d+pad said:
Second: I think the DS has had plenty of hits as of late - RT Gold, Girls Mode, M&L RPG 3, among others. And when DQ9 hits in a few months - watch out!
I pulled a list of all DS games since last summer, sorted by lifetime sales descending, pruned to good selling titles (>200k; not that a title below that can't be a success by any means, but we're talking
hits). I have bolded titles since November ("as of late" being reasonably in the last six calendar months). I have underlined 2009 titles:
1. Pokemon Platinum, September, 2.3 million (rounded down to nearest 100k)
2. RT Gold, July, 1.6 million
3. DQV, July, 1.1 million
4. Kirby, November, 1.0 million
5. Girls Mode, October, 700k
6. Layton 3, November, 700k
7. Mario and Luigi RPG 3, February, 400k
8. Chrono Trigger, November, 400k
9. Band Bros DX, June, 400k
10. Magic Academy Adventure Animal Crossing Ripoff, November, 300k
11. Derby Stallion DS, June, 200k
12. Inazuma Eleven, August, 200k
13. Fire Emblem, August, 200k
14. PENGUIN GAME, December, 200k
15. Momotarou Dentetsu 20th, December, 200k
16. Tales of Hearts (Combined), December, 200k
I don't think the DS needs a hit soon, but it's fair to say that there's not much action in 2009 besides M&L3. Most of the "as of late hits" have been minor hits. The last three breakout hits were really RT Gold, Girls Mode, and Mario and Luigi 3. If you want to move further down the cutoff point, 4 2009 titles broke 100k-M&L, Echoes of Time, SRWK, and 7th Dragon. Devil Survivor is close. Rittai Picross is at 60k. Everything else is below 60k.
You're right though--hits are coming down the pipe. The biggest hit is coming down the pipe, really.