Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Limited Hours, but Not Editions! Super Mario All-Stars: Limited Edition Data Report

Coffee Beans:
     We last looked at Super Mario All-Stars: Limited Edition's data on January 3, when its game-play hours debuted on the Nintendo Channel.
     When Super Mario All-Stars: Limited Edition was released on December 12, 2010, many perhaps thought(like I did) it was going to be true to its name, and be a one-time "Limited Edition" print, and the game quickly sold-out at retailers after it released.
     A few days after my last report on the game, Wired.com reported that Nintendo was considering a reprint for Super Mario All-Stars: Limited Edition, and soon news started trickling off different websites and from stores, confirming a reprint release for Super Mario All-Stars: Limited Edition would hit stores again, this time on March 13(this past Sunday!).

     How many hours have Wii owners spent playing Super Mario All-Stars: Limited Edition, with 93 days of game-play reported since it released(the first time)?  Let's take a look!

Hours are for the United States of America Wii owners, not world-wide.

Approx. Number of Players Reported Data:
     Super Mario All-Stars: Limited Edition now has 38,136 Wii owners reporting their game-play data, through the Wii's Nintendo Channel.

Reporting Player Increase:
     How many more players are reporting play-time data for Super Mario All-Stars, with 71 more days reported since January 3?
     Super Mario All-Stars has seen an increase of about 21,395 more players reporting game-play data, since the last report.

Average & Total Game-Play Hours Reported:
     Super Mario All-Stars: Limited Edition now has 246,191 Total Hours of game-play reported, an increase of 185,240 Total Hours since the last report.
     Super Mario All-Stars' average play-time is now 6 Hours 27 Minutes "Per person" reporting data, which is 2 Hours 49 Minutes higher than its average on January 3.

     Super Mario All-Stars: Limited Edition's average play-time per session is now just over 1 Hour 15 Minutes.


Sale Rank & Advertised Price:
     Super Mario All-Stars: Limited Edition's Amazon.com sale rank is #35, and it's currently listed for $38.76 ,new, from a third party vendor.
     (Sale rank and advertised price recorded around 11:45PM, on 3-16-11)

Review Score Averages:
     Super Mario All-Stars' "professional" review score average is now 71.67%, based on 18 reviews on GameRankings.com.  This is a slight increase of 1.21%, over what the "professional" review score average was for the game back on January 3.

     Super Mario All-Stars now has a 3.5 out of 5 Stars rating on Amazon.com, based on 143 customer reviews.
     Super Mario All-Stars: Limited Edition's customer review score average is 74.40%, when the customer reviews are converted to a 100% review scale.
     (Review score averages recorded around 11:45PM on 3-16-11)

Filtered Thoughts:
     When I posted the debut data report for Super Mario All-Stars: Limited Edition, I ended the post by asking, "Was the collection and disc worth the $29.99, and could you justify purchasing it for a lot more...?"
     The conversation/feedback from two regular readers here, Charlie Chang and The Dread Pirate Guy(click their names to visit their own blogs!), was pretty interesting.
     Charlie started the comments by saying, "I still think that $30 is too high.  I doubt the graphics are improved from the SNES version.  Stuff like this kind of makes me wag my finger at Nintendo.  How many times are they going to hash our the same game on a different system?"
     After I asked The Dread Pirate Guy, "So, you think it was quickly thrown together...for some quick cash during the holidays?", he replied, "Yeah.  Sadly, I think it was a cheap and ugly cash-in, which is shameful and unnecessary for such a brilliant and industry defining series."
     If you want to see their full comments, and my questions back-and-forth in the discussion, you can read them HERE.

     As for the game-play data, I think it will be interesting to take a look at the data in another month or two, and see if there is any significant increase in hours reported, and the number of players reporting data, because of the reprint.
     The reprint of Super Mario All-Stars: Limited Edition was only available for one day during this story's reported data's time-frame, so it probably wouldn't of impacted the data very much.

     While we all have a limited number of hours to game, I guess Nintendo saw how quickly Super Mario All-Stars: Limited Edition sold-out, and figured "Limited Edition" can always have a new definition, and by reprinting it, I guess they made the first "Limited Edition" not really so "limited"?

Questions:
     If any of you didn't purchase Super Mario All-Stars: Limited Edition when it was first released in December, did you find yourself pre-ordering or going out to find it on Sunday when it was released again?
     As I asked in the first report, do you think the "Limited Edition" is worth the $29.99, or should gamers that haven't picked it up, pass on this until perhaps another Mario "Limited Edition" is released in the future?

