For the most part, the success of the Wii has stemmed from its mass appeal to people who wouldn't normally consider themselves gamers. This is demonstrated in some of the system's most successful titles, such as Wii Sports, Wii Play and Mario Party 8. This success has clearly benefited Nintendo while third-party developers have been struggling to tap into the ever-increasing Wii install base.

One third-party casual title has managed to find some success however: Carnival Games. An innocuous collection of over 25 mini-games has gotten consistent sales since its release late August. Consistently low review scores haven't put a damper on sales, as hundreds of thousands have picked up Carnival Games.

We caught up with Steve Lux, Vice President of Business Development for 2K Play, and discussed why Carnival Games isn't just another walk in the park.

Cheap admission, and play all you want!
According to the NPD, Carnival Games was the sixteenth best selling game overall for the February period and the fifth best selling on the Wii. This is comparable to the previous month where Carnival Games was the seventeenth best selling title overall and again the fifth best selling on the Wii. These consistent sales are what have enabled Carnival Games to be the success it really is, with 786,000 units sold in the U.S. through February. Take-Two also reported that they have shipped one million copies of Carnival Games worldwide.

"Without a doubt, Carnival Games has exceeded our initial sales expectations," said Lux. "However, early on we did have an indication Carnival Games may hit a nerve with the Wii audience. As you know, Take-Two consists of several labels and we had folks from all quarters coming over to play the game during development – not to mention both gamers and non-gamers from finance, sales and our legal departments. The more games we added, the greater the influx. Then the stories came about going to midways with mom and dad, remembering the giant stuffed animal they won that wouldn't fit in the car, overdosing on cotton candy and the like."

That's not the Duck Hunt video game I grew up with...

Friggin' game is rigged!
Carnival Games is a composite of several different mini-games such as alley bowling, lucky cups and that damnable basketball shot game with the deceptively small hoop. Most everyone has played games like these at one point in time, and that alone explains a lot of the game's simple appeal. Similar to Wii Sports, motion sensitive controls make sense in the game and are genuinely intuitive and complementary to the various mini-games, thus creating a game appealing to casual gamers and families.

"Family appeal is one of the major draws of Carnival Games and up to four can participate. It's easy to play and the controls are intuitive, so it doesn't take much for mom and dad to get the hang of Frog Leap or Balloon Darts. You can play for hours or get in and out with a quick game of Alley Ball. And unlike hardcore games, kids don't win every time," commented Lux, adding, "Creative use of the controls were key. Cat Daddy Games built Carnival Games for the Wii from the ground up to take full advantage of the nuances in the motion sensitive controls. It's hard to match the excitement of using your Wii Remote and winding up and smashing your hammer down in Test Your Strength, hurling the ball to knock down the milk bottles in Spilled Milk or spraying a smirking clown in the face with a high-pressure water gun with just a couple of button pushes of a traditional console controller."