Yet Another Mario Game
In the ongoing business practice of milking their most successful franchise, Nintendo is releasing Super Mario Stadium Family Baseball (aka Mario Super Sluggers) for the Wii. This is a follow up to the Player’s Choice title Mario Superstar Baseball on the Game Cube. Commercials for the game are currently airing 24/7 on Japanese TV while prepubescent kids everywhere rejoice. I’m sure there are even a few adults who are dying to play the game. That is Nintendo’s current sales strategy. They are targeting consumers of all ages with their latest console.
Super Mario Stadium Family Baseball comes out a week from today for the suggested retail price of 5,800 yen.
Misc:
Nintendo’s Mario series is the gaming industry’s most successful franchise in terms of total sales (over 285 million units). No other franchise even comes close.
Mario is so famous that he is recognized even in the information vacuum known as North Korea.
Shigeru Miyamoto created Mario for the original Donkey Kong arcade game. Back then he was called Jumpman. The name Mario was later taken from Mario Segali, the landlord of Nintendo of America’s office building. Apparently, the two shared a striking resemblance.
As far as video games go I’m still bitter that GTA4 has not yet been released in Japan. This is the one place that got stiffed because of Capcom (the series’ Japanese distributor) habit of delaying their localizations. Damn you Capcom! Damn you to hell!
Additional info:
Mario Super Sluggers - Wikipedia
Game Commercial:
Mario Super Sluggers/スーパーマリオスタジアム ファミリーベースボール Japanese CM 1