If anybody is interested in Super Mario All-Stars: Limited Edition, you can see prices on Amazon.com linked below:
  

13 comments:

  1. This was a game a lot of my co-workers were excited about and picked up, but I passed on. We have a version of this already (on my SNES or N64 I believe?) on top of having the VC versions of mario. From the reviews I read when it released, there just wasn't really any new content that made it work picking up for me.

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  2. I've been waiting for more reviews to see if it's worth picking up. I like the idea of refreshed sound/graphics, but not for the price. (is there any new content at all?) The soundtrack and book seem interesting, but again, not that interesting to spend $30-40 on.

    I already have SMB,SMB2,SMB3 and SM World on VC so I need the lost levels to complete the original lineup.

    I kind of have the same mindset for anything limited/commemorative they release for 25th Zelda. Wish I knew more so I could determine if it's worth getting 'a link to the past' on VC. It's only $8, but still redundant if the 25th includes it (maybe remastered) along with a few other goodies.

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  3. See, for me it doesn't bring quite enough to the table. Metroid Prime Trilogy is one I wish I had grabbed, but was broke at the time, but I had never played Prime #2 on the game cube and they changed the control scheme to take advantage of the Wii remote - so it sounded a bit more 'fresh'.

    IGN Scored Mario Limited Edition a 7, and here was the final summary from that reviewer if you're interested:

    Four of the greatest games in history, presented in an upgraded format not available on the Virtual Console, at a bargain price… is that worth your money? All four of these games are already available for less cash, albeit in a more primitive graphical form. The soundtrack and historical booklet certainly aren’t worth it. And yet, if you’re new to the franchise or are getting this for someone who is a more casual video game fan, this might be all you need. Super Mario All-Stars for the Wii is a competent offering of four classics that never truly seeks to embrace the milestone it claims to support. If you really want to see the legacy of Mario on display, you’re probably better off replaying Super Mario Galaxy 2.

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  4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  5. If we look at the original titles they are about $21 anyway which isn't a significant difference than $29 (when it was that) for the "limited" edition. It's just a matter if the graphics, sound, soundtrack and booklet are worth it to you.

    I'm sure that many hardcore Nintendo fans will go for it, but it's a bit much to blanket them as blind sheep. This is a great way for people to pick up the 4 snes era games at one time if they missed them or as a gift. Others may opt for this retail offering if they're not comfortable with VC or unable/not willing to connect to the internet.

    Certainly for many of us the ROI simply isn't worth it if we already own a number of the originals. At the end of the day it will be interesting to see how it continues to sell over the next few months.

    BTW, if you are actually interested in selling your Wii I may know someone in the market for a used one. That is unless the comment was just for fodder...

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  6. There were a couple of reasons I wanted the game. For one, I do not own an SNES nor the original All-Stars, though I have played it. Second, it's great for playing SMB2 and Lost Levels with unlimited continues and saving. Third, everything else that comes with the games.

    I missed out on the first release. I only looked for it about a week after it came out when I was shopping for gifts. It was gone everywhere.

    I didn't pre-order it, but I did go and pick it up Sunday.

    I have to say I have mixed feelings about it. The soundtrack kinda sucks as they gave us one song from all the games instead of concentrating on the games in the package. The booklet is way too small. Since everything came in a box, I never thought it would be the size of an instruction booklet. The way it's made it's as if they don't even want you to open it.

    The game really is the SNES version. I don't usually say this, but Nintendo really went the lazy route on this. At least when they made the SNES versions they changed the graphics (even though I only like them for the Lost Levels, I don't like the original graphics for that one).

    In the SNES versions they also messed with the timing in the controls and it feels even worse now. Timing my jumps in Lost Level and SMB1 was pain, though I did manage for the first time to do the unlimited lives trick in world 3 (I usually only manage to make a couple of jumps).

    They should have worked on the collection instead of Galaxy 2...

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  7. All the Nintendo sheep really ran out for this one. How is it that people don't get it's cheaper to buy it on the VC and it's the SNES version nothing updated from that period not the sound not the graphics NOTHING. Nintendo really wanted to cash in on peoples stupidity and failure to pay attention. Way to go Nintendo I knew there was a reason to consider selling the WII

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  8. @Chalgyr:
    I guess the one good thing about having it, is all the games would be on one disc; but like you, from what I read about the game, the "extras" weren't really that great.

    @Robert:
    If you click on the "143 customer reviews" under the "Review Score Averages" section in the post, it will redirect you to the customer reviews page, which I always like reading through for certain games I may not be sure about.

