Insomniac Games said a while back that it was "flattered" that the spherical worlds of Mario Galaxy were inspired by Ratchet and Clank. But Miyamoto says he's never heard of it.

Official Nintendo Magazine UK asked the father of Mario what he thought about Insomiac's comments in a recent interview, to be published in the next issue (Issue 25). But instead of acknowledging Insomniac's work, he asked: "Is it a PC game?"

Miyamoto said he was "surprised" by Insomniac's comment. "In terms of the spherical worlds and anti-gravity," he went on to explain, "we had the original idea as soon as we finished the development of Mario 64 and had been experimenting with it for many years, even on the N64."
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Game Informer have just sent out their newest edition to American stores nationwide and this months' review scores can be found below. Super Mario Galaxy receives the game of the month award, while Rock Band also impresses. Time Crisis 4, Soul Caliber: Legends and Jenga were this months' worst games.

Rock Band (PS3/Xbox 360/PS2, EA): 9,25 / 9,25
F.E.A.R. Files (Xbox 360, Sierra): 6,5 / 7
Beowulf (PS3/Xbox 360, Ubisoft): 5,75 / 5
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men (PS3/Xbox 360, Eidos): 7 / 7,25
Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command (NDS, THQ): 8 / 8,5
MX vs. ATV Untamed (Xbox 360/PS3, THQ): 8 / 8,25
Scene It? (Xbox 360, Microsoft): 8,5 / 7
Viva Pinata: Party Animals (Xbox 360, Microsoft): 5,5
Bee Movie (Xbox 360/PS2/Wii/NDS, Activision): 6,5
Time Crisis 4 (PS3, Namco Bandai): 4,25 / 4,5
Super Mario Galaxy (Wii, Nintendo): 9,75 / 9,75 **Game of the Month**
Smarty Pants (Wii, EA): 7,5 / 6
Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 (Wii, Ubisoft): 7,75 / 8
Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles (Wii, Capcom): 8,25 / 8
Soul Calibur Legends (Wii, Namco Bandai): 4 / 4
Ghost Squad (Wii, Sega): 7 / 6,5
Battalion Wars 2 (Wii, Nintendo): 7,25 / 7,25
Endless Ocean (Wii, Nintendo): 6
Trauma Center: New Blood (Wii, Atlus): 7,5
Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 (Wii, EA): 6,75
Dancing With the Stars (Wii/PS2, Actgivision): 5,25
Jenga (Wii, Atari): 2
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Media Create Sales 11/26 - 12/2:
01. [NDS] Prof. Layton and Pandora's Box (Level 5) - 294,000 / NEW
02. [WII] Wii Fit (Nintendo) - 261,000 / NEW
03. [PS2] SD Gundam G Generation Spirits (Bandai-Namco) - 252,000 / NEW
04. [NDS] Dragon Quest IV (Square-Enix) - 135,000 / 732,000
05. [PS2] Sengoku Basara 2: Heroes (Capcom) - 95,000 / NEW
06. [NDS] Mario Party DS (Nintendo) - 80,000 / 539,000
07. [PS2] World Soccer Winning Eleven 2008 (Konami) - 74,000 / 368,000
08. [360] Assassin's Creed (Ubi Soft) - 41,000 / NEW
09. [WII] Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games (Nintendo) - 41,000 / 103,000
10. [NDS] Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters World Championship 2008 (Konami) - 35,000 / NEW

11. [WII] Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo)
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Everybody's favourite Italian plumber Mario has blasted his way to number one in the overall Australian game chart, according to data trackers GfK Australia.

Top 10 Full-Priced Games
1. Super Mario Galaxy, Wii
2. Need for Speed ProStreet, PlayStation 2
3. WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2008, PlayStation 2
4. The Simpsons Game, PlayStation 2
5. Assassin's Creed, Xbox 360
6. Need for Speed ProStreet, Xbox 360
7. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, Wii
8. More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima: How Old Is Your Brain?, Nintendo DS
9. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock bundle, PlayStation 2
10. Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree bundle
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Latest American sales from VGcharts.

