At Nintendo’s recent Media Summit, the gaming giant finally announced dates for several highly anticipated games.  It’s an impressive list, both in terms of the pedigree and the sheer number of releases.  Japanese blockbuster Monster Hunter Tri in April;  Fan favorite Super Mario Galaxy 2 in May;  Treasure’s  Sin And Punishment: Star Shooter in June;  Metroid: Other M, co-developed by Nintendo and Tecmo’s Team Ninja, also in June.  My non-scientific methods conclude that this is the most dense, title-rich stretch of important releases in the history of the Wii.  But why now?  And what’s on the horizon?

NPD just released their monthly North America numbers for January 2010 and there were definitely a few surprises. On the software side, the Nintendo Wii continued its sales supremacy by taking five of the top ten spots. Leading the way was New Super Mario Bros.Wii, which sold over 650,000 copies, despite being released in November 2009. Mass Effect 2 also made an impressive debut by selling 572,100 copies in only six days, and Army of Two: The 40th Day made a better than expected debut, selling 246,500 copies for the Xbox 360. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 continued its strong performance as well on both the Xbox 360 and PS3. Somewhat disappointing, however, was that both MAG and Bayonetta did not rank in the top ten in sales, even though both had received a lot of buzz before their release.

On the hardware side, the Wii and the DS continued their dominance by taking the top two sales spots, selling 465,800 and 422,200 units respectively. The Xbox 360 sold 332,800 units and nudged out a win over the PS3, which sold 276,900 for the month. Overall sales for the month, however, were disappointing. Software sales declined 13% over last year and hardware sales were down 21%. With so many big titles slated for release in 2010, though, the gaming industry’s fortunes may improve as the year progresses.

Australia is notorious for its video game woes. Access to games of all types are limited by censorship and delayed releases. Piracy is rampant, yaharr, but that isn’t specific to Australia. Unfortunately the news only gets worse for our friends down under.

An Australian man who was the first to upload a pirated copy of the New Super Mario Bros. Wii game has been ordered to pay $1.5 million in damages. Mr Burt, a manager at Electronics Boutique, received a rare opportunity when Nintendo decided to release the new Mario game in Australia earlier than any other region. He uploaded the game to the net and distributed it willingly. Nintendo’s choice to release the game early in the market backfired, and they then took full advantage of the law for recompense.

Perhaps though, their $1.5 million might not have been enough. A Nintendo Australia spokesperson said the following:

“Nintendo Australia is always pushing for games to be released here at the same time as the rest of the world, so we were pleased to get New Super Mario Bros. Wii before anyone else… Unfortunately, due to the actions of this individual, future release dates may be affected for Australia, which is disappointing for us.”

Did you hear that Australia? Even though the pirating of software is a global problem, Nintendo has found you directly responsible and thusly decided you must be punished. So when the next pirate brought to justice is from North America, and yet they continue to receive games at their proper release date, remember this day: Nintendo hates you.

Sources: The Australian, Gamespot Australia

They say that good things come to those who wait. Here at GameRant, we disagree.

We believe that good things come to those who work hard, and to those who deserve it. So when the 13th Annual Japan Media Arts Festival were deciding who should win their acclaimed “Special Achievement” award, who could be more deserving than the creator of Nintendo favorites, Mario and Link, Shigeru Miyamoto?

Whether or not you’re a fan of Nintendo’s offerings, to deny Miyamoto’s influence in modern videogames would be absurd. Whether it’s creating one of the most successful arcade machines ever with Donkey Kong, introducing the idea of 3D gameplay with Super Mario 64, or creating a way for the entire family to play tennis in a virtual world with Wii Sports… you name it, Miyamoto probably had a hand in it.

Street Fighter: The Movie, Super Mario Brothers: The Movie, Mortal Kombat Annihilation, House Of The Dead, Postal, Resident Evil Apocalypse, Street Fighter Legend Of Chun Li and the list goes on and on. These were all extremely horrible films and, an abomination in the eyes of video gamers and movie goers alike. I have always been very optimistic about that one golden video game adaptation coming along and helping me to forget these blemishes on pop culture but this is fading fast.

