UK Gaming Chart Update | 22nd March, 2003

Batman Gotham City Racer (GC) Ubi Soft 27/3/2003
Disney Sports Basketball (GBA) Konami 28/3/2003
Disney Sports Basketball (GC) Konami 28/3/2003
Evolution Snowboarding (GC) Konami 28/3/2003
Galleon (GC) Virgin 28/3/2003
James Bond 007: NightFire (GBA) EA 28/3/2003
NBA 2K3 (GC) Infogrames 28/3/2003
NFL 2K3 (GC) Infogrames 28/3/2003
NHL 2K3 (GC) Infogrames 28/3/2003
Ninja Five-O (GBA) Konami 28/3/2003
SpongeBob SquarePants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman (GBA) THQ 28/3/2003
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (GBA) Nintendo 28/3/2003
The Lost Vikings (GBA) Vivendi 28/3/2003
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon (GC) Ubi Soft 28/3/2003
Dakar 2 (GC) Acclaim 29/3/2003[/b]

That's quite a lot of new Nintendo release, wouldn't you agree? But which one will perform the strongest? To be honest I can only see Zelda and Ghost Recon performing quite well - Galleon has seen far too many delays, and I'd actually be surprised if it even made this release date. The sports titles will no doubt do well on the XBOX and PS2, but the GC is renowned for underperforming with sports titles due to the slightly higher pricing of the games on Nintendo's console and the fact that not as much data can be saved on the small memory cards. There is also strong competition from MGS2: Substance, RTX Red Rock and ISS3 on the PS2, The Sims and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic on XBOX and the highly-anticipated Championship Manager 4 on the PC.

I wonder how the launch of the GBA: SP this Friday will shake things up though...hmm.

ENDING 22ND MARCH

LW TW T
ITLE PUBLISHER

(N) 1 METROID PRIME NINTENDO

(2) 2 THE SIMS EA GAMES

(10) 3 RAYMAN 3 UBISOFT

(4) 4 THE GETAWAY SONY COMPUTER ENT.

(5) 5 GRAND THEFT AUTO: VICE CITY ROCKSTAR

(3) 6 LORD OF THE RINGS - THE TWO TOWERS EA GAMES

(1) 7 TENCHU: WRATH OF HEAVEN ACTIVISION

(6) 8 FIFA 2003 EA SPORTS

(7) 9 MORTAL KOMBAT: DEADLY ALLIANCE MIDWAY

(12) 10 COMMAND AND CONQUER: GENERALS EA GAMES

(11) 11 DANCING STAGE PARTY EDITION KONAMI

(8) 12 SUPER MONKEY BALL 2 SEGA

(13) 13 TOM CLANCY'S SPLINTER CELL UBISOFT

(14) 14 HARRY POTTER - PHILOSOPHER'S STONE EA GAMES

(N) 15 TOM CLANCY'S RAINBOW SIX 3 RAVEN SHIELD RED STORM

(15) 16 CRASH BANDICOOT - WRATH OF CORTEX PLATINUM

(25) 17 SUPER MARIO SUNSHINE NINTENDO

(21) 18 TOM CLANCY'S GHOST RECON RED STORM

(N) 19 SHENMUE 2 SEGA

(19) 20 HARRY POTTER - CHAMBER OF SECRETS EA GAMES

(N) 21 PANZER DRAGOON ORTA SEGA

(18) 22 TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 2003 EA SPORTS

(20) 23 MAX PAYNE PLATINUM

(17) 24 SONIC MEGA COLLECTION SEGA

(N) 25 LUIGI'S MANSION NINTENDO

(9) 26 RESIDENT EVIL ZERO CAPCOM

(39) 27 FINAL FANTASY ORIGINS SQUARESOFT

(N) 28 TIMESPLITTERS 2 EIDOS INTERACTIVE

(N) 29 SCOOBY-DOO & THE CYBER CHASE THQ

(38) 30 SHREK: TREASURE HUNT TDK

(33) 31 SIM CITY 3000 DICE MULTIMEDIA

(N) 32 THEME PARK WORLD DICE MULTIMEDIA

(23) 33 DRIVING TEST SUCCESS 2002/2003 FOCUS ESSENTIAL

(24) 34 GRAN TURISMO 3 PLATINUM

(22) 35 KINGDOM HEARTS DISNEY/SQUARE

(N) 36 IL2 STURMOVIK: THE FORGOTTEN BATTLES UBISOFT

(26) 37 MEDAL OF HONOR: FRONTLINE EA GAMES

(30) 38 THE SIMS: UNLEASHED EA GAMES

(27) 39 JAMES BOND 007: NIGHTFIRE EA GAMES

(29) 40 PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2 KONAMI

I do believe that I am going to faint...There are now seven Nintendo titles in the Top 40 - no GBA games are present though, they're all GameCube ones. Sitting pretty at the top, thanks to the blanket-marketing approach by Nintendo, is the wonderful(ly hard) Metroid Prime. Tenchu on the PS2 is sent flying down from the top to No.7, The Sims on PC and PS2 holds at No.2 whilst Rayman 3's increased PS2 sales bumps it up to No.3 this week. GameCube Lord of the Rings slips in sales, but manages to just scrape into the Top 40...it is sales of the other format versions that keep the game in the Top 10. The PSOne Dancing craze shows no signs of halting, as Konami's franchise holds at No.11, illustrating how the PSOne is by no means dead yet. Super Monkey Ball 2 drops out of the ten in its second week, but only a few places to No.12. There is a new entry on the PC at No.15 for the ever-popular Tom Clancy series, this time it's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield, which is scheduled for a GC release later this year. Increased word-of-mouth about the Player's Choice range has helped Super Mario Sunshine bounce up from No.25 to No.17 this week - and expect to see this climb again next week. There are a pair of new XBOX Sega releases at No.19 and No.21 in the form of the Shenmue II port and arcade gore-fest House of the Dead III respectively. The company's mascot compilation, meanwhile, drops to No.24 on the GC, whilst the now-cheap Luigi's Mansion makes a re-appearance at No.25 and Capcom's Resident Evil 0 collapses, dropping from nine last week to No.26 this week.

On the rise, though, is another PSOne title - this time Squaresoft's retro-feast Final Fantasy Origins. It is definitely good to see this performing well as it was seen as a risk to release it over here, and it's not that often that game companies takes risks in the PAL territory. Falling, after a small resurge, is Squaresoft's other recent title - the Disney collaboration of Kingdom Hearts, now at No.35. Final Fantasy X is out on Platinum release soon, so expect another turn of fortunes for the Japanes
e RPG giant pretty soon...