1 Wii Sports - Nintendo 325,483
2 Forza Motorsport 2 - Microsoft 208,037
3 Marvel: Ultimate Alliance - Activision 201,476
4 Super Mario Galaxy - Nintendo 188,325
5 Mass Effect - Microsoft 113,856
6 Wii Play - Nintendo 112,724
7 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Activision 106,583
8 Assassins Creed - Ubisoft 102,501
9 Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock - Activision 92,441
10 Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock - Activision 81,408

DS 458,050
Wii 325,483
360 250,648
PS2 161,513
PSP 160,848
PS3 155,515
GBA 32,268
GC 2,545
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Did Halo 3 live up to the hype?

Did The Burning Crusade take away 6 months of your life?

Does that next elusive Call of Duty 4 rank keep you going for 'just one more game'....

Vote for what games you feel were the best of 2007!

Don't agree with the current order of the list? Simply vote up or down and this dynamic list will add your vote! If your favorite moves up or down, you can even re-vote! We'll report on the results in a week or two...
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This week's top rental charts from U.S. game rental company GameFly, representing the most requested games for the week ending December 3rd, highlight both to-be-released and already released games in a unique demand-specific chart.

This week's top five all-platform requests show little movement once again, after last week saw the list barely ruffled. Assassin's Creed still takes the top spot for a third week with Mass Effect in second for its second week in a row.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, which spent the last two weeks at number four, slips a bit to the fourth spot to make room for Kane and Lynch: Dead Men to move up one spot into the fourth spot, but that's the only movement -- Uncharted: Drake's Fortune stays at number five, where it entered last week.
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The Chanticleer's Art & Entertainment editor Toni Merriss picks her ten best games of 2007.
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Nov 29, 2007 Super Mario Galaxy's failure to sell in staggering numbers across America has led to the game being labelled a "borderline failure" by research analyst Michael Comeau, and that Nintendo's biggest Wii game will be a "huge disappointment" if it doesn't sell more than 3 million copies before the end of the year. We'll put aside our opinions that a) sweaty-browed men in suits shouldn't talk about videogames, especially ones who can't make eye contact with the camera, and b) analysts ... » Read More

VG Chartz' hardware sales for Black Friday week in North America are as below (ranked by units sold):

1. DS: 684,202
2. Wii: 421,419
3. Xbox 360: 254,680
4. PSP: 194,723
5. PS3: 174,045

The full report also includes the top ten software titles for the week for Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3.
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According to VG Chartz, here are the top 10 European software titles - with individual platforms, publishers, and units sold - for the week ending November 24th:

1. Brain Training (DS, Nintendo): 187,803
2. Assassins Creed (XB360, Ubisoft): 178,543
3. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii, Nintendo): 177,393
4. Need for Speed: ProStreet (PS2, EA): 149,927
5. High School Musical: Sing It! (PS2, Disney): 144,745
6. Assassins Creed (PS3, Ubisoft): 134,650
7. Mass Effect (XB360, Microsoft): 129,598
8. More Brain Training (DS, Nintendo): 128,614
9. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PS2, Konami): 124,674
10. Nintendogs (DS, Nintendo): 120,237
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Destructoid's Jim Sterling reports on 11.22.2007:

"For a while, Nintendo crown jewel Super Mario Galaxy had become the highest ranked game of all time, beating out The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time and breaking a nine year streak for the N64 classic. Well, a new review of Galaxy has come along and, like a fiendish pooper of parties, reduced Galaxy's overall score down by a mere few percent on Game Rankings, just enough to allow Link a leg back up to the top."

Destructoid has the new average review scores for the top two ranking games of all time.
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Mario Party DS sold a further 116,000 copies during the week ended November 18 to retain the top spot in Japan.

The feat follows unit sales of almost a quarter of a million in its debut week, and is enough to beat the latest Resident Evil title to the Japanese software summit.

Wii exclusive The Umbrella Chronicles, the first of five new entries to make the top ten, debuts at No2. It supplants Shin Sangoku Musou 5, which drops one place to No3.

Overall 14 DS games, six Wii, four PS3, three PSP, two PS2 and one Xbox 360 title chart.

