Wii Fit is selling like gangbusters in Britain, where it accounts for half of all Wii software sold in the last week, and has given Nintendo its first one-two finish in the All Formats Chart since 2003. And guess what? It's more or less the same story throughout the rest of Europe.
The Irish are shedding the Guinness pounds, the Germans are working off those brätwurst, and Sweden ... well, we don't really have a lazy, go-to food stereotype for the Swedes. Anyhow, the point is: they're all loving it, and if Wii Fit doesn't appear in a chart (see: Spain, Denmark), it's probably because a country hasn't got it yet, or the charts have fallen behind.
Mind you, don't expect any of this Nintendo dominance to last: next week's charts are guaranteed to be all about one game (yet we suspect Wii Fit might give you have better legs than GTA IV in the long-term). Lean past the break for this week's European charts.
Featuring charts from across the region, Another Week in Europe documents the buying habits and quirky tastes of a whole continent of Wii lovers.
While yours truly had trouble tracking down a copy of Mario Kart Wii on the high street (for our review), it appears plenty of others around Europe had no such problem.
Bar Denmark (where it has now dropped to fifth), the title sits at the top of every European chart, and we suspect it might even be influencing the sales of other games. Surely the rise of Mario Kart DS to 8th in Ireland, 8th in France, and 7th in Germany can't all be a mere coincidence? By our reckoning, Mario Kart Wii has ramped up Europe's interest in Mario Kartgenerally. Fortunately, Mario Kart DS is the bee's knees!
Finally, this week's overachiever award goes to Sega Superstars Tennis -- despite the Wii version's lack of online play, Sega's tennis/blue skies extravaganza climbed to fourth in the UK. Head beyond the break for more European chartage, and please accept our humble apologies for the lack of a Spanish top ten -- that should be back next week.
Featuring charts from across the region, Another Week in Europe documents the buying habits and quirky tastes of a whole continent of Wii lovers.
Gran Turismo 5: Prologue dominates Europe this week, and only plucky little Sweden (where the game lies second) prevented it from being top dog in every single European chart.
In many cases, however, it's being hotly pursued by Wii software. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 is still holding its own (rising to 3rd in the UK, 4th in Ireland, and keeping fifth place in Spain), Mario & Sonic continues to grip to the higher positions like a particularly stubborn limpet, Germany is the usual Nintendo lovefest, and Sweden finally has a Wii game that isn't Guitar Hero III in its top ten. It's a good one, as well.
As far as new games go, there's just the one, with Dancing Stage Hottest Party strutting its stuff and grabbing its crotch at 7th in the Dutch charts. Finally, Game Party and Carnival: Funfair Games continue to plummet down the UK charts. Muahahaha.
Featuring charts from across the region, Another Week in Europe documents the buying habits and quirky tastes of a whole continent of Wii lovers.
Unlike reigning full beard freestyle world champion Elmar Weisser of Germany (who we admire fiercely), we have mixed feelings about this week's European sales charts.
For example, while we're heartened by the success of debutant Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (5th in the UK, and the Wii edition supplemented sales of other versions across Europe -- not bad for a game that appeared on every other console last October), we're irked by the flat performance of House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return (15th in Britain, and nowhere to be seen in the charts of mainland Europe).
Europe, if you're reading, stop buying Game Party (7th in UK), Smarty Pants (10th in Spain), and Mario & bleeding Sonic (high everywhere) and let's get something half-decent up there for a change. Sega Bass Fishing should make next week's chart, so that'd be a good place to start -- let's have that top ten somewhere, please.Sigh. At least Elmar will never fail to impress us. Click on for the charts.
Do you eat, sleep, and breathe Pro Evolution Soccer 2008? Well then, not only do you have an amazing digestive system, but also you'd probably be interested to know that Konami wants to further feed your addiction.
Why else would the company team up with GamerZines to make an online magazine completely dedicated to PES Wii? Oh right, promotional reasons. At its core, this mag is just an attempt to hype up people for PES 2008. Even so, if you're a fan of the game or are thinking about buying it, you might find a few interesting things in this free zine.
