Wii U Sales Explode In Japan Following Wii Party U Release

Oh yeah, the Big 'N' is starting turn up the heat and find their place in the market with the Wii U now. The great part about this story is that it's mostly about how Nintendo got their groove back after falling out of grace in the console arena throughout most of the year.

GamesIndustry.biz tossed up an article after Gematsu laid out some serious details about the Wii U's performance over in Japan, where the Big 'N' is continuing to report some impressive figures for the little Wii U that could.

The hardware charts are as follows: 3DS XL - 58,627 (Last week - 69,001)

Wii U - 38,802 (2,598)

3DS - 29,749 (40,507)

PlayStation Vita - 27,618 (24,513)

PlayStation 3 - 11,148 (11,460)

PSP - 3,680 (3,807)

Wii - 477 (742)

Xbox 360 - 328 (351)

Oh look at that, look at that. The Wii U is outselling the Xbox 360 by more than 118 times. That's embarrassing. Then again, the Japanese don't like the Xbox 360 anyway because it doesn't have a lot of pantsu type games... but that's beside the point.

The point is, the new release of Wii Party U really helped put the Wii U back into the competitive running following its supercharged comeback with the Wind Waker HD bundle pack in September.

As a lot of people had previously mentioned, including the Dorito Pope, the Wii U simply lacks software. The reason the sales surged and then slumped was because a lot of people are waiting for the hard hitters, the unique experiences and the Nintendo exclusives.

Nintendo's Wii Party U didn't quite crack the software charts given the stiff competition from the Nintendo 3DS and stuff like Pokemon X/Y, but it did manage to help put the Wii U just behind its extra large little brother, the 3DS XL on the weekly hardware charts. The software side of the charts were completely and entirely dominated by the Nintendo 3DS, though, so even games selling well on the Wii U had no room or space to show up, especially on the top 5 of the weekly sales charts. Still, the Wii U gaining a foothold over the aging PS3 and its mobile rivals shows promise; in fact, that's very impressive.

All the doomsayers and nay-bringers of the industry touting the fall of Nintendo and the death of the Wii U will be changing their tune soon as the Big 'N' continues to roll out more hard hitting games and revive the Wii U like the console phoenix of the eighth gen of gaming. It could be a real Hollywood-worthy underdog story if they can prove that the Wii U has staying power and a capable install base, but it all depends on how well Nintendo does this fall.

We'll keep you posted on the NPD results for the Wii U and its performance throughout October once the data becomes available. One thing is for sure: Nintendo, if you make the games, they will come.