Professor Layton and Nintendo Continue to Rule Japan

Japanese sales tracker Media Create has released its weekly figures for the country's top-selling software and hardware, and it is clear that Nintendo is once again onto a winner, thanks to the continued success of Animal Crossing on Wii, as well as the DS line-up of Kirby, Girl's Mode, Pokemon Platinum and Rhythm Heaven (Tengoku Gold). But the clear winner this week is Level-5's thired Professor Layton puzzle adventure, 'The Last Time Travel', which remains atop the chart for a second week, with sales heading comfortably towards the half million mark.

On the hardware front, the DSi has helped Nintendo make a late surge for the crown of best-selling hardware of 2008, with total DS sales being on the verge of toppling the PSP, whilst Wii's weekly sales are clearly helped by both Animal Crossing's continued sales, as well as the niche Visual Horror title 428. SEGA and Chunsoft's title, which obtained a 40/40 score from Famitsu and only shipped 50,000 copies in its first week, is the spiritual successor to Machi on the Saturn that managed to sell 83,428 units in its lifetime, with a further 21,021 copies from its PSP port. SEGA/Chunsoft's other title from this text/visual-based genre, Imabikisou, only managed to sell 39,299 in total on the PS3 last year, with a further measely 3,100 copies from its Wii port, so already 428 is well on its way to besting that game, even with both console versions added together. What will be intriguing to see is if Chunsoft and SEGA greenlight another game from the genre, arguably its most well-known series 'Kamaitachi no Yoru', which started on the SNES and continued on the PlayStation 2. Famitsu numbers are only available for the Sony versions, but the second game sold 351,608 in its lifetime and the third reached 162,199 overall. With the fanbase moving to Wii, perhaps the time is ripe to start Kamaitachi no Yoru 4...

Below are all the figures for software and hardware:

Media Create Top 50: 1st-7th December, 2008

1.) Professor Layton and the Last Time Travel (NDS, Level-5) - 87,100 | 434,400
2.) Dragon Ball Z: Infinite World (PS2, Bandai Namco) - 76,500 | NEW
3.) Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City (Wii, Nintendo) - 75,600 | 489,300
4.) Kirby Super Star Ultra (NDS, Nintendo) - 60,200 | 535,000
5.) Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (PS3, Konami) - 42,400 | 210,800
6.) Wagamama Fashion: Girl's Mode (NDS, Nintendo) - 37,900 | 278,600
7.) Pokémon Platinum (NDS, The Pokémon Company) - 37,300 | 2,008,800
8.) 428: Fuusa Sareta Shibuya (Wii, SEGA) - 34,000 | NEW (from a shipment of 50,000 units)
9.) Fallout 3 (360, Spike) - 30,600 | NEW
10.) Rhythm Tengoku Gold (NDS, Nintendo) - 29,600 | 1,244,100
11.) Chrono Trigger DS (NDS, Square Enix) - 28,000 | 385,000
12.) Wii Fit (Wii, Nintendo) - 26,000 | 2,782,000
13.) Kenka Banchou 3: Zenkoku Seiha (PSP, Spike) - 22,000 | 70,000
14.) Gundam vs. Gundam (PSP, Namco Bandai) - 22,000 | 316,000
15.) Musou Orochi: Maou Sairin (PSP, KOEI) - 22,000 | 65,000
16.) Pro Yakyuu Spirits 5 (PS2, Konami) - 18,000 | NEW
17.) Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Spec III (PS3, SCE) - 18,000 | 131,000
18.) Mario Kart Wii (Wii, Nintendo) - 16,000 | 1,854,000
19.) Yu-Gi-Oh Tag Force 3 (PSP, Konami) - 16,000 | 80,000
20.) Pro Yakyuu Spirits 5 (PS3, Konami) - 15,000 | NEW
21.) Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (PSP the Best) (PSP, Capcom) - 15,000 | 93,000
22.) Tamagotchi Star School (NDS, Namco Bandai)
23.) Tongariboushi and the 365 Days of Magic (NDS, Konami) - 15,000 | 109,000
24.) Animal Crossing: Wild World (NDS, Nintendo)
25.) Neon Genesis Evangelion Pachinko 3 (NDS, D3) - 13,000 | NEW
26.) Soccer Tsuku DS: Touch & Direct (NDS, SEGA) - 12,000 | 112,000
27.) Patapon Domchaka 2 (PSP, SCE) - 11,000 | 35,000
28.) Hitman Reborn! Mafia Collection (NDS, Takara Tommy) - 10,000 | NEW
29.) Wii Sports (Wii, Nintendo) - 10,000 | 3,204,000
30.) Wii Music (Wii, Nintendo)
31.) Chou!! Nep League DS (NDS, Jaleco) - 8,600 | NEW
32.) Saints Row 2 (360, THQ Japan) - 8,600 | NEW
33.) Inazuma Eleven (NDS, Level-5)
34.) Naruto - Kingdom Gekitou Ninja Taisen! EX3 (Wii, Takara Tomy)
35.) Wii Play (Wii, Nintendo)
36.) Mario Kart DS (NDS, Nintendo)
37.) Mega Man Star Force 3: Black Aces (NDS, Capcom) - This and Red Joker have now sold only 119,000, a far cry from the million-selling EXE GBA series
38.) Real Rode (PS2, Kadokawa Shoten) - 5,800 | NEW
39.) Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (Wii, Namco Bandai) - 5,800 | NEW
40.) Taiko no Tatsujin DS 7 Island Adventure (NDS, Namco Bandai)
41.) Way of the Samurai 3 (PS3, Spike)
42.) The Last Remnant (Limited Edition) (360, Square Enix)
43.) Family Ski World Ski & Snowboard (Wii, Namco Bandai)
44.) DS Rhythm of Life w/ Pedometer (NDS, Nintendo)
45.) Suu Sense Keisan Ryuoku Up Training - SuuTore (NDS, Benesse) - 5,100 | NEW
46.) Saints Row 2 (PS3, THQ Japan) - 5,100 | NEW
47.) New Super Mario Bros. (NDS, Nintendo)
48.) Eigo Kaiwa Training - KikiTore (NDS, Benesse) - 5,100 | NEW
49.) Diet Shape Wii Boxing! (Wii, Rocket Company)
50.) Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3, Capcom)
XX.) LocoRoco 2 (PSP, SCE) - 5,100 | NEW
XX.) Blazer Drive (NDS, Sega) - 4,800 | NEW
XX.) Cooking Guide 2 (NDS, Nintendo) - 3,400 | NEW (A shipment of 45,000 shows Nintendo had lower projections, but this is an awful start considering the first game nearly reached a million sales!
XX.) MySims Kingdom (NDS, EA) - 2,700 | NEW
XX.) Eiyuu Senki Leavadein (NDS, GungHo) - 2,100 | NEW
XX.) Custom Battler Bomberman (NDS, Hudson) - 1,600 | NEW
XX.) Hajime no Ippo The Fighting! DS (NDS, ESP) - 1,500 | NEW
XX.) Gokuhou!! Mecha Mote Iinchou (NDS, Konami) - 1,400 | NEW
XX.) Mori no Cafeteria DS: Oshare na Cafe Recipe (NDS, D3) - 820 | NEW
XX.) Kageyama Hideo no Hanpuku Ondoku DS Eigo (NDS, IE Institute) - 670 | NEW
XX.) Cooking Mama World Kitchen (Wii, Taito) - 600 | NEW
XX.) Drawn to Life (NDS, Agatsuma Entertainment) - 530 | NEW

Hardware - This Week | Last Week | 2008 Sales | Lifetime Sales
1.) Nintendo DSi - 126,700 | 87,185 | 664,877 | 664,877
2.) Wii - 56,700 | 49,848 | 2,505,163 | 7,121,302
3.) PlayStation Portable - 54,800 | 55,090 | 3,356,782 | 11,021,859
4.) PlayStation 3 - 30,300 | 34,978 | 861,975 | 2,503,651
5.) Nintendo DS - 12,100 | 26,851 | 2,577,349 | 23,750,403
6.) Xbox 360 - 10,000 | 11,423 | 284,387 | 792,832
7.) PlayStation 2 - 5,700 | 5,628 | 446,721 | 21,373,761

More data will be coming soon...