UK Chart Highlights | Traditional Nintendo Slips; Brains Bulge, Though

Basically everyone is readying themselves for the Christmas rush at the moment, including gaming companies that are kicking their marketing campaigns into top gear. Nintendo is just such a company and the Touch! Generations adverts have begun to flow freely once again. This time Nintendo is pushing games like Mario Party DS, Animal Crossing and nintendogs (with a glimpse of Sight Training at the end of the ad piece), as well as the Brain Training and Big Brain Academy games, which are being pushed not only by Nicole Kidman now, but also the likes of Philip Schofield, Fern Britton, Patrick Stewart and Julie Walters.

Starting off with the All Prices Top 40, the new ad campaign has lifted More Brain Training up six to No.8 and Brain Training up three to No.9, whilst Cooking Mama slips just one to No.11 and shows no signs of ever disappearing! Big Brain Academy for Wii is up two to No.18, Carnival on Wii is down six to No.23, likely due to low stock more than a lack of interest, and the DS edition of Big Brain Academy returns at No.40, again thanks to the renewed TV campaign.

As for the Full Price Top 40, Konami's PES 2008 stays atop the chart once more, holding EA's FIFA 08 at No.2 again, despite falling 52% in sales (it actually still outsold FIFA 08 two-fold!). The Simpsons Game is new at No.3 across four formats, Ratatouille continues to climb in sales, now up one to No.4 and retailer bundles help Halo 3 back up three to No.5. Football Manager 2008 seems to be falling quicker than expected, now down three to No.6, but the massive TV presence of The Sims 2: Castaway catapults the game up eight to No.7, helped along by the release of the PSP edition this week. Sadly Nintendo's Phantom Hourglass slides four to No.8, whilst High School Musical sticks at No.9 and Metroid Prime 3 falls four to No.11 amidst heavy talk of stock supply issues here in the UK. The Orange Box drops fast from No.6 to No.12, Crash slips three to No.13, MySims continues to prove strong, only dipping one to No.14 and Timeshift on 360 is new at No.18.

Heavenly Sword is down five to No.21, New Super Mario Bros. climbs back up six to No.23, Hellgate: London is new at No.24 and Thrillville stutters down two to No.25 as Mario Party nudges up one to No.26. The shock of the week comes as Tony Hawk's Proving Ground only enters at No.27, although no doubt this will rise considerably in the coming weeks. Lab & Friends is back at No.31 on DS, with the Dalmatian version returning at No.32. Spyro's latest game is not yet out on all formats, which probably explains its lacklustre entry at No.35, Super Paper Mario dips three to No.36, Pok