What are the best-selling games in America, Japan, and Europe (UK) this week? Thanks to Amazon online sales data here are the games that are the most popular now.

Nintendo Wii
North America: 1. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo), 2. Wii Play (Nintendo), 3. We Ski (Namco Bandai), 4. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle (Activision), 5. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Nintendo).

Japan: 1. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo), 2. Wii Fit (Nintendo), 3. Totsugeki!! Famicom Wars VS (Nintendo), 4. Link no Bowgun Training + Wii Zapper (Nintendo), 5. Dairantou Smash Brothers X (Nintendo).

Europe: 1. Wii Fit (Nintendo), 2. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo), 3. Wii Play (Nintendo), 4. LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (LucasArts), 5. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Sega).

Xbox 360
North America: 1. Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar), 2. Halo 3 (Microsoft), 3. Rock Band Special Edition (EA Games), 4. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision), 5. Assassin’s Creed (Ubisoft).

Japan: 1. The Darkness (Spike), 2. The Idolm@ster: Live for You! (Namco), 3. The Idolm@ster — Xbox 360 Platinum Collection (Namco), 4. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision), 5. Turok (Touchstone).

Europe: 1. Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar), 2. Halo 3 (Microsoft), 3. The Orange Box (EA Games), 4. Viking: Battle for Asgard (Sega), 5. Assassin’s Creed (Ubisoft).

PlayStation 3
North America: 1. Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar), 2. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (SCEA), 3. Rock Band Special Edition (EA Games), 4. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle (Activision), 5. Assassin’s Creed (Ubisoft).

Japan: 1. Senjou no Valkyria (Sega), 2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision), 3. Makai Senki Disgaea 3 — First Print Limited Edition (Nippon Ichi), 4. Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan! (Sega), 5. Armored Core: For Answer (From Software).

Europe: 1. Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar), 2. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (SCEE), 3. Assassin’s Creed (Ubisoft), 4. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision), 5. Burnout Paradise (EA Games).

PlayStation 2 Read more…

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Iron Man, one of Marvel’s most indestructible Super Heroes, blast onto videogame platforms with this adaptation of the big screen movie. This third-person action game immerses players in the world of Tony Stark — the brilliant industrialist and inventor who both created and became the world’s toughest hero - Iron Man. By customizing the advanced technology in Iron Man’s suits, gamers can take advantage of a wide array of high-impact weapons to strategically blow-up and destroy any enemy force and fight to rid the world of weapons of mass destruction.

Drawing from both the movie and comic book storylines, Iron Man features the voice talent of the stars from the major motion picture — Robert Downey Jr, Terrence Howard, and Shawn Toub. Utilizing the power of next-gen gaming consoles, Iron Man offers photo-realistic graphics, non-linear gameplay and huge open worlds in which gamers can travel as far as the eye can see.

Is the billionaire hero’s game shiny and polished or covered in a thick layer of tarnish? Find out in this Iron Man game video review:

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THQ has WWE Legends of WrestleMania in development for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Joining the distinguished WWE SmackDown/SmackDown vs. Raw franchise, which has shipped more than 37 million units worldwide since 2000, WWE Legends of WrestleMania is scheduled for release in March 2009 to coincide with the annual pinnacle of sports entertainment, WrestleMania 25, in Houston, Texas.

“We have generated significant year-over-year growth in key global territories with WWE-licensed videogames, including tremendous success with the WWE SmackDown vs. Raw franchise,” said Peter Matiss, vice president, global brand management, THQ. “The development capabilities afforded by next generation hardware, combined with our established history and deep understanding of fighting videogames, allow us to leverage the strength of the WWE brand to further extend our leadership in the fighting videogame genre and bring this new property to market.”

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April’s American video game sales data from the NPD is in, and like almost any month past year, it shows an unchanged result: The Nintendo Wii outsold all other systems, and this time it’s extra suprising that eventhough Grand Theft Auto IV was out for five days after launch on Xbox 360 and PS3, it didn’t move any extra consoles. Total hardware sales were up 27% to over $426.2 million compared to the same month last year.

Video game hardware overview:
1. Nintendo Wii — 714,200
2. Nintendo DS — 414,800
3. PlayStation Portable — 192,700
4. Xbox 360 — 188,000
5. PlayStation 3 — 187,100
6. PlayStation 2 — 124,400

Video game sales totals for the month were $654.7 million. That’s an increase of 68% over last years already historic number! Most notable were Grand Theft Auto IV’s launch in America with 1.85 million sales on Xbox 360 and 1 million sales on PS3! Mario Kart Wii also launched in America with 1.12 million sales.

Video game software overview top 10:
1. Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360) — 1.85 million
2. Mario Kart Wii with wheel (Wii) — 1.12 million
3. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3) — 1 milion
4. Wii Play w/ Remote (Wii) — 360,000
5. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) — 326,000
6. Gran Turismo 5: Prologue (PS3) — 224,000
7. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness (DS) — 202,000
8. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time (DS) — 202,000
9. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii) — 152,000
10. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360) — 141,000

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Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) announced what new PlayStation Network downloadable games, expansions, demos and videos were released for PlayStation 3 and PSP today.

