We could start this article by sharing our views on the morality of luring children into fast food resultants via free toys, but then we remembered our tagline: “finding the fun”. That subject would be precisely no fun at all to discuss.

Fun can be had though by looking back at the various videogame franchises that have been turned into McDonald’s Happy Meal and Burger King Kid’s Club toys over the years, especially after discovering that there are plenty of amusing adverts available on YouTube.

With Skylanders Happy Meal toys currently available in the US, and due worldwide soon, has there been a better time to take a lookback? No.

Super Mario Bros. 3 – 1990

Considering gamers flocked to cinemas in 1989 to watch The Wizard so they could catch a glimpse of Super Mario Bros. 3, it’s not hard to imagine that McDonald’s Super Mario Bros. 3 Happy Meal toys caused a similar commotion. After all, nothing can make a child happier than opening a cardboard box to find Mario’s face starring back at them.

That’s unless that cardboard box was home to a tramp, and located round the back of McDonald’s, of course.

We recall owning two of these – a Koopa Paratrooper that could hop by squeezing a red pad filled with air, and a Goomba that was supposed to back-flip via a suction cup. Mario meanwhile could leap in the air via a large spring shoved up his behind, while Luigi could whizz around by harnessing the power of a pull-back motor.

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When the late Michael Jackson sung “It doesn’t matter if you’re black or white,” he may as well have been talking about Pokemon Black and White 2.

Pokemon Black 2 entered the UK chart at #3 while Pokemon White 2 arrived at #5, but even if their sales were combined they wouldn’t have beaten fellow newcomer Dishonored which makes its appearance at #2. That’s superb going for a new IP.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown has also done well, landing at #7.

FIFA 13 is still at #1, unsurprisingly. Resident Evil 6 drops from #2 to #4, while Just Dance 4 falls from #5 to #6.

Blackbean’s WRC 3: World Rally Championship skids in at #27, beating Fable: The Journey which gets off to a very rough start at #37. No wonder it’s already down to £24.99 at Zavvi.

It has still done better than fantasy RPG Of Orcs and Men though, which is nowhere to be seen. Considering GAME are asking a whopping £44.99 for it this doesn’t surprise us in the slightest.

This week can only be described as being like a ‘special dream’ for Nintendo fans – not only is there a new piece of hardware out, but also half a dozen or so new releases to go alongside it.

Oddly, the 3DS XL launches this Saturday rather than on Friday as you may expect. The price war kicked off earlier this week – Asda are currently the cheapest, selling it for £169 compared to Tesco’s £175. GAME have a nifty deal though – if you trade in a 3DS (which must be boxed) then you get the handheld and a free charger for £79.99. They even give you 24 hours to take your new toy home and transfer your data. Don’t go leaving the country now, will you?

If you trust the postal service to deliver your system in time for launch, online retailers The Hut and Zavvi are both offering it for £167.95. Beating this deal are Sainsbury’s – if you sign up to their site as a new customer and use code SETENJ12 or SECOSMO you can get one for £161.

We’ve spent a little bit of time with a 3DS XL and although the screens have reduced glare the overall build quality feels a little cheap. It doesn’t come with a charger either, which is something that makes GAME’s deal even more appealing for those looking to trade-in.

There are four new 3DS releases to consider if you’re thinking of picking one up. New Art Academy is the sequel to the surprise DS million seller and offers 3D tutorial videos and the chance to swap pictures via StreetPass and Nintendo Letter Box. It has been spotted online for £20, as has the retail release of Freakyforms: Your Creations, Alive! The eShop version was well received, netting a 7/10 from Pocket Gamer and a curiously high 89% from the Official Nintendo Magazine.

We’re somewhat less confident in recommending One Piece: Unlimited Cruise SP2 and Mensa Academy. The first One Piece for 3DS was critically mauled. Square-Enix’s Mensa Academy meanwhile has a whiff of shovelware about it. The Wii version is also out this week while Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions are due later in the year.

Nintendo aren’t forgetting about their older formats this week either. Pokemon Conquest for DS is well worth a look, especially seeing as IGN dished out a 9.0, while Quiz Party for Wii is in fact being published by Nintendo themselves and features the vocal talents of Roy Walker. We’re sure they must have seen some potential in it to pick it up. Either that or they thought they’d better release something between now and the release of the Wii U.

Not a fan of the purveyor of the portly plumber? Bad news for you, son – the only other game out this week is Brave: The Video Game. American gamers received it last month to tie-in with their release of the movie. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions reviewed favourably – EGM even gave the 360 iteration an 8.0 – but the Wii and DS versions were panned for feeling lazily made. The film didn’t go down too well with the critics either – Time Out New York said it was “Pixar on preachy autopilot.” Erk!

Next week: Risen 2: Dark Waters for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and that could very well be it.

Mario Kart 7’s arrival means that there are two 3DS games in the top 10 this week – Mario Kart 7 at #8 and Super Mario 3D Land at #10.

After the photo above was taken, Reggie was told to stop messing around and go back to work.

Professor Layton and the Spectre’s Call – which Asda have been amusingly advertising as Professor Layton and the Spectre’s Flute – remains at #7 while there has been a slight shuffle at the top of the chart. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 remains at #1, followed by FIFA 12, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, Just Dance 3 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

There isn’t a great deal going on in the rest of the top 40. WWE ’12 has had bad week, down from #6 to #14 while Abba: You Can Dance makes an appearance on its second week of release in at #30.

Super Pokemon Rumble hasn’t made the top 40 but it makes the 3DS chart at #4.

