In its recent press release, Yasuhiro Minagawa, a spokesman of the Japanese game console biggie Nintendo Co., said that the US sales of the company's flagship Wii game console leaped more than 40 percent in December, with US consumers reportedly buying over 3 million Wii consoles during the month.

The Kyoto-based Nintendo - which has slashed the price of the Wii last fall, and introduced "New Super Mario Bros. Wii" - said that its DS handheld game system sales in the US are apparently heading in the direction of setting an annual record for portable game players.

Noting that the rebounded US sales marked an end to a nine-month period of sales declines for the Wii, the Nintendo President, Satoru Iwata, said the latest US sales figures for Wii evidently point at a turnaround in the US consumer interest in game consoles, after a nearly year-long stretch of plunging sales.

Saying that hit games, like "New Super Mario Bros. Wii," and a 20 percent reduction in the price of the motion-sensing console largely contributed to the spurred demand for Wii, Eiji Maeda - senior analyst at JPMorgan Chase in Tokyo - added: "Nintendo's got a good lineup and we're finally seeing the benefits of the price cuts. The new release in the 'Super Mario Brothers' franchise had a huge impact."