EA shifts up a gear with ‘Need for Speed: ProStreet’ maneuvering up one place from No2 to No1 in the All Formats Chart, putting the skids on Ubisoft’s ‘Assassin’s Creed’ which slips 5 places, down to No6. For the past 4 years every game that was No1 in the All Format Chart at this point remained No1 up until Christmas.



It may be one and half years old, but Nintendo’s original ‘Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training’ is showing no signs of over-exertion as sales jump 32%, propelling it from No5 to No2, only a couple of hundred units ahead of ‘The Simpsons Game’ (+27%) which climbs one place to No3. Kawashima records by far the biggest sales week for any individual DS game, while to date 27% of DS/DS Lite owners have a copy. Kawashima stops EA from monopolising the Top 3 as ‘FIFA 08’ has to settle for a climb of 5 places to No4 with a 38% rise in sales across 7 formats. ‘Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare’ falls 2 places to No5, becoming Activision’s only All Formats Top 10 representive as ‘Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock’ is knocked down one place to No11.

It would have been unthinkable several years ago, but Sega has toppled Nintendo’s ‘Super Mario Galaxy’ with ‘Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games’ recording the largest sales week of any individual Nintendo Wii title, up from No14 to No7. It’s not just the original Kawashima which performs well for Nintendo this week, Christmas shoppers are training their brains with ‘More Brain Training’, up from No13 to No9 and ‘Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree’ up from No21 to No15, while ‘Super Mario Galaxy’ drops out of the All Formats Top 10, down from No7 to No12. The training continues for Nintendo at No22 with ‘Sight Training’ breaking into the Top 40 at No22 in its second week of release. Capcom/Nintendo’s ‘Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles’ on Wii is the only new entry out this week to make it into the All Formats Top 40, new at No28. There are re-entries for ‘Red Steel’ at No34, ‘GT Pro Series’ at No35, ‘Forza Motorsport 2’ at No36 and ‘Viva Piñata’ at No39 all due to hardware bundling.