Nintendo selling eight games per minute?

The PSP is cool and all, but Nintendo's new DS Lite is the coolest hand held game you can buy right now.

On Sept. 13, Nintendo will add two new colors, Onyx and Coral Pink, to the roster, to go with the sweet Polar White, the one I am playing as am I writing this blog.

The smaller and lighter DS Lite fits into little hands perfectly (just ask my 6-year-old son who won't put it down) and it's helping Nintendo do some crazy sales figures. New Super Mario Bros has hit the 1 million sales mark in three months in the U.S. Nintendo claims that's eight games sold each minute since launch.

Overall, DS system and game sales are both up more than 300 percent in July alone.

"Not only are the DS Lite screen and battery life incredible," says George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. "But the new colors just add another element of fun, allowing people to 'personalize' who they are by the color, or colors they pick."

Other hot DS games are Animal Crossing(R): Wild World (800,000--plus sold), Brain Age(TM): Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day (4 million units plus worldwide) and Big Brain Academy (nearly 2 million sold to date worldwide).

NOTES

-- 2K announced that Seth MacFarlane, creator and producer of the popular hit television series Family Guy, along with the rest of the cartoon's main cast, will voice characters in the first official Family Guy video game, which is scheduled to ship this fall.

-- By the time Microsoft Windows Vista operating system is launched in early 2007, an impressive lineup of titles will be available for gamers looking to get next-generation features, including quicker installations and increased platform stability. Vista will feature DirectX 10, which, combined with hardware provided by graphics processor creators, will result in the most graphically intense games experiences ever seen in a computer or video game.

LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (LucasArts) is the sequel to the best-selling “LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game,” combining the fun and endless customization ability of the LEGO play pattern with the epic story, characters and action from the revolutionary “Star Wars.”

Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania (Microsoft Game Studios), the latest expansion pack for the award-winning “Zoo Tycoon 2” franchise, allows gamers to turn their dream zoo into an aquatic extravaganza with 20 new marine animals and the ability to create extraordinary aquatic shows.

-- Xbox 360 will be the only place players can experience the next generation of soccer games this holiday. FIFA 07 from Electronic Arts will take you to the pitch with an all-new soccer engine and online technology allowing you to play with and follow your favorite teams from around the world. Also, Konami will bring Pro Evolution Soccer 6 to Xbox 360, which will have gamers controlling their favorite teams in matches spanning the globe.

-- Guild Wars Nightfall, the next game in the award-winning and critically-acclaimed Guild Wars franchise, will be available in stores worldwide October 27. In the new game, players must fight to hold back the night as a mad ruler attempts to free an outcast god and bring darkness to the continent of Elona. But players won't fight alone.

Guild Wars Nightfall introduces new customizable Heroes who level up, follow player instructions in combat, and use skills and equipment of the player's choosing.

A special Collector's Edition will include the Guild Wars Nightfall game as well as a Making of Guild Wars Nightfall behind-the-scenes DVD, a collector's art book, collectible skill pins, a character mini-standee, a poster-sized map of Elona, the Guild Wars Nightfall soundtrack CD, and more.

-- SEGA's Virtua Tennis 3 will allow you to challenge top women's players as well as men's. You can now choose to play best-of-5 set matches.

Virtua Tennis 3 will be available in spring 2007 on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PSP. Players on the game include 2006 Wimbledon Champion Amelie Mauresmo, Maria Sharapova, Venus Williams, and Martina Hingis. Nicole Vaidisova, Lindsay Davenport, and Daniela Hantuchova.

Male stars include four time Wimbledon Champion Roger Federer, as well as Rafael Nadal, James Blake, Andy Roddick, Tim Henman, Lleyton Hewitt, David Nalbandian, Sebastien Grosjean, Juan Carlos Ferrero, and Tommy Haas.