ENDING 22ND MARCH

LW TW TITLE PUBLISHER

(6) 1 SUPER MARIO SUNSHINE NINTENDO

(2) 2 HARRY POTTER - PHILOSOPHER'S STONE EA GAMES

(1) 3 CRASH BANDICOOT - WRATH OF CORTEX PLATINUM

(3) 4 MAX PAYNE PLATINUM

(24) 5 LUIGI'S MANSION NINTENDO

(16) 6 SCOOBY-DOO & THE CYBER CHASE THQ

(8) 7 SHREK: TREASURE HUNT TDK

(7) 8 SIM CITY 3000 DICE MULTIMEDIA

(9) 9 THEME PARK WORLD DICE MULTIMEDIA

(4) 10 DRIVING TEST SUCCESS 2002/2003 FOCUS ESSENTIAL

(5) 11 GRAN TURISMO 3 PLATINUM

(N) 12 PIKMIN NINTENDO

(17) 13 ETERNAL DARKNESS: SANITY'S REQUIEM NINTENDO

(19) 14 CRAZY TAXI PLATINUM

(20) 15 BURNOUT PLATINUM

(10) 16 X-MEN: NEXT DIMENSION ACTIVISION

(13) 17 THEME HOSPITAL SOFTKEY PLATINUM

(11) 18 MONSTERS, INC. PLATINUM

(26) 19 TETRIS WORLDS PLATINUM

(22) 20 TONY HAWK'S PRO SKATER 3 PLATINUM

(12) 21 SILENT HILL 2 PLATINUM

(14) 22 RESIDENT EVIL - CODE: VERONICA PLATINUM

(18) 23 AGE OF EMPIRES II: THE AGE OF KINGS MICROSOFT

(21) 24 LONDON RACER II DAVILEX

(35) 25 DRIVING TEST 2003 GSP

(N) 26 SPIDERMAN ACTIVISION

(27) 27 TUROK EVOLUTION ACCLAIM

(39) 28 COMMAND AND CONQUER: RED ALERT DICE MULTIMEDIA

(34) 29 SONIC 3D XPLOSIV

(32) 30 BMX XXX ACCLAIM

(23) 31 DEVIL MAY CRY PLATINUM

(N) 32 SPYRO: YEAR OF THE DRAGON PLATINUM

(33) 33 THE ITALIAN JOB PLATINUM

(30) 34 CRASH BASH PLATINUM

(31) 35 MINORITY REPORT ACTIVISION

(29) 36 WORMS ARMAGEDDON SOLD OUT

(N) 37 RUGRATS: STUDIO TOUR THQ

(28) 38 PROJECT GOTHAM RACING MICROSOFT

(15) 39 WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE 2 EIDOS INTERACTIVE

(38) 40 STRONGHOLD TAKE ADVANTAGE

The Nintendo Player's Choice range has been a resounding success since it started two weeks ago. This week sees Super Mario Sunshine slap Crash Bandicoot in the face, knocking the marsupial down to No.3 and taking the No.1 throne. Mario's under-rated brother comes chasing behind with his special hoover, jumping from No.24 to No.5. Other titles in the range that have charted include Pikmin, which started off slow last week, but now enters at No.12 and Eternal Darkness, which climbs four to No.13. Watch out for Wave Race: Blue Storm, though, as it's currently not too far behind ED in terms of current sales...and should make an appearance in coming weeks.

ENDING 22ND MARCH

LW TW TITLE PUBLISHER

(N) 1 METROID PRIME NINTENDO

(1) 2 SUPER MONKEY BALL 2 SEGA

(4) 3 SUPER MARIO SUNSHINE NINTENDO

(3) 4 SONIC MEGA COLLECTION SEGA

(8) 5 LUIGI'S MANSION NINTENDO

(2) 6 RESIDENT EVIL ZERO CAPCOM

(5) 7 LORD OF THE RINGS - THE TWO TOWERS EA GAMES

(10) 8 PIKMIN NINTENDO

(7) 9 ETERNAL DARKNESS: SANITY'S REQUIEM NINTENDO

(6) 10 PHANTASY STAR ONLINE: EP 1 & 2 SEGA

(15) 11 WAVERACE: BLUE STORM NINTENDO

(14) 12 RESIDENT EVIL CAPCOM

(11) 13 STAR FOX ADVENTURES NINTENDO

(12) 14 STAR WARS: ROGUE LEADER LUCASARTS

(18) 15 SUPER SMASH BROS: MELEE NINTENDO

(9) 16 RAYMAN 3 UBISOFT

(19) 17 WWE WRESTLEMANIA X8 THQ

(13) 18 MARIO PARTY 4 NINTENDO

(N) 19 BURNOUT ACCLAIM

(17) 20 MORTAL KOMBAT: DEADLY ALLIANCE MIDWAY

Super Monkey Ball 2's reign at the top was short-lived, as the behemoth that is Metroid Prime has stormed straight into the No.1 spot. This, tagged with the Player's Choice range and special free-game bundles, has increa
sed GC interest many times over, resulting in many first-party titles receiving boosts in sales. Super Mario Sunshine is the one to benefit the most from this, leap-frogging Sonic Mega Collection to take the No.3 spot. Luigi's Mansion has also been given a sales injection, rising three to No.5. Poor Capcom, though, is not having the best of times with its Resident Evil franchise - as Zero slides from No.2 to No.6 this week. Perhaps the chances of the recently rumoured Resi Evil 5 becoming yet another Nintendo exclusive are becoming ever-slimmer by the day...

Pikmin (No.8), Eternal Darkness (No.9) and Wave Race: Blue Storm (No.11) only just missed out on the Top 40 All Format charts this week - but there is a strong chance that they might make an appearance this coming Monday if things continue the way they are going. Interest in Mario Sunshine seems to have had an adverse effect on Rayman 3's sales, with many people picking that game up cheaper on the PS2, whilst plumping for either Luigi's or Mario's Nintendo adventures instead, therefore it drops from nine to No.16. Elsewhere, Super Smash Bros rises to No.15, Mario Party drops to No.18 and Burnout re-enters at No.19...

