Top 20 WiiWare Games in USA (27th August)

It's getting better.

How Much longer are you guys going to do top twenty articles? I really like them but once there get to be a fair number of WiiWare games (40 or more) there isn't going to be a whole lot of movement in the top twenty anymore, and once we get around 70+ WiiWare games the top twenty chart's going to only change once in a blue moon. But at one game per week it's going to take awhile to get to that point
so for now keep 'em coming

Well SB is in first. Are all you people that bothered me to death about buying it happy now?

@ PHANTOM93- Sales are weekly-based. So they'll always be changing.
And your theory wouldn't matter for another year anyway.
As far as I'm concerned, the more articles on this site, the better.

@ Taco_Human- People have been bothering me about buying it too.
But I'm not giving in.

@Phantom93
Actually, I would predict that in the long run a top 20 chart will be a mix of old popular games and new releases. In fact, even 'good' games will have a hard time keeping their sales up over time. After all, a top 20 chart doesn't check what you are playing, just what you are purchasing. I don't think we're in any danger of the charts becoming stagnant yet!

@ x.SuperMario.x
Oh, the sales are weekly I thought that it was done in total sales. (How come nobody tells me these things )

Edit: @ Dazza
Nintendo's going to have to create WiiWare versions of a lot of its major series before that happens! (which can only be a good thing unless they do another Pokémon Ranch idea)

Canadian Chart:

Position / Former Position / Game

1. [1] Strong Bad Episode 1: Homestar Ruiner
2. [2] My Pokemon Ranch
3. [3] Dr. Mario Online Rx
4. [5] Defend Your Castle
5. [4] Wild West Guns
6. [6] Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King
7. [7] Midnight Pool
8. [8] LostWinds
9. [9] TV Show King
10. [10] Family Table Tennis
11. [11] Cocoto Fishing Master
12. [13] Pirates: The Key of Dreams
13. [12] Gyrostarr
14. [14] Block Breaker Deluxe
15. [15] SPOGS Racing
16. [NEW] Helix
17. [16] Magnetica Twist
18. [19] V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack
19. [18] Pong Toss - Frat Party Games
20. [17] Toki Tori

I think Canadians are smarter when it comes to downloading games.

• Ys Book I & II has debuted this week!
• Pong Toss never even cracked the top 10.
• Toki Tori and Magnetica Twist are still hanging in.

@ Dazza
That still doesn't excuse the fact that it's selling more than Toki Tori

I may try Pong Toss, just too see how in my personal opinion how horable it will be and to see if I can make the world pissed off at me for just buying the game, come on guys don't kill someone over Pong Toss, if your going to kill anyone kill the producers there to blame for all of this . But Magnetica Twist, Toki Tori, and Star Soldier R. are great games that we have lost.(Plays memorial music)

WHY!WHY! Must good games die, oh wait a second it's all the fault of PONG TOSS, Family Ping Pong, V.I.P. Casino Blackjack, Possibly Cocoto Fishing Master, SPOGS an the Second worst one MY POKEMON RANCH. I hope they burn and I'm probably not going to try Pong Toss or am I?......

This isn't the top 20 for the American region. This is the top 20 for the USA country. The chart for the rest of the American region is different (as reflected in the Canadian chart posted above). Please edit your article for accuracy.

It isn't updated weekly, it's updated in real-time, but it does only count "recent" sales. How far back they count is unknown. So we will see older titles fall off the list. What it really shows is which titles have "legs". Defend Your Castle has massive, Usain Bolt type "legs". Major League Eating, not so much. Six weeks to fall off? Not good. A new stat for "Weeks in the Top 20" would probably be a good idea for this list.

I have a suggestion:

Would you guys please post charts for European countries. I'd love to know how things are looking over there.

@matthew thats the posters' jobs!
I am happy to see Pong Toss go down to 6, if only because it is a start. Magnetica Twist is my 2nd game thats already fallen off the charts (Toki Tori was the first.) Glad DYC went up to 5, but what next? Is FFCC and WWG going to unexpectedly fall off too? I kinda doubt it, but PT is at 6!!

@Dazza - North America is in America. Not only that, but when used to denote a region, "America" generally refers to North America in this context (except probably in South America, but I don't see anyone reporting on their specific gaming culture all that often). "America" can be used as a colloquial term for The United States of America, but The United States of America is not a region, it's a country. And US/USA is shorter than "America" as an abbreviated referent for that country anyway. I win either way.