I will admit that this summer’s Prince Of Persia is looking quite sweet but it just looks like Pirates of the Caribbean in Prince of Persia clothing and after the steaming pile that was World’s End this does not leave me hopeful. My dream job in the future is that of a screenwriter, so needless to say that when I hear horrible dialogue and truly terrible stories I want to throw up and scream “why!?” at the top of my lungs. So I started to wonder where could a good, if not excellent, video game adaptation could come from and it lead me to one form; the mini series.

Nathan Drake might pick up a bit more treasure next month.

Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 2: Among Thieves leads the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, netting 15 nominations including game of the year.

In the game of the year category, Uncharted 2 is up against Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed 2, Rocksteady Studios’ Batman: Arkham Asylum, Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and BioWare’s Dragon Age: Origins.

Contrary to the massive 3D movement in gaming and movies these days, 2D won this round.

Last month, Super Mario Galaxy (released in November 2007), widely considered to be Wii’s best game, was beaten by its little brother. Where the 3D Galaxy sold through 4.1 million copies since it released two years ago, the 2D New Super Mario Bros. Wii amassed 4.2 million in unit sales in about 45 days after its November 2009 release, according to numbers released by the NPD Group.

Thunder, stolen.

Since hitting Japanese sales floors on December 3, 2009, New Super Mario Bros. Wii has become the country’s fastest selling Wii title to date.

Of course you wouldn’t expect much else from a Mario title in the land of Nippon, but it still shows just how strong the Nintendo and Mario brand is in its homeland. In fact, Japanese gamers got the title a few weeks later than their US and European counterparts, who ate it up just as quickly themselves.

2010 is here, and with the new decade comes the opportunity to reflect on how far console video-gaming has progressed over the last 30 years.

What better franchise to look at than Mario? With the recent release of the retro-inspired New Super Mario Bros. Wii, as well as the upcoming Mario Galaxy 2, the charming platform-hopping plumber shows us just how relevant he still is in an industry over-flowing with post-apocalyptic first person shooters and sandbox-dramas inspired by the shady side of real life.

NPD Group has released the top software sales for 2009 through November. Even though Modern Warfare 2 only sold for one month it placed twice on the list with its 360 title taking top honors. Nintendo on the whole performed very well, claiming 4 of the top 5 spots and 6 spots overall on the list. It’s also important to note that 3 of Nintento’s titles listed in the top 5 were not released in 2009.

With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 dominating the charts last month it was easy to forget about its competition. But, Nintendo’s latest entry into its Super Mario franchise has still performed very well. According to Nintendo’s own internal numbers New Super Mario Bros. Wii has sold more than 2 million units stateside since its November 15th launch. Some analysts believe that New Super Mario Bros. Wii might even surpass Modern Warfare 2’s success due to the sustained sales trend of many Nintendo titles.

This update is supplemented by the good news in Japan that New Super Mario Bros. Wii sold 936, 734 copies in its first 4 days on the shelf (Dec 3-6). These numbers make it the most successful Wii game launch in Japan since the system was released there in 2006. It beat out former title holder Super Smash Bros. Brawl which pushed about 820,000 units in its first week.

The 2009 Spike Video Game Awards are over with, and we’ve been covering a lot of announcement and trailer information coming out of the show, but in case you missed the actual awards themselves, we haven’t forgotten about you – we’ve put together the official list of 2009 VGA winners in each category (as well as the nominees).

Don’t forget to check out our own 2009 Game of the Year Round-Up for a more extensive discussion on the most critically acclaimed titles of the year.

After all of the talk about which system was dominating Black Friday sales, and which system was about to become ancient history, NPD’s release of its November report for the United States almost seemed anticlimactic. I mean, when has Michael Pachter ever been wrong?

But, lo and behold, there was quite a surprise awaiting all of us in the November 2009 report:

The Nintendo DS sold 1.70 million units? Take that PSP!

Every year, publishers push to get their high-profile titles into gamers’ hands before Black Friday, leaving a quality-title dead zone until the beginning of Quarter 1. The end of release season also signals the official beginning of Game of the Year speculation. Every big-budget, large-scale, game is now available on store shelves which means players should have a pretty good idea about which 2009 title they enjoyed the most – unless you are holding your breath for James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game, which most of us aren’t.

Instead of relying on the outcome of the upcoming Spike VGAs, which in 2005 nominated 50 Cent: Bulletproof and Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game for awards, Game Rant has decided to put together a list of our nominations, along with a bit of commentary, for our Game of the Year choices. As usual, we’re interested to hear what our readers think, so make sure to vote in the poll on the home page, as well as sound off in the comments.

In the interest of avoiding favoritism, our nominees are listed in alphabetical order:

Spike announced today on the VGA 2009 website, the nominees for this year’s program. Voting is now open so be sure to stop by and vote for your favorite games! Something a little more interesting though is the announcement of the first of several world exclusive premieres for the VGAs; The first being the world exclusive premiere footage of Halo: Reach that will air on their annual award ceremony.

While the other world exclusive premieres have yet to be announced, this is certainly one of the biggest games they could have grabbed an exclusive from! As for all the nominees and categories, you can check them out below (thanks to 1up).

Short Version: New Super Marios Bros. Wii blends together our favorite memories of the the classic Mario games while adding a long-desired feature with 4-player simultaneous co-op. It is a must have for all Nintendo Wii owners.

Game Rant reviews New Super Mario Bros. Wii

When Nintendo announced that they were releasing a version of New Super Mario Bros for the Wii, I was the most excited I have been for game announcement in the last few years. Not only was Mario returning to his 2D roots on a console, but it was going to be the first Mario game to support simultaneous co-op gameplay.

Ever since I was a young boy I dreamed about the day that I could play through Mario with a friend, at the same time, through every stage. I hated waiting for the other player to check each pipe for a secret, or collect all the coins in a level. I just wanted to play and I wasn’t a fan of taking turns. Those days are now gone. Not only can you play through the entire adventure with a friend, but you can play with up to three friends! The question is how does the 4-player play? Continue to find out.

Mama Mia, Nintendo’s a gonna be mad! That’s right folks, Mario himself spilled the beans that Nintendo is working on a brand new Mario title. Charles Martinet (the man who lends his vocals to Mario) seems to have dropped the ball and brought forth news of a new Mario game that Nintendo has not yet announced, via his Twitter.

“Awesome new Mario Game! And it’s not NSMB Wii, and it’s not Galaxy 2, but it’s going to be crazy fun!”

Anticipation has been building for the next Mario game coming to the Wii, aptly named New Super Mario Bros. Wii. With the recent news that the game will reach levels of difficulty similar to the original Contra in multiplayer, the internet has been abuzz. Amidst this news though, some cool info has seemingly flown under the radar. Over at VGChartz, scans from a recent magazine have surfaced, shedding light on some new details from the game.

For those of you who played Super Mario World on the SNES, you may recognize the familiar visages of Bowser’s seven children: The Koopalings. That’s right. Now you’ll be able to relive all your fond memories of stomping your way through some of gaming’s most visually memorable mini-bosses. That makes this the first game to feature both The Koopalings and Bowser Jr. which begs the question: Are they even related?

Back in June, during an interview with Game Hunters’ Marc Saltzman, Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario, discussed a new Help feature in New Super Mario Bros. Wii that comes to the rescue of frustrated players. The feature takes over gameplay from the user in order to help gamers “clear troubled areas” allowing players to resume control ” when they’re ready.” In no time, hardcore gamers joined in a chorus of descent at the possibility of a game that simply takes the reigns when the action gets too tough.

Further information about the Help feature, actually referred to as Demo Mode, was released via a Nintendo Europe press release: