Japanese Game Chart: Final Fantasy XIII 360 Fails to Reach Top 20

There’s no knocking that Monster Hunter off its perch anytime soon. The third entry in Capcom’s beast-slaying series remains firmly at the top of the Japanese Video Game Chart (courtesy Media Create, 13th - 19th December 2010), and with only a small sales drop from last week it looks like it will be there for quite some time.

The Xbox 360 version of Final Fantasy XIII was finally released in Japan this week - did it challenge Monster Hunter for the #1 spot? Nope - it had trouble getting into the Top 50 in fact, with debut sales landing it in #39.

1 Monster Hunter Portable 3rd – Capcom (PSP) – 581,543
2 Gundam Musou 3 – Namco Bandai (PS3) – 185,908 / NEW
3 Inazuma Eleven 3: The Ogre – Level-5 (DS) – 175,604 / NEW
4 Donkey Kong Country Returns – Nintendo (Wii) – 152,990
5 Pokemon Black/Pokemon White – Pokemon Company (DS) – 115,438
6 Shining Hearts – Sega (PSP) – 106,733 / NEW
7 Wii Party – Nintendo (Wii) – 92,949
8 Mario Sports Mix – Nintendo (Wii) – 87,114
9 Ni no Kuni – Level-5 (DS) – 74,329
10 Mario vs Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem! – Nintendo (DS) – 54,628

Namco Bandai gets second place again with Gundam Musou 3’s PS3 release, selling an impressive 185,000 copies. Other new entries in the Top 10 include Level-5’s new football RPG adventure Inazuma Eleven 3: The Ogre (at #3) and Sega’s handheld anime-influenced RPG Shining Hearts (#6).

While we’re on the subject of big-name games underperforming, it’s worth noting that the PS3 version of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow debuted out of the Top 10, reaching #17, while the dubbed version of Call of Duty: Black Ops debuted at #19 (although the subtitled version managed to top the charts recently).