We've been impressed so far about what we've already seen in Nintendo's Mario Kart Wii, and it seems as if the Official Nintendo Magazine in UK seems to think so as well, giving the game a nice 94/100 rating. Also, here's something that Mario Kart fans may either love or hate: the removal of the snaking maneuver from the game. Check out the full article below.

Good news for those of us who have yet to succumb to the temptation of nabbing a Wii of our very own: Costco stores all over the US are now offering an exclusive Wii package that's easy on the budget and very beneficial to those looking to get some quality time with the latest entry in the Mario Party series, Mario Party 8.

The bundle comes with the Wii Console itself, a copy of Mario Party 8, and a free Wiimote. That's two Wiimotes in one package, with a Mario game thrown into the mix - all for the wallet-friendly price of US $329.99, as you can see on the image up top. Not only can you start playing right away, but you can also compete head-to-head with another player as soon as you pop that game in. Sweet!

Definitely good news that stores are now wising up (and stocking up) when the Wii's concerned. So rush out now and grab one from your nearest Costco store before they run out of stock. Good hunting!

Japanese retailers are experiencing another sales spurt as anticipated titles have launched for just about every platform. Most  launches were successful, while a couple of titles experienced a let-down of sorts. There's no denying, however, that the real face-off is between the Nintendo Wii's Mario Party 8 and the Sony PlayStation 3's Minna no Golf 5 (Hot Shots Golf 5).

Both Mario Party 8 and Hot Shots Golf 5 sold over 100,000 copies on the first day alone. Retailers have ordered a total of 300,000 units for the PS3 golfing game while the Wii board game saw a 500,000-unit shipment.

Site Cube3 compares the performance of these iterations with that of their predecessors and it was revealed that Mario Party 8 has outdone its previous installment with a 200 percent sales increase. On the other hand, Hot Shots Golf 5 sold about half of what Hot Shots Golf 4 sold at its launch.

Over at the Microsoft Xbox 360 side, things went relatively well as Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion sold 35,000 units. Konami's Metal Gear  Anniversary Box, Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories, Gundam MS 0079 and Taiko no Tatsujin DS also posted good launch figures.

Sadly, Konami's Dewy's Adventure for the Wii and Guilty Gear XX Ascent Core didn't do so well. Both titles were expected to do well but sold barely 1,000 copies apiece in the country. We'll update you on how these games perform in the succeeding days through future posts.

Finally, Mario's going to bring his party back to the UK. After Mario Party 8 got pulled out due to the word "spastic" found in earlier UK copies of the game, Nintendo Company Ltd. announced that the video game will be re-launched on August 3.

While steps have already been taken to remove the offensive word, a spokesman from Nintendo said that they cannot guarantee that all of the copies or Mario Party 8 have been returned and corrected, that there may be some initial copies in circulation.

There will be no changes in pricing, and Nintendo said that the stock levels were unaffected, despite the re-launch.

We guess you are all familiar with software and hardware sales pointing out Nintendo's dominance in Japan as well as some countries in the West with its Wii and DS consoles. This next one still concerns charts actions but is set in a different market: Canada.

Yup, be proud because it looks like Nintendo is indeed taking the whole world by storm and the way things are going, it has no plans of slowing down. Based from the recent data provided to Canadian press members, June belonged to Nintendo as it secured the top three software spots, not to mention 10 titles being included in the top 12.

Mario Party 8 is the most preferred game by our Canadian friends, followed closely by Wii Play. The number three position was occupied by Pokemon Pearl while its twin Pokemon Diamond ended on the fifth spot. On the other hand, the number four position was taken by Xbox 360 racing game Forza Motorsport 2.

The highest entry to the June chart was Capcom's Resident Evil 4 at number seven, which is not actually a surprise given the game's success lately. If you want to go further into the charts, two more Nintendo games made it to the top 20 bringing the total to 12.

The remaining eight spots were shared by Xbox 360 with three titles, four PlayStation 2 games, and just one for the PlayStation 3.

 

Bad news for Wii owners in the UK looking to grab a copy of the beloved party game featuring all of Mario's buddies and enemies, Mario Party 8.

