DS Zelda Leads New Releases In Latest Japanese Charts

Despite even Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto expressing disappointment over sales of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess on the Wii in Japan, the first Zelda title on the Nintendo DS (to be known as Phantom Hourglass in the West) has enjoyed a strong opening performance with 303,000 units sold over the last week. These numbers are all the more impressive as the game was released on Saturday the 23rd, compared to the other new releases which all came out on Thursday the 21st. The second highest new entry is the first iteration of Square Enix’s popular board game series Itadaki Street for the Nintendo DS, with 149,000 unit sales. The game features both Dragon Quest and Mario characters and is the first major co-production between Square Enix and Nintendo since Super Mario RPG in 1996. (Although Square Enix did develop minor hit Mario Hoops 3 on 3 for Nintendo last year.) The strong performance of the top two titles have had only a moderate effect on sales in the rest of the chart, with tactical role-playing game sequel Growlanser VI on the PlayStation 2 registering only 27,000 unit sales at number five. The fourth highest new entry is Hajime no Ippo Revolution for the Wii at number six, with 25,000 unit sales. The game is the latest adaptation of the popular boxing anime known as Fighting Spirit in the West (although previous games from the series have been marketed as Victorious Boxers in the West). The fifth new entry in the top ten is Mana-Khemia on PlayStation 2 at number eight, with 21,000 unit sales. The game is a spin-off from Gust’s Atelier series of role-playing games and has not yet been confirmed for a Western release. In what has been a busy week for new releases, PlayStation 3 exclusive FolksSoul (aka Folklore) from Sony has debuted at number eleven, with less than 18,000 unit sales. Although Xbox 360 exclusive Trusty Bell (aka Eternal Sonata) has dropped out of the top thirty, from its debut at number two last week, PlayStation 3 game Ninja Gaiden: Sigma has fallen only as far as number nineteen, from its debut at number three. There is still one Xbox 360 title in the top thirty though, with Saints Row entering the charts at number twenty-five. For the first time this year, though, there is not a single PSP title in the top thirty, although the effect this will have on hardware sales will not be evident until additional sales data is revealed tomorrow.

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