US console sales charts: May 21-27

When Rockstar Games announced it was making a Table Tennis game for the Xbox 360, many were skeptical. Some considered it a cynical move by the publisher to put an E-rated fig leaf over the mound of money generated by its M--and briefly AO--rated Grand Theft Auto series. Still others wondered why gamers would pick up a game based on a pastime that's already played indoors.

Well, the naysayers got paddled this week. According to retail figures from Bestbuy.com, Table Tennis was the seventh-most-popular console game in the US. It was one of six Xbox 360 games in the top 10, including Tom Clancy's Advanced Warfighter (third), Madden NFL 06 (eighth), and Call of Duty 2 (ninth). The regular and collector's editions of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for the 360 were fifth and sixth. And though raw figures were not provided, it is likely that if sales of the two Oblivions were combined, it would have been the week's top-selling console title.

The two current-gen console games in the top 10 were number-10 Kingdom Hearts II for the PlayStation 2 and the surprising second-place finisher, Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix for the GameCube, which went back into print after a brief hiatus. The top prize, though, was another title starring Nintendo's iconic Italian plumber. DS favorite Super Mario Bros. was once again the week's top title, proving the popularity of both the venerable franchise and the portable platform. Further cementing the DS's status was the number-four game, Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day.