Does Mario still have invincible star power?
Or is he now just a Goomba?
Well reports coming out of Nintendo suggest the 32 year old Italian plumber is still one of video gamings hottest stars!
A Tweet was posted during Nintendo's AGM suggests that Mario Kart 8, which is getting some solid scores from reviewers, has sold 2million copies worldwide.
Eurogamer rated it as 10/10!
Which is a serious statement to the quality of this game.
According to CVG the games impact on the market place has been the desperately needed power boost that Nintendo needed to shift more Wii U units.
CVG stated that, thanks to the little red capped stereotype, Wii U sales in the UK territory have increased by 666%!!!!
Hmm another internet critic maybe interested to see yet another Satanic link to a Mario game after his Super Mario Bros 3 revelation!
Nintendo had been struggling to convince gamers to choose the Japanese master for their next gen gaming experience.
Certain reports suggested Nintendo were "losing faith" in their newest entry to the market.
However the facts and figures seem to go against the qualitative overview of the eighth gen of home consoles.
Reports that Nintendo were struggling released over the past several months and coupled with the most recent playground war between PS4 and X Box One, it appeared that Nintendo had been frozen out of this generation once more.
However the Wii was a massive hit, shifting 101million units worldwide!!!
Wow that's a lot of Moms on Wii Fit boards!
In seriousness, the console was underpowered compared to the Titans from Microsoft and Sony.
However it's motion control, roster of iconic mascot legends and ability to transcend gender, age and appeal to consumers who previously would never have dreamed of purchasing a gaming console, meant Nintendo were the kings of the industry once more.
It just didn't seem like it had won the last generation battle, since it wasn't the go to multi player on line platform for the big AAA games such as CoD, Halo and every other shoot each other in the face game!
So the last console war was won by the quiet and reserved Wii, while the bigger boys were just louder in how they did things, like convincing the audience you won the debate just because you shouted each flawed opinion and the other guy was calm and sensible.
I had both the Wii and X Box 360 simply for the differing experiences I had hoped to gain from each system.
I wanted to play the classic Nintendo franchises and indulge in fun party game nights with the Wii. Also I had a passion for shooting Nazi Zombies in the fucking head, so the 360 was the perfect channel to unleash all my repressed rage.
So by comparison to Wii sales, Nintendo's rivals the X Box 360 went on to shift around 80million units and Sony also sold around 80million of their PS3 console.
So now in 2014 the eighth generation of systems fight it out to be the cause of twisted thumbs and detentions for lack of homework.
Again it would appear that Nintendo were down and out and had thrown their red cap into the ring a Wii pre-emptively, see what I did there Wii as in wee...as in a little bit? Anyway!
Nintendo got the drop on the competition by launching in 2012 a whole year before Microsoft and Sony entered this generation.
So yes they have had a head start on their rivals, however Nintendo have managed to sell what is approaching 7million Wii U's into homes, and with the kind of growth that Mario Kart 8 has given the system who knows how many more millions will fly off shelves once the new Legend of Zelda Wii U title drops.
Nintendo used the standard tactic to combine game sales and consoles sales by releasing the Wii U/ Mario Kart 8 bundle, which according to reports constituted 82% of Mario Kart 8's sales volume.
This means that the Wii U is catching up to PS4 sales, also around 7million units and leaving Microsoft's latest console eating it's dust with 3million-5million systems sold, depending on the source.
I am now just a bit gutted that I bought some new audio/visual equipment last month so guess I'll have to get the Wii U the traditional way I always got all my Nintendo systems...what's my mom's phone number?
-Steve Rewind!!!
Final thought as well that it would appear that this generation of consoles as a whole is struggling to match previous gaming benchmarks what with PC and mobile device gaming going from strength to strength.
So will be interesting to see how this all pans out by Christmas 2015 for all companies involved.
