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Nintendo’s exercise game Wii Fit has returned to the top of the videogames sales chart, 14 weeks after it was first released. The game, which saw a 17 per cent jump in sales over the last two weeks has occupied the top spot in the sales chart on four occasions since its launch.

Wii Fit uses a motion-sensitive board to encourage players to develop their balance, strength and fitness levels.

The start of the Olympics in Beijing certainly had an affect on new sales of the fitness game wii fit as well as boosting exposure of other wii titles, including another Nintendo Wii game, Big Beach Sports, and Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, in which the spiky blue hedgehog and portly Italian plumber go head to head in a series of athletic events.

In related Nintendo news, another Nintendo game, Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training, enjoys its 82nd week in the games charts, propping up the table at number 12. The game, which was released in 2006, is played on Nintendo’s handheld DS games console, and has been credited with bringing a whole new generation of “casual” players to the world of videogaming, especially women and young children.

In its article, “Can the iPhone Rule Gaming?,” Time makes some compelling points. One quarter of all currently available iPhone app store titles are games, and, further to that, seven out of the top 10 paid app downloads are games. Also, as the article points out, a third of the iPhone userbase is in the game industry’s hottest demographic, aged 26 and under. The article spotlights the ease of downloading games to the device directly as a key advantage over DS and PSP. These factors, combined with titles such as Spore: Origins, could, in Time’s words, “Bring the iPhone into the same league as the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP.”

Still, there are questions raised, particularly regarding software quality. The piece’s author, Anita Hamilton, states, “Key to the iPhone’s success as a gaming platform is a deep portfolio of titles that take advantage of the device’s coolest attributes, such as its tilt sensor,” adding that, “It remains to be seen … whether iPhone games actually evolve beyond the amusing, lightweight titles available now.”