No surprise that the return of one of gaming’s best-known franchises toppled Wii Fit from the all-formats chart, with the magisterial Street Fighter IV dragon-punching its way to the summit. Nintendo’s phenomenally successful non-game only dropped to second spot, despite fierce competition from the nerd-tastic Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II on PC. Mario Kart, Wii Play and Layton all suffered small drops, while Mystery Case Files: Millionheir plummeted from third spot to number 26 - presumably stock shortages costing it dear.

There was better news for House of the Dead: Overkill, which hung onto the number 15 position in the all-formats chart, rising one place to ninth in the single-format rundown - presumably strong word of mouth helped its second week sales - let’s hope it hangs in there for a while longer to prove that hardcore content can sell on Wii.

Elsewhere, Animal Crossing: Let’s Go to the City enjoyed a small resurgence in the lower reaches of the forty, but besides that, it was a fairly slow week for Nintendo news.

The full chart can be found on Chart-Track’s website.

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Mario & Luigi RPG 3, as predicted, topped the charts, but there was a disconcerting lack of Wii games in the Japanese top ten this week, as Sony dominated the upper echelons of the chart.Though some were predicting even higher numbers for Mario & Luigi, just under 200,000 copies is by some distance the best first week for the handheld franchise. Indeed, it beat the first week sales of both Superstar Saga and Partners in Time combined. A localisation really can’t come soon enough (will it launch alongside the DSi in Europe perhaps?)

Elsewhere, the sole other Nintendo console representative was the DS version of Echoes of time, hanging in there with a small drop in sales this week to a still-healthy 20,000 units. The Wii take on the game is outside the top 30 despite a hefty price cut. Ouch.

Meanwhile, Street Fighter IV was the other dominant force, the exceptional revival of the 2D beat-em-up genre’s most famous series coming in at second on PS3 and 5th for the 360 iteration. Many Japanese stores reported selling out, which, assuming Capcom gets plenty of stock back in, could make it a contender for the top next week (though Xbox 360 exclusive RPG, Star Ocean 4, could yet have a say).

Full chart below - hardware will follow tomorrow.

01. [NDS] Mario & Luigi RPG 3 (Nintendo) 193,000 / NEW
02. [PS3] Street Fighter IV (Capcom) 86,000 / NEW
03. [PSP] Kidou Senshi Gundam: Giren no Yabou (Namco Bandai) 40,000 / NEW
04. [PS2] Kidou Senshi Gundam: Giren no Yabou (Namco Bandai) 38,000 / NEW
05. [360] Street Fighter IV (Capcom) 38,000 / NEW
06. [PSP] Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (Konami) 27,000 / 174,000
07. [PS2] Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (Konami) 25,000 / 170,000
08. [PS3] Demon’s Souls (SCE) 22,000 / 62,000
09. [PSP] Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2 (Namco Bandai) 22,000 / 280,000
10. [NDS] Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time (Square Enix) 20,000 / 156,000

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Two pieces of good news for the price of one. Firstly, House of the Dead Overkill charted at number 10 in the UK All-Formats Top 40 (single SKU) chart, and secondly, developer Headstrong Games has claimed it is keen on making a sequel.

Wii’s finest lightgun title to date couldn’t quite topple the Xbox 360 version of FEAR 2 as the week’s biggest horror-shooter, but outsold both the PS3 and PC versions of the latter as it reached fifteenth spot on the multiformat 40 - not bad for a single-format title, albeit still not the numbers it deserved. Perhaps positive word-of-mouth will push it even higher? We’ll know next week, though a raft of new titles are released this Friday which could nudge it further down the chart. (Wii Fit was, rather boringly, number one this week. AGAIN.)

Meanwhile, SegaNerds.com has a video interview with the guys from Headstrong in which they talk all about Overkill and how they’d definitely be interested in developing a sequel. Which is obviously very good news indeed.

Well worth a watch, that vid. Check it out here.

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I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but Nintendo once again dominated the US sales charts. For the month of January, Nintendo sold 679,000 Wiis and 511,000 DSes. Compare it to the opposition and it seems even more ridiculous. The next biggest seller was the Xbox 360 on 309,000, with the PS3 following on 203,000 with PSP and PS2 further back on 172,000 and 101,000 units respectively.

Comparisons with last year’s sales are even more striking - Wii was up 405,000 year-on-year (almost a 150% increase), with DS up 259,000 (just over 100%). The only other console to post improved figures on last January’s totals was the 360 (up 79,000). The rest all had noticeable losses.

On the software front, Wii Fit’s UK success was mirrored in the US, with Americans buying it in their droves, presumably to wobble off those excess Christmas and Thanksgiving pounds. At 777,000 sales, itsold more copies than the second and third place games put together, coincidentally two more Wii titles in Wii Play and Mario Kart Wii. Guitar Hero World Tour at 7, New Super Mario Bros at 8 and Mario Kart DS at 9 were the other Nintendo console representatives.

As for industry growth, figures were up $150 million from last year, of which $300 million was down to Nintendo’s own growth. Maths gone seriously wrong? Not at all - the big N’s improvements offset losses on rival platforms. Amazing.

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If you said Call of Duty or FIFA 09 (or, indeed, anything other than Wii Fit) then hide your face in shame.

If, however, you said Wii Fit (which I’ll presume is just about everyone, given that you’re clearly an intelligent bunch for visiting this here blog) then you’d be entirely right, as the chart-shagging megahit managed to top the All-Formats Chart with room to spare, holding off the challenge of FIFA 09 and Call of Duty: World at War.

In truth, it’s a pretty slow week - Wii Fit merely has the lowest drop in sales (a tiny 2%) of all the top ten as the credit crunch nibbles away at a few more wallets. That’s not to say that no-one’s buying - the week’s highest new entry is the casual-pleasing Mystery Case Files: Millionheir - a kind of Where’s Wally with bad puns. Not content with nabbing two of the top four, Nintendo greedily hang onto positions five to seven, with Mario Kart Wii and Wii Play standing firm and Professor Layton perched just above ‘em.

Elsewhere, it’s not quite so good news for nostalgia fans, with neither Chrono Trigger DS nor New Play Control! Pikmin anywhere to be seen. The latter’s price-point (and distinct lack of marketing presence) seems to have hurt its chances, but it’s sad to see the former underperforming. Have most people imported, is the game just not well-known enough, or has piracy - so rife on the DS - harmed its sales? Perhaps it’s a combination of the three.

One more bright spot on Nintendo’s consoles - EA’s Sim Animals, as is often the way with Wii and DS titles these days - sees a massive weekly sales increase on its debut week (up a whopping 90%), the game entering at number 22.

This Friday sees the release of Bolt on about twelve different formats, plus the surprisingly excellent FEAR 2 and House of the Dead: Overkill, which I shall be getting this week. All of which surely pose some kind of challenge to Wii Fit’s throne. Can it hold on for a fifth week in a row? Tune in same time, same place in seven days’ time to find out.

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Mario Tennis stays at the top while Namco-Bandai’s beautifully desolate adventure Fragile enters at number two. It’s a very slow week for sales, though, so whether the publisher is happy with that total is anyone’s guess. Reports suggest its initial shipment was just 30,000 and that some Japanese gamers have struggled to get their hands on a copy - hopefully it can hang around a little longer, as the Wii could do with a few third-party successes.

And that’s exactly what Taiko no Tatsujin Wii can be regarded as - the back-in-stock rhythm-actioner zooming back up the charts into third position, making it a rare Wii 1-2-3, with Wii Fit upping its Japanese tally to 3,196,000 units sold.  The remaining six positions are shared by the two handhelds, which shows how portable gaming has become the dominant force in the east.

Depressingly, only one of these games has thus far been released in the west, though we’re getting Mario Tennis soon and - hopefully - Rhythm Tengoku Gold. Fingers crossed someone picks up Fragile for Europe and the US, but I’m not getting my hopes up.The full top ten is below.

01. [WII] Wii Play: Mario Tennis (Nintendo) 31,000 / 88,000
02. [WII] Fragile (Namco Bandai) 26,000 / NEW
03. [WII] Taiko no Tatsujin Wii (Namco Bandai) 25,000 / 316,000
04. [PSP] Zill’O (KOEI) 25,000 / NEW
05. [PSP] Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (PSP the Best) (Capcom) 25,000 / 357,000
06. [NDS] Rhythm Tengoku Gold (Nintendo) 20,000 / 1,614,000
07. [WII] Wii Fit (Nintendo) 19,000 / 3,196,000
08. [PSP] Dissidia Final Fantasy (Square Enix) 18,000 / 866,000
09. [NDS] Devil Survivor (Atlus) 18,000 / NEW
10. [NDS] Wagamama Fashion: Girl’s Mode (Nintendo) 17,000 / 684,000

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Wii Fit is the number one title in Chart-Track’s All-Formats Top 40 once more, a non-mover for the first time since its release. It’s hit the top four times previously, but this fifth stint is the only time it’s remained at the top for more than a week. Amazingly, its sales rose once more, this week by over a fifth, beating last week’s total by 21%.

Three further Wii titles made the top ten - Mario Kart Wii at eight gaining sales through in-store hardware bundles, while Wii Play dropped to six and Ubisoft’s Wii Fit rival, titled My Fitness Coach, was sandwiched between the two - a new entry at seven.

Meanwhile, Professor Layton and the Curious Village had a welcome rise, the delightful puzzle adventure climbing to tenth spot.

Elsewhere, Eidos proved that you ignore the last-gen consoles at your peril, the release of the PS2 version of Tomb Raider: Underworld propelling Lara to a top ten spot at nine, while the terrific-but-very-similar-to-the-original Skate 2 entered in third place, knocking the horrifically bad Lord of the Rings: Conquest down to five. Which is still much higher than it should be, grumble grumble.

The full list can be found right here.

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Famitsu’s sales figures for the entirety of last year have been unveiled - and while it’s good news for Nintendo in a lot of ways (the DS having 47 titles in the top 100 and nine of the top ten coming on Nintendo consoles), the big N will undoubtedly be a little disappointed that it hasn’t managed to top the charts.

Capcom’s portable phenomenon Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G - undoubtedly partly responsible for the PSP’s continued success in Japan - nabbed the number one slot, with nearly two-and-a-half million copies sold. Pokemon Platinum (pictured above) was runner-up with Wii Fit in third and Mario Kart Wii in fourth, both selling over two million units.

Brawl is fifth, and the surprise smash of the year, Rhythm Tengoku Gold, is a triumphant sixth. The rest of the top ten can be seen below, but if you want the full list (interesting fact: Brain Training was only the 94th best-seller in Japan last year) then you’ll want to click here.

01. [PSP] Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (Capcom) 2,452,111
02. [NDS] Pokemon Platinum (Pokemon) 2,187,337
03. [WII] Wii Fit (Nintendo) 2,149,131 / 2,967,297
04. [WII] Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo) 2,003,315
05. [WII] Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Nintendo) 1,747,113
06. [NDS] Rhythm Heaven (Nintendo) 1,350,671
07. [NDS] Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride (Square Enix) 1,176,082
08. [WII] Animal Crossing: City Folk (Nintendo) 895,302
09. [NDS] Kirby Super Star Ultra (Nintendo) 855,427
10. [WII] Wii Sports (Nintendo) 841,736 / 3,306,470

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…to Nintendo’s ever-growing money pile, topping the UK All-Formats Top 40 once more. Brits concerned with having gained a bit of Christmas weight are evidently throwing caution to the wind in these rough economic times and chucking seventy quid a time into making themselves thinner with Nintendo’s help.

It’s one of only three chart entries whose sales have increased this week, joining gaming heavyweights GTA IV and Halo 3, both of which are benefitting from price reductions in certain stores.

Back on a Nintendo tip, Wii Play continues to hold onto the top ten like a limpet, while Mario Kart Wii drops back a few places, no doubt thanks to a well-timed blue shell. Its handheld cousin, Mario Kart DS, amazingly rises a few places, selling fewer copies than last week, but not by as significant a percentage as those above it. And Kawashima’s pair of Brain Trainers are still doing well.

In a quiet time for new releases, it’s amazing to see a game - and a rather expensive one at that - sell 18% higher than its previous week’s tally, but that’s New Nintendo for you. Given that Wii Fit prevented the awful Lord of the Rings: Conquest from reaching the top, perhaps we should all be grateful that so many overindulged on the turkey and pudding over the festive season.

Chart-Track

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Eurogamer has reported that the DS is some way ahead of its handheld rival in the UK, having outsold PSP in 2008 by 5:1.

In a rare dribble of proper sales information from the normally vague Chart-Track, 3.4 million DSes found their way into UK households last year, compared with 600,000 PSPs. That’s 8.8 million units in total to date, which means more money to spend on ads with Girls Aloud and the Redknapps. Let’s have Harry playing Hotel Dusk next - sales would undoubtedly spike for CING’s noir-tinged adventure.

Meanwhile, we got installed base figures for the Wii - apparently 4.9 million waggly wonder-machines have been purchased since launch, which puts Xbox 360 firmly in second place with 3.2 million, with Sony’s PS3 on 1.9 million. Welcome to the third place, indeed.

Will 2009 continue to be the year of the Wii, or will Nintendo’s bubble burst? With MotionPlus on the way (alongside the sequel to the best-selling game of all time in Wii Sports Resort), not to mention the DSi for fans of portable gaming, I’m betting on the former.

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