Who makes the best games for Nintendo consoles? We both know the answer to that. If you want something done right, you do it yourself, right?

A whopping 27.5 million first-party games were sold for the Wii in 2009, totalling $1.53 billion in sales. That’s 47 percent of all Wii sales for the year. Some of that may lead be related to a price difference: The average third-party game on sold for $37.85; the average first-party game sold for $55.63. Price it what it’s worth? We won’t get into that.

On the data, analyst Michael Pachter said: “The conclusion I draw from this is that the Wii audience is far more casual and harder to reach than the PS3 or 360 audiences, and they purchase brand name software (with ‘Wii’ or ‘Mario’ in the title, or with a TV/product tie-in).”

Looking at my collection, it is varied, and I own more third-party games than first. Of course, I’m far from your typical Wii owner. If you’re reading this, you are also in the same boat.

US: First-party titles accounted for 47% of Wii sales in 2009 [GI]

source Destructoid

Popularity: unranked [?]

Here’s the news many of us North America-based, Castlevania-obsessed freaks have been desperately waiting for: Castlevania: Rondo of Blood is finally making it Stateside thanks to a Virtual Console release. The ESRB gave us a heads up not long ago, but Hudson has gone on to confirm the good news.

Speaking to Siliconera, a representative from Hudson said Rondo of Blood ought to be “released shortly” but not in English. Oh no, whatever will we do? There’s so much important text in the older Castlevania games. How the heck will any of us know how to whip skeletons without intense instructions first?

Now that my sarcasm powers have been permanently depleted from overuse, let me say how excited I am to finally play a non-emulated non-shady version of this game on my Television. Anyone else pumped up by this confirmation?

Castlevania: Rondo of Blood Coming Soon, But It Won’t Be In English [Siliconera]

source Destructoid

Popularity: 1% [?]

At the time of this writing, I have just completed No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle after a 16-hour marathon play through, with occasional breaks to nap and go to the lavatory. This isn’t the best way to go about playing a game for review, but due to equally important Tatsunoko-oriented commitments, it couldn’t be avoided.

So here I am, trying to sum up and explain a game that’ll probably take months of analysis and multiple play-throughs to fully wrap my head around. Also, I really have to go to the water closet, which is ironic, because Suda51 (the creator of No More Heroes) sees his games as a sort of psychological bowel movement. All the information he takes in — movies, videogames, anime, relationships, conversations, everything that makes up his day-to-day life — is chewed up in his mind, and pooped out in the form of No More Heroes.

I’m going to try and take that as inspiration and go to the toilet myself. After that, I’ll be pooping out the ideal No More Heroes 2 review that I have the ability to. Take a look for it after the jump, but beware of possible minor, non-story-related spoilers.

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle (Wii)
Developer: Grasshopper Manufacture
Publisher: Ubisoft
Released: January 26, 2010
MSRP: $49.99

Like its prequel, No More Heroes 2 focuses on Travis Touchdown, the living embodiment of the modern American videogame fan. In the first game, Travis started out as a regular guy. By the end of the story, he had become the #1-ranked assassin in the world, found out that his twin brother was married to the woman he’d been trying to seduce for the entire game, and discovered even creepier stuff about his half-sister Jeane. Speaking of Jeane, Travis also named his cat after her. He pets his cat pretty regularly, and just sort of stares off into space as he does so — not something you see most videogame tough-guys do in their off time.

Popularity: 1% [?]