Super Mario Galaxy was one of my favorite games of 2007. It actually gave me a lot of hope for the Wii, because I knew that if all third-party developers were as good at making games for the Wii as Nintendo was, the system would thrive for a while. And while that theory didn’t stand the test of time, I’m glad to say that Super Mario Galaxy is back- and it has a trailer! You can watch the trailer above. You know, if you want to. Or don’t, whatever.

Do it.

2007 ended on a great note for Nintendo, with both the Wii and the DS being insanely successful. However, according to the first Japanese software chart of 2008, they’re just getting started.

For the week ending in January 6th, 25 of the 30 top selling games in Japan were for the Wii and the DS. Even more impressive, the two systems took up every top ten spot. The other five spots went to three Playstation 2 games and two PSP games.

Mario Party DS topped the list with just under 200,000 units sold, while Wii Fit came in second and Wii Sports surprisingly took third, followed by Final Fantasy IV for the DS and Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii.

The full list was as follows:

1. Mario Party DS (DS)
2. Wii Fit (Wii)
3. Wii Sports (Wii)
4. Final Fantasy IV (DS)
5. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
6. Wii Play (Wii)
7. Dragon Quest IV (DS)
8. Prof Layton and Pandora’s Box (DS)
9. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii)
10. Mario Party 8 (Wii)

I have never been more proud to be a Nintendo fanboy.

Via GamesIndustry.biz

Merry Christmas, Nintendo! For the second year in a row, the Nintendo Wii is one of the must-have holiday items. And although I’m completely aware of the console’s success, I was still pleasantly surprised to see just how well the company was doing on Amazon.

Amazon’s videogames best sellers list goes as follows:

1. Nintendo Wii Console
2. Super Mario Galaxy for Nintendo Wii
3. Wii Remote Controller
4. Wii Nunchuk Controller
5. Crackdown for Xbox 360
6. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for Xbox 360
7. Wii Points Card
8. Wii Play with Wii Remote
9. Wii Zapper with Link’s Crossbow Training
10. Wii Charge Station

The thought of all those little children running amok with their Wii Zappers blasting just warms my cold heart. The list changes hourly, and while the positions have been shifting somewhat, the same items have been there for several hours.

As a Nintendo fanboy, I’m pretty ecstatic. It’s also nice to see Call of Duty 4 doing so well, because I personally believe it’s the best game of the year. As for Crackdown? That seems out of the blue, but I think I remember Amazon having it on sale for $19.99 a little while back, which would explain its presence.

Seth Schiesel of the New York Times is handing out yearly awards to various games and while most of the choices are no-brainers, there is one that kind of grinds my gears.

First off, let’s touch on a couple of unsurprising choices. Bioshock was awarded the title of “Best Newcomer.” I can’t disagree with that. While I do think the latter half of the game went severely downhill, all the way to the joke of an ending, the other fifty percent was outstanding and warrants massive critical praise (which it got).

What game walked away with the prestigious “Game of the Year” title? That would be Bioware’s epic Mass Effect. Again, I have my disappointments with the game, but for the most part is lives up to its promises. That being said, I personally think that Call of Duty 4 deserves this honor, but I’m not bitter about the choice.

They criticized two popular titles for being “unambitious.” One of the victims was Halo 3, and although I have a blast playing over Live, I’d have to agree. Master Chief’s armor has been polished to a mirror shine, but it’s still the same old armor he’s been wearing all along.

So here’s the part that irks me: the other game tagged as “unambitious” was Super Mario Galaxy. Now, Mario’s latest adventure isn’t perfect, but I don’t know if “unambitious” is the word I would use to describe it.

He comments that the game’s premise is the same old Mario thing, which is largely true, but does that really detract that much from the game’s incredible mechanics? The game’s use of gravity and various cleverly designed worlds is pretty damn ambitious, I would say. I wish Schiesel would have commented on what he did think was ambitious, so that I could know where the hell he’s coming from.

