GameFly Rental Chart Highlights: Week Ending December 19 2

This week's GameFly video game rental charts for North America, specifically relating to games rented via the games-by-mail service for the week ending December 26th, and showing popularity over multiple game formats. What do people rent in the days leading up to the quantum singularity of an unopened Christmas present? Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, if this week’s rental charts are to be believed. The final piece of Ubisoft’s trilogy led the all-format chart, on top of Half-Life 2 for Xbox at #2 and Star Wars Battlefront II for multiple platforms at #3. The same three games recurred in the same order on the Xbox chart, but naturally the Xbox 360 chart was a bit different. 360-specific title Condemned seems a surprise hit with another #1 showing; though rental performance does not always equate to sales, the game appears to be a successful pickup for Sega. #2 is the less 360-specific, but still popular, Call of Duty 2, while #3 is the barely 360-enhanced version of Activision’s Gun. Things are different yet again for the PlayStation 2-renting crowd. Resident Evil 4 claws (or crawls, or oozes) its way back to the top at #1, remaining just out of reach for #2 contender Shadow of the Colossus. Need for Speed: Most Wanted guns its engines to slip into third place for the week. The GameCube chart remains in relative stasis; Mario Party 7 and Super Mario Strikers switch places for #1 and #2, respectively, while Shadow the Hedgehog goes nowhere fast, remaining at #3. On the Game Boy Advance, the power of nostalgia preserves Final Fantasy IV in the #1 position for the week – more eyebrow-raising is Dogz at #2, indicating Ubisoft’s struck a chord with its Nintendogs-style game on a non-DS platform. Third place for the week is Mario Tennis: Power Tour. The Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection still rules the DS charts, in spite of games being at least somewhat tied to the system they’re played on. Animal Crossing: Wild World, the second WFC game released, is still #1 on the list, while the debut WFC title, Mario Kart DS, sits at #2. However, Mario presents a double threat -- triple if you count his baby incarnation -- with the third-place showing for Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. Finally, for the PSP, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories is once again unseated as WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2006 takes the championship belt. GTA nurses its wounds and plots revenge in the manner befitting a don at #2, while Star Wars Battlefront II finishes out the list at #3.