I'll say it again:
'Holy Shit'
Is the blockbuster agenda seeping into handhelds? How are these sales so dysmal?
I don't think the sales are much worse than expected. Handheld games aren't hyped up by gamers nearly as much as most console games, so 20k for a few days of Sonic sales is actually not that bad, I think. It's not a game that appeals so much to the day 1 core gamer, so it probably will do rather fine over the holidays.
Cave Story and Shinobi simply are really low budget efforts that wouldn't have sold decently on any plattform in this state. Cave Story is undeniably a fantastic game, but releasing the remake ("Now with ugly 3D graphics instead of great pixel art!") of a once freeware game for full price was a huge mistake. Everyone who knows the game swallows hard when seeing the price tag, and people who don't know the game... why would they bother now?
And Shinobi is an ugly looking low budget effort which was stealth released by its publishers. There was absolutely no buzz at all around it. I haven't even seen reviews or anything. I don't even have a clue whether or not it's a good game.