Can Party be the next Wii megaseller?

Nintendo wants Wii Party to join its best-selling brethren Sports, Fit and Play as one of the format’s biggest successes.

The platform holder claims its newest title, released last Friday, has all the traits of a successful game.

The title allows up to four players to compete in mini-games across a range of board game-style islands.

Mini-games are motion controlled, and some even extend beyond the game and into the living room – such as Time Bomb – in which gamers pass the Remote around in Nintendo’s own take on Hot Potato.

Wii Party is the next title in the Wii series and it has the Wii ‘magic formula’ in that it is a first party title, and offers instant fun for four players,” Nintendo marketing assistant Vanisha Kavia told MCV.

The game follows in the footsteps of the smash hits Wii Sports, Wii Play and Wii Fit. For these very reasons, we expect that there will be high demand for the title, especially at Christmas.”

Wii Party also has a star-studded marketing campaign supporting it, with boy band JLS starring in the TV ads. Fellow X Factor artists Alexandra Burke and Jedward will also headline Nintendo’s ‘Wii Party Big Day Out’ at Chessington World of Adventures this weekend.

The platform holder will further promote the game with a nationwide sampling tour and widespread outdoor ad campaign featuring JLS.

Wii Party has already seen success in the firm’s home market of Japan, having sold over half a million copies in its first month. Nintendo expects a similar performance in the UK.

We have high hopes to emulate the success as much as possible here in the UK,” said Kavia. There has been some great reactions for the game following its announcement at E3, and we feel that Wii Party has the potential to continue to expand the gaming audience.”