Literally mere minutes before this week’s UK chart went live it was reported that a million Xbox One consoles were sold during launch.

It stands to reason that around 140-150k of those were sold in the UK. 70,000 Xbox 360 units were sold during launch back in 2005 and Microsoft claims that the Xbox One has managed to outsell it by two-to-one. Hurrah for math!

Unsurprisingly then, it’s the two bundled Xbox One games that have charted the highest in this week’s top 40. With sales up a massive 328 per cent FIFA 14 is back on top – knocking Call of Duty: Ghosts down to #2 in the process – while Forza Motorsport 5 has proven to be most popular Xbox One-exclusive by arriving at #5.

Dead Rising 3 made #7 and at #10 it’s Ryse: Son of Rome. Battlefield 4 has been boosted by Xbox One arriving too, shooting up from #5 to #3.

Curiously, no less than 10 of the 16 Xbox One launch games managed to enter the top 40. That’s exactly the same amount as Xbox 360 launch titles all those years ago. For those with a thirst for facts, the Xbox One single format chart informs that it was Angry Birds Star Wars that was the least popular title, followed by NBA Live 14.

Back to the top 40 now, and Nintendo fans will no doubt be thrilled to hear that Zelda: A Link Between Worlds managed to outsell Ryse – it’s in at a very respectable #9.

That’s better than what the equally wonderful Tearaway managed, which tears in at #26.

As we expected given the unusual lack of promotion, Need for Speed Rivals hasn’t got off to the best of starts – it’s in at #13. Expect it to rise over the coming weeks as NFS games are always strong sellers over the festive period. Perhaps that’s why EA has chosen not to splash out on advertising.

FIFA 14 and Assassin’s Creed IV on PlayStation 4 shifted a fair few copies last week too, entering at #13 and #17 respectively in the individual format chart. That’s not bad going for a system that’s yet to be released.

In the ’80s and early ’90s, choose your own adventure gamebooks were quite the craze. There’s been a resurgence of sorts recently, both on paper and digitally, chiefly of the fondly remembered Fighting Fantasy series. Nintendo Adventure Books? Not so much.

A remarkable 12 books were released in 1991-92, based largely on Nintendo Comic System, the series of comic books released in 1990-1991. Which is certainly one way to achieve efficiency.

The first ten gamebooks featured the Super Mario Bros, with the last couple set in the Zelda universe. I have a feeling I bought the third book, Monster Mix-Up, from a car boot sale – the small green sticker on the inside cover probably indicated a price point. Anyway, it goes without saying that it’s a cherished possession and a quality item.

The UK was only very shortly behind North America – making it probably the only Nintendo product of the period that can be said about. A number of the books were also variously translated into Hungarian, Dutch or Swedish. Some of the books could also be obtained for free with the purchase of two tubes of Pringles. It’s one of the more unusual release strategies.

Read More

It pleases us greatly to learn that sticker albums are still around in this day and age of handheld consoles and mobile phones that do everything.

Simply owning one allows instant social standing in the playground; long time rivalries can put aside in favour of bagging a few stickers that you and your rival may need.

I still crack a smile when recalling the time somebody from a higher year approached me and abruptly asked “Do you have Sagat’s legs?” It took me a couple of seconds to realise that he was referring to the Street Fighter II sticker album, rather than making a threat.

Today we’re looking back at Merlin’s Official Nintendo Sticker Album from 1992. It was the only album from my youth that I finished, albeit by cheating slightly and sending off for those elusive final few stickers. It’s amazing to think I considered the 6p asking price per sticker a little steep at the time.

Incidentally, packs of 6 stickers retailed for 20p while the album itself cost just 50p. It may have also been given away free with one of the gaming magazines or with a red-top newspaper at some stage. Good old freebie marketing, there.

Although released in the same year that the SNES made its European debut, Nintendo’s 16-bit console wasn’t referenced at all. Super Mario Bros 3. was the newest game featured, while the few Game Boy games present were the early launch titles such as Super Mario Land, Tetris, Tennis and Alleyway. Little did we know at the time that Nintendo would eventually squeeze such gems as Link’s Awakening and Pokemon out of the monochrome marvel.

