This week’s Media Create software chart sees five new entries in the top ten, led by Kid Icarus: Uprising on the 3DS. It’s been 21 years since the last Kid Icarus title appeared on the Game Boy so it’s wonderful to see the series being reintroduced with a quality title like Kid Icarus: Uprising.

Black Panther 2: Yakuza Ashura Chapter comes in at number two on the chart. The latest portable Yakuza titles appears to retain many of the same elements from the original PSP game, including graphic novel style cut-scenes and the usual assortment of hostesses to romance.

Further down the list we see the Devil May Cry HD Collection and Ninja Gaiden 3 in fourth and fifth position respectively. I’m sure NinjaGaiden 3 would have sold a lot more copies if it had been better reviewed as Ninja Gaiden games traditionally perform well in Japan.

01./00. [3DS] Kid Icarus: Uprising <ACT> (Nintendo) {2012.03.22} (¥5.800) - 132.526 / NEW <77,49%>
02./00. [PSP] Black Panther 2: Yakuza Ashura Chapter <ADV> (Sega) {2012.03.22} (¥6.279) - 104.937 / NEW <58,60%>
03./01. [NDS] Pokemon + Nobunaga's Ambition <SLG> (Pokemon Co.) {2012.03.17} (¥5.800) - 65.046 / 237.073 (-62%)
04./00. [PS3] Devil May Cry HD Collection <ACT> (Capcom) {2012.03.22} (¥4.990) - 43.791 / NEW
05./00. [PS3] Ninja Gaiden 3 # <ACT> (Koei Tecmo) {2012.03.22} (¥8.190) - 29.797 / NEW
06./00. [PS3] Attouteki Yuugi: Mugen Souls # <RPG> (Compile Heart) {2012.03.22} (¥7.329) - 23.004 / NEW
07./09. [3DS] Monster Hunter 3G # <ACT> (Capcom) {2011.12.10} (¥5.800) - 22.402 / 1.337.122 (+32%)
08./08. [3DS] Mario Kart 7 <RCE> (Nintendo) {2011.12.01} (¥4.800) - 20.890 / 1.601.979 (+22%)
09./11. [3DS] Super Mario 3D Land # <ACT> (Nintendo) {2011.11.03} (¥4.800) - 20.305 / 1.439.760 (+29%)
10./02. [PSP] Shining Blade <RPG> (Sega) {2012.03.15} (¥6.279) - 19.032 / 141.289 (-84%)

Pokemon Company's crossover of Pokemon and Tecmo Koei's Nobunaga's Ambition series topped the charts in its first week of sales. Its 172,000 units was enough to beat Shining Blade, the latest PSP entry in Sega's Shining series, which sold 122,000 units in its first week, and the PSP conversion of the popular Madoka Magika franchise, which sold 62,000.

Other debuts this week include the PSP version of Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side Premium 3rd Story (originally released on DS), 3DS escape game If I Were in a Sealed Room with a Girl I'd Probably XXX, horse racing game Winning Post 7 2012, and visual novel/adventure game Amnesia Later.

Nippon Ichi's PS3 RPG Legasista saw a low debut with under 10,000 units sold. The PS3 version of Mass Effect 3 narrowly made it into the top 20 with 8,124 units sold.

Here's the full top 20 Media Create sales chart covering March 12 through March 18. Life to date sales are in parentheses.

A rash of new entries has dominated the Japanese top twenty this week, with the top six titles all newly released.

Once again, the PSP takes top spot with Namco Bandai's Tales of the Heroes Twin Brave, selling over 85,000 units to pip the newest Harvest Moon title, a 3DS exclusive, to the top of the chart.

Namco Bandai took third and fourth too, with a new PS3 Naruto title and I Have Few Friends Portable for PSP. Capcom's Asura's Wrath managed fifth, whilst Namco bracketed the new releases at the top of the chart with another PSP title, Nendoroid Generation, in sixth.

