It is always a humbling experience when seeing these ‘best selling’ lists related to video games. This time, it is the franchises – the heavy lifters of their respective publisher’s bottom line.
No surprise who is on top, by a massive margin – Mario, Nintendo’s crown jewel. Mario has been a juggernaut franchise for decades! Any game containing the Italian plumber (formerly Jumpman) is almost a guarantee to make bank for Nintendo, from the Super Mario, Mario Kart, Mario Sports and Mario Party series, to Mario RPG! When looking at the list, Mario is in some good company with other massive Nintendo franchises, like the Wii simulation series and of course, The Legend of Zelda. The Wii series was a surprise, as we would have expected Donkey Kong or Metroid to be up there too.
Looking at the chart, you will notice a mixed bag of game franchises that started in the 80s, 90s, 2000s, with Minecraft being the sole representative for the 2010s! No wonder we keep seeing Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto games being made on new generation systems, they sell like hotcakes. Not content with being the biggest pop culture entity, Star Wars has done quite well in the video gaming realm too. Great to see Sega’s Sonic The Hedgehog up there and the many sports titles we have enjoyed (and still enjoy).
See any surprises?
(click to enlarge)
data source: Wikipedia
Simon Parkin’s 
image source: 
First contender, Wave Race 64 (N64) – yes, we did pick Wave Race 64 above Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64 and Goldeneye 007. Don’t get us wrong, the aforementioned games are superb, but nostalgia draws us to Wave Race 64. What wasn’t there to like – realistic water physics, challenging courses and an absolutely cracking 2 player challenge – ‘Bonsai!’. We lost a lot of hours playing this game head to head. Oh yeah, the N64 controller was perfect for this game.
The second contender is none other than Super Mario Bros. (SMB) on the NES. This 2D platformer catapulted the Mario franchise into the stratosphere for good reason. The game had great level design, matched by awesome gameplay, a mesmerising Koji Kondo tune and most importantly, intuitive control – what more could you want!
Well, if it wasn’t for the next game, I guess the choice would have been easy and SMB would have walked away with the prize. Let us tell you about a 16-bit platformer that took the SMB ingredients, gave them a fair shake and then poured the contents into the SNES for a game we call (drum roll please), Super Mario World (SMW)! With SMW, the 2D platformer reached its pinnacle – sublime level design, 16-bit aesthetics that were an absolute feast for your eyes and the sound was perfectly atmospheric. This was a game that you could lose yourself in. SMW is one of those games you can either pick up and play for half an hour to get your Mario fix, or play till the wee hours of the morning. SMW walks away with the prize of our favourite Nintendo game of all time. Thank you Mr. Miyamoto for creating the definitive 2D platformer.
We must admit that the latest Nintendo Direct got us excited with all of the games, products and events that are coming up to celebrate 
source: 
Whoa, LEGO and Nintendo have given us a one two punch of sets – first with their LEGO Super Mario, and now, the awesome LEGO Nintendo Entertainment System set!
source: LEGO
story source: Kotaku / image source: Nintendo
We have previously featured customised GameCube consoles, like the 
