Weekly Japanese software charts: Badman 3D

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The top 10 best-selling video games in Japan, March 8-14, include Pokémon Ranger: Path of Light on the DS which is number one for a second week running, Friend Collection which climbs to second as a reward for its consistent sales, and a new Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! game.

01) Pokémon Ranger: Path of Light (DS): 65,000 (226,000)
02) Friend Collection (DS): 36,000 (2,953,000)
03) New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii): 35,000 (3,487,000)
04) For A Hero, You're Pretty Impudent: 3D (PSP): 34,000 (34,000)
05) Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce 2 (PSP): 32,000 (32,000)
06) Zettai Hero: Modification Plan (PSP): 31,000 (31,000)
07) Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (PS3): 28,000 (28,000)
08) RPG Maker DS (DS): 24,000 (24,000)
09) Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (DS): 22,000 (63,000)
10) Wii Fit Plus (Wii): 21,000 (1,741,000)
Unit sales are rounded to the nearest 1,000
Source: Media Create.

Friend Collection has been selling between 30,000 and 35,000 for the last couple of months, following a frenzy towards the end of 2010, and though 35,000 sales were only enough to see it to sixth place in last week's top 10, this week 36,000 secures second pace.

Pokémon Ranger, however, sold enough copies this time around to see it to first place in most other weeks.

For A Hero, You're Pretty Impudent was known outside of Japan first as Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! What Did I Do To Deserve This?, and then simply What Have I Done To Deserve This, My Lord? following copyright concerns.

The setup is standard video game fare - plucky brave hero sets out to overthrow powerful evil overlord - but in this case players assume the role of said demonic fiend and are tasked with creating a maze of traps and monsters in order to stunt the hero's progress.

The original's cheeky take on the dungeon-crawler genre was a late 2007 hit in Japan and exported to North American PSP owners 18 months later. So for Japanese gamers this is actually the third in the series (the second came late 2008 and is now due out in North America this May).

Though the full title is appended with 3D, the 'D' actually stands for 'Dungeon', promising more dungeons, monsters, and underworld mayhem than before.

The Swedish-developed Battlefield: Bad Company 2 also did well for itself. Having stormed the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC charts in Europe and North America since its early March release, shifting at least 2.3 million copies worldwide, selling 28,000 PlayStation 3 copies in Japan might not seem significant in comparison.

However, it's a decent achievement considering that all the other top 10 titles were produced by Japanese companies, and 'western' companies traditionally have a hard time breaking the market.

Bad Company 2 was also the only Xbox 360 title in the entire top 50 this week, entering the charts at 14.