UK Chart Highlights LXIV | Nintendo Crosses (Animal) Milestone

Lara Croft showed all and sundry that she is by no means a dried-up, old has-been as she slammed into the top spot of the UK chart last week. However, there was also quite a large element of success for Nintendo as well, with its Animal Crossing: Wild World continuing to out-perform other big hitters such as Mario Kart and Mario & Luigi. So that made it two weeks at No.6 in the Top 40, but can it improve on that placing this time round?

Tomb Raider Legend manages to hold on to No.1 this week, despite the 360 version dropping by 41% overall. The Easter release of Ice Age 2 at the cinema has bumped the game equivalent to No.2, whilst The Godfather drops below FIFA Street 2 to sit in fourth spot. Football Manager 2006 was released on XBOX 360 and PSP last week, helping the game jump back into the chart at No.5, just above Nintendo's Animal Crossing, which continues to show its strong legs, sticking at No.6 for a third consecutive week. It certainly bodes well for the impending release of Tetris DS! What is disappointing to see, though, is that the best RPG, if not one of the best PS2 games full stop, has only entered at No.15. GAME in Manchester had such huge promotions for the first ever proper Dragon Quest game, Journey of the Cursed King, but it has not helped out too much. Would the game that became the fastest selling PS2 title in Japan have done better on a Nintendo platform over here? Probably...but we will never know.

The PSP exclusive Tom Clancy Essentials is up five to No.18, whilst Worms on PSP/DS falls by eight to No.23, Sonic Riders is back up five to No.29 and the much-hyped Guitar Hero falls four to No.30 in just its second week. Sadly, there is only really Animal Crossing performing well on the DS, with the only other games in the mix being Ice Age 2 and Sonic Rush, the latter of which drops to No.40.

The Labrador edition of nintendogs holds at No.4 behind the other three DS titles mentioned above that feature in the Top 20, taking the top three. Mario Kart takes advantage of Worms' drop of one place, moving up one to replace it at No.5, and there is a huge jump for The Sims 2, seven to No.7, with the game being so popular on the DS that future iterations are a given. King Kong's DVD release and in-store promotional activity helps the game move up five to No.12, although similar Easter deals in GAME do not help Resident Evil, which falls seven to No.14, along with Phoenix Wright, which is also down