Things are starting to get back to normal. Pretty much all the hardware platforms that matter saw an increase this week over the previous week, with the DS Lite seeing the largest jump likely to Dragon Quest IV’s release, and the Wii seeing enough of a jump to reclaim the #1 selling next-gen console spot for the week. Expect next week’s numbers to continue to climb for the DS Lite (thanks to more DQIV sales) and for the Wii (thanks to Wii Fit).

• DSL: 116,694 (+40,625)
  
• PSP: 75,027 (+16,063)
• Wii: 54,362 (+18,132)
• PS3: 50,564 (+11,386)
• PS2: 14,875 (+6020)
• X360: 7,117 (+592)
• GC: 44 (+6)
• GBM: 42 (-67)
• GBASP: 31 (-122)
• GBA: 9 (N/A)

Media Crate

Finally! A plumbing service that can handle the real problems, like those pesky piranha plants that I can’t get out of the sink drain. This picture was taken by Alessandro, and shows how a small Italian plumbing company is using Mario’s celebrity status to endorse their services.

Go Nintendo

Two new games for the Virtual Console in both PAL regions today. Nothing huge, but at least you can celebrate the Chicago Cubs re-signing Kerry Wood with a solid baseball game for the Neo Geo. This week’s games are:

• The Dynastic Hero (TG16, 800 Wii Points)
• Baseball Stars 2 (Neo Geo, 900 Wii Points)

Not content with their taking over of North America, Nintendo took to the UK during the same week to sell a record setting 191,000 Nintendo DS units. The mark breaks the previous record for hardware sales of 185,000 set by the Sony PSP during its launch week. A Nintendo spokesperson told MCV:

“We’re obviously delighted to be able to announce this. Momentum has been increasing on DS sales and to achieve the highest weekly sales figure ever in the history of the games market is fantastic.”

That’s almost a third of the units sold in the US during the same timeframe, and the UK’s noticeably smaller. Go figure. It’s shaping up to be an exciting holiday season.

MCV UK

Retro Studios president and CEO, Michael Kelbaugh, and game director for the Metroid Prime series arc, Mark Pacini, spoke at the 2007 Montreal Games Summit about the development of the trilogy and how each game came to be. Said Kalbaugh:

“We started in 1999 with about, at the apex of Retro Studios, about 120 employees. By 2000, we were working on four projects — that’s a pretty short time to ramp up so quickly and be working on so many projects. And honestly speaking, we did a few things wrong. By the end of 2001, all of the projects other than Metroid Prime were cancelled.”

You can head on over to read up on the whole development process, and how factors such as Shigeru Miyamoto, Super Metroid, A Link to the Past, and the Revolution controller changed the path of the Prime series forever.

Gamasutra

Those of you who bothered to register your copies of Link’s Crossbow Training or Master of Illusion may have noticed a little change in Nintendo’s website. Once again, the online home of the Big N gets a visual overhaul, now resembling the sleek and clean looks of the Wii and DS Lite.

Most of the information that was there before is still there… just don’t expect to easily find the GameCube and Game Boy Advance areas. They’ve been cast aside.

Nintendo.com

The Acidmods forums never cease to amaze us. Rocky modded this colorful array of LED lights into his DS Lite and topped it off with a CNC cutter-engraved image done by fellow forum member XionDS. Yes, that’s a llama on a unicycle. I never thought they could look so beautiful in the dark.

Of course, XionDS went ahead and showed off his own, similar LED mod as well, and you can check after the break for that beauty.

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Debating whether or not Red Hat Training is worth two- to four-thousand dollars? Or a Wii, for that matter? They’re really trying to make the choice hard for you now!

If you sign up for select Red Training courses taking place before January 18th, you’ll receive a free Wii as part of the new promotion. Think of it this way. If you’re trying to find a Wii but can’t, and are so desperate that you’re willing to drop that kind of money for one, at least you’ll be getting some training on the side. Any takers?

Red Hat Training
via GoNintendo

Event Matches are back! And this time they come with various difficulty settings…

For those that don’t remember, Event matches are single player battles with all the opponents and settings pre-determined, usually with some sort of theme. They get harder as you go, of course. You can see a few below:

• Two Trouble Kings: Mario (you) vs. Bowser and King Dedede
• Pink Ball Repulsion: Meta Knight (you) keeps Kirby from landing on the Halberd
• Cleaning House in Skyworld: Pit (you) tries to destroy all the platforms, with the help of Wario
• Sleeping in the Eggs: Yoshi (you) tries to put both enemies into eggs at the same time.
• Dark Link Duel: Link (you) vs. Dark Link

Supposedly, clearing them for the fastest times and not simply just clearing them will play a bigger role. We’ll see.

Smash Bros. DOJO!!

November’s NPD report should be a nice Christmas bonus for Nintendo fans.

As many of you know, last week’s Black Friday marked the beginning of the home stretch to Christmas in the United States, and began a season of insane gift shopping. Insane. Putting previous monthly totals to shame, Nintendo sold at least 653,000 DS Lite units and 350,000 Wii units in the United States alone for the week. That’s over a million units, if you don’t feel like adding, and gives Nintendo its best week in hardware sales in company history.

The DS figure is also an all-time record for video game hardware during Thanksgiving week. The previous mark was set in 2005 by about 600,000 Game Boy Advance units. Not too shabby, Nintendo.

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