The NPD results for September 2020 showed that Super Mario 3D All-Stars debuted in the second spot on the charts, losing out to Marvel's Avengers. The thing is, when you take a closer look at the data, there's a much different story going on here.

First up, the data for Marvel's Avengers includes digital and physical sales combined. With Super Mario 3D All-Stars, the NPD position is based on physical sales only. That makes Mario's second place finish much more impressive overall!

Along with that, more specific NPD data has apparently leaked. That gives us some actual numbers to work with.

In the case of Super Mario 3D All-Stars, the total physical U.S. sales for September 2020 reportedly sit at around 1,165,000 units. The game managed to sell that total in about 2 weeks' worth of time. The previous record-holder for U.S. launch month sales goes to either Super Mario Galaxy (1,120,000 units in 3 weeks) or Super Mario Odyssey (1,100,000 units in 1 week), depending on how you want to look at things. Obviously digital sales were a factor for Odyssey and not Galaxy, and we don't have the data on how many digital units were sold.

Super Mario 3D All-Stars had a huge retail debut, but there's no doubt the digital numbers have been insane as well. The weekly charts showed the game sitting at the #1 position for every single week, so it was definitely pulling in big numbers. If we knew those digital numbers and could add them into the physical NPD total, there's very little doubt that Super Mario 3D All-Stars would be the new record-holder for a 3D Mario title when it comes to debut month sales.

Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory is coming to the Switch in less than a month, marking the first time the series has appeared on the platform. It might not be a mainline Kingdom Hearts game, but it's better than nothing!

Fans have been hopeful that this game could be an entry point for more Kingdom Hearts games on Switch, and today there's a little glimmer of hope for the future. In an interview with a Nintendo Dream magazine, Kingdom Hearts creator
Tetsuya Nomura is asked about the franchise being on Switch. You can see the back-and-forth conversation below, as translated by Styster.

Interviewer: Nomura-san, there hasn't really been an opportunity to have a Kingdom Hearts title you worked on appear on a Nintendo system, has there?

Nomura: No. However, I think we'll be able to deliver something [to Nintendo fans] in the not-too-distant future...

Interviewer: How exciting! We are really looking forward to this!

Now there are a few things to point out. We don't have the full context of this interview, but we do know it's from the November 2020 issue. That means the interview most likely has some chatter about Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory. It would be extremely odd for Nomura to tease something for Nintendo fans, and have that turn out to be Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory. Also, there would be no point in being coy about the game if it were Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory. That title was announced long ago, and fans have known it was coming for months and months now.

We still need to see the full interview to see the context of the discussion, but this little snippet does seem to tease something new on the way. Let's cross our fingers and toes for something big!

It looks like we might have a sneak peek at an underwater section for Super Nintendo World's Mario Kart ride, thanks to some concept art. Suzy Riffel worked on designing the Universal Studios Japan Minion Park, and the imagery above was spotted as part of her resume. As you can see, there's no doubt the concept art shows some underwater action for Mario Kart. Whether this design makes it into the final cut for the ride remains to be seen.

The Outer Worlds took awhile to come to Switch, but it did eventually make its way over. We're also getting a major update soon, and DLC is in the works as well. Support has been great so far, but could we see even more of The Outer Worlds? It seems like developer Obsidian has plans for that.

Industry insider Daniel Ahmad has mentioned that Obsidian is currently exploring the idea of a follow-up to The Outer Worlds, but nothing is set in stone. Also making things more complicated is the fact that Microsoft now owns Obsidian. Even if a sequel is created, it might end up being Xbox Series X/S exclusive.

SEGA loves to tease Sonic fans when it comes to the reveal of new games, and it certainly seems like they're up to their old tricks once again.

SEGA recently shared the above image on Twitter, and it doesn't seem like much of anything at first. Just a joke about the Fibonacci sequence at first glance, but a second look reveals something more.

If you look closely at Sonic's cheek, you can see a very faint '3' hiding in the image. SEGA has hidden stuff in Sonic imagery before, so this is very much in their wheelhouse. It's also worth noting that the Sonic image itself comes from Sonic Adventure.

Following that, Mike Pollock, the voice actor for Eggman, replied to the tweet with his own reference to the number 3. This could either be Pollock picking up on the fan chatter and just joining for fun, or he could be deliberately getting in on the tease as well.