American Games (Demos):
* Dragonball Z: Burst Limit demo
* Overlord: Raising Hell demo
* Secret Agent Clank (PSP) demo

American Games (Content):
* American Idol Encore, 21 song tracks
* Rock Band songs: Blondie’s “Hanging on the Telephone”, and-Sonic Youth’s “Kool Thing”, and The Clash’s “Train in Vain” - $1.99 each
* Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds new characters: Alex, and Gloria - $0.99 each
* Rocketmen: Axis of Evil “It Came From Uranus” Expansion Pack - $4.99

American Trailers:
* Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm Announcement
* Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe Announcement

American Extras:
* Echochrome Themes (PS3 & PSP)
* Haze Theme
* Overlord Theme
* (5) Overlord Wallpapers

European Games (Demos):
* Command & Conquer: Red Alert (PSone) - €4.99 / £3.49
* Dark Mist - €7.49 / £4.99
* Overlord: Raising Hell demo
* Singstore, 29 songs or less depending on your country (live on Friday along with the Singstar Vol.2 features update)
* Wipeout Pure (PSP) - €22.49 / £14.99

European Games (Content):
* Everybody’s Golf World Tour Alex Pack - £0.69
* Everybody’s Golf World Tour Gloria Pack - £0.69
* Pixel Junk Encore Pack - £1.99

European Trailers:
* Brothers In Arms Hell’s Highway
* Burnout Paradise Accolade
* Dark Sector Launch
* Haze TV Ad
* Welcome to Paradise City!

European Extras:
* Eye Of Judgment Spellbound & Citadel Themes
* Overlord Theme
* (5) Overlord Wallpapers
* (11) Pain Themes
* Warhawk Operation Broken Mirror & Eucadian Themes

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Michel Ancel (father of Rayman) was interviewed in JeuxVideo Magazine issue #91 and declared that “Beyond Good and Evil 2” is actually in the pre-production phase. Considered one of the best games of 2003, “Beyond Good and Evil” (on PS2, Xbox, GameCube, PC) unfortunately did not achieve the expected level of commercial success.

To quote: “I’m working on “Beyond Good and Evil 2. We’ve been in pre-production for a year, and we’re mainly doing R&D with a small group. But for now, we’re in the ‘outline’ step. Ubisoft has not greenlit this project,” Mr. Ancel admitted during the course of the interview. He also noted that from 10 to 12 people are working on the project. The Beyond Good and Evil sequel has been worked on and off on since the original action-adventure game’s release.

He continued: “We want to continue the style of the original: a great variety of gameplay types, lots of emotions in the gameplay, and engaging characters. This time we’re going to examine the future of the planet, how the animals get along.”

No systems were announced yet since the project hasn’t been approved, but it’s expected for the Xbox 360 and PS3, although I’d hope it’ll be released on the Wii and PC too. Will it be announced at the upcoming UbiDays event that runs from May 28th to 29th? Stay tuned. — From JeuxVideo, translation from French by Stumpokapow

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Game Informer’s June 2008 issue cover feature of Guitar Hero 4 revealed Neversoft’s plan for the future of the franchise: vocals, drums and the ultimate form of creative control with the ability to craft your own songs.

But that’s not all, as you can see from the magazine scan above, there’s a new drum kit which has the two cymbals on top of the drums (the main difference from the Rock Band kit). Plus it has a foot pedal! This is just a first-run prototype of the drum set at the Neversoft offices, but Game Informer were fairly impressed with the layout reports Engadget. — Via Gameinformer

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A brand new BMW 3-Series car will be the ultimate champion’s reward as Codemasters revealed an incredible pan-European fastest lap challenge to mark the launch of the Race Driver: GRID playable demo for home consoles. The demo is now available to download from Xbox LIVE Marketplace for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation Network for the PlayStation 3.

For the game that’s all about the race, the Race Driver: GRID playable demo delivers intense competition right from the off as gamers compete in single-player GRID World events, 12-player online races and then prove their worth in the white-knuckle Time Trial competition, which is home to the fastest lap challenge. Pitting all console players against each other, it’s the Time Trial results that will see one race driver getting the keys to the BMW.

To participate, players submit their fastest final lap time online at http://community.racedrivergrid.com/win-bmw. Once authenticated, the lap time is then ranked against every other registered time on the online leaderboards. The challenge will end on Friday, 23rd May at midnight, and the top five ranked players will then go on to compete at the European live playoffs to be held on Race Driver: GRID’s European launch day– Friday, 30th May– at the zavvi store, Oxford Street, London, where they will compete head-to-head to win the BMW 3-Series– for real.
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The development team including Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil creator), Atsushi Inaba (Okami producer) and Hideki Kamiya (Devil May Cry creator) from Capcom’s Clover Studios has gone through quite a few name changes, from Capcom to SEEDS to now PlatinumGames.

These are the 3 PlatinumGames they are working on:

1. Bayonetta for PS3 and Xbox 360, directed by Hideki Kamiya, and is described by the site’s correspondent as a “stylish action game” with “a witch battling angels”. Apparently she has guns on her feet.

2. A science-fiction RPG for the DS called Infinite Line, where you play as a starship captain, customizing your ship and crew.

3. A Wii game called MadWorld. …it’s, “Black and white Sin City graphics, with red blood. Ultra ultra violent. Fatality moves like shoving a post through someone’s head. Chainsaw on your right arm.”

1UP reports that Sega will be publishing.

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This week on Zero Punctuation, Grand Theft Auto 4 is reviewed. We just rated Grand Theft Auto 4 with a 10 out of 10 fun factor. As Stuart put it: This game deserves the stellar recognition and record-breaking 6 million week-one sales it has received. It is an incredible achievement, an outstanding piece of entertainment, etc., praise, etc, more praise.

But it seems the Australian-based writer Yahtzee has some issues with every game, or rather, he has issues. As always, foul language ahead in this video.

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