Japanese video game sales charts – March 12th – March 18th

Nobunga conquers the charts with the help of Pokemon, Sega’s latest Shining series spin-off makes a good impression and One Piece fails to maintain it’s first week monster momentum.

Note: Apologies for missing last week’s Japanese video game charts

So no surprises to see that a Pokemon game is #1. This time it is the unlikely and unusual crossover of Pokemon + Nobunaga’s Ambition. Nobunaga’s Ambition is a popular strategy series in Japan that is far from cute and is quite difficult for newcomers (and even those experienced). As such Nobunga’s Ambition is not popular with young children and hence despite grabbing the #1 spot and it’s sales doing a solid number, it has been something of a slow seller (you can read about it here at Sliconera).

Sega’s latest spin-off based off the Shining series, Shining Blade,  has done pretty well, debuting at the #2 spot. In fact, if you’ve noticed, there are ten new entries into the charts, including Mass Effect 3. While One Piece: Pirate Warriors has seen a significant drop in it’s sales since it’s debut, it’s still done enough to stay at the #4 spot. It’s going to be a while before it hits the million mark but it should eventually do so.

Biggest drops belong to Mobile Suit Gundam UC (down by 14 places), Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D (down by 12 places) and Street Fighter X Tekken (down by 10 places). No game had a really notable climb with only Monster Hunter Tri G the only title to go up a place (from #10 to #9).

Nintendo have one Nintendo DS and eight Nintendo 3DS titles in the charts and Sony have five PSP and six PlayStation 3 titles.