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User:Salnax: Difference between revisions
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→Nintendo 3DS: An Ongoing History: Part 4
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The 3DS price drop had an immediate effect. Sales improved eight-fold week over week, the strongest it had been since launch. In Japan, where the drop coincided with the release of [[Pokemon Rumble Blast]], sales increased twenty-fold. In total, over 300,000 were sold in a week, and numbers never dipped below 170,000 a week for the rest of the year. | The 3DS price drop had an immediate effect. Sales improved eight-fold week over week, the strongest it had been since launch. In Japan, where the drop coincided with the release of [[Pokemon Rumble Blast]], sales increased twenty-fold. In total, over 300,000 were sold in a week, and numbers never dipped below 170,000 a week for the rest of the year. | ||
Meanwhile, the holidays were coming. Nintendo announced their lineup, which included [[Super Mario 3D Land]] in November and [[Mario Kart 7]] in December. Meanwhile, Star Fox 64 3D provided players new and old with more content, admittedly aged, to play. It was not as well received as Ocarina 3D, but was a solid critical and sales success, albeit at a small scale. | Meanwhile, the holidays were coming. Nintendo announced their lineup, which included [[Super Mario 3D Land]] in November and [[Mario Kart 7]] in December. Meanwhile, Star Fox 64 3D provided players new and old with more content, admittedly aged, to play. It was not as well received as Ocarina 3D, but was a solid critical and sales success, albeit at a small scale. | ||
Just when things were looking up, a new scandal hit. A new peripheral was coming to the 3DS that would add a second analog stick. Many people were concerned that this was a sign that the 3DS would be replaced soon, or that games would require the peripheral. In the end, it turned out that the Circle Pad Pro, as it was known, was an optional peripheral that was compatible, but not necessary, with a handful of upcoming games, most notably the newly announced Monster Hunter 3G, which would be released in Japan later that year. | |||
As if to counter the negative press, Nintendo held a press conference for the 3DS on September 12, oriented towards Japanese audiences. Monster Hunter 3G was described in depth, and another new game was announced: Monster Hunter 4. | |||
Western audiences were largely uninterested, but in Japan, Monster Hunter is a very large franchise. Indeed, it was nearly single-handedly responsible for the PSP's success in the region. For instance, Monster Hunter 3's PSP iteration sold over 4.76 million copies in Japan alone, making it the tenth best selling retail game ever. Not only bringing this franchise over to the 3DS but also making it native to the 3DS was a major win on Nintendo's part. | |||
After such colossal news, a few more weeks without major new games and the delay of [[Kid Icarus: Uprising]] into 2012 was minor in comparison. | |||
=== Holiday Glory === | |||
From one point of view, the last quarter of 2011 was something of a disappointment for 3DS owners. Only five retail titles got "Green" ratings on Metacritic. Many of the games that were expected to be hits, such as ''Shinobi'', ''Sonic Generations'', and [[Doctor Lautrec and the Forgotten Knights]] were critical misses. However, a few games in particular managed to pull an impressive amount of weight. | |||
First was [[Super Mario 3D Land]]. Released throughout November worldwide, this game was the first original critical darling on the 3DS. Super Mario 3D Land was sort of a synthesis between the 2D and 3D Super Mario games, with the "race to the flagpole" taking place in a full 3D environment. In many ways, the adventure was simple, down to the classical Mario locales and eight separate worlds. However, the game's use of 3D, perfect controls, ingenious levels, and surprising level of freshness won over the hearts of critics. It is almost inarguable the best 3D platformer ever on a handheld gaming system. | |||
Second was Nintendo's other big holiday title for the 3DS, [[Mario Kart 7]]. Released in early December, this was the first numbered entry in the Mario Kart series. Although critics didn't rave as much about Mario Kart, it was still a well-received game, with critics appreciating the series' fine-tuning of the 20 year old design, the new courses, and the best online experience yet on the fledgling handheld. | |||
Third, and most surprisingly, was Pushmo, a title for the eShop. Pushmo was developed by Intelligent Systems, a studio better known for their work on Fire Emblem and Paper Mario. However, this simple puzzle-platformer, where players navigate jungle-gym like contraptions called pushmos by pushing and pulling blocks, was a surprise hit, garnering as much praise as Super Mario 3D Land. Critics loved the sheer amount of content, the cutesy visuals, the level editor, and sharing mechanisms. To this day, people share their creations online. | |||
With the combined power of these three games, the impressive technology of the 3DS, and the already existing library, the 3DS had a phenomenal holiday season. Over 5 million 3DS's were sold in December alone, bringing the 2011 total up to over 13 million. Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 sold over 4.6 million and 3.9 million in 2011 respectively. | |||
But there was one more game that helped Nintendo dominate the holiday season, a game that wasn't even released outside of Japan: Monster Huter 3G. This port of a two year old Wii game sold nearly a million units in Japan alone during 2011, with less time left in the year than eith of the Mario games. With the combined power of the two Mario games and Monster Hunter 3G, the 3DS outsold the PlayStation Vita during the latter's launch week. | |||
The Vita still hasn't had a week in Japan where it outsold the 3DS as of late August 2012. And with the 3DS's sucess, perhaps it never will. | |||
=== eShop Rising === | |||
=== A Hearty Winter === | |||
=== Another Rotten Spring === | |||
=== Summer Fun and the XL === | |||
=== Sources === | === Sources === | ||
*Destructoid | *Destructoid | ||
*Gamerankings | |||
*Metacritic | *Metacritic | ||
*VGChartz | *VGChartz | ||
*Wikipedia | *Wikipedia | ||
