Japanese sales charts, May 22-28: New Super Mario dominates

by Jennie Lees { Jun 2nd 2006 at 10:28AM }

Last week we saw the .hack franchise dominating the Japanese charts, but it's all change this week as newcomer New Super Mario Bros. flattens all competition. Just shy of 900,000 sales, it's exceeded the sales of the rest of the top ten combined -- and probably the rest of the top forty.

1. New Super Mario Bros. [DS]
2. Brain Age 2 (Kahashima Ryuuta Kyouju Kanshuu: Motto Nouo Kitaeru Otona DS) [DS]
3. Brain Age: Train your Brain in Minutes a Day (Kahashima Ryuuta Kyouju no Nouo Kitaeru Otona DS Training) [DS]
4. Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Portable [PSP]
5. Tetris DS [DS]
6. KimiKiss [PS2]
7. World Soccer Winning Eleven 10 [PS2]
8. Eigo ga Nigate na Otona no DS Training: Eigo Duke [DS]
9. Animal Crossing: Wild World [DS]
10. Jikkyou Powerful Major League [PS2]

Tags: asia, charts, ds, japan, japan charts, JapanCharts, japanese, japanese charts, JapaneseCharts, nintendo, sales, super mario brothers, SuperMarioBrothers

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Fuzz @ Jun 2nd 2006 10:38AM

Jennie, you forgot to put the numbers in! It's ok though, it's friday, you have an excuse.

minus_273 @ Jun 2nd 2006 10:57AM

Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Portable PSP"

before anyone mentions it, this is not a DQ or a FF game. Its a puzzle game with FF and DQ characters. And it continues with the PSP having not much to play.

Cabbage @ Jun 2nd 2006 10:59AM

Also of note:

DS/Lite 289,151
PSP 27,227
PS2 19,798
GBA 8,709
Xbox 360 1,242
GameCube 1,116

White Rose Duelist @ Jun 2nd 2006 10:59AM

Is that... a PSP game?!

Unimental @ Jun 2nd 2006 11:01AM

Wow. Animal Crossing is still on the charts. Perhaps there's more folks playing local wifi in Japan? Kind of a "Hey, all my friends have towns and play together, I need to get one" thing. But still, this is the top sellers of ALL games. I don't get it.

Anyone else surprised by AC:WW's position?

benjamin @ Jun 2nd 2006 11:04AM

I want to post now as a pre-emptive strike against all those who will come on here complaining that this game doesn't deserve its place in the number one spot because it's "old" or "the same old mario" or whatever.

I think it's about freakin' time a game with GAMEPLAY gets this attention. There's more gameplay in a side-scrolling platformer than in 10 FPSs combined. Hurray for classic platformers!

strider_mt2k @ Jun 2nd 2006 11:19AM

I agree Ben.
Few games have the same "pick it up and play" enduring quality that the Mario platformers share.

I eagerly await buying a DS lite in black, and will be updating my Mario collection when I do! (still missing a couple...)

Player1 @ Jun 2nd 2006 11:21AM

5:

It's not the "same old mario"! He's bigger! That's totally different. Yeah, mario NEVER got any recognition, EVER.

sonofnone @ Jun 2nd 2006 11:24AM

"4. Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Portable [PSP]"

This would be sweet to get ahold of. I seriously doubt it'll be seeing the light of day as a stateside release though. Maybe I should take another look at those Japanese language courses afterall...

Spike @ Jun 2nd 2006 11:31AM

900k!!
Impressive!

But...i am curious about something. How many "non-gamers" bought the game? I am guessing a lot.

Mario has this unique appeal that really attracts crowds. The touch generations demographic will find in this an experience both nostalgic (it must be the name) and classic platforming fun, that will make it the perfect game for taking the "virginity" of many "non-gamers".

gameboyfanboy @ Jun 2nd 2006 11:39AM

Finally! A 2D side-scrolling game for a Nintendo portable!

