Weekly Japanese video game software sales: God Eater, Pop'n Music, Friend Collection

(All rights reserved - Namco Bandai Games)

Just like the previous week when Dragon Quest VI shot to the top of the Japanese software chart, there's a new king of the castle this time around in PSP title God Eater.

Between February 1 and February 7 God Eater sold 295,000 copies. Of course, this pales in comparison to Dragon Quest VI's first week sales - a touch under 1 million - but most titles would struggle to create that sort of demand.

God Eater itself is a monster-hunting game, set in a futuristic steampunk world where the protagonists sport ridiculously oversized weapons. Players can team up to take on the demonic gods that have taken over the city. It fared well with magazine critics and looks set to establish a sizable following.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope secured itself a berth in third place, but the number of units sold may be cause for disappointment at its publishers. As the last game in the much-loved Star Ocean adventure series, a higher uptake should have been anticipated.

Perhaps with its release so close to other in-depth epics ( End of Eternity, Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy XIII, and Dragon Quest VI), it could be that fans of the genre have quite enough to be getting on with at the moment.

Additionally, the Xbox 360 version had come out a year earlier, and though its review scores were hardly less than stellar, many felt that it wasn't quite as good as it should have been and this may have dampened appetites for the eventual PlayStation 3 release.

Pop'n Music Portable was another new entry. Part of Konami's Bemani series, it's a manically fast and vibrant rhythm game just like other better known games such as Dance Dance Revolution.

Instead of a dance mat accessory, here players use all four face buttons, the directional control pad, and the PSP's two shoulder buttons in order to keep in time with the music. The game has as much to do with memorizing each song's button sequences as it does with lightning-fast reactions.

Friend Collection for the DS shows no sign of abating. The game was released in Japan only in June 2009, and is one of just a few DS games that make use of the personalized Mii characters that can be created using the Nintendo Wii home console.

However, Friend Collection offers even greater degrees of customization, and the Miis aren't concessionary add-ons but central to the game experience. Friend Collection allows players to take care of their Miis and let them interact with their friends' Miis. Compulsive gaming, so it seems.

1) God Eater (PSP): 295,000 sales (295,000 total)
2) Dragon Quest VI (DS): 190,000 (1,096,000 total)
3) Star Ocean: The Last Hope International (PS3): 72,000 (72,000)
4) New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii): 62,000 (3,263,000)
5) Friend Collection (DS): 38,000 (2,780,000)
6) Wii Fit Plus (Wii): 27,000 (1,610,000)
7) End of Eternity (PS3): 25,000 (143,000)
8) Pop'n Music Portable (PSP): 19,000 (19,000)
9) Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (PSP): 15,000 (728,000)
10) Wii Sports Resort (Wii): 13,000 (1,735,000)

Source: Media Create. Unit sales are rounded to the nearest 1,000