ENDING 22ND MARCH

LW TW TITLE PUBLISHER

(5) 1 CRASH BANDICOOT 2: N-TRANCED UNIVERSAL INTERACTIVE

(1) 2 RAYMAN 3 UBISOFT

(2) 3 LORD OF THE RINGS - THE TWO TOWERS EA GAMES

(3) 4 YOSHI'S ISLAND - SUPER MARIO ADVANCE 3 NINTENDO

(4) 5 SONIC ADVANCE SEGA

(7) 6 SPYRO 2: SEASON OF FLAME UNIVERSAL INTERACTIVE

(6) 7 HARRY POTTER - CHAMBER OF SECRETS EA GAMES

(8) 8 SUPER MARIO ADVANCE 2 NINTENDO

(9) 9 RUGRATS: I GOTTA GO PARTY THQ

(10) 10 HARRY POTTER - PHILOSOPHER'S STONE EA GAMES

(14) 11 LORD OF THE RINGS-FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING BLACK LABEL

(20) 12 METROID FUSION NINTENDO

(13) 13 MARIO KART: SUPER CIRCUIT NINTENDO

(12) 14 WWE ROAD TO WRESTLEMANIA X8 THQ

(17) 15 BUBBLE BOBBLE EMPIRE

(11) 16 CRASH BANDICOOT: XS UNIVERSAL INTERACTIVE

(15) 17 SHREK: HASSLE AT THE CASTLE TDK

(18) 18 COLUMNS CROWN SEGA

(19) 19 FIFA 2003 EA SPORTS

(N) 20 GT ADVANCE: CHAMPIONSHIP RACING THQ

It was a slow week in general for the Nintendo handheld compared to last week. Although, as predicted, Crash Bandicoot's second GBA title leaped to No.1, it still failed to make it into the Top 40 All Format Chart. Sales of Rayman 3 also declined heavily in the advent of the PS2 version's release. On the whole there was little activity in this particular chart - the only major thing of note being the resurgence, also as predicted, of Metroid Fusion from No.20 last week to No.12 this week. Expect that and the soon-to-be-released Zelda GBA game to make the Top 10 next Monday. The only other item worth mentioning is that Shining Soul has completely disappeared, only to be replaced by THQ's GT Advance: Championship Racing at No.20.

Roll on the GBA: SP!

ENDING 22ND MARCH

LW TW TITLE PUBLISHER

(1) 1 POKEMON SILVER NINTENDO

(4) 2 POKEMON CRYSTAL NINTENDO

(3) 3 YU-GI-OH! DARK DUEL STORIES KONAMI

(2) 4 POKEMON GOLD NINTENDO

(5) 5 HARRY POTTER - CHAMBER OF SECRETS EA GAMES

(12) 6 SHREK TDK

(14) 7 SUPER MARIO BROS NINTENDO

(10) 8 NYR: NEW YORK RACE WANADOO

(6) 9 TOKI TORI CAPCOM

(8) 10 POKEMON TRADING CARD GAME NINTENDO

(9) 11 SABRINA ANIMATED: SPOOKED SIERRA ONLINE

(7) 12 WENDY: EVERY WITCH WAY TDK

(15) 13 LEGEND OF ZELDA: ORACLE OF SEASONS NINTENDO

(11) 14 DRAGON BALL Z INFOGRAMES

(16) 15 LEGEND OF ZELDA: ORACLE OF AGE
S NINTENDO

(13) 16 MEGAMAN XTREME 2 CAPCOM

(18) 17 HARRY POTTER - PHILOSOPHER'S STONE EA GAMES

(19) 18 TETRIS DELUXE NINTENDO

(17) 19 TWEENIES: DOODLE'S BONES BBC MULTIMEDIA

(20) 20 WWF: BETRAYAL THQ

As with last week, all of Nintendo's titles appear to have had some sort of sales boost, possibly due to shop price reductions. Pok