I'm sure Paper Mario 2 did well, & the great thing was, they didn't stick a big "2" on it either, so it attracted new fans.
Yeah, the original Paper Mario didn't sell, & I doubt this will too, but it looks AAA, & hopefully, the original Paper Mario will get a lot of fans when they come across the VC version, so if they realise it's a bit of a franchise, then I reckon one thing will lead to another, they will sell, somehow!
Besides, seems like the game has gathered a fair few amount of fans, & prolly across other Nintendo communities too, don't worry, it definitely won't fail as much as Chibi-Robo has (:cry
Well, meh, buy Chibi Robo!!!