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Early signs suggest that while Bayonetta 2 will fare very well with critics, its commercial performance may be less impressive.
The game was awarded a very decent 38/40 by Japanese gaming weekly Famitsu and won a surprise 10/10 from Edge magazine – the 17th ever awarded by the mag (with the original Bayonetta being one of them).
"Sure, it’s a sequel, but it’s a sequel to what has stood, for almost five years, as the best game of its type ever made. Until now, that is,” Edge wrote, as reported by CVG.
Sega’s loss is Nintendo’s gain: Bayonetta, twirling away from a gigantic demon’s maw and smacking the highest choir of angels on the nose, has just given Wii U its first true classic."
However, in its first week of release in Japan the game managed just 33,114 unit sales. That’s way down on the 138k the first game sold on PS3 and Xbox 360 in its first week back in 2009, GameSpot reports.
It’s common problem for Wii U, of course. While Mario Kart 8 has sold well and encouraged an uplift in hardware sales, titles such as Super Mario 3D World struggled to have the same impact, despite being the darling of the critics.
It remains to be seen if Super Smash Bros can fare any better later this year.
Bayonetta will be released in the UK on October 24th.
