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Big in Japan May 24-30: Super Mario Galaxy 2

Portly plumber cleans up with nearly 340,000 copies sold in opening week; games for Nintendo's platforms claim top five spots on sales chart.

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The Japanese sales charts are making up for a stagnant stretch with some heavy turnover, according to the latest info from Media Create. The week of May 24-30 was the second straight week in which five new releases managed to crack the top 10.

"I believe I can fly…"

Nintendo's Wii platformer Super Mario Galaxy 2 topped all comers for the week with sales of 339,901. It was the first time a game from Nintendo topped the charts since the week of April 12-18, when New Super Mario Bros. Wii claimed the honor.

It was a good week all the way around for the Wii and DS maker, as Super Mario Galaxy 2 was followed up by a quartet of games for the dual-screened handheld. Namco Bandai's latest Super Robot Taisen strategy role-playing game took second place, followed by Sega's football management sim Soccer Tsuku DS: World Challenge 2010, Rocket Company's latest Medabot game (which goes under the Medarot name in Japan), and Square Enix's Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2, respectively.

The previous week's best seller, Lost Planet for the PlayStation 3, fell to sixth place, trailed by a pair of Konami games in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for the PSP and the latest Winning Eleven for the PS3. Rounding out the list were Nintendo's last remaining evergreen title on the top 10, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and a rare appearance for an Xbox 360 game with Cave's "bullet hell" shoot-'em-up DeathSmiles IIX.

Despite the appearance of Xbox 360 software near the top of the charts, Microsoft's hardware didn't perform quite so well. In fact, the Xbox 360 was the only system to sell fewer units week-over-week, with even the perennial basement dweller PSP Go surging to break the 1,000-units-sold mark for the first time in three weeks. The overall order of hardware sales remained unchanged, with the PSP (25,054 sold) and PS3 (20,897 sold) atop the list. However, the Wii narrowed the gap with Sony's console, taking third place overall with 20,467 systems sold.

JAPAN GAME SALES WEEK OF MAY 24-30, 2010
Software:
Rank / Title / Publisher / Platform / Unit sales
1. Super Mario Galaxy 2 / Nintendo / Wii / 339,901
2. Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Masou Kishin - The Lord of Elemental / Namco Bandai / DS / 80,764
3. Soccer Tsuku DS: World Challenge 2010 / Sega / DS / 50,206
4. Medarot DS: Kabuto and Kuwagata Versions / Rocket Company / DS / 50,164
5. Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 / Square Enix / DS / 33,973
6. Lost Planet 2 / Capcom / PS3 / 33,856
7. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker / Konami / PSP / 25,465
8. World Soccer Winning Eleven 2010: Aoki Samurai no Chousen / Konami / PS3 / 22,168
9. New Super Mario Bros. Wii / Nintendo / Wii / 16,279
10. DeathSmiles IIX / Cave / X360 / 16,112

Hardware:
PSP - 25,054
PS3 - 20,897
Wii - 20,467
DSi LL - 16,267
DSi - 10,324
Xbox 360 - 3,546
DS Lite - 2,961
PS2 - 1,463
PSP Go - 1,232

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