Wedbush Morgan Securities' 2009 industry report includes a list of the top thirty brands of 2008. The report notes that of the companies whose brands appear on the list, Nintendo, EA, and Activision were the only three with more than one brand to generate over $100 million at retail in the US last year.

And boy, did they. The top brand of the year, Guitar Hero -- perhaps you've heard of it -- was responsible for $992 million in US sales in 2008. The next two brands, Mario Bros. and Rock Band, generated $761 million and $662 million, respectively.

One company is notably absent from the top brands list: "Most strikingly," the report reads, "Sony had no top 30 brands for the third year in a row." Microsoft had two brands on the list (Gears of War and Fable) and Nintendo had four (Mario Bros., Wii Fit, Wii Play, and Pokémon). See the list of brands after the break.

Listen -- not every game at E3 is a winner. The Joystiq heavyweights get to go play all the big games and interview all of the developer hotshots, and that's the stuff you love reading about. But some of us are down in the trenches, doing all of the demos that no one else wants to do, checking out all the games whose names are read around the schedule planning table, and answered only with the silence of bloggers who have better games to play.

That's not to say that Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympics is a bad game -- its audience will probably enjoy it. Just like the previous Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, it offers multiple Olympic sports-based minigames featuring popular Nintendo and Sega characters, controlled by various Wii and DS motions. People who like buying that kind of thing (parents wandering a videogame store looking for wholesome family entertainment) will probably enjoy it. But even though most of the Joystiq staff passed on this demo (and your faithful blogger bravely attended it), it was one of the more surreal things we've seen this week. Our strange experiences, let us show you them.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii seems like such a simple thing -- more Mario platforming, with some multiplayer this time, but the simple fact of more Mario platforming is almost intolerably wonderful. Maybe it's because we're super-tired from E3, but just look at the footage. Look at the adorable propeller suit. Look at that cloud enemy. The giant, friendly air manta rays. There's all kinds of crazy new Mario stuff happening, even without the multiplayer.

The trailer shows the game's casual mix of coop and competitive gameplay -- sure, you can jump on each other's heads and stuff, but Luigi is also seen carrying Mario around on some moving platforms.

The man who gives voice to Mario, Sir Charles Martinet (not actually knighted - nor a sir), was on the E3 show floor early yesterday and doing his thing. Speaking of his thing, we wanted to know if after bringing the unmistakable sound to Mario's virtual cords for the last decade if he still gets work at the Big N.

Martinet told us he just recently did voice work for five games (not Super Mario Galaxy 2, yet) and flew out to Kyoto for three and two in Tokyo. He enthusiastically expressed that although the publisher sometimes reuses some of the voice, "most of the time it's usually a new recording." We asked if he has to do different voices for Mario in a tennis game compared to something like Galaxy. He told us, "It's always the same. It's always just right in there. They show me some actions and I go, 'OK.'"

He tells us that most of the time he goes to Nintendo's headquarters in Redmond to do his recordings and sometimes he does it from his studio at home. All in all, over the last decade plus, he's only gone between four and six months without recording the latest "Woo-hooooo" or "It's a me." Check out Martinet's name badge after the break.

Nintendo's newly announced sojourns into space, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid: Other M, are already sending avid Wii fans into convulsive seizures of glee (gleezures, if you will). Though it's the kind of behavior that blends well with the bustling E3 crowds, it's rarely professional for those of us trying to do work. As a preventative measure, we've etched the tragic facts of Nintendo's release schedule into our minds, bringing us down to earth from the galactic highs offered by Mario and Samus' returns.

They're currently not due until 2010. Gleezure contained.

Two new Mario platformers for Wii in one press conference? Believe it. Nintendo has just unveiled Super Mario Galaxy 2, which, as the company pointed out, will mark the first time two 3D Mario adventures have appeared on the same platform.

Mario's back traversing the galaxy on spherical worlds -- and he's brought an old friend: Yoshi. As in Super Mario World, Mario will ride Yoshi, who can now obtain power-ups of his own, including one that makes him puff up like a balloon. Mario's bee suit will make a return from the first Mario Galaxy as will classic side-scrolling style levels.

So, folks -- are you jazzed, even though we don't have a release date?

Nintendo surprised nobody at its press conference by announcing a new Super Mario Bros. for Wii, with Cammie Dunaway and Bill Trinen from Treehouse introducing the aptly titled New Super Mario Bros. Wii. The title will feature multiplayer-friendly gameplay, supporting up to 4 players for some local action.

The multiplayer will have an emphasis on co-operative play, all while maintaining that classic Super Mario look and feel. Thus, you'll find warp pipes, hidden areas, and plenty of coins to collect. It's not all old hat, however, as the NIntendo presentation showed off a new Propeller suit, where Mario and company had a propeller attached to their heads. While playing (you hold the Wiimote sideways), players can jerk the Wiimote up to cause their in-game player to fly into the air.

Nintendo says the game will be available during the holidays this year, and will be on the show floor all this week. You can bet we'll be stomping Goombas as soon as we can, and will be sure to get you our impressions as soon as possible.