It's fine to be stubborn, but don't be stubborn and protective about your mistakes, especially when you're in a business that involves dealing with the public.

@ Jogurt the Yogurt-
Canadians don't refer to themselves as living in America.
I just see this as nit-picking so you can look like a "smart" poster, whatever that does for you.

@ Jogurt the Yogurt
Yes, North America is usually abbreviated to America... but mainly in the USA. Canadians don't go around saying that their country is located in America because that just sounds weird. Especially since a lot of times United States of America is shortened to America.

SuperMario, I'm a smart enough poster that I don't care about looking like one. I wonder what makes you need to step in and make accusatory, inflammatory comments that have nothing to do with the debate...?

That said, I do enjoy reading this site and VC-R enough that I take a personal interest in the site itself looking like a "smart" site, and simple errors like this one are pretty hard to tolerate. Canadians do indeed refer to themselves as living in the American "region" (note the use of the word region, as used in the original version of this article), especially in the context of video games where media are commonly divided into North America, PAL, and Japan.

@Dazza - the fact that I am a Canadian has little to do with the fundamental point, but if you just want to write it off like that instead of thinking about it, that's fine. Your point about different regional terminology (football is a good example!) is well taken, so I'm going to apologize for being so vehement in calling it an error and settle on the term inaccuracy. When regional linguistic differences are involved, especially on a site with international readership like this one, I think it's best to be as clear and explicit as possible. You can see where "American region" could be confusing to different audiences while "North American region" or "the US" would be less so.

Oh, okay.
So someone with an account, calling out the person responsible for posting this article, supports the image of this being a "smart site"?
Why not take a more mature approach, and email someone?

Oh, and "American region" did not confuse one person looking at this article.
But it's okay, I really do think you're the smartest person here.

Just hire Jogurt, so we avoid such huge, drastic problems.

@Matthew. Reasons like that are why I dream of moving to Canada.

@Phantom. Actually, even when we reach a time when there is 80 games on Wiiware, the bottom 10 will probably still change constantly, given how much they change now, unlike the virtual console, whose first-party Nintendo games have pretty much cemented themselves in the charts.
The top 10 Wiiwares, however, seem pretty stagnant too. =P

@Dazza. No sympathy for Magnetica, huh?

edit: @posts 19-25. Can any of you guys tell me what the point of that argument was?

@ Mr. Cheez: - Canadian gamers know what's good and what's not.

Finnish list:

1. (1) My Aquarium
2. (4) Strong Bad
3. (3) LostWinds
4. (2) Defend Your Castle
5. (5) Wild West Guns
6. (6) My Pokemon Ranch
7. (7) FFCC
8. (11) SPOGS Racing
9. (8) Cocoto Fishing Master
10. (9) Toki Tori
11. (13) Dr. Mario
12. (10) TV Show King
13. (14) Block Breaker Deluxe
14. (15) Star Soldier R
15. (17) Pop
16. (12) Pirates
17. (16) Actionloop Twist

It's interesting to see what happens when the next WiiWare update arrives on Friday.

Canadians are smart about there Wii Ware games. They avoid Pong Toss. Anyway the Wii Ware future looks bright, and I just got a new points card. Lets look at whats coming up My Aquarium, Mega Man 9, Gradius R, Alien Crush R, Tetris Party, and Multi-player Bomberman. This is Good stuff!

This is how I think the next few weeks are going to turn out:

September 1st - My Aquarium
September 8th - Home Sweet Home
September 15th - Midnight Bowling
September 22nd - Strong Bad Episode 2
September 29th - Mega Man 9
October 6th - Alien Crush Returns
October 13th - Space Invaders: Get Even
October 20th - Maboshi: The Three Shape Arcade
October 27th - Strong Bad Epsode 3
November 3rd - Bomberman Blast
November 10th - Gradius R
November 17th - Tetris Party
November 24th - Strong Bad Episode 4

@ +matthew²- I'll bet you three nickels and a donkey that none of those are correct.

@ x.SuperMario.x - I know. XD

"Please stop buying this our American friends or the world is going to get the wrong idea about you."

As if the rest of the world doesn't hate us United Statesians enough already.

@Taco_Human. Unlike you, I'm not gonna give in and buy that game. I'm already gonna be juggling Ys, Star Parodier, and Wild West Guns as it is, and I surely don't need another over 200-block game.