Hardware positions remained unchanged except for the 360 overtaking the PS2 after last week's resurgence for the ageing platform. 3DS is still the clear market leader for the territory, selling nearly three times as many units as nearest rival the PS3.

All figures are courtesy of Media Create, via Andriasang.

Japanese software chart February 20 - 26, 2012. Figures in brackets are lifetime sales

This week’s Media Create software chart has a wide variety of genres represented in the top ten. Konami’s dating sim New Love Plus was released on Valentine’s Day and proved to be the biggest hit of the week - landing in first place with 104 969 units sold.

Sega’s futuristic squad-based shooter Binary Domain was the week’s next best-performing title with 73 683 units sold. The game is developed by the newly formed Yakuza Studio led by industry veteran Toshihiro Nagoshi.

There are no less than four new games represented on this week's Media Create top ten chart, and that we finally have a PS Vita game on the podium..

PS Vita have rebounded slightly in Japan after week-over-week declines since launch, and the new handheld should send Namco a thank you card for the resurgence, as it was due to Tales of Innocence R’s debut which did it. Over on Media Create's weekly software chart, the Tales game wasn’t the only debut in the top three, as Armored Core V and Resident Evil Revelations took the number one and second place spots, respectively.

This week’s Media Create software chart is a sorry sight, with no title selling more than just over 35K units. As we’ve come to expect, the list is dominated by games for Japan’s most popular system - the 3DS - with Mario Kart 7 staying on top.

There are four new entries on this week’s chart: Rhythm Thief & the Emperor’s Treasure, Onechanbara Z: Kagura, Heroes Phantasia and Beyond the Labyrinth.

None of them sold particularly well but at least their presence on the chart indicates that the pace of video game releases is once again heating up as we approach February.

The most interesting detail to be gleaned from future Media Create reports is whether PS Vita software will make any sort of impact on the top ten chart. The fact that every PSV title is also available on the PlayStation Store from day one will definitely eat into retail numbers, so we’ll just have to wait and see what kind of chart positions PSV software manages to achieve.

The full top 20 for the week with LtD sales in parentheses is posted below.

It's time for the weekly Japanese Media Create charts. The narrative is about the same as it has been for a while now: 3DS maintains a tight grip on the software chart, while the system is pretty much the only thing selling very sell in the hardware chart.

However, Mario Kart 7 was kept off the top of the chart for the first time in a few weeks by a new Super Robot Wars on PSP. Other notable new releases included Tecmo and Nintendo's Spirit Camera, which had a quiet opening week; and the 3DS debut of Namco Bandai's Ace Combat series, which seems to be finding its feet on a Nintendo platform.

Last week’s Media Create software chart featured a number of Western games, but the latest results are decidedly Japanese in flavour. Sega’s rhythm game for the PSP - Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Extend - is the best selling title this week, notching up sales of 184,673 units.

Sengoku Basara 3: Utage also charted well, coming in at second and sixth place on the PS3 and Wii respectively. This historical beat-em-up looks very similar to Dynasty Warriors, although Capcom have clearly added a few ingredients of their own to spice up the experience.

In seventh spot is Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD Edition on PS3. In Japan Peace Walker HD was released before and separately from Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 HD (unlike in the West). This decision on Konami’s part may end up being the wrong one as Peace Walker HD made a smaller splash than expected with just 39,743 copies sold during its first four days on sale.

You can find the rest of the top ten chart entries below, while this week’s hardware figures also make for an interesting read.

Software Chart

After the break.. read more.

Mario's first 3DS adventure sold 343,492 units, putting it in first place for the week. It appears to have caused a spike in 3DS hardware sales, with the system selling 145,271 units this week.

The 343,492 unit total is almost triple the total amount of software the system sold in all of October. Last month, Enterbrain's sales stats showed the system's hardware outselling software two to one (see this story). It was widely believed that many were upgrading their DS systems in anticipation of major year-end releases like Mario Land, Mario Kart and Monster Hunter.

