Weekly top 10 video game guides: Pokémon trainers keep catching them all

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The 10 most popular games on videogame guide website GameFAQs on Wednesday March 17 included three Pokémon games, as the classic series continues to revitalize itself with more and more pocket monster collection escapades.

Pokémon HeartGold and Pokémon SoulSilver for the Nintendo DS were both new out in North America, released on Sunday, March 14, out of step with the usual Tuesday release schedule for video games on the western side of the Atlantic. Both are also soon to arrive in Europe, this time on Friday, March 26.

The original iterations, 1999/2000's Pokémon Gold and Silver, were made for the Game Boy Advance handheld console. Even the very first Pokémon titles, 1996's Red and Green (brought to North American shores in 1998) have both been remade on DS as FireRed and LeafGreen, and our third GameFAQ top 10 Poké-entry, Platinum, also previously saw sales as the Game Boy Color title Pokémon Silver.

In this way Nintendo is able to re-sell the older titles, upgrading them to include innovations gleaned from both hardware advances and other Pokémon titles released since the originals.

Platinum was actually out a year ago in North America and Europe, but popped back into the top 10 chart two weeks previous to the current one shown here. One explanation would be that avid fans have been finishing off the game before moving on to SoulSilver and/or HeartGold.

Either way, game players are certainly trying to get the most out of all three titles, with enthusiasm for the 2008/09 Platinum renewed in some, while others tuck into the kleptomaniacal pleasures of the Gold and Silver updates.

01) Final Fantasy XIII (PS3)
02) Final Fantasy XIII (360)
03) Pokémon HeartGold (DS)
04) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (360)
05) Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
06) Dragon Age: Origins (PC)
07) Pokémon SoulSilver (DS)
08) Mass Effect 2 (360)
09) Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (360)
10) Pokémon Platinum (DS)

Source: The GameFAQs Top 100