Super Mario Maker is breathing new life into the Wii U

According to Nintendo, September’s release of Super Mario Maker boosted sales of the Wii U by over 110 percent as compared to August. Of course, the secretive nature of game sales means we don’t know exactly how well the console did. Nintendo also claims Super Mario Maker sold “more than 500,000 combined units” over the past month, including both digital and physical sales. There’s some other sales information in the press release (the 3DS sold 25 percent better in the January-September period than it did during the same period last year; Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer sold almost 115,000 copies during launch week), so it looks like Nintendo’s in a solid place right now. Since release, Super Mario Maker has been well-received by critics, including a positive review from Destructoid’s Chris Carter. The game has also been the battleground for a friendly competition between game journalists Patrick Klepek and Dan Ryckert that resulted in over $12,000 raised for the American Heart Association and the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation. The final stream in the feud was viewed by over 7,000 people, and resulted in a victory for Klepek.