It's always interesting when companies that very rarely talk to the press suddenly start aggressively doing so.

Case in point: Nintendo of America, which generally has a corporate policy to never say anything interesting to a journalist, talking to two major game blogs after the most recent NPD report showed that "Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars" bombed in its first month on sale.

VP of licensing and head of third party publisher relations Steve Singer spoke to MTV Multiplayer; VP of corporate affairs Denise Kaigler talked to Kotaku.

Their message: Everything is fine here. No need to worry.

They certainly have some valid points. Kaigler noted that "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" for the DS sold only 36,000 units its first month, but in the 16 months hence has moved a decent 500,000 units. Singer said that "Spore" and "Lego Star Wars" had similar sales curves where they sold the vast majority of their units after the first month (unlike, say, "Grand Theft Auto IV").

But the very fact that these two are out talking, instead of just letting Rockstar and its owner Take-Two defend the game's performance, belies their seeming confidence. When Nintendo executives talk, they have a good reason. Here, they clearly want to send a message to hard core gamers and third party developers: Big franchises and M-rated games can work on the DS, despite the evidence to the contrary. Don't give up on us. We want to expand the DS(i) to as large an audience as possible and rake in as much licensing revenue from a wide variety of games as we can. That requires dispelling the (well justified) stereotype that our portable console is only for kids and casual players.

So we know what their message is. But is it accurate? It's a stretch, to say the least. Singer seems to be missing the point when he makes comparisons to "Spore" and "Lego Star Wars." Those games were both rated E.

I don't think anybody believes that big franchises can't work on the DS. After all, Mario and Zelda are both pretty big franchises. Even the critically derided "Guitar Hero: On Tour" did well.

The problem, most of us think, is that "Chinatown Wars" was rated M. And a very hard M at that. "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" is the best comparison, but even that game was rated T. Shooting people in war is very different than dealing drugs and killing cops.

In addition, "Chinatown Wars" got much better reviews than any of those three games.

There are 26.3 million DS's in the U.S., more than the 360 and PS3 combined and almost twice the number of PSPs. In its first two weeks, "Chinatown Wars" sold 97% fewer units than "GTA IV" did in its first five days. And the new game had an 83% larger potential audience.

Of course we would expect console versions of "GTA" to sell better, since they're bigger and better and similar to what gamers love. But even the two "GTA" games for PSP, as I previously reported, sold more than "Chinatown Wars" in their first months to much smaller hardware bases.

If "Chinatown Wars" really does follow the same sales pattern as "Modern Warfare," it could do OK. That would put it on track to sell over 1.2 million units. But that's still not a "Pokemon"-size blockbuster.

The fact is, "Chinatown Wars" had everything going for it: A very well known brand, amazing reviews, and a big marketing campaign. Those should all add up to a big launch. But they didn't. Are you willing to bet there are a million adult owners of a DS who weren't interested in "Chinatown Wars" last month but will buy it at some point in the future? I'm not.

On the 10 hour plane ride each way or late at night when my wife was sleeping, my DS was a good friend to pass the time and help me relax last week. But not exactly in the way I had intended.

My big plan was to use this vacation to finish "Legend of Zelda: the Phantom Hourglass," which I really enjoyed when I played it last fall and went through a brief spurt again this winter. I was about 2/3 of the way through it, I figured, and maybe I'd finally complete it.

It's weird that I hadn't finished "Phantom Hourglass" already since I really like the game, especially the revolutionary and intuitive touch screen controls. But the fact is I just don't play my DS all th at much. Living in LA I don't take public transportation very often and when I'm home, I'd usually rather game on the 37" hi-def TV than the little DS screen.

As it turned out, I slept pretty much all the way out to Paris and spent my free time the first few days reading (books, not game blogs). But when I finally turned on the DS in a beautiful chateau in rural Champagne (I'm pretty sure I'm the only person to have ever played a videogame in this place, as it was mostly populated by old British folks who reminded me of the parents in "Match Point"), I had a problem -- I had no f'ing idea what was going on in "Phantom Hourglass." It had been so long that I've totally forgotten what I'm doing and what my goal is. Sure, I have all those notes I scribbled on the maps, but even those don't make much sense to me. I've totally forgotten their context.

I was back in that temple on the main island and I have to go back in to look for something? Or maybe I just got what I wanted there and am ready to go somewhere else now? When you don't play a game like "Zelda" for a long time and then you pick it up again, there's really no way to know what to do. It made me think that it would be great if there was some mechanism in the game to be reminded of exactly what you've done and what your current goals are. "Zelda" games don't have that. Which is great when you're engrossed in the world. But a major problem if you've been out of it for a while.

So what did I do? I played some of my favorite casual games. Oh, how I love "Looney Tunes: Duck Amuck" (here's my review from last fall, paired with a review of a separate, awful "Looney Tunes" game). I haven't even mentioned "Duck Amuck" on this blog before, but I think it's easily one of the best DS titles ever and certainly the most unjustly overlooked game of 2007. It's simple but extremely clever and executes on its premise -- adapting the classic Looney Tune "Duck Amuck" to a videogame in which the player's goal is torturing Daffy Duck -- almost flawlessly. And it uses every element of the DS, even the ability to flip the thing shut, to great effect.

I also played some "Cooking Mama 2" and "Star Trek: Tactical Assault." Which are not games I'd actually really recommend, just ones that I enjoy despite their many flaws. Probably because I've always thought it would be fun to be a gourmet chef or a Starfleet captain.