Big in Japan April 30-May 6: Mario Party 9

Last week was the holiday period known as Golden Week in Japan, and it seemed that many spent their relaxation time gaming. Based on the recent Media Create sales update for the week of April 30, consumers were particularly fond of Nintendo's portable titles and party games featuring the company's plumber mascot.

Japan partied hard with Mario during Golden Week.

Mario Party 9 for the Wii was the top-selling title for the week, with 144,585 units sold. Critics gave the party game a middling reception; check out GameSpot's full review on the title. The PlayStation 3 version of Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City was just below Nintendo's party game, with 52,428 units sold.

The top 10 was populated with 3DS titles of varying genres. The strategy role-playing game Fire Emblem: Kakusei was at third place, with 42,347 units sold, while 3D platformer title Super Mario 3D Land was at fourth place, with 28,528 units sold. Trailing just behind was Mario Kart 7 and Kid Icarus: Uprising; the former sold 22,881 units, while the latter sold 18,788 units.

The sole PSP title within the top 10 was Spike Chunsoft's RPG Conception: Please Have My Children! The game was at ninth place, with 10,193 units sold.

As a result of Nintendo's spike in software sales, the 3DS and Wii saw a holiday sales increase. The former was at 91,868 units, while the latter was at 15,789 units. The Wii's numbers were previously at 9,200 units on the last sales update.

Top Japan game sales of April 30-May 6

Software
Rank/Title/Publisher/Platform/Unit sales
1. Mario Party 9/Nintendo/3DS/144,585
2. Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City/Capcom/PS3/52,428
3. Fire Emblem: Kakusei/Nintendo/3DS/42,347
4. Super Mario 3D Land/Nintendo/3DS/28,528
5. Mario Kart 7/Nintendo/3DS/22,881
6. Kid Icarus: Uprising/Nintendo/3DS/18,788
7. Monster Hunter 3G/Capcom/3DS/16,496
8. Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games/Nintendo/3DS/13,810
9. Conception: Please Have My Children!/Spike Chunsoft/PSP/10,193
10. Wii Sports Resort/Nintendo/Wii/10,058

Hardware
3DS - 91,868
PS3 - 23,478
PSP - 20,033
Wii - 15,789
PS Vita - 10,583
PS2 - 1611
Xbox 360 - 1420
DSi XL - 1097
DSi - 814