If any university professors out there are looking for a great example of the "economic reset," search no further. The U.S. video game industry, which at one point looked almost immune to the downturn, started 2010 with sales not only below the same month last year, but also below the same month two years ago. Here's what it looks like:

Total sales of video game hardware, software and accessories in the U.S. were $1.17 billion in January, according to numbers released this afternoon by the NPD Group research firm. That was down 13 percent from January 2010, and not quite enough to beat out the $1.18 billion registered by the industry in January 2008.

Of course, the beginning of the year is never particularly good for video games, with demand and supply both depleted coming off the peak holiday shopping season. But as a start for the year, it still doesn't bode particularly well.

Among the Big 3 consoles, Nintendo's Wii was once again the leader for the month, with 465,800 units sold in the U.S., compared with 332,800 units for Microsoft's Xbox 360 and 276,900 units for Sony's PlayStation 3. In the handheld market, the Nintendo DS registered 422,200 units sold, compared with just over 100,000 PSPs.

Also from the NPD report, here's the breakdown of the top games for the month.