Aside from pictures of happy people who are supposedly playing the game, the magazine offers gameplay videos, as well as an interview with PES 2008's Wii producer, Akiyoshi "Greyhound" Chosogabe. There's also an entertaining little game-like quiz/competition where you have to identify five soccer players (which this blogger failed at miserably).
All in all, there's not that much to it, but current and potential PES lovers might find reading it to be a nice distraction.
One of the best uses of the Wii's motion controls, in our opinion, is for sports games -- which is probably why Nintendo bundled a game full of sports demos with the console. Take the Wii version of Winning Eleven Pro Evolution Soccer, for example, which was hailed by critics as bringing new life to the series.
What do you think, though? Do motion controls add an extra layer of immersion to sports titles? Or, do you prefer to play your sports games without waggle?
Japanophiles and sales chart nerds, it's that time of week again to take a look at last week's sales in the Land of the Rising Sun. Those of you who've been keeping up won't find much excitement in this week's chart, though. All the same software from the week before showed up, but it might not be long before Family Ski and Winning Eleven fall out of the top thirty.
It was also nice to see Metroid Prime 3: Corruptionstick around, as the Nintendo FPS nabbed the number eleven spot for this week. Other than that, the only noticeable difference is that Smash Bros. dropped to fourth. What's interesting is that Brawl is no longer the best selling Wii game, either, as Wii Fitreclaimed that honor. We also learned that you can't keep the big three (Wii Fit, Wii Sports, and Wii Play) out of the top ten for long.
In hardware sales, the Wii fell a smidge behind the PSP, and did only slightly better than the DS.
Hardware:
PSP: 57,651
Wii: 55,845
Nintendo DS: 53,266
PlayStation 3: 14,934
PlayStation 2: 9,930
Xbox 360: 1,744
To see the software numbers and rankings for last week, make sure to click past the break.
Thanks to its point-and-pass mechanics and Mii integration, the Wii version of Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 can safely be described as the biggest upheaval of the series in years. But have such sweeping changes to one of the most finely balanced franchises in gaming been for the better? Well, the critics certainly seem to think so ...
Official Nintendo Magazine UK -- 90%: First out of the tunnel with its views is the UK edition of Official Nintendo Magazine, which suggests that persevering with the new Wii controls will pay dividends: "Easily the best football game on a Nintendo system. It takes a while to get used to the new controls but once you get your head round them, they become second nature." [March 2008, p.58 -- excerpt found at Metacritic]
IGN -- 86%: IGN's Matt Bozon argues that the Wii controls play a crucial role in creating the "most strategic" soccer experience ever: "The integration of IR into a sports game has been extremely minimal so far, but is absolutely ideal in this situation, allowing players to not only play the ball specifically, but direct traffic and precisely move every player on the field in tandem, making for the most realistic, strategic, and intuitive soccer experiences we've ever seen."
1UP -- 75%: And it's more of the same from 1UP's Andrew Pfister, who expresses surprise that the Wii version is so superior to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 editions: "It's always refreshing to see a unique application of the Wii's motion controls, and it's even more encouraging to see a new idea that's not only functional, but something that really can't be done any other way. We're not sure what's going on over at Konami's PES team: on one hand, there seem to be some major issues in regards to PS3/360 development, yet the less-technically apt Wii version ends up being the game to move the franchise forward."
Gallery: Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
To most of us, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is old news. The U.S. has had it since last summer, and even Europe has been enjoying the game for a few months now. It only debuted in Japan last week, though, and we were happily surprised to see it make the top five. It only sold 32,000 copies in its first week, but that's still not too shabby for a Metroid game in Japan. Hopefully, the game will have some legs and not plunge off the charts after its first week, like many other first-person shooters tend to do.
As for other software, the Wii didn't have too many games in the top thirty -- only eight, in fact -- yet it was still the second most represented gaming system on the charts. With the exception of the aforementioned Metroid and Everyone's General Knowledge Training TV, all the Wiis top games have consistently stuck around for (at least) a few weeks.
