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Happy Birthday, Nintendo DS

DS

Australia’s favourite handheld gaming device has just turned 1!

Nintendo’s 15 years of unsurpassed leadership in portable video gaming continues unabated. Sales figures show that Nintendo DS, fuelled by hit software and new global Wi-Fi capability, was the highest selling handheld games console in Australia throughout the Christmas season. Nintendo DS continues to sell through at a higher rate than all other handheld systems, and remains the best selling handheld console.

This success has been replicated on a global scale. In fact, the Nintendo DS has enjoyed extremely strong sales across the board, selling more than 14.4 million units worldwide in just 13 months of the U.S. launch in November, 2005.

On February 24th, Nintendo DS celebrated its actual first birthday in style, at the inaugural IEAA awards held in Sydney, at the Sheraton on the Park, where the dual-screen device was awarded "Best Selling Handheld Console".

Nintendo dominated the handheld category with Super Mario 64 DS winning "Best Selling Adventure", Nintendogs: Dachshund & Friends taking "Best Selling Simulator" and "Best Selling RPG" being awarded to the GBA title Pokémon Emerald.

Nintendo Australia is also pleased to announce an upgrade to the range, in the form of the Nintendo DS Lite. Nintendo DS Lite features brighter screens, will be approximately two-thirds the size of the original Nintendo DS and about 20 percent lighter. Nintendo DS Lite will debut first in Japan in March, with details of the Australian launch due to be announced shortly.

The momentum for Nintendo DS is set to continue, with a steady flow of strong titles coming early 2006. Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble, Pokémon Trozei, Super Princess Peach and Resident Evil: Deadly Silence are all due March. Tetris DS will arrive in April, followed closely by Metroid Prime Hunters, Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain?, and New Super Mario Bros. Other key titles due for release include Super Monkey Ball: Touch & Roll from THQ in March, and Tamagotchi Connexion Corner Shop from Atari in April.

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