Edit: @Supermario. 3 nickels and a donkey? That's all? What a rip-off! XD

Not to sound rude/lulzy, yet My Pokémon Ranch will always be on the Top 5.

1. It is a Pokémon game. Pokémon is such a popular series that anyone would buy any Pokémon game.
2. Pokémon Diamond/Pearl were record-breaking best-sellers, and, since My Pokémon Ranch effectively rode that horse (It is basically an "SD Card" of those DS games), people are downloading that game like crazy. The probable reason why it lowered is because a lot of people already have My Pokémon Ranch, and, since it requires a Diamond/Pearl game that not everybody has, more people (even those who have My Pokémon Ranch, I bet) are downloading Strong Bad 1.
3. When Pokémon Platinum comes out (in any region), sales of My Pokémon Ranch might rise again due to people not having Diamond/Pearl getting Platinum.

I actually would get My Pokémon Ranch, even if other people do not like it, yet I am waiting for Pokémon Platinum to come out in the United States/Puerto Rico.

Please. Different people like different things.

Lol@ Super Mario, Dazza, and Jogurt!!

Sorry had to get that out there,lol

Hopefully Helix moves up the ladder.

@ +matthew²- Where did the Maboshi idea come from??

@x.SuperMario.x

Can you make me a bet again? I need a new wiiware/VC game because I played the hell out of Dr mario already. Thanks for gifting me that game by the way.

@MarkyVigoroth

I agree.My brother would buy pokemon ranch if he didnt sell his ds and his pokemon games just for the space and for the extra pokemon.

Surprisingly, the VC list has actually been invaded by a few new games (Mega Man entering the top 5 even!). I do believe the reason the VC Top 20 has remained to steady is because all Nintendo hardcore and lapsed gamers are more likely to purchase Nintendo's big games than that of noname or niche games (and imports included). People see Mario World and go "Oh Super Mario World was so cool. It's less than ten dollars so BUY." When they see a game they don't remember on VC, they tend to have second thoughts. That, along with the large hardcore Ninty fanbase, results in the Top 20 being so huge (and note that a few are actually refusing to buy any newer games until a storage solution is found, only making things worse).

WiiWare is different. The games are all new (well, new-ish), and so people are willing to purchase more new titles. This is why I believe that, in the end, the Top 20 will fluctuate quite a bit more, at least until Nintendo publishes 20 really big titles

I've noticed in my lil graphing of ranks that games tend to "peak" at their third week numbers before they sink downward. Wild West Guns, for example, went to peak at 2 last week but now fell to 3 and will probably drop another few spots next week.

As a note, yesterday Magnetica Twist was on 20 and Major League Eating was gone, so the two might be so close that it is almost garunteed for MLE to be dropped next week. I have more to talk about, but I think I'll hold off for another post (man I type a lot).

ttplayer92- No problem.
Unfortunately, I'm out of Wii points myself.

Hmph. Nintendo tried to make the terrible Pokémon not-game topple Strong Bad by advertising it more on Nintendo.com and it didn't entirely work. A few more dimwitted kids and it would've worked, though! At least SPOGS is falling off.

I'm just glad to see Toki Tori still barely holding on to the bottom of the Canadian list. Hopefully he sticks around for another week or so.

@x.SuperMario.x - Thanks.

Major League Eating and Pop can't get off that chart soon enough.

For a while there, Pop was ahead of Major League Eating a few days ago.

Pop is a simple game, but it is fun, energizing, and something that I can play a quick round of when I'm "all Mario'ed out" (that was an expression that my friend came up with after we both played Mario games for three days strait). Perhaps the biggest deterrent to Pop is a subconsious one, in that poop is spelled almost the same way, and the "O" is emphasized way too much in the icon...

"pOp" <=> "POOp"

That is just one of the subconscious reference that the mind makes, and people are turned off without even knowing why or giving it a thought. Poor choice in subliminal advertising. And the "nNOooo" as a company brand doesn't work to their advantage either. "Bubbles" would probably have worked much better.

I repeat my post from the thread before: As long as we don´t see any numbers of how much these games are really sold, it´s not that interesting. For example, vgchartz brought the news, that SUPER MARIO RPG sold on the first day in the European Area 8000 times. Thats something I can think of.
I would like to know, how WILD WEST GUNS sold. Was it good? Does the company thinkin´ of another Zapper-Support? Whats about Lost WInds? Nice Game. Did they make enough profit to keep supporting the Wiiware?
I had my own Gamesshop back in the 90s. I made a Chart list, which rank the games had in my shop. Many people asked for the exact numbers. I´d like to know. Same with Wiiware and VC.

