Nintendo has raised its sales target for DS (dual-screen) machines by a million units

Nintendo's third-quarter profit plunged 43% to 21.31bn yen ($205m; �110m), against 37.43bn yen a year earlier.

A strong yen and weak GameCube console sales prompted it to cut its full-year forecast by 20bn yen to 70bn yen.

However, sales of its handheld DS game machine beat expectations and it has raised its sales forecast to the end of March by a million units.

Intense competition

But Nintendo has cut its forecast for DS games software, which has higher margins, to 10 million units from 15 million.

SuperMario faces competition from characters you can customise like The Sims

Competition is intense in the market for games software, with US companies Electronic Arts - the company behind The Sims, Take-Two Interactive Software and Activision - all vying for market share.

Nintendo's GameCube console competes against Sony's Playstation 2 and Microsoft's Xbox. Its DS machine will compete against the Playstation Portable from Sony but it has a head start, having been launched first.

The firm's shares fell 2.8% on news of the cut in its full-year forecast.