New Super Mario Bros. Wii is selling well in Japan? Huh -- who would have guessed?

News Blips:

New Super Mario Bros. Wii has sold over 936,000 units in Japan during its first week, making the platformer the fastest selling Wii game in Japan to date. Mario (or Nintendo, really) now claims the top three positions for the fastest selling Wii games in Japan during the first week, with Super Smash Bros.: Brawl (818,198 units) and Mario Kart Wii (608,147 units) coming in second and third. Japanese people apparently love video games with Italian plumbers doing a variety of different activities. [Joystiq]

After only about a month, the Child's Play Charity has already raised over a million dollars in donations. This is the fastest the charity, which delivers video games and toys to sick children in hospitals, has reached the million dollar mark. Kudos to the generous gamers out there and if you're interested in donating, check out the Child's Play website for details. [1UP]

The North American iTunes Store is now home to the Tekken 6 soundtrack. The Tekken 6 collection is perfect for the video game music lover on a budget, which delivers 17 tracks for $5.99. Now you can listen to your favorite Tekken jams while you fight people in real life. [Destructoid]

In an interview with Gamasutra, the Sonic the Hedgehog character designer, Naoto Ohshima, revealed that the speed demon's iconic red and white shoes were inspired by the album cover of Michael Jackson's Bad. Ohshima was apparently inspired by the contrast of red and white on the cover and thought that those colors would also look good on Sonic while he ran. It's probably best they didn't also model Sonic's hair after the the Micheal Jackson jheri curl. [Gamasutra]

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