01. Mario Party DS (DS) - 116,000 / 350,000
02. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (Wii) - 83,000 / New
03. Shin Sangoku Musou 5 (PS3) - 76,000 / 264,000
04. Pro Yakyuu Famista DS (DS) - 49,000 / New
05. Game Center CX (DS) - 46,000 / New
06. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) - 40,000 / 365,000
07. Heavenly Sword (PS3) - 15,000 / New
08. Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (DS) - 14,000 / 230,000
09. Wii Sports (Wii) - 13,000 / 2,211,000
10. Soukou Kihei Votoms (PS2) - 12,000 / New
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Nov 21, 2007 You're undoubtedly one of the millions who're trying to collect all 120 stars in Mario Galaxy, and, just for you, we've spent hours collecting them all in one handy place. There's a video for each galaxy, each boss and all of the Luma galaxies that litter the hub area. We're assuming you can get the first Grand Star on your own. For your own reference, there are six kinds of stars: Power Stars (the most abundant) Grand Stars (from boss battles) Prankster Comets (traveling the ... » Read More

Nintendo has issued an official press release touting the accomplishments of Super Mario Galaxy for Wii:

¿ GameRankings.com now lists Super Mario Galaxy as the best-reviewed game of all time.

¿ Metacritic.com lists Super Mario Galaxy as having "Universal Acclaim" with a score of 98 out of 100.

¿ Praises from GameSpot, Yahoo!, and 1UP for Super Mario Galaxy.

¿ Super Mario Galaxy had the strongest one-week debut of any Wii game to date; its first week sales in the U.S. reached a record of over 500,000 units, according to internal sales figures.

The source article is the full official press release from Nintendo.
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Despite a slow start in Japan, Super Mario Galaxy is taking off in North America. Nintendo announced today that Super Mario Galaxy has sold over 500,000 copies in its first week of availability.

"Super Mario Galaxy had the strongest one-week debut of any Wii game to date and has also become the best-selling Mario title ever in its first week, with U.S. sales of more than 500,000, based on internal sales figures," says George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. "It makes an easy gift choice as the holiday shopping season kicks off."
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Nintendo has just issued a rather boastful press release that Super Mario Galaxy has sold over 500,000 copies in its first week on sale in the US.
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Can Super Mario Galaxy live up to the hype and enter straight into the number one spot...
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VG Chartz is still compiling weekly data for Japan. Here is an early take on how some of the figures will look for the week ending November 18, 2007. These figures are preliminary and should not to be taken as gospel; they are just an early take on approximately where the market will be for the week. Estimates are in units sold.

Hardware sale estimates:
¿ DS: ~80,000
¿ PSP: 50,000 to 58,000
¿ PS3: 45,000 to 75,000
¿ Wii: 30,000 to 40,000
¿ PS2: 8,000 to 12,000
¿ Xbox 360: 4,000 to 7,000

Wii software sale estimates:
¿ Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (Total): ~100,000
¿ Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (without the Wii Zapper): 63,000 to 70,000
¿ Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (bundled with the Wii Zapper): 25,000 to 30,000
¿ Super Mario Galaxy: 24,000 to 28,000

PS3 software sale estimates:
¿ Dynasty Warriors 6: 56,000 to 64,000
¿ Heavenly Sword: 9,000 to 13,000
¿ Ratchet & Clank Future: 4,000 to 7,000

Xbox 360 software sale estimates:
¿ Dynasty Warriors 6: 10,000 to 13,000

PS2 software sale estimates:
¿ Metropolitan Police 2: 8,000 to 12,000
¿ Armored Calvary Bottom: 6,000 to 10,000
¿ Ar Tonelico: 3,000 to 5,000
¿ Volleyball Worldcup Evolution of Venus: 3,000 to 5,000

PSP software sale estimates:
¿ Monster Hunter Portable 2: 8,000 to 10,000
¿ Covenant Door: 4,000 to 8,000
¿ Akumajou Dracula X Chronicle: 4,000 to 8,000

DS software sale estimates:
¿ Mario Party DS: 110,000 to 130,000
¿ Game Center CX: 40,000 to 48,000
¿ Famitsa DS: 28,000 to 34,000
¿ Drum Master: 24,000 to 28,000
¿ Final Fantasy Tactics A2: 9,000 to 12,000
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Voice of Mario Charles Martinet has told Gamer.tm that he believes Super Mario Galaxy to be the best Mario yet, and has also claimed that Nintendo is the best company in the world to work with.

Also worth a small mention is the soundfile Martinet did for them, which is linked to near the end of the newspiece.
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