Via New York Times

Indicating that family-friendly Wii games sell better, the gory motion-controlled Manhunt 2 tanked like a thug drowned in a toilet by selling less than 50,000 units in November. Mario and Sonic together took the silver in Wii sales at the Olympic Games with a surprising 242,000 units, despite relatively subdued critical buzz.

Assassin’s Creed and Mass Effect also did quite well, with Assassin’s Creed selling over a quarter million just on PS3 and Mass Effect selling a third of a million copies on Xbox 360.

The simExchange predicts that November’s sales alone, for the first time ever, will bring in $1 billion dollars for the videogame market. Partly this is because Nintendo sold over one million hardware units of the Wii and 1.3 million units of the DS. The Xbox 360 came in second with a highly respectable 728,000 units of hardware sold in November, and the PS3 and PSP did very well with sales of around 400,000 units each.

Here’s the list of November’s NPD numbers, as predicted by simExchange:

Hardware:

Nintendo DS – 1,300,000 units
Wii – 1,060,000 units
Xbox 360 – 728,000 units
Playstation Portable – 468,000 units
Playstation 3 – 410,000 units

Software:

Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) – 1,270,000 units
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360) – 833,000 units
Mass Effect (Xbox 360) – 328,000 units
Assassin’s Creed (PS3) – 272,000 units
Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii) – 242,000 units
Rock Band (Xbox 360) – 152,000 units
Unreal Tournament 3 (PC) – 78,000 units
Crysis (PC) – 66,000 units
Manhunt 2 (Wii) – 46,000 units

Source: The simExchange

The latest sales are in from Japan for the week starting 12/11 and ending 18/11, and surprisingly, the PS3 is holding on in there with its new 40GB model, fighting off Nintendo’s Wii for another week. The Xbox360 saw a rise, and Super Mario Galaxy and Heavenly Sword also had respectable sales. Find out the numbers after the jump.

Hardware:

DSLite: 81,000
PSP: 66,000
PS2: 8,800
PS3: 53,000
Wii: 36,000
Xbox360: 5,700

Software:
1. Mario Party (DS)　115,000 （Total: 357,000）
2. REUC　(Wii) 105,000
3. Dynasty Warriors 6 (PS3)　73,000 （Total: 250,000）
4. Game Center CX　(DS) 46,000
5. Famista (DS)　45,000
6. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)　43,000 （Total: 378,000）
7. Heavenly Sword (PS3)　16,000
8. Wii Sports (Wii)　15,000 （Total: 2,106,000）
9. Wii Play　(Wii) 15,000 （Total: 1,662,000）
10. FFTA2　(DS) 14,000 （Total: 249,000）
11. Nishimura Kyoutarou suspense (DS) 11,000 (Total: 123,000)
12. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon (DS) 11,000 (Total:1.05m )
13. Dynasty Warriors 6 (360) 10,000 (Total: 37,000)
14. Complete Literature Works (DS) 8,800 (Total: 100,000)
15. My Household Budget Diary (DS) 8,700 (Total: 286,000)
16. Ratchet & Clank: Future (PS3) 8,500 (Total: 19,000)
17. Ghost Scad (Wii) 7,500 (Total: 38,000)
18. Mario Party 8 (Wii) 5,500 (Total: 890,000)
19. Cooking Mama 2 (DS) 4,700

Source: Famitsu

The notoriously critical UK Magazine has revealed its December edition scores. Another 10 is given, but not to a PS3 or Xbox360 game. Interesting scores this month, with Assassin’s Creed and Mass Effect getting the same score. Find out after the jump.

Edge only gave out five 10/10 scores in nine years, but in the last three months there have been three additions; Halo 3, The Orange Box, and now:

Super Mario Galaxy – 10
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune – 8
Assassin’s Creed – 7
Crysis – 9
Mass Effect – 7
Call of Duty 4 – 9
Kane and Lynch – 6
Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground – 6
The Simpson’s Game – 5
Zack and Wiki – 8
The Witcher – 5
Bladestorm – 8
Castlevania Dracular X – 7
Silent Hill Origins – 7
Hellgate: London – 6
Timeshift – 6
Mutant Storm Empire – 8
Guitar Hero III – 6
Beowulf – 5
Need for Speed: Pro Street – 6

As soon as we find out the magazines pluses and minuses about some of these games we will post them. So check back soon to find out why Bladestorm got an 8/10 and Mass Effect only got 7/10.