The week was packed with new releases. Trailing Mario were two western PS3 titles, Uncharted 3 and Battlefield 3. These sold over 120,000 units each. Sony gave Uncharted a big marketing push, with a series of commercials featuring Harrison Ford. Uncharted 2 debuted in October of 2009 with 54,000 units in its first week.

Other newcomers in the top 20 this week included Slime Mori Mori Dragon Quest 3 and various versions of Winning Eleven. The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Winning Eleven were released last month.

Here's the top 20 software chart for October 31 through November 6. Publisher, release date and life-to-date sales are in parentheses.

1.  [3DS] Super Mario 3D Land (Nintendo, 11/03): 343,492
2.  [PS3] Uncharted 3 (Sony, 11/02): 124,989
3.  [PS3] Battlefield 3 (EA, 11/02): 123,379
4.  [PSP] Final Fantasy Type-0 (EA, 10/27): 122,286 (594,540)
5.  [WII] Kirby Wii (Nintendo, 10/27): 55,779 (192,589)
6.  [PSP] Winning Eleven 2012 (Konami, 11/03): 45,437
7.  [3DS] Slime Mori Mori Dragon Quest 3 (Square Enix, 11/03): 38,859
8.  [360] Battlefield 3 (EA, 11/02): 27,723
9.  [WII] Just Dance Wii (Nintendo, 10/13): 25,665 (189,116)
10.  [WII] Go Vacation (Namco Bandai, 10/20): 16,995 (89,463)
11.  [WII] Winning Eleven Play Maker 2012 (Konami, 11/03): 14,117
12.  [WII] Wii Sports Resort Wiiplus Pack (Nintendo, 11/11): 12,570 (638,091)
13.  [PS3] Idolmaster 2 (Namco Bandai, 10/27): 10,721 (76,233)
14.  [PS3] Winning Eleven 2012 (Konami, 10/06): 10,636 (381,156)
15.  [PS2] Winning Eleven 2012 (Konami, 11/03): 9,786
16.  [PSP] AKB1/48 If I Loved an Idol in Guam (Namco Bandai, 10/06): 8,883 (310,625)
17.  [WII] Minna no Rhythm Heaven (Nintendo, 07/21): 8,581 (535,523)
18.  [PS3] Macross F Sayonara no Tsubasa Hybrid Pack (Namco Bandai, 10/20): 8,352 (167,700)
19.  [PSP] Naruto Narutimate Impact (Namco Bandai, 10/20): 7,144 (72,374)
20.  [3DS] Model Fashion Audition 2 (Alchemist, 11/03): 6,643

Hardware data to follow after the page break..

Square Enix's Final Fantasy Type-0 for PSP took to the top of the Japanese weekly software sales charts last week, selling nearly half a million units in its opening week.

For the week ended October 30, 2011, data from tracking firm Media Create, and as reported by NeoGAF, shows that the new Final Fantasy title sold a total of 472,253 units in the days following its launch. Kirby's Return to Dream Land from Nintendo also had a good opening week, selling a total of 136,811 units and landing itself a position at number two in the charts.

Other new entries last week included Bandai Namco's The Idolmaster 2, Nippon Ichi's Disgaea 4: Fuuka & Desco-hen Hajime Mashita and Kadokawa's Ro-Kyu-Bu!, which took positions three, six and seven respectively.

Down the bottom of the chart, Senritsu no Stratus entered at number nine, while Ragnarok: Hikari to Yami no Koujo took position ten and Arcana Famiglia: La Storia Della Arcana Famiglia for PSP jumped in at number 18.

Last week's number one, Gekijouban Macross F: Sayonara no Tsubasa - Hybrid Pack, dropped down to number eight, while last week's number two, Naruto Shippuden: Narutimate Impact dropped even further, down to number 15.

The complete top 20 chart, as supplied by Media Create, is shown below.