I think it's quite obvious SEGA is teasing something for Sonic, and with the character's 30th anniversary coming in 2021, it seems like the perfect time to go all-out on a Sonic Adventure 3. Sonic fans have been waiting patiently since April to see what SEGA is working on for the Blue Blur. If that wait leads to Sonic Adventure 3, I have a feeling most fans will feel their patience paid off!

UPDATE - Some new evidence has surfaced, and it could either point to this being a mistake, or even more legitimate. As you can see in the image above, the Fibonacci sequence image that SEGA used can be found on Shutterstock. This is indeed the same image, but as you might notice, there are numbers and letters throughout. The number 3 appears in exactly the same spot it does in the Sonic image. The question is, did SEGA remove all the other letters/numbers and somehow accidentally leave the 3 behind, or did they purposefully remove all the numbers/letters EXCEPT 3?

The Sonic the Hedgehog movie ended up being a big hit with both fans and critics alike. We already know that Paramount is working on a sequel, but rumors are floating around about a spin-off project as well.

Industry insider Daniel Richtman is reporting that Paramount is considering a spin-off film that will focus on the antics of Dr. Robotnik. Obviously, this movie would retain Jim Carrey in the role of Robotnik, but there are no details on what path the story would follow.

The follow-up to Sonic the Hedgehog will no doubt pull in some big numbers, but a spin-off shifting the focus to Jim Carrey could do equally well!

Nintendo and HAL have tried to bring Kirby into the world of 3D games numerous times in the past, but nothing ever panned out. We've seen Kirby in polygonal form multiple times, but was always in 2D side-scrollers or small experimental projects. Now we might have a peek at the two companies trying to expand Kirby into the third dimension once again.

Kirby Fighters 2 randomly saw release just a few hours back, but dataminers are already digging through the game to see what they can find. Surprisingly, the game appears to be hiding some very interesting test code. Tucked away inside the data is something called "Kirby3d," and it includes elements tied to Kirby, Blade Knight, Waddle Dees, and a sword. The code in here is completely different from Kirby's Blowout Blast, which was a somewhat 3D game on the 3DS. This code could very well show that Nintendo and HAL are finally ready to make the true 3D leap with Kirby.

The source code also contains a bunch of different experimental mini-projects that use a Kirby base template, but the real findings here come from "Kirby3d." Looks like the future of Kirby could be very interesting indeed!

Even though the original Mortal Kombat movie wasn't rated R, it still managed to capture the spirit and ideas of the Mortal Kombat game franchise. To this day, numerous people consider that Mortal Kombat movie to be one of the few examples of Hollywood doing a decent job with a game adaptation.

Fans of that movie might have something brand-new to look forward to in the very near future. Someone has gone snooping around the Mortal Kombat 11 source code, and they've come up with something quite interesting. Actors from the original Mortal Kombat movie appear to have recorded lines for Mortal Kombat 11 future content. The audio was posted in a YouTube video, which was quickly claimed/taken down by Warner Bros.. If that's not evidence that something is definitely going on, I don't know what is!

The new dialog featured Christopher Lambert (Raiden), Linden Ashby (Johnny Cage), and Bridgette Wilson-Sampras (Sonya Blade) reprising their roles from the klassic film. Looks like Mortal Kombat 11 is going to pay tribute to the original movie in a pretty big way, but we'll have to hang tight for more details.

A recent listing on Play Nintendo has Kirby Fighters 2 as an upcoming downloadable title for the Nintendo Switch. Considering it has new artwork and a fairly official-looking description, this appears to be a fairly believable leak. But like any premature announcement, nothing is officially confirmed until Nintendo (or some company) officially confirms anything, so it is only a rumor for now.

For months now, we've been hearing rumors about a Mass Effect Trilogy in the works. EA is yet to confirm that release, but we're hearing that a reveal is coming very soon. Unfortunately, the other half of the rumor that says the package is coming to Switch may not be correct.

According to industry inside Jeff Grubb, the Mass Effect Trilogy is real, but it's not coming to Switch. At least not in 2020, that is.

“EA has multiple games coming to Nintendo Switch and Mass Effect is definitely not one of them. Not yet, anyhow. If that happens, it won’t happen in that one-year window that they talked about in their last shareholder meeting.”

In other words, there's still a chance the collection could come to Switch, but it's not going to happen this year. That's something we've seen with countless other multiplatform games, so it wouldn't be a surprise. Switch owners are used to waiting a few extra months to get their version of a game. Let's hope that's the case with the Mass Effect Trilogy, rather than the package not coming to Switch at all.