SJ @ Jun 2nd 2006 11:49AM

Just when I think numbers for the DS can't get any bigger, they get bigger! Nintendo is seriously making a killing, and I guess this bodes well for the Wii.

What worries me though is that all the DS games on the chart are developed/published by Nintendo. No quality third-part games yet?

The Real Floyd Hayes @ Jun 2nd 2006 11:53AM

Just want to say I reached World 6/6 last night and without doubt, this was/is my favourite platformer level of all time - it felt liberating like flying in dreams (sort of!)

Beautiful.

diego @ Jun 2nd 2006 1:46PM

Yes, the DS is dominating, but i doubt the Wii will have the same impact.

benjamin @ Jun 2nd 2006 1:57PM

SJ: Three words: Altus' Trauma Center.

You should replace the word "yet" in your post with "currently".

Omega697 @ Jun 2nd 2006 2:40PM

15: Or Phoenix Wright, Bust-a-Move DS, Age of Empires DS,...

OyoyoY123 @ Jun 2nd 2006 3:00PM

wow-protables really kill home systems over there, i wonder if we will see this trend over here.
I think cities like London, and LA, (and etc) might be huge market for handhelds.

geostar @ Jun 2nd 2006 3:07PM

So is it just me or is Nintendo missing the market by not releasing mario and standard donkey kong sidescrollers on their home console line. I swear I said many times during during this generation "why doesn't Nintendo make a new 2d/3d mario sidescroller for the Gamecube" This is the gameplay that people crave.

It'll be interesting to see the amount of sales Super Paper Mario gets.

benjamin @ Jun 2nd 2006 4:27PM

Geostar: I think that would be cool. It doesn't have to be a Mario game necessarily, either. I'd love to see an updated version of Contra for a console that preserves the sidescrolling style.

I don't understand why some older genre's have been completely abandoned nowadays. I remember some jumping platformer games that took some real fine skills and a helluva lot of practice to master. I think there is still a market for those kinds of games- I'd buy 'em.

idioteraser @ Jun 2nd 2006 5:40PM

benjamin blame Sony for the lack of 2D games. They are known to hate 2D gaming and only accept 2D games when a developer threatens to not put other games on the Sony platforms if Sony doesn't relent.

Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Portable was also on the PS2. It did a lot better then the psp version it's first week but it plummeted off the charts the next week. Except the same thing to happen with the psp version. Japanese gamers thought it sucked if I recall correctly.

idioteraser @ Jun 2nd 2006 5:42PM

2D side scrolling games are quite common on the gba and a few are on the DS. Castelvania and the Naruto games.

BPM? @ Jun 2nd 2006 6:01PM

benjamin:
"I'd love to see an updated version of Contra for a console that preserves the sidescrolling style."

Well, there is Alien Hominid for GCN and PS2, which plays a lot like Metal Slug (which in turn, plays like Contra).
A great game, if I say so myself. Definitely worth picking up (I think when I got it long ago, it was $30. So it may be cheaper now...).

SJ @ Jun 2nd 2006 6:11PM

I guess I should rephrase that.

I know there are some quality third-party titles for the DS out there, but none of them seem to be big hits.

Chris @ Jun 2nd 2006 6:45PM

geostar, given your comments I think you'd be interested in Super Paper Mario. It's a new Mario sidescroller slated for GameCube. It looks awesome IMO, but unfortunately it got no love from Nintendo at E3.

Chris @ Jun 2nd 2006 6:47PM

whoops, shoulda read your post more closely. I see you already know about the game. Sorry.

justchris @ Jun 3rd 2006 2:35AM

SJ, it isn't that 3rd party DS games don't sell well, they sell extrodinarily well, actually. The problem is 1st party DS games sell phenomenally well. Like, "there is no previous known precendent for these kinds of sales" well.

It's hard for any 3rd party to compete with sales like that. Plus even 1st party games can barely knock Brain Training out 2nd & 3rd place for more than two weeks at a time.