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Another Week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 6/30-7/6
The most recent Japanese charts showed us that musical instruments have more legs than horses, as Band Brothers DX jumped up into the first place spot. Meanwhie, Nanashi no Game made its debut in the top ten, but only sold a total of 30,000 copies. Hardware sales were also interesting, as the DS stubbornly held onto the second spot: PSP: 56,439 (2,442) Nintendo DS: 47,455 (1,429) Wii: 44,525 (3,955) PlayStation 3: 14,359 (3,614) PlayStation 2: 11,768 ( 4,095) Xbox 360: 4,776 (328) With the Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G craze finally starting to quiet a bit, we don't think it will be too long before the PSP dips closer to DS sales (as long as Nintendo's handheld can maintain its own momentum). Enough about the future, though -- it's all about the now. So, go on and see how software fared last week in Japan by clicking past the break.
Friday Video: Edutainment
We feel like we could score in a fairly high percentage on the TV Game Exam, but right now it's only available to Japanese students. This short commercial for the game, which arrived to Japanese retailers this week, plays up the "exam" concept of the game, presenting the mini-challenges within as tests of specific retrogaming aptitudes.It turns out that it's not only possible, but easy to make learning fun! As long as you're learning about Galaga. A longer trailer featuring micro-clips of the microgames (and a very happily dancing Picotto) can be seen after the break!
More Namco classics thrown on the Video Game Exams pile
The more old games Namco Bandai refines into representative mini-challenges and adds to Bokura no TV Game Kentei, the better a deal it becomes. Many old arcade games can be boiled down into a few seconds' worth of basic material, which is then repeated in slightly different arrangements until you run out of money. Play one Challenging Stage in Galaga, for example, and you know what it means to play Galaga.Banamco has apparently been spending the time they gained from the delay adding even more retro material to the "game trainer." The latest round of screenshots includes new stuff like Family Tennis and the obscure Famicom games Warpman and Battle City. This would be a no-brainer to import if not for the fact that it arrives in June, along with every other DS game we want.
