Big in Japan Feb. 1-7: God Eater

Japan's love for the Monster Hunter series apparently extends beyond the brand to games reminiscent of Capcom's multiplayer action adventure games. For the week of February 1-7, Japanese tracking firm Media Create is reporting that Namco's new PSP release God Eater topped the charts, selling 295,405 copies in the island nation.

Like Capcom's series, God Eater allows up to four players to team up with customized characters and take down supernatural beasts in dozens of missions. The game may be friendlier to solo players than its inspiration, as it will allow for AI-controlled teammates when venturing alone.

The previous week's best seller didn't fall very far, as Square Enix's DS remake of Dragon Quest VI finished in second, selling 189,802 copies. It was trailed in third place by another of the role-playing game specialist's titles, the PlayStation 3 debut of last year's Xbox 360-exclusive Star Ocean: The Last Hope. The Tri-Ace-developed RPG double-dip sold just over 72,000 copies, easily besting the studio's most recent title, the Sega-published Resonance of Fate (End of Eternity in Japan). After debuting in second place the week before, the PS3 edition of Resonance of Fate fell to seventh place, selling 25,640 copies.

The last new release of the week to make the top 10 was Pop'n Music Portable, with 19,138 copies sold. Although the Konami rhythm game series has been around for more than a decade, this is the first time it has arrived on Sony's handheld, and it's the first portable version since 2000.

The week's hardware race was less than exciting, with the same systems charting in the same order as the previous week. On top of that, every system saw week-over-week sales declines except for the last place PSP Go, which saw a sales twitch with 1,738 systems sold for the week, up from 1,645 the week before.

JAPAN GAME SALES WEEK OF FEBRUARY 1-7, 2010
Software:
Rank / Title / Publisher / Platform / Unit sales
1) God Eater / Bandai Namco / PSP / 295,405
2) Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie / Square Enix / DS / 189,802
3) Star Ocean: The Last Hope: International / Square Enix / PS3 / 72,026
4) New Super Mario Bros. Wii / Nintendo / Wii / 62,174
5) Tomodachi Collection / Nintendo / DS / 38,164
6) Wii Fit Plus / Nintendo / Wii / 27,104
7) End of Eternity (Resonance of Fate) / Sega / PS3 / 25,460
8) Pop'n Music Portable / Konami / PSP / 19,138
9) Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep / Square Enix / PSP / 14,780
10) Wii Sports Resort / Nintendo / Wii / 13,314

Hardware:
PSP - 43,163
Wii - 36,149
DSi XL - 28,080
PS3 - 25,450
DSi - 19,116
DS Lite - 5,410
Xbox 360 - 3,651
PS2 - 2,047
PSP Go - 1,738