    @Chalgyr:
    "Metroid Prime Trilogy is one I wish I had grabbed, but was broke at the time..."
    Yea, I thoroughly enjoyed Metroid Prime 3, and was excited about Metroid Prime Trilogy, but of course didn't buy it right away. It was the December after it was released, so about 3-4 months later, that I saw Best Buy running Metroid Prime Trilogy on sale for $20, I purchased it then...but still haven't played it.

    I'm looking forward to giving Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2 a try though, especially with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk controls.

    @Anonymous:
    I removed, but reposted your comment down below, to help a little on the cleanliness and punctuation in it.

    @Robert:
    "This is a great way for people to pick up the 4 snes era games at one time if they missed them or as a gift. Others may opt for this retail offering if they're not comfortable with VC or unable/not willing to connect to the internet."
    Yea, I think it wouldn't have been a bad purchase if you didn't own them already, and especially if perhaps you're a person that prefers hard copies of games, and not digital copies.

    @Jonath:
    "The soundtrack kinda sucks..."
    I did hear that. Last year for our son's first birthday, I looked for a Nintendo compilation CD, with their soundtracks, but didn't have any luck finding one. I wish Nintendo would release an official one, with all sorts of music from their games...if anybody knows of one, a comment on where to find it would be greatly appreciated!

    "In the SNES versions they also messed with the timing in the controls and it feels even worse now."
    That's really sad, especially for a Nintendo game, that's supposed be celebrating something important for the company and gamers...which is why I think the company is open for fair criticism, but I don't think many journalists are willing to ask tough questions for gamers when they're given a chance.

    Thank you all for the comments/feedback. I really do appreciate it. If anybody else has any thoughts on the collection, please leave a comment letting us know.

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  9. @Jonath - I'm sorry to hear that, though it is pretty consistent with what IGN posted, and what I read from a lot of other people too.

    @coffee - very nice find, good investment there. I was looking the trilogy up recently, and you can't find new copies really anymore, and used ones on ebay and amazon are going for 3-4 times what you paid for it. :)

    There was a bit of talk on several boards about a Zelda anniversary game - any idea if there was any substance to those rumors?

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  10. Soundtracks for older Mario games are pretty rare and pretty much only came out in Japan. There is a small one called Fantastic World of Super Mario Bros 3 that has a couple of good remixes and a sound story, which is a medley of music from the game as if someone played through it in 10 minutes.

    Soundtracks usually don't feature the map songs from SMB3 because they only last 10-30 seconds each but are a lot of fun to listen to in repeat.

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  11. I haven't had time to read many of the reviews, but it is unfortunate to hear about the soundtrack and changes in controls. It seems like they could have done something special for their primary mascot. That said I'd probably still go for it if I didn't already have them.

    I'd also love to hear more about any 25th zelda theories or rumors. Even just BS zelda on VC or something would be cool for the western world.

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  12. I don't have any problem with the price, I'm just really uninterested in the content.

    I'm a bit puzzled at what Nintendo could be doing for The Legend of Zelda series' 25th anniversary. A LoZ themed Wii seems like best possibility to me, even though I haven't seen anyone else speculate that as a possibility.

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  13. @Chalgyr:
    I don't know if you were following my blog last January-ish, but I posted up the story about how I had contacted Nintendo about Metroid Prime Trilogy, and was informed that the game wasn't being published anymore...which is why the game can be harder to find now, but it is still out there for the regular MSRP at some stores.

    As for a "Zelda anniversary game", I would think Nintendo will release something for it, but who knows with them...as I don't think they even know what's going on sometimes. :)

    @Jonath:
    "Soundtracks usually don't feature the map songs from SMB3 because they only last 10-30 seconds each but are a lot of fun to listen to in repeat."
    Kind of funny, last year for our son's birthday, I used my capture device to record some of the Mario music from some of the Virtual Console games we have, and I played those through my iPod on the stereo.
    Thanks for the info on the soundtracks, or really lack thereof!

    @Robert:
    Somebody, somewhere...WesFX maybe?...mentioned Nintendo perhaps releasing a 25th anniversary Zelda collection for the 3DS. Which, that would give incentive for more people to purchase the 3DS.

    @WesFX:
    Were you the one that speculated on a 25th anniversary Zelda collection hitting the 3DS...perhaps I'm thinking of another topic.

    Considering how few games Nintendo has planned for release the first half of this year for the Wii, I'm surprised they didn't try to throw a collection together really fast, like they apparently did for the Super Mario All-Stars collection.

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