PSP GAME NEW

Nintendo's latest minigame collection tops the charts in debut week, with Level Five's action RPG close behind; Crackdown 2 debuts in seventh place.

It's too early to tell if Nintendo's Wii Party is the latest in a long line of evergreen hits for the company, but the minigame collection is certainly a quick bloomer. According to Media Create's Japanese sales charts, Wii Party was the best-selling game in the country for the week of July 5-11, selling nearly 235,000 copies.

Ain't no party like a Nintendo Wii Party 'cause a Nintendo Wii Party don't stop.

Wii Party is Nintendo's first stab at the genre for the Wii since 2007's Mario Party 8, which has sold more than 7.6 million units worldwide. The game, which is set for North American launch this holiday season, will feature 13 different game modes and more than 70 individual minigames.

Second place for the week went to Shirokishi Monogatari: Hikari to Yami no Kakusei, or White Knight Chronicles 2, which sold more than 175,000 copies. The PlayStation 3-exclusive action role-playing game marks the second release for RPG specialist Level Five in as many weeks. The studio's previous release, Inazuma Eleven 3 (in Spark and Bomber varieties) debuted atop the previous week's charts and placed third for July 5-11 with nearly 98,000 games sold.

Two more new releases made the upper echelon of the sales charts for the week. Marvelous Entertainment's latest Harvest Moon title, Bokujou Monogatari: Futago no Mura for the DS, finishing in fourth place with 63,610 copies sold. Further down the list in seventh was a rare appearance by an Xbox 360 game courtesy of Crackdown 2, which sold a little less than 15,000 copies.

Basically they were as usual on the hardware charts, with the DSi LL (known in the West as the DSi XL) to ensure first place again with 28,916 sold system. Inspired by the launch of Wii party with Nintendo 'edged out of the PSP console to land in second place with 24,604 systems sold less than 200 units ahead of Sony' s laptop.

JAPAN GAME SALES WEEK OF JULY 5-11, 2010

Software:
Rank / Title / Publisher / Platform / Unit sales
1. Party Wii / Nintendo / Wii / 234892
2. Shirokishi Monogatari: Hikari to Yami no Kakusei / Sony / PS3 / 175632
3. Inazuma Eleven 3: Sekai e no Chousen!! Spark and Bomber/ Level Five / DS / 97,727
4. Bokujou Monogatari: Futago no Mura / Marvelous / DS / 63,610
5. Taiko no Tatsujin DS: Dororon! Youkai Daikessen!! / Bandai Namco / DS / 30,689
6. Super Mario Galaxy 2 / Nintendo / Wii / 26217
7. Acceleration 2 / Microsoft / 360 / 14839
8. Tomodachi Collection / Nintendo / DS / 12932
9. World Soccer Winning Eleven 2010: Aoki Samurai no Chousen / Konami / PS3 / 12,189
10. World Soccer Winning Eleven 2010: Aoki Samurai no Chousen / Konami / PSP / 12,125

Hardware:
DSi LL - 28916
Wii - 24,604
PSP - 24,421
PS3 - 18,345
DSi - 17356
Xbox 360 - 5,688
DS Lite - 4,992
PS2 - 1,558
PSP Go - 1046

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