Nintendo may be having a hard time of it on the hardware front, but on the software front, they continue to move from success to success. Fresh on the heels of Splatoon’s incredible sales performance comes the news that Super Mario Maker, which was released exclusively on the Wii U in September (you know, the same month that saw the launch of a new Forza game, a new Mad Max game, a new Metal Gear Solid, as well as a substantial number of sports games), has managed to sell over 1.8 million copies worldwide since launch. Considering that the game launched on just the Wii U, which is a dead platform in terms of audience engagement, this really was quite the feat.

Super Mario Maker is not the only Nintendo game that did well, either- Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer for the Nintendo 3DS has already sold 2.02 million copies globally (almost certainly cementing Animal Crossing’s status as a tentpole franchise for Nintendo going forward), while Splatoon is now at 2.42 million units.

Hopefully, this shows Nintendo that they don’t need to rely on casual, gimmick laden games, or just old brands, to make their mark on the market- with Splatoon and Mario Maker being brand new IPs and doing well, things are looking up for the Big N’s lineup on the NX, which launches some time next year.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks, full of AAA releases, but EA Sports’ FIFA 16 has still managed to stay on top of the UK charts according to Gfk Chart-Track. This is despite competition from Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection on the PS4 which debuted at second place among strong critical acclaim.

Destiny: The Taken King has also been seeing a fair amount of success since launch. It’s moved up to third place in the past week while LEGO Dimensions is in fourth. Forza Motorsport 6 is in fifth place followed by Grand Theft Auto 5 which simply refuses to leave the charts at this point.

Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer on the 3DS is actually in seventh place followed by Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain and NBA 2K16. Debuting at tenth place is Rock Band 4 and hopefully that’s not a sign of the game’s future.

What are your thoughts on the past week’s sales in the UK? Let us know in the comments below.

When the refreshed Nintendo 3DS systems launched worldwide earlier this year, North America ended up getting the short end of the stick- while everywhere else would get the New Nintendo 3DS XL that we got here, they also got the smaller New Nintendo 3DS as well. While it was smaller, with smaller screens, more cramped ergonomics, and lower battery life, it also had several benefits- it came with much better pixel density on its screens, for instance, it had changeable face plates, it was cheaper, and it also had SNES colored face buttons.

There was an uproar, but Nintendo stuck to its guns. With the New Nintendo 3DS XL selling a fair bit, there really wasn’t any reason for them to bother bringing in another model over at all.

Except they have- rejoice everyone in North America who wanted the smaller New Nintendo 3DS model, for it is finally launching here! Nintendo will be offering the system as part of a bundle with the upcoming Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer. Included in the package is the New 3DS, the game, two cover plates, and one amiibo cards. All of this actually puts the regular New 3DS at $220, which is $20 more expensive than the XL, but still, it seems as though the model is going to be coming here after all.

Right now, no standalone SKU has been announced, but if this bundle does well enough, it may just come. And if you want a New 3DS, but don’t like Animal Crossing, remember, you can always just swap out the faceplates to something to your liking.

The new model launches September 25, alongside Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer.

It may not have been the full fledged sequel in the Animal Crossing franchise that we were all anticipating, but Happy Home Designers still looks pretty good, adding even more of The Sims into Animal Crossing- in this game, you design new homes for villagers, who then move in, and react based on how they perceive your home to be.

This livestream shows us nearly 30 minutes of new gameplay footage, confirming, among other things, confirming that the game will have over 400 characters to design homes for; completing their specific requests will unlock more emotes for you to use (at least you don’t have to pay for them!). There will also be some characters that are exclusive to Amiibo cards, such as series mascot Isabelle (because of course she will be exclusive).

Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer launches exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS line of systems later this year. Stay tuned for more information on the game.

This E3, a lot of people were expecting Nintendo to announce a new Animal Crossing project, probably for the flagging Wii U. A lot of things had pointed at such a thing happening, so anticipation was running high. And then, at E3, Nintendo announced not one, but two Animal Crossing games. Except none of them were really Animal Crossing games- they were Amiibo based spin offs, one each for the Wii U and 3DS.

Speaking with USGamer, series director Aya Kyogoku explained that the decision to create Animal Crossing spinoffs arose largely from the development team’s desire to see Animal Crossing Amiibos. Yes, that’s right- these two games were built as nothing else but vehicles for more Amiibos that Nintendo wanted to put out.

“One thing that we focused on was, ‘What kind of game play experience can we create using Amiibo figures and Amiibo cards?'” she said. “We also went in with the approach that we didn’t want to be limited in the scope of what we can do based on what Animal Crossing in the past has been. So this is the result of our endeavor and coming up with a new game play experience with Amiibos and Animal Crossing.

“Initially when the Amiibo was announced, there was nothing really said about Animal Crossing Amiibos or any plans for that matter,” she explained. “But as the Animal Crossing team, we were confident that if there was one, it would be really cute… honestly, we just wanted Animal Crossing Amiibo. We wanted the company to make Animal Crossing Amiibo, so that’s why we made a game that works with them.”

I mean, I guess I appreciate the honesty, and yes, Amiibo integration with Animal Crossing is great, but this admission that they basically made two entire games for no other reason than to push Amiibos made me lose quite a bit of respect for Nintendo.

If you blinked, you might have missed the numerous trailers of 3DS games that Nintendo revealed at E3 2015 during its Digital Event. Luckily, we gathered all the significant announcements into one place.

There was Metroid Prime: Federation Force, which appears to be a co-op title set in the Metroid universe (without Samus Aran or the grim visuals of previous Prime games; a new animated trailer for Fire Emblem Fates; gameplay footage and an official reveal for Hyrule Warriors Legends; Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam which sees a collision between the Mario/Luigi and Paper Mario RPG worlds; a new Animal Crossing title with Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer; and finally, a trailer for Yo-Kai Watch as it heads to the West in Winter 2016.

Other 3DS titles showcased at Nintendo’s event included The Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes, a three player co-op title wherein players can customize their outfits and work together in the framework of a bigger quest. What are your thoughts on Nintendo’s E3 showcase for the 3DS? Let us know in the comments.