In other news, Smash Bros. once again failed to take the first place spot. The game beat out last week's chart champ, the new Gundam for the PS2, but fell behind the newly released Yakuza 3.
In hardware, the Wii claimed the top spot once again as Japan is clearly so over the Mint Green PSP (that was so five minutes ago). You can check out the hardware and software numbers for last week in Japan after the break -- we recommend that you do so.
People interested in Japanese game sales probably have one question on their minds: Did Super Smash Bros. Brawl hold onto the top spot last week?
Well, the answer is, no. The new Gundam game for the PS2 managed to end Brawl's reign, and end it convincingly. In fact, Smash barely stayed in second, with Wii Fit being right up the fighter's grill.
The Wii itself also lost the top spot last week, overtaken by the PSP in hardware for the first time since Brawl's release. Aside from those major changes, though, everything looks to be what we'd expect, with Winning Eleven and Family Ski continuing to champion the cause for third parties.
Go on and take a look at the numbers after the break ... or else.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl hung onto the top spot last week, but not by much. For the first time, the king of Nintendo fighters was actually close to the game behind it, with a lead of less than 10,000 units. Considering that Brawl has dominated for a month and is already over the million mark, though, we're not surprised to see a little less dominance from the title.
A lot of new software was released last week, which finally caused Super Mario Galaxy to fall out of the top thirty. Winning Eleven: Play Maker 2008 was the Wii's new game, debuting at the number six spot. Family Ski also managed to jump up five spots, despite the plethora of new titles.
On the hardware side, the Wii continues to reign in first place. The PSP and DS aren't too far behind, but the Wii is outselling the PS3 4:1 with the help of Brawl.
You can check out the listings and sales numbers -- they're posted after the break.
Those of us in the U.S. call Konami's soccer series Winning Eleven rather than Pro Evolution Soccer. Winning Eleven will soon be no more, however, as the title for the new U.S. game will officially be Pro Evolution Soccer 2008, like its European counterpart.
As IGN points out, this is unfortunate timing. Had the newest game kept its Winning Eleven name, it's title would have been Winning Eleven 11. Only Japan will have that glory now.
We at Nintendo Wii Fanboy tend to prefer Winning Eleven to Pro Evolution Soccer, but at the end of the day, what's in a name? At least this change might serve to cut down on some confusion.
Gallery: Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
As we have previouslydiscussed, the Wii version of Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 will be a very different game from the version that appeared on otherconsoles (and we're not just referring to the Wii-specific logo above). Is that a good or bad thing? We'll know soon enough, because Konami has announced that the game will be out in March.
Scouring today's press release, we also learned about a random bunch of other features that are exclusive to the Wii edition. These include the ability to fashion a squad of 16 pre-defined Miis, a "Champions Road" mode that sees you building a team from the opponents you defeat (similar to the "Gacha-get" mode in the DS version), and the way in which sliding tackles can be executed and 'keepers brought out with a shake of the Nunchuk.
Oh, and it will have full online play, but if the online support is anything like other versions of the game, expect it to be absolutely lagtastic.
To those of us reared on playing Winning Eleven games with d-pads and/or analog sticks, the Wii version of Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 has the potential to be a slightly unsettling experience. As the video above shows, pointing your cursor to pass actually looks very natural and fluid, but we're also hoping this doesn't make Winning Eleven on the Wii too simplistic. The series has long been defined by the subtlety of its gameplay, and while greater immediacy would potentially draw in new fans, learning how to master each new game in the series is one of its biggest attractions.
We're remaining positive though, if only because series creator Shingo "Seabass" Takatsuka has repeatedly demonstrated that he knows more than most people about producing superb soccer games. Here's hoping he nails this one.
Wii Fit is selling like gangbusters in Britain, where it accounts for half of all Wii software sold in the last week, and has given Nintendo its first one-two finish in the All Formats Chart since 2003. And guess what? It's more or less the same story throughout the rest of Europe.
Featuring charts from across the region, 
Featuring charts from across the region, 
Featuring charts from across the region, Another Week in Europe documents the buying habits and quirky tastes of a whole continent of Wii lovers.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl 