While you wait, why not have a read of our reviews here at Ripten.com, which stack up quite well against the very harsh Edge Magazine.

Source: Neogaf

Most kids born and raised in the 80s revere Mario more than the Pope, and it’s no secret why. The Super Mario games have defined and re-defined video games since conception. The original Super Mario Bros introduced side-scrolling platform games on the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Super Mario 64 for the N64 marked another major shift for video games with its deep 3D worlds. So it’s no surprise that Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii changes the way we perceive games once again, this time by doing away with the notion that the sky is always up and the ground is always below.

When video footage of Mario’s latest adventure was unveiled for the masses at E3 2006, some of those in attendance scratched their heads and wondered what Nintendo was attempting–and how it would all incorporate into the Wii’s whacky control scheme. The good news is that the answer is “very well.” By all the laws of physics and nature, Super Mario Galaxy should be a nightmare to control, but the game actually stands as an example of what developers need to do to make the Wii remote a real commodity instead of an inconvenience.

Even though Mario abandons the horizontal plane to blast through space and run around the surface of small planets (think “The Little Prince”), there’s rarely any doubt about how to make him interact with his environment. The analog stick on the Wii’s nunchuck attachment makes Mario run in any direction, and the A button on the remote makes him jump. There are a few new moves aside from the basics, most of which are executed by using the Wii remote’s motion sensor. For example, Mario can throw Bob-Ombs and Koopa shells by flicking the remote towards a target. He can do a spin attack by moving the remote side-to-side. It’s all very intuitive for anyone who’s played a 3D Mario game in the past, and in moments of uncertainty an animated diagram often appears to let the player know what motion they need to make to let Mario proceed.

In the true spirit of Mario, the game’s story is as simple as its controls. Super Mario Galaxy opens with a small tale told in storybook fashion about the Mushroom Kingdom’s preparation for a starlight festival (there is an illustration of two Toads reverently carrying a large star between them like the golden calf). Mario is invited to the festival by Princess Peach, but Bowser crashes the party and heaves Peach’s castle into space. When Mario tries to do the Hero thing, he’s knocked off the floating castle by a Magikoopa and he wakes up on an unidentified planet. There, the mysterious Rosalina and her family of stars(?) implore Mario to recover the Grand Stars they need to repair their stranded space station so that Peach might be rescued.

Rosalina’s space station acts as the game’s central hub. Mario can visit “observatories” in order to access the dozens of galaxies that make up the game’s levels. As he collects more stars, more observatories and galaxies open up. It’s not unlike Super Mario 64’s Castle, which gave Mario access to the game’s actual levels and opened up new pathways depending on how many stars he collected in said levels.

Initially it’s a little disappointing to realize that Nintendo hasn’t altered Mario’s basic level structure since the N64. But Super Mario Galaxy contains one very important difference: Though each galaxy has several stars that need to be collected, there are much fewer stars in each one. Even in instances where a galaxy contains multiple stars, the player usually can’t collect them all in one visit. He must return when certain circumstances have changed (for example, a “prankster comet” can visit a galaxy and open up the opportunity to win a star by completing a speed run), which encourages him to move on and explore other levels. By the time a new star becomes available in an old galaxy, the necessary return feels refreshing and less like a chore. There are 120 stars up for grabs, but only about half of that amount is needed to finish the game.

Super Mario Galaxy looks gorgeous. There is no HD support, but there’s no reason to mourn its absence. Mario’s environments are amazingly varied and colorful. Super Mario Sunshine for the Gamecube looked good, but the tropical setting never varied far from sun, sand and surf. But the galaxies are hardly unchanging cold vacuums. There are fields, ghost houses, fire worlds, ice worlds, airships, rivers, space graveyards, glass planets and much more (irony: Mario can breathe in space but he can still drown in water). There’s no slowdown, and blasting through space against the soft colors of a nebula is an absolute thrill.

