This week's top rental charts from U.S. game rental company GameFly, representing the most requested games for the week ending July 30, highlight both to-be-released and already released games in a unique demand-specific chart.
Ahead of its release this week, Nintendo's
Mario Strikers Charged, last week's top requested title, fell a pair of spots to rank as the third most popular title overall this week. The hotly anticipated soccer game yielded its spot to EA's forthcoming
Madden NFL 08, which was the most requested game for the week, followed by South Peak's upcoming Xbox 360 RPG
Two Worlds.
What follows is a break down of the top titles requested by GameFly subscribers across each of the major platforms:
Xbox 360
1.
Madden NFL 08 (EA), 2.
Two Worlds (South Peak), 3.
Overlord (Codemasters), 4.
Darkness (Take Two), 5.
BioShock (Take Two).
With the latest entry in EA's seminal professional football franchise just around the corner, it comes as little surprise to see
Madden NFL 08 as the week's top requested Xbox 360 title, dethroning last week's top title,
Overlord, which ranked third for the period. A pair from publisher Take Two, the already released
Darkness and the upcoming and highly anticipated
BioShock, rounded out the console's top five requests.
Nintendo Wii
1.
Mario Strikers Charged (Nintendo), 2.
Resident Evil 4 (Capcom), 3.
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Nintendo), 4.
Mario Party 8 (Nintendo), 5.
Alien Syndrome (Sega).
This week's Wii release,
Mario Strikers Charged, again ranked as the top requested title for Nintendo's console, followed once more by Capcom’s Wii version of
Resident Evil 4. With Nintendo's upcoming third title in the popular
Metroid Prime franchise also just weeks away, player anticipation has pushed that upcoming title into the chart's third position for this week, ahead of the game's August 28 debut.
PlayStation 3
1.
Lair (Sony), 2.
Ninja Gaiden Sigma (Tecmo), 3.
Darkness (Take Two), 4.
Heavenly Sword (Sony), 5.
Rainbow Six Vegas (Ubisoft).
Like last week, both
Lair and
Ninja Gaiden Sigma ranked as the top two requested PS3 releases for the week, followed by Take Two's comic book inspired
Darkness. Sony's
Heavenly Sword, with its demo recently released over the PlayStation Network, ranked as the fourth most requested PS3 title among GameFly subscribers. Perhaps the most interesting entry on the console specific chart, however, was EA's
Madden NFL 08, which ranked as just the seventh most requested title for the week, despite the Xbox 360 version taking top honors for the period all around.
PlayStation 2
1.
Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s (Activision), 2.
Madden NFL 08 (EA), 3.
Transformers (Activision), 4.
God of War II (Sony), 5.
Persona 3 (Atlus).
Activision's
Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s again topped all other PS2 requests for the week, followed by
Madden NFL 08. Interestingly, despite being a niche release and having recently been delayed due to a production mishap, Atlus' upcoming
Persona 3 ranked as the fifth most requested PS2 title for the period.
Xbox
1.
Madden NFL 08 (EA), 2.
Halo 2 (Microsoft), 3.
NCAA Football 08 (EA), 4.
Knights of the Old Republic II (LucasArts), 5.
Ninja Gaiden Black (Tecmo).
Lat week's top title for the original Xbox, EA’s
NCAA Football 08, dropped to third for the week, yielding its spot to
Madden NFL 08.
Halo 2 was again found in the chart's second position, echoing the juggernaut's seemingly endless popularity.
GameCube
1.
Super Mario Stikers (Nintendo), 2.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo), 3.
Mario Kart: Double Dash (Nintendo), 4.
Super Smash Bros. Melee (Nintendo), 5.
Mario Party 7 (Nintendo).
With
Mario Strikers Charged for the Wii hitting North American retail this week, the game's predecessor for ther GameCube scored from midfield to take the console's top spot for the week, with the ever-popular
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess ranking second. Interestingly, first party titles made up all of the chart's top five requests, and nine of the week's top ten.
Nintendo DS
1.
Picross (Nintendo), 2.
Pokemon Diamond (Nintendo), 3.
Heroes of Mana (Square Enix), 4.
New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo), 5.
Sim City DS (EA).
Once more Nintendo's DS puzzler
Picross ranked as the top requested title for the handheld, followed by
Pokemon Diamond, the latest in Nintendo's long running monster collecting RPG series. The upcoming RTS from Square Enix,
Heroes of Mana, ranked as the week's third most requested DS title ahead of its August 14 release.
Game Boy Advance
1.
Pokemon: Emerald (Nintendo), 2.
Pokemon:Fire Red (Nintendo), 3.
Pokemon: Leaf Green (Nintendo), 4.
Pokemon: Ruby (Nintendo), 5.
Pokemon: Sapphire (Nintendo).
The week's Game Boy Advance request list remained unchanged from last week, with
Pokemon: Emerald again ranking as the top requested title for the handheld this week. All of the chart's top titles were pulled from the
Pokemon series, with another title,
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team, taking the list's sixth position as well.
PlayStation Portable
1.
Final Fantasy II (Square Enix), 2.
Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars (Sega), 3.
Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology (Namco), 4.
Transformers (Activision), 5.
Brave Story (Xseed).
Square Enix's recent RPG remake of
Final Fantasy II again ranked as the top PSP title for the week, followed by the Sega-published upcoming,
Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars, a title covered more in depth in
a recent Gamasutra interview.
Brave Story, the latest title from niche publisher Xseed Games, ranked fifth most popular PSP title for the week among GameFly subscribers.
