Mario Struck Down by Assassin's Creed

Nintendo gives us its thoughts on the UK debut of Super Mario Galaxy.

It's been more than 800 years since the Third Crusade ripped through the Holy Land but Ubisoft has demonstrated that that vast stretch of time is like nothing in the face of a good game.

Assassin's Creed, the latest action game from Ubisoft Montreal, made a strong entry over the weekend, coming in straight at No. 1 on the UK charts. The game sold particularly well on the Xbox 360, with around two-thirds of units sold being on Microsoft's system - no doubt thanks to the system's much bigger installed base compared with the PlayStation 3.

Things were quite different for Super Mario Galaxy. Mario's first console platformer since Super Mario Sunshine on the GameCube sold well enough to earn a third-place finish.

Is that's good enough? Some have wondered aloud what it means when the marquee name on the system fails to pull in a No. 1, but Nintendo told Kikizo that it's "really pleased" with the sales of Super Mario Galaxy so far, adding that its customers have demonstrated in the past that they're not "obsessed with getting a game on day one".

According to Chart Track, Super Mario Galaxy had the biggest opening yet for a Wii game, besting the opening of Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, which came into the market when there were fewer Wiis around.

Splitting the two was Activision's futuristic military shooter Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, which saw its sales drop by a third. New on the chart was futuristic PC shooter Crysis, which debuted at No.14.

The Top 20 games across all formats for the week ending 17 November, as determined by Chart Track, are below:

1. Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft)
2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision)
3. The Simpsons Game (EA)
4. WWE SmackDown Vs Raw 2008 (THQ)
5. Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo)
6. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (Nintendo)
7. FIFA 08 (EA)
8. High School Musical: Sing It! (Disney)
9. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (Konami)
10. More Brain Training From Dr Kawashima (Nintendo)
11. Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga (LucasArts)
12. Ratatouille (THQ)
13. The Sims 2: Castaway (EA)
14. Crysis (EA)
15. Cooking Mama (505)
16. Halo 3 (Microsoft)
17. Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree (Nintendo)
18. MySims (EA)
19. Deal or No Deal (Mindscape)
20. New Super Mario Bros (Nintendo)

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo