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When a Nintendo published game starring every one of their most prized mascots turns out to be a huge hit at retail, no one is surprised. Ever since Nintendo first announced Smash Bros. Brawl way back at E3 2006, people have been wetting themselves in anticipation to see which obscure characters would make the cut, and which would only appear in sticker or trophy form.

What is surprising, at least to me, is just how well Smash Bros sold. 1.4 million is a tough number to wrap one’s head around, so try this out: Brawl is the fasting selling Nintendo game ever. Faster than The Wizard, Super Mario Bros. 3. Faster than their most fun game, Super Mario Kart. Faster than their best game, Super Mario World. Faster than their most revolutionary game, Super Mario 64. Even faster than the widely popular non-games, Nintendogs and Brain Training.

Is Brawl worthy of all those sales? Though it’s certainly one of the best games on the system, I’m pretty shocked that it has blown right past Super Mario Galaxy. Who has a Wii but didn’t buy Galaxy? Brawl is certainly fun, but Galaxy is not only more innovative than the been-there-before action in Brawl, it’s more accessible as well. Brawl is a chaotic tangle of limbs and items that may be the number one cause of ADD, whereas Galaxy is the simple story of a man and his star bits.

I wonder what this means in the future. Nintendo is persuasive enough to convince an orphan to skip a few meals to enjoy another Mario adventure, but who wants to compete against that? With Mario Kart and Wii Fit coming in the next few months, and what promises to be more huge Nintendo games later this year, it seems Nintendo can swim in their pool of money forever. It will be interesting to see what strategy 3rd parties will take, but it’s great to know that hardcore games like Smash Bros can fly off shelves.

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Categories: Video games //