A foreword supposedly from the Super Mario Bros. themselves started the album off, with a collection of boxart stickers on the opposite page. The three NES Mario games had several pages each, pointing out where the warp zones were and providing a few tips for beating the bosses.

Read More

The tech press is getting in a right froth over smart watches. Honestly, don’t they remember the Game Watch?

The calculator watch had been around since the 1970s, and a decade later the next step was the game watch. US company Nelsonic Industries was at the forefront of this exciting technological frontier.

The games were basic, and they typically couldn’t be played on your wrist – but they were often licensed, which was clearly the selling point. Nintendo were remarkably keen to pimp out their properties, and in 1992 three of them made it over to Europe through Zeon.

As Super Play put it at the time:

Of the three, Tetris is probably your best bet. This is probably the most addictive puzzle game ever, and one which adapts to on-wrist technology quite neatly. This version has been cut down a little from the original – the screen is only six blocks wide – but it plays just as well.

Inevitably, Tetris was the one that I didn’t buy. Like all 11-year-olds, I was an idiot.

So let’s have a look at the Super Mario Bros. 3 and Legend of Zelda tat I probably wasted a perfectly good Christmas present on.

Read More

If there hasn’t been a new shooter from EA released every month this year so far, then it certainly feels like it.

Fuse is this month’s offering, which originally started out under the guise of Overstrike. The squad-based shooter was then given a major overhaul, with a catchier new name to boot. It’s Insomniac’s first multi-format release but reviews suggest it doesn’t fare quite as well as some of their other games.

CVG gave it 6, IGN a 6.5 and Destructoid 4/10. There have been a few 7/10s around too, including this one from PlayStation Lifestyle who called it “strangely addicting”.

We really, really, detest the use of the word ‘addicting’.

Destructoid’s review paints a very grim picture indeed: “A four-person co-op shooter as dry as a dead tree, Fuse walks the same path as other fabled “me too” middle-ground games like Inversion and Quantum Theory — a repetitive, flavorless, excruciating slog from cover-based firefight to cover-base firefight.

“It’s ostensibly Gears of War on autopilot — a slow-paced retread through ground so familiar you could set a watch by it, remorselessly lacking in surprise, while any originality is quickly wasted through overuse and shameless self-exploitation,” they continued.

From the sounds of things Wii U owners can take comfort that they’re not going to be missing out too much.

Read More

Proving that us videogamers really are just big kids, a lot of videogame related toys have sold for stunning amounts on eBay this month.

The most noteworthy of these is a golden vinyl Uncharted 3 toy said to be one of only 11 in the world. “For ages 15 and up” pointed out the seller but we don’t think anybody under the age of 15 would have had the money to buy it – it ended at £627.

A set of Battletoads figures from 1992 also fetched $71 (8 bids). We like the way that the seller included a photo of the reverse of the figures just so we could check out the toads’ tight buns.

A set of ceramic Donkey Kong figures from 1998 – including Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong and the hateable Funky Kong – didn’t sell for quite as much as the above, but $23.50 (4 bids) seems pretty good seeing that don’t appear to be that well made. Hard to believe they’re official merchandise, actually.

This Super Mario ‘crash action police car’ from the dire Mario Bros. Movie sold for a whole lot more – £57.99 (7 bids). We wonder if Bob Hoskins has a few of these up in his loft?

Sticking with merchandise for a little longer, this Mass Effect lithograph – one of only 75 sold – didn’t have a bad ending. It sold for $760.00 attracting only 6 bidders. An animation cel from the DiC Sonic cartoon didn’t fetch anywhere near as much ending at just $10.45. We wouldn’t advise clicking on this link to see it – it was an image of Dr. Robotnik in the shower. Nude, obviously.

How about some other stuff that was never available in shops? We’re quite surprised how cheaply this GameCube development kit sold for. It went for only £275 even though the seller was confident that it has never been used. This DS download station demo pod cart didn’t sell for a lot either, ending at only £22.99. Perhaps it would have sold for more if he’d bothered to mention what was on it.

A couple of Jaguar games have gone for a small packet. Both of these were released very late in the Jaguar’s life. So much so that it didn’t even have a pulse at the time. Battlesphere blasted $710 (2 bids) out of somebody’s PayPal account while Gorf for the Jaguar CD sold for the same amount but attracted 17 bidders. “Game has been played once by me,” said the seller. That bad, eh?

