Given it went on to be the best selling games console in history, something most people forget about Nintendo's DS is that the handheld actually got off to rather a sticky start.

As such, the suggestion its successor could be on track to surpass its year one sales in the US isn't as surprising as it might initially appear, despite a year flooded with negative headlines for Nintendo.

Target tactics

The claim comes from the company itself, with the publishing of 3DS's US sales in October – which saw Nintendo shift more than 250,000 units – pegging lifetime-to-date sales at 1.65 million.

In essence, that means Nintendo expects to sell at least a further 720,000 units in the US before the end of March 2012 if it is to beat DS's total, which came in at 2.37 million units sold during its first 12 months.

Nintendo's handheld was the top selling portable console in the US in the month of October, and the second best-selling device overall behind Microsoft's Xbox 360 on 393,000 units sold.

3DS has also enjoyed a spike in Japan thanks to the launch of Super Mario 3D Land, with sales jumping 100 percent week on week.

[source: Nintendo]