The Charts: Can Sonic Smash The Rogue Tomato?

Square Enix's Final Fantasy XII retains the top spot in this week's charts, despite dropping 24% in units sold and 25% in value. The PS2-exclusive doesn't want to go away, despite strong releases from EA and Sega.

Overall software sales take a hit courtesy of all those youngsters being pushed back through school doors thanks to half term ending. The market drops 20% in units and 14% in value, with the PC remaining the strongest platform.

Creeping in behind Final Fantasy is Microsoft's Crackdown, but it too sees a sales drop to the tune of nearly 13K units. SPOnG has to wonder if it's Crackdown that's selling or that canny Halo 3 Beta... In any case, you can find out whether Crackdown's all it's cracked up to be here.

The Top 10 sees two new entries in the form of EA's The Sims 2: Seasons on the PC and the spiky blue streak that is Sega's Sonic and the Secret Rings on the Wii. They hit the chart at Number 3 and Number 5 respectively. For SPOnG's interview with Sonic Team's Yojiro Ogawa cast your eyes this way.

The ever-persistent Dr Kawashima's Brain Training from Nintendo re-enters the Top 10 for a second time at Number 8, up from Number 11.

The only other new entry in the charts this week is 2K Games' Ghost Rider tie-in to the abysmal film of the same name. However bad the film and its source in comics are, however, ol' Ghostie sure does make for a great tattoo. If you want an inkling as to whether the game's up to scratch feast your eyes on SPOnG's development snapshot.

It's a good week for the boys over at Nintendo, with the every Wii and DS exclusive title a climber barring Mario Slam Basketball on the DS, which falls from Number 36 to Number 39.

Watch out for Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 on the 360 and Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories on the PS2 next week. Square Enix is going to be pushing it to retain that top spot for another week.