Farewell Actionloop/Magnetica - why couldn't they take Pop instead?

UK Charts (with prev psn if different)
1) My Aquarium
2) [5] Strongbad Episode One
3) [2] Defend Your Castle
4) [3] My Pokemon Ranch
5) [4] Wild West Guns
6) TV Show King
7) LostWinds
8) FFCCMLAAK
9) Cocoto Fishing Master
10) SPOGS Racing
11) Pop
12) Dr Mario & Germ Buster
13) [14] Block Breaker Dx
14) [13] Pirates: The Key of Dreams
15) [16] Toki Tori
16) [15] Star Soldier R
17) Actionloop Twist (grrrr...)

Very little change apart from Strongbad moving up three places.

So, which game is going to get the chop in the US charts next week? I'm saying Pop.

(Any news on whats out tomorrow yet?)

I hope SPOGS Racing goes away soon.

I don't hate My Pokemon Ranch because it's a Pokemon game. I hate it because it's a total disappointment, with extremely limited features - I just want something MORE than a Mii channel for Pokemon (and no, the ability to stack your Pokemon and topple them for, ahem, "laughs," doesn't justify 1000 points.) And the graphics - they're some of the WORST I've ever seen. It really does offend me. I'm not some four-year-old who's like OOOHHHH LOOKIE! MY POKEYMAN'S RUNNIN' AROUND IN FULL 3D! DROOLS ON SHIRT. I don't need photo-realistic rendering or anything, but would it kill them to make them look at least Pokemon Stadium-quality? You know, rendered with EFFORT? Oh wait, they didn't have to; their audience of 12-year-old girls (and those who are 12-year-old girls at heart) will just happily babble over how... ugh... "kawaii" the graphics are.

So, in other words, I'm not particularly interested in getting "My Pokemon Cash-In." I planned on getting it before I learned of what an utter disappointment it is. The next installments of the series will be even more lazily-made. raises both fists to Nintendo, gives the finger

@Falk Sturmfels: I wouldn't trust anything from that site AT ALL, as it pretty much guesses everything based on a couple stores' sales. Unless, of course, this was from a press release or something to that effect. I doubt any numbers will come out as this is Nintendo we're talking about.

However, I do have a feeling that the ranks in the long term tell how a game has sold in relation to other games in total (no duh ). I have a theory that sales do not "reset" a week or so afterwards; I think each sale has a value upon purchase that decreases after a set time period continually. Like a decay function. But that's just me.

I DO know that someone from the development team of Critter Round-Up said they didn't get any royalties from Nintendo, really, so the game did not do well for them. I'd say games that remain on the Top 20 now for a long period of time (say, 3 months) more or less sold a good amount, but how much? Apparently the Nintendo Channel stats can show a rather small but applicable number of purchasers, so you get a minimum at least.

@deadbattery
That is the most apt description of My Pokémon Ranch ever written.

I like My Pokemon Ranch. Its handy for people with Pokemon D/P.

I wonder what Europe will get tonight...

I'd love to know in the name of Satan's butthole who is still downloading Pokemon Ranch... sadly I can't argue against Marky's comments.

Here's hoping we get Helix/Gyrostarr. We may get Midnight Pool/MLE though. When's all the old rubbish arriving anyways (Critter R-Up; VIP Casino; Protöthea; Family Table Tennis; FPG Pong Toss)?

I'd megalol if we got Plattchen before the US.

I'm glad games like Cocoto get more sales than Gyrostarr, cause you know, they totally deserve it!

I helped get DYC go up by 1 because i downloaded it this past weekend. I just downloaded Toki Tori (which is one of the best games out on the Wii) and is really hooked to it. Its as addicting as FFCC:MLaaK and DYC. Hopefully my purchase could possibly bring it back.

And I have a question: what wiiware game should I get thats 1000 points and under? (I have Lostwinds, FFCC:MLaaK, Gyrrostar, MPR, Toki Tori, DYC)

Nintendo is really "painting themselves into a corner" on this storage space issue.

@Retroware. Well, for 800 points you can get Midnight Pool, Gyrostarr, or Block Breaker Deluxe, which I heard were supposed to be pretty good. And if you like playing the same 2 to 5-minute level over and over again to beat your high score, there's Star Soldier R as well for the same price. JK.