Despite the game's release date being pushed back for quite a while to fix a bug found on the English version, a small amount of discs with the unfixed version of the game had somehow found their way into the shipment.

Thus, Nintendo's issuing a recall on Mario Party 8 in UK, with a re-release date still pending. Nintendo's statement on their official site, verbatim:

Unfortunately we have discovered that a small number of games contain the wrong version of the disk due to an assembly error. We have therefore decided to recall all copies of the game from UK retailers so that this mistake can be corrected.

We will re-launch Mario Party 8 in the UK as soon as possible and will announce a new launch date shortly. We very much regret any inconvenience caused.

Very bad news indeed - it's been quite a while since Nintendo announced a delay in the game's UK release. Now that the new release date's here, another delay crops up. Fortunately, though, they decided on a mass recall instead of going ahead with a glitchy launch.

Besides, we all don't know for sure how 'small' that small amount is, and it's better not to risk purchasing a title if there's a chance you could get a flawed one, right

The Star Carnival is parading down the Rainbow Road with bits of confetti, coins a-plenty, and mustachioed plumbers. Mario and the gang just hit record sales with the latest installment in the Hudson Soft-developed virtual game board series. Mario Party 8 was just announced to have bagged some Star Shines itself.

Following its May 29 release in the US, Mario Party 8 has now sold over 550,000 copies. Nintendo's now clocked it at as the all-time fast-selling title in the franchise. George Harrison of Nintendo of America capped the press release with:

The overwhelming response not only reminds us how much fans absolutely love the Mario Party franchise but also proves the unmatched ability of the Wii system to attract new players. Wii users are keeping the Mario Party going strong.

 

For Wii owners in the UK looking to get the party started with the latest installment of the beloved Nintendo party game, Mario Party 8, you'll probably have to take a raincheck on that. Unfortunately, production issues with the English version of the game has pushed the title's UK release date to July 13, 2007.

Nintendo didn't specifically say what the issue was, but from the rather long delay they've asked for, it looks to be a little serious. Let's hope that's not actually the case - after all, the North American version of the game was released without a hitch, wasn't it? And besides, a late release that's cleared of all bugs and kinks is certainly preferable to a buggy early release.

More updates about Mario Party 8 as we get them. In the meantime, why not watch some gameplay videos to tide you over the delay?

By now, it's a no-brainer that Mario Party 8 for the Nintendo Wii looks like barrels of fun. So what's more fun than this game? Playing it with friends and whooping them across the playing board of course!

This is the Mario Party 8 Friends trailer and we gotta say, what's depicted is not far off from what actually happens in real living rooms across the world. Gotta love the coin-sucking vampires!

To say that the gameplay is fun and quirky would be an understatement. The game just takes the whole Snakes and Ladders paradigm into the realm of dreams. The wacky animations and the cute sounds provide the perfect backdrop for session after session of fun with friends.

 

And the UK satellite of the Japanese gaming giant is planning to blow wads of cash that they've never done before. Nintendo's Mario Party 8 (a U.S. Wii top-seller according to NPD) and Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree will be the first titles to be backed by an intensive and expensive marketing campaign aimed at the potential customers of the broad market - a target demographic the two titles were designed for.

The domestic campaign used to market Mario Strikers Charged Football approximated to an amount over £ 1 million (US$ 1.98 million), and if Nintendo UK's claims are anywhere near the truth, the company will spend an excess of US$ 2 million in marketing for each of the titles.

No exact budget was revealed, reports MCV, but UK's Wii product manager Rob Lowe said, "As both Mario Party and Big Brain Academy are being aimed towards very broad audiences, we need substantial mass-market campaigns to back them up." He claims that each of the titles' campaigns will be equal to that of their Mario Strikers campaign, although the new ones would definitely run longer. He also said:

We are looking at much longer sales curves on these titles that will hopefully sell at a high rate for many weeks. Therefore we need to prolong the campaigns over months rather than weeks, along with a second sustained period of media coverage around the Christmas season.

Lowe explains that although this would seem adverse to the normal marketing whims of publishing companies, they explain that their target audience aren't gamers by nature, so they are making the effort to catch their attention.