TOKYO: Nintendo said on Wednesday its six-month sales jumped on upbeat demand for its 3DS handheld console and games for its Wii U system, but net profit tumbled. The Kyoto-based firm also benefited from strong demand for its ‘Amiibo’ figurines, which feature characters from some of its videogames, and the Wii U shooting game ‘Splatoon’, which was released earlier this year, said Hideki Yasuda, an analyst at Ace Research Institute in Tokyo. A sharp decline in the yen has boosted the fortunes of major Japanese exporters, including Nintendo, by making them more competitive overseas and inflating the value of repatriated earnings. Nintendo said revenue was 204.1 billion yen ($1.7 billion), up 19 per cent from a year ago, but its bottom line shrank nearly 20 per cent to 11.4 billion yen, largely owing to a special gain booked in the year-earlier period.