We’ve also discovered this month that there are more N-Gage collectors out there than we previously though. A rare copy of Sega Rally, which was released only in Australia, went for $455.00 after 19 bids. Hardest game to find on the system, apparently.

That’s nothing compared to what this Korean 3DO beat’em up sold for though. A colossal $1,725.00 (16 bids). We’re quite amused that the back of the box for The Eye of Typhoon features the same three screenshots.

Finishing off this month’s round-up are a couple of limited edition box sets. An incredibly rare factory sealed ‘Treasure Box Edition’ of Dead Island sold for £423 (27 bids). It was only available in Australia and came with a polo shirt, poster, comic book and some other stuff all enclosed in a wooden box. A Zelda: Ocarina of Time special edition managed to clear that figure though, ending at £789.99 (14 bids). What’s in the box? Not much – just the game, a badge and a T-shirt. The t-shirt was unworn though. It’s always nice to know that your expensive purchase isn’t going to stink of BO, isn’t it?

It has been said that during the winter, sales of retro games boom as a lot of people spend their evenings staying in the warm and thus need entertaining. We wouldn’t be surprised if a few people hope to recreate the magic of a Christmas long gone by purchasing a vintage console off eBay too.

This month’s eBay round-up backs this up with lots of things selling for silly prices. Money is hard to come by in January? Not if you’re a retro gamer it would seem.

Quite a few Sega Master System items have caught our attention. An Action Replay cheat cartridge sold for £109 on Buy It Now, a copy of Power Strike II went for £91 and a TecToy version of Road Rash shifted for £34.

A French seller has also been listing some reproduction carts containing the Game Gear versions of Sonic Triple Trouble and Sonic Drift Racing complete with authentic looking cases but only the former found a buyer.

On Game Gear meanwhile a factory sealed system sold for £225 on a US auction, a copy of The Itchy & Scratchy Game in its fetching bright yellow box went for £79.99 while a copy of the European-exclusive James Pond: Operation Starfi5h went for £50.

From Sega to Sony. A brand new PSone “bumdle” sold for £74 after 13 bids, containing a new joypad, memory card and a factory sealed copy of Spyro. A fully working PS2 development kit with manuals and software also went for £280. The seller wanted £50 postage. Is it made out of lead?

Onto Nintendo. The highest grossing auction this month was for a factory sealed copy of 10 Yard Fight on NES, which still had the plastic shelf hanger on it. It ended at $2,125 (£1,368) after 14 bids. Selling for a similar amount was this copy of Zelda II on Famicom, sealed and marked “Not for Resale”. It really is a curious looking little thing. A factory sealed Captain Commando on SNES also ended at $1,332.98 (£858.49) from 12 bids while a sealed copy of Konami’s Metal Warriors sold for slightly more – $1,350.00 (£869.45).

The seller of this Atari Lynx bundle undersold it a bit. Well, it sold at a decent price (£154) but you would have thought he would have made a bigger deal out of it including 47 games. That’s got to be half the entire Lynx catalogue.

In last month’s round-up we covered the fact that the Sonic Generations collector’s edition has been selling for large amounts. The prices have dropped at little – this one went for £86 (8 bids) and this one for £84 (27 bids) – but a few auctions have reached almost £200, like this one.

Last week’s chart was the busiest for a while. This week? Not so much, although a few of the titles that entered highly last week are on the fall already.

Halo: Anniversary is one of these, which is surprising. It entered at #6 last week but has dropped to #21. Zelda: Skyward Sword is doing the opposite of going skyward too, down from #7 to #16.

Super Mario 3D Land has managed to stay in the top 10 though – the portly plumber clings in at #10, even with two new arrivals – WWE ’12 at #6 and Professor Layton and the Spectre’s Call at #7. You can probably guess what game remains at #1.

Lord of the Rings: War in the North makes #38 while Rayman Origins fails to make the top 40. Seeing GAME, HMV and Blockbuster were all asking £42.99 for it, it’s not surprising. This does mean though that nobody can use the phrase “Bored of the Rings” ever again.

Kirby’s Adventure Wii hasn’t got off to a very good start either – it’s in at a lowly #25 in the Wii chart, beaten by the likes of ABBA: You Can Dance.