Even though most of the levels are composed of small planets or otherwise small chunks of land, claustrophobia is never an issue because progressing as easy as jumping onto another planet (thus getting pulled into its gravitational field) or blasting off, which never gets old. This is an important observation for anyone who played The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker and felt like the game’s islands were small and far between.

One of Super Mario Galaxy’s nicest surprises is its orchestrated music. Mario has always had very definitive music (even grandmothers know the Super Mario theme), but Galaxy’s soundtrack is moving. Each tune is suited perfectly for its environment, sometimes even speeding up, slowing down or changing seamlessly depending on the gameplay. Some classic Super Mario Bros 3 tunes make a return, which is enough to make any fan giddy. Mario still bounces around with his now-trademark “Ha!” and “Woo hoo!”, but Peach, for some disappointing reason, still sounds like a braindead little girl.

Super Mario Galaxy is the kind of game you can’t watch someone else play, simply because your hands start to twitch with the desire to try it yourself. And when you do play it (possibly after a scuffle for dominance) it reminds you thoroughly of why you fell in love with Mario in the first place. The plumber has always seemed at home during his adventures, turning the Mushroom Kingdom into his playground and happily taking you along for the ride. Now his stomping grounds span all of space, and you’re invited once again. Play well.

The rumor being spread about the big box retailer breaking the street date for Super Mario Galaxy is just not true. We spoke to managers in Boston and Pennsylvania, both of which assured us that there has been no word passed down to break the release date. The only time they have broken the release date is when a game does not have a hard release date already set. Super Mario is not one of those games.

When asked about whether or not they believed individual stores would do it on a case by case basis, both said that they could not see that happening, as the stores would receive immense fines and the managers would likely lose their jobs.

From his first moments, he could jump. Later, with a Tanooki suit or a cape, he could fly. But now Mario has broken the bonds of gravity and gone where no plumber has gone before—the cold lonesome of deep space. What lies in the farthest reaches of the Mario Galaxy? How about pirate ships, surfboard stingrays, and kitschy 80’s throwbacks?

Super Mario Galaxy is a logical continuation of the series– possibly the next game will be called Super Mario Metaverse. Just as the controls of the Wii have been untethered from convention, so too has Mario’s bold new gameplay. Every minute in SMG it seems you are doing something different. Each little spheroid is so tenuously connected to other space debris that you’d think the little guy would just fall off and float into the void.

To travel between celestial objects, Mario has to locate certain stars that whoosh him from starpiece to starpiece. Most of these are hidden in plain sight—break a crate or hit a few switches, and the exit will appear. Some of these require slightly more thought, like guiding Bullet Bills through a cage. And a few missions will involve much trickier feats, like keeping a stingray centered on a twisting waterway that hangs in space.

The difficulty level in these first few demo areas was never particularly taxing. There were a few “Too bad!” deaths caused by falling into the black, pulsing void of a lava star or by sending the stingray off the edge of the waterway, but for the most part moving between missions is simple and effortless. It makes us wonder how much of a challenge the game will offer for experienced Mario players, but the 10-15 year old crowd will probably find it just right.

One impressive boss level seen in the demo was against Megaleg, a giant robot that is easily a hundred times bigger than Mario himself. Just like in Shadow of the Colossus, Mario has to run up the leg of Megaleg, navigate across some light rotating platforms (again, nothing too challenging), and then break open the star on top of Megaleg’s head using the redirected bullets trick.

Defeating Megaleg opened up a new area to explore, where the trick was to aim the Wii remote at stars so that Mario could swing from one section to the next. But since this was a short timed demo, we didn’t get to explore the cosmos too deeply on this particular playthrough.

When Super Mario Galaxy comes out next month, it will likely be one of the best uses of the Wii controls and hardware. Once again Nintendo’s first-party software saves the day for a console that has seen more than its fair share of lackluster titles. But even if Mario single-handedly holds up the Wii for hardcore gamers, younger players will want to gravitate towards this new adventure as well.

A great example of what the Nintendo Wii is truly capable of. Check it out after the jump.