Epic Mickey, World of WarCraft: Cataclysm and Michael Jackson: The Experience were amongst December’s best-selling games in the U.S.

This week’s top-20 gives us a better idea of what to expect from some of the games on the chart.

The holiday season sees the top-20 chart dominated by Nintendo titles, and Monster Hunter Portable 3rd raging on in first place, while Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 makes its debut.

Monster Hunter Portable 3rd maintains its strong lead, while Level 5 release Ni no Kuni to a modest start. Meanwhile, Nintendo games see their traditional holiday bump while Shiren 5 jumps in the mix, too.

Call of Duty: Black Ops is now the 7th best-selling game of all time.

Compared to Nintendo’s other first party developed platfomers for Wii, Donkey Kong Country Returns is probably the most challenging. And that’s what Retro Studios wanted.

Donkey Kong doesn’t take the news about his lost banana stash lightly. In the opening stage, players make Donkey Kong punch a Tiki out of his home by shaking the Wii remote and nunchuck. After Donkey Kong proudly beats his chest the game begins.

In Japan, Nintendo are simply calling the game “Donkey Kong Returns.”

Nintendo sent out a new trailer along with a fresh batch of screenshots for Retro’s re-imagining of the SNES title.

Kirby in October and Donkey Kong in November.

Donkey Kong Country Returns is a blast from the past. The demo level I played at E3 reminded me of the Super Nintendo games.

Retro Studios are working on the new Donkey Kong after all.