GameFly Rental Chart Highlights: Week Ending January 3

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 January 3rd, show popularity over multiple game formats. The holidays are over, and both young and old are now settling down to play all those games that were bought and given out in the last week of 2005. Whether that's affected rental activity or not is unclear, but going into the new year, Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones leads the all-format rental chart. Ubisoft scores another royalty-themed win with the second-place showing for King Kong, still riding on the movie's popularity. Finally, Dead or Alive 4, the series' Xbox 360 debut, enters the charts at #3 in its first week. Prince of Persia and King Kong make repeat showings at #1 and #2 on the PlayStation 2-specific chart, ahead of the PS2 version of Capcom's Resident Evil 4 still at #3. On the Xbox, Prince is still king, but the console port of Valve's Half-Life 2 at #2 manages to dethrone King Kong, which slips on a banana peel down to #3. Despite its overall second-place showing, King Kong managed to top the Xbox 360 list, even in the week of Dead or Alive 4, the first new Xbox 360 title since the system's launch. DOA4 only managed a second-place showing in its wrestling match with the big gorilla, though it still beat out Sega's Condemned: Criminal Origins at #3. Not much has changed on the GameCube-specific charts: Super Mario Strikers is still #1 on Nintendo's console, and Mario Party 7 is still #2. However, Shadow the Hedgehog was replaced at #3 by another franchise gone "dark," Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, doing well for itself on the Cube. On Game Boy Advance, Final Fantasy IV is still riding the nostalgia wave to the top of the handheld's charts, while below it Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap stages a coup to take the #2 position back from Pokémon Emerald, which finds itself down to #3 this week. On the Nintendo DS, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time is still at #1 on the dual-screened handheld, holding its position even against the double team of Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection titles. Mario Kart DS, the wi-fi version of the classic racing franchise, is at #2, and "communication game" Animal Crossing: Wild World has settled cozily into #3. On the PSP front, eventually Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories would inevitably have to retake #1, which it now has; Prince of Persia: Revelations at #2 and SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs: Fireteam Bravo at #3 comprise the rest of the list.