Just to show how messed up this industry is regarding games dropping in price, RAGE this week sits on top of the Xbox 360 budget chart.

Shenanigans! I declare SHENANIGANS!

A couple of weeks ago, our new release round-up carried the headline Portal Kombat – because Portal 2 and Mortal Kombat were released. Very clever, you’ll agree. Today, Chart-Track have used the same headline for this week’s chart news. Blatant thievery!

Either that, or it’s quite an obvious play on words that’s probably been used in loads of places. It has: look.

Sorry, you didn’t come here for South Park-referencing pun-based tomfoolery. You came here for unadulterated CHART ACTION.

Well that’s going to be tricky, friend. You see, the reason Chart-Track resorted to a pun, rather than their more usual informative headline, is that there is NOTHING HAPPENING in this week’s chart.

Portal 2 and Mortal Kombat retain their respective positions at the top of the chart. The only one of last week’s new releases to bother the top 40 is Virtua Tennis 4, at #23. There’s no sign of Thor: God of Thunder, even in the single-format charts; early reviews suggest that the public isn’t missing much.

It has been a good week for games involving flapping about though: Just Dance 2 up five to #10, Michael Jackson: The Experience up five to #13, Kinect Sports up 14 to #17, Carnival Games: In Action up seven to #22.

With the recent DS versions of Pokemon at #12 and #14, Michael Jackson is between Black and White.

Loser of the week: Bulletstorm, down 14 to #38. Clearly it was not deemed an appropriate way to celebrate the royal wedding.

Even with the 3DS mere days away, Nintendo fans still managed to find £30 to purchase either Pokemon White or Pokemon Black. The former sold the most out of the two, taking #1 in the chart and shoving Killzone 3 off the top.

Pokemon Black goes in at #2 while EA’s Fight Night Champion punches in at #3.

Killzone 3 is now at #5 while Bulletstorm drops from #2 to #4. Marvel Vs Capcom 3 leaves the top 10, dropping #7 to #14.

The only other new entries in the chart are PC titles – Dawn of War II: Retribution at #17 and Rift at #19.

This means THQ’s uDraw Studio misses out on the top 40, but it doesn’t do too badly in the Wii chart – it’s in at #11. EA’s Rango movie tie-in, which they’ve been rather quiet about, enters at lowly #39 too. The Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and DS versions are nowhere to be seen.

THQ has a new peripheral out this week for you to consider – the uDraw ‘Gametablet’ for Wii. It’s £49.99 on Amazon with uDraw Studio – a price that I don’t think is too steep seeing how much DJ Hero and Wii Fit were when they were first released. Joining it are Pictionary and Dood’s Big Adventure, available for £17.99 at pop.

I would imagine that most Nintendo fans though have been saving money for Pokémon Black/White. Yes, it’s the same old formula yet again only now the graphics have been overhauled with some snazzy special effect and there’s a colossal 649 Pokémon to catch. If you know what to expect, you probably won’t be disappointed.

On Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 there’s EA’s Fight Night Champion, which I don’t think I’ve heard a bad word about. Tecmo Koei are slipping out the apparently quite poor PlayStation 3-exclusive RPG Hyperdimension Neptunia while PopCap Hits Vol 2 – which features Plants vs Zombies – hits Xbox 360.

There’s also hairdressing sim Redken Busy Scissors on DS and Wii and Zumba Fitness for the latter. Zumba seems to be quite popular at the moment, so it might chart well.

Next week: Dragon Age II, Warriors: Legends of Troy, We Dare, Yoostar 2 and a very belated UK release for Stoked: Big Air Edition via Namco.

This Week’s Games

There’s no Bond movie this year yet there’s not one but two James Bond games out this week. If the early reviews are to go by then it’s GoldenEye 007 on Wii that’s the one to spend your golden coins on.

GoldenEye 007 scored a lofty 9 on IGN but they only gave James Bond 007: Blood Stone a 5. Eurogamer also gave Blood Stone an average score, calling it a “forgettable weekend diversion” and nothing more. A few other websites have been a little bit more generous with their scores but not by much.

For those who haven’t given up on the PSP yet there’s the pretty good, if a little predictable, God of War: Ghost of Sparta and Football Manager 2011.

The DS gets Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs while PlayStation 3 owners are being treated to the Move-enabled Time Crisis Razing Storm. Both of these are probably alright, if, again, a little predictable.

There isn’t a whole lot else out apart from kid’s games, and for the curious here they are in list form: Defendin DePenguin, Cars Toon: Mater’s Tall Tales, Disney Channel All Star Party, Zhu Zhu Pets: Kung Zhu, Zhu Zhu Pets: Wild Bunch and Imagine Fashion Paradise.

Next week: Oh man – it’s a big one. (Breathe in) Call of Duty: Black Ops, Kinect Adventures, Kinect Sports, Kinectimals, Motion Sports, Sonic Free Riders, Kinect Joy Ride, Dance Central, DanceEvolution, Fighters Uncaged, The Biggest Loser Ultimate Workout, Crossboard 7, Sonic Colours, Cooking Mama World: Babysitting Mama, Cooking Mama World: Hobbies and Fun, Beyblade: Metal Fight, Doctor Who: Return to Earth, Doctor Who: Evacuation Earth, We Sing Robbie Williams, Dance Paradise, Cabela Big Game Hunter 2010 and HAWK 2 on Wii (Breathe out). Three games with the world ‘dance’ in the title? Ubisoft has a lot to answer for.