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Super Mario 3D Land is fastest selling portable Mario ever

Skyward Sword smashes US sales records too.

Super Mario 3D Land is the fastest selling portable Mario game ever in the US, Nintendo has announced.

The company's US chief Reggie Fils-Aime told USA Today that Mario's latest romp has sold in excess of 500,000 copies in the US since its 11th November launch.

The game's release has also given 3DS hardware a shot in the arm. Sales of the system were up an impressive 49 per cent during 3D Land's launch week. However, last week sales shot up an enormous 325 per cent compared to the seven days prior to the game's launch, fueled by the US's Black Friday shopping bonanza.

"What this has been able to do is drive our Nintendo 3DS business in only eight months to surpass the full first year volume of the original DS and we still have the bulk of the holiday to go," commented Fils-Aime, "and we still have the launch of Mario Kart 7 to continue driving our full-year sales."

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword got off to a great start in North America too, selling 535,000 copies since its 20th November launch. That makes it the country's fastest-selling Zelda game ever.

Link's latest adventure seems to be faring much better across the pond. It debuted at number seven in the UK charts last week, falling to 19th in its second week.

Fils-Aime added that the Wii had its best Black Friday ever, shifting 500,000 units in the US over the weekend.

"We know that Black Friday and that entire week is a key selling week and it is important for products like ours to have a jump in momentum and we were fortunate to see that," said Fils-Aime.

"For us, it really was driven by unique and powerful software and what gives us confidence is that we still have more software to launch in the balance of this holiday period."