For a continent that gave the world tiramisu, Audrey Tautou, and the Renaissance, Europe sure does disappoint us at times. Yep, it's another week of gray, predictable drudgery when it comes to sales of DS software.
All you truly need to know is that More Mario & Dr. Kawashima's Olympics Training sold really, really well, and almost everything we else care about didn't. Except for Animal Crossing: Wild World, which popped in to the German top ten, and Mario Kart DS, which secured eighth place in Ireland, and fifth in Germany. So maybe the world isn't all that rubbish, after all. And if you really believe that, we advise you go and rent Eurotrip.
Apparently, a listing for Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen has shown up on the USK (or Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle, but we're sticking with the easier, shorter name), Germany's classification board. Not satisfied with just knowing the title exists in their database, we hit the USK's official website to see it with our own eyes and found this listing for the game.
The chances that Europe will receive this game just increased, but we're curious about one thing. Just why isn't the game listed as Dragon Quest IV? It merely says Dragon