really care about doing the objectives in the game...

As in GTA for example, just run around playing and killing and stealing cars with no real goal or thought process, just random fun. I think this is the best example of what i'm trying to say because SOOO many people bought this game simply because they can run around the world and do what they want..

Mario in 3D is a great example... just run around the worlds seeing what you can do, jump off walls, long jump etc

I'm trying to say is just fun to just play around doing NOTHING in particular... its the type of game you want to play but you don't know why and even if you can't be bothered doing anything its still fun just to control the character you are playing as... make sense?

I'm not sure if i've explained myself correctly... hard to in words...

Just imagine you touch something like velvet or similar for the first time, and it feels really really good and because it feels good you just want to keep on rubbing your fingers over it... but there is no real point or benefit to doing that its just enjoyable...

And sorry i didn't mean to 'jab' at my readers with it... fun is the reason for video games, so no one would play any of them if they weren't 'fun' i'm talking about it being fun just to move the character while doing nothing else...

Part of why I think Halo 3 is so enjoyable for a lot of people to play is the sound of the main machine gun rifle that they used... its not the most powerful weapon in the game but its the one that most people choose in a lot of cases for simple mind numbing alien destruction.

I suppose I think God of War while using the swinging chain blades sorta fits as well. 

 Its not so much about being easy to pick up and play... it's more about being ridiculously accessable because it feels so enjoyable just to be playing the game... 

 I didn't lose it for me, I prefer the 3D games or at least keep them equal to their 2D fore fathers... however that can't be said for everyone on a mass market level... so many people just can't simply use a joystick, but they can make Mario run in 2D like a pro... 

the difference between 2d and 3d platformers... sense of direction takes time to get used to.

you basically "feel" your surrounding in 3d world while in 2d, you can see all on the screen.

i still like 2d platformers as much as 3d.

Lets not forget about the phenomenon that keeps getting bigger in Guitar Hero. If you combine multiplatform sales certainly nothing is going to come close to Guitar Hero 3 this holiday season. The only think though is it has to compete with Rock Band, but I still see it expanding it's base farther and it could surprass overall Madden sales when all is said and done.

Great post! I think I can agree with you. Maybe you have to point out that this is ONE factor that can lead to massive sales, but there are others.

But apart from that, I completely agree. Well, maybe I have another thing to ad: Why do you say that Mario 64 did not quite as well as Mario Bros.? I think 64 is the perfect example for that, you can do so many different jumps and yet it is so intuitive. When I got this game, I messed up a lot of time by only running around in the castle's garden and jump around.

And on another note, you're right with Miyamoto. I remember that he once said that the first thing he does is to settle the movements of the characters; the storyline and the objectives only evolve around that.