Wii Party Recaptures Top Sales Spot In Japan

Nintendo's Wii Party recaptured the number one video game software sales slot in Japan for the week ended July 25, marking the second time the party game reached the top of the chart. Tracking firm Media Create revealed Thursday that Wii Party, released July 8, sold 99,000 units during the week, bringing the three-week total to 446,000 units in the region. The previous week, Wii Party was in the fourth position, and prior to that in its debut week it came out at number one. Nintendo revealed Wii Party to North American audiences in May this year, and the game maker highlighted the title at its E3 media briefing in June. The game, which utilizes players' Mii avatars in a variety of minigames, is due in the U.S. later this year. Last week's number one game, Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem: Heroes of Light and Shadow dropped to number four. The title is a DS remake of the tactical RPG Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, which originally released in 1994 in Japan on Super Famicom (Super NES). There were only two new games in the top 10 for the week: the Marvelous-published PSP dungeon role-playing game Fate Extra and the DS fighting game from Takara Tomy, Katekyoo Hitman Reborn! DS Flame Rumble XX - Kessen! Shin 6 Chouka. Making a return to the top 10 was Nintendo's Super Mario Galaxy 2 for Wii, which rose from number 11 to number eight. Games falling out of the top 10 from last week were Sony's PlayStation 3 RPG White Knight Chronicles: Awakening of Light and Darkness and Hudson's PSP game Momotaro Railway Tag Match: Friendship - Cooperation - Winning Volume! Below are Media Create's rankings for the week ended July 25, 2010: