Gaming News Japan: Dragon Quest And Mario On Itadaki St

I was going to start this column by mentioning how, at last, an Xbox 360 game was right up there, one of the three best-selling games in Japan, and how a PS3 game had also achieved notable success to sneak into third place. But that was last time, when Trusty Bell ~Chopin’s Dream~ had moved 49,000 copies in its first seven days on sale; wowing Japanese 360 owners at the same time with its gorgeous looks and innovative battle system. Ninja Gaiden Sigma had done the PS3 proud during that same period.

But then this week’s sales data came through and, inevitably, Trusty Bell had vanished from Japan’s Top 30 All Formats chart. (Ninja Gaiden Sigma had a marginally better second week, only dropping from 3rd to 19th.) The only other HD titles (assuming that 480p doesn’t count) inside the Top 30 this week are PS3 Folksoul (in 11th, with sales of around 15,000) and Saint’s Row (in 25th) on the 360. In other words, it’s business as usual in Japan.

Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass leads the DS army this week, with 330,000 sales. In spite of a time disadvantage – Phantom Hourglass was released here on Saturday 23rd June (as you’ll remember), while all other releases came out on the Thursday before that. Link’s latest adventure has a lead of 154,000 units sold over its closest competition, which is SquareEnix’ Itadaki Street DS: Dragon Quest & Mario.

Of course, the 39/40 rating in Famitsu will have aided Hourglass’ performance, and from what I’ve played of it so far (whenever I’ve been able to persuade my better half to save her game and take a break), there’s no doubt that such a score is merited. And it’s not too heavy on dialogue, either, so I can’t imagine why everyone outside of Japan is being made to wait until Christmas…

There are 21 DS games in the top 30, but that’s to be expected. The DS is king here (in which case, Wii must be the queen.) More surprising is that the PS2 continues to perform so strongly. It’s impressive to see a machine that is now more than eight years old being represented by two brand new games inside the top ten. Atlus’ Growlanser VI (an RPG with PSone roots) shifted 27,000 units in its first week on the shelves to start in fifth place, while The School Alchemists (a fairy-goth RPG) managed to move 21,000 copies and land in eighth position. The otaku, then, are still alive.