'Wii Sports': Best-selling, but not best of all time
The Nintendo game suite dethrones <i>Super Mario Bros.</i> as the best-selling of all time, but that doesn't make it comparable to the legend and others, in terms of complexity.
VGChartz released internal data Saturday claiming that Wii Sports, Nintendo's sports title that comes bundled with each Wii outside of South Korea and Japan, is the world's best-selling game.
According to the report, VGChartz software data for the week ending December 27, 2008, found that Wii Sports "has now passed sales of Super Mario Bros. at 40.24 million units, making it the best-selling video game of all time. The game...reached that milestone after 110 weeks of sales."
To be honest, I'm upset that this day has come. I was sure it would happen eventually, but I never believed that it would happen so soon and at the hands of a game like Wii Sports.
The title held by Nintendo's great Super Mario Bros. has been vanquished by Wii Sports and there's really nothing we can do about it. But does being the best-selling game of all time make it the best?
I don't see how anyone can call it that. Regardless of sales, Wii Sports is nothing more than a proof of concept that aims at helping new Wii converts get the feel for the console's interaction mechanism.
More importantly, I don't think Wii Sports is really a "game" in the conventional sense. It lacks a story, offers no measurable ability to get from one point to another, and boasts the most basic functionality.
Sure, it's a video game, but I don't think it can be compared on the same level with games like Super Mario Bros. or any title in the Madden franchise.
I'm more than a little upset by the news of Wii Sports taking the top sales spot from Super Mario Bros. Suffice it to say that in my mind, regardless of sales, Wii Sports will never compare to any fine franchise and to compare it as such is an insult to those titles.
It's not that I dislike Wii Sports or haven't enjoyed my time playing it. I just don't see how it can be held in the same high regard as Super Mario Bros.
I'm happy for Nintendo that Wii Sports is now the best-selling game of all time, but we should never compare that "game" to the countless others that truly fit the billing.
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