Coming from Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper, we hear rumblings of a new Mario game destined for Japan sometime this year, and that we should expect to hear about this game during E3 this week. It's a fairly credible rumor, considering Nintendo admitted that the Mario and Zelda teams were working on something last year. Nihon Keizai Shimbun also says this is a title destined for Wii (sorry, DSi fans!).

Considering it's been a year since we've heard what little we have, it would make sense that Nintendo would be ready to unveil something at this year's show.

[Via IGN]

If Macquarie Research analyst David Gibson's soothsaying proves accurate, then our E3 prediction Bingo cards are going to be huge winners -- if, you know, they were actually worth prizes or anything. See, Gibson recently put his keen analytical skills to work in order to foresee the revelations that will drop during the Big Three's conferences at E3 next week. We think there are a few crowd pleasers in his divination.

Gibson expects Microsoft's conference to focus mostly on the heavily rumored Xbox 360 motion controller, and the software that will launch in conjunction with the new peripheral. Sony's conference will supposedly also be hardware-centric, revealing a $399, slim PS3 model and the UMD-less, touch screen-equipped PSP Go!. His Nintendo predictions are the most shocking of all -- in addition to a large focus on Wii Fit Plus, Gibson expects the reveal of new Zelda and Mario titles. We'll believe it when we see it -- and we'll see it in like, six days.

Anywhere you go in the world, you'll find people who love Mario. On the national Mexican television show, Hazme reír! y serás millonario, a group of three friends performed a Mario skit parodying / reenacting the original Super Mario Bros. It's a cute little routine with some hilarious moments, though it's not entirely accurate (fanboys will likely point out that the actual Mario does not kick enemies, he stomps on them ... and since when did Mario start dressing in Peach's colors, hmm?). Still, it's an impressive thing to do, especially since it was broadcast across an entire country.

Interestingly, the crowd was pretty into it, rooting on the overalls-clad hero as he took down Bowser and saved the princess. Oh, wait, or was she in another castle? You'll have to watch the video clip after the break to find out!

[Via Go Nintendo]

If done correctly, quitting your job can be the absolute coolest thing you could ever do. When else do you get to air out hostilities you've harbored for countless years, impress cohorts with theatrical gesticulations and possibly, depending on the awfulness of your workplace environment, relieve yourself in a coffee pot?

One Mr. Jarrad recently took a less disgusting route to resignation from his position at 2K Australia -- he programmed a short (but sweet) Flash game, one which informs his employers that he's putting in his two week notice with grace and politeness. Also, with Mario. It may lack the panache of tainted Folgers, but it's still pretty darn amusing (and, more importantly, legal).

[Via superannuation]

A patent filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office today tells the tale of an edutainment-laden future for Nintendo, reports Siliconera. According to the patent, the console maker's next property (properties?) may feature a mess of different learning tools aimed at young children, defined in the patent as, "toddlers and pre-kindergartners, and/or people with disabilities." The various ideas presented within the patent range from matching animal sounds with animal pictures to lessons in daily chores to building your first laser gun. Alright -- fine -- we made up that last one.

Littered throughout the images included with the patent are a couple of familiar Nintendo characters (Mario and Pikachu), though, according to Siliconera, the report specifically mentions "television and/or licensed cartoon characters like Pikachu, Dora the Explorer, and Bob the Builder."

Though this patent may have been filed, we want to remind you that none of these plans are by any means final and for all anyone knows, could be nothing more than what they are now -- ideas. One thing is for sure, no matter what happens, we all now know that Nintendo believes children to wear totally badass future shoes. Check out the gallery below for an extensive visual tour of what may very well be the next step Nintendo takes.

So, you've got $2 burning a hole in your pocket and you want to calculate money you only wish you had? Well DSi users, you're in luck with a nifty calculator. But, the convenience doesn't end there. The application utilizes sound effects and visuals from Super Mario Bros. If you think about it, it's a really smart idea! For years we've been joking that the DS prints money, but now the DSi can count it, too. Oh, technology ... where would we be without you? Check out a video of the application in action after the break.

The very best (read: easiest) posts are the ones that no amount of clever presentation could make any funnier -- in fact, any effort to do so could only fail miserably. Observe:

"My game was very sexual," Kanye West told Details magazine, describing a hack he attempted to make on a home computer as a child. "The main character was, like, a giant penis. It was like Mario Brothers, but the ghosts were, like, vaginas. You'd have to draw in and program every little step. It literally took me all night to do a step, 'cause the penis, y'know, had little feet and eyes."

... What's that, it's quittin' time at the blogging factory already? Well, thank you, Mr. West.

We don't know what Mario has against the Halo universe, or why Spartans can't stand denizens of the Mushroom Kingdom. But, senseless though it may be, the two worlds have met again on the battlefield and, as you can see after the break, the conflict makes their last meeting look like a tetherball match.

Now that the ground is littered with helmet fragments and soaked with the blood of Yoshis, can the two move toward peace? Or at least unite in a mutual hatred of Kratos? Only time will tell.