 |
|
|
| |
Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon X Debuts On Top Of Japanese Sales Charts
by Tom Curtis [PC, Console/PC]
|
|
| |
|
August 12, 2010
|
| |
Namco Bandai’s latest entry in the Tales series, Tales of Phantasia: Narikri Dungeon X for PSP debuted at number one on the Japanese sales charts for the week ended August 8, tracking firm Media Create announced Thursday.
The PSP game is a remake of the Game Boy Color RPG Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon, the sequel to the original Tales of Phantasia. The game features the action battle system traditionally used in other entries of the series, as well as random dungeons, a costume system, and the ability to change character classes at will. Namco Bandai has not yet announced a North American release for the title.
Tales of Phantasia: Narikri Dungeon X sold 108,356 units in its first week, with Wii Party taking the number two spot, pushing last week’s top game, Capcom’s Sengoku Basara 3 for PlayStation 3, into the third spot.
Three other new titles, StormLover for PSP, Battle Spirits: Digital Starter for DS, and Heart Catch PreCure! Oshare Collection for DS broke the top 10 this week, hitting the fifth, ninth, and tenth spots, respectively.
Super Mario Galaxy 2 returned to the top 10 after dropping to the thirteenth spot last week, while Kamen Rider Battle: Ganbaride Card Battle Taisen, Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2010, and Metal Max 3 fell from the top 10.
Below are Media Create's rankings for the week ended August 8, 2010:
| LW | TW | Title | Publisher | Platform | Weekly Sales | | NEW | 1 | Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon X | Bandai Namco | PSP | 108,356 | | 3 | 2 | Wii Party | Nintendo | Wii | 82,698 | | 1 | 3 | Sengoku Basara 3 | Capcom | PS3 | 57,021 | | 2 | 4 | Hatsune Miku: Project Diva 2 | Sega | PSP | 36,865 | | NEW | 5 | StormLover | D3 Publisher | PSP | 20,087 | | 13 | 6 | Super Mario Galaxy 2 | Nintendo | Wii | 16,695 | | 10 | 7 | Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem - Hero of Light and Shadow | Nintendo | DS | 15,845 | | 5 | 8 | Sengoku Basara 3 | Capcom | Wii | 15,387 | | NEW | 9 | Battle Spirits: Digital Starter | Bandai Namco | DS | 15,338 | | NEW | 10 | Heart Catch PreCure! Oshare Collection | Bandai Namco | DS | 15,091 |
|
| |
|
|
The verdict is in: 3D Mario is not popular in Japan. 2D Mario is king. I wonder how this will influence Nintendo's future decisions? Will Miyamoto continue to try and tweak the 3D formula for the inevitable 3DS installment (perhaps the 3D display will make navigation easier?), or will Iwata step in and demand another 2D Mario?
I think they will do both.
But I also think, that nobody at Nintendo expected a success of this scale, when they announced New Super Mario Bros. for the DS. Nobody can predict if this success can be repeated on the 3DS, as it was repeated on the Wii.
In the end, the first Super Mario Galaxy sold about 9 million copies. On any platform 9 million copies can be considered as a huge success, in it's first month Super Mario Galaxy sold over 4 million copies. So I think nobody at Nintendo is dissatisfied with those numbers, 2D Mario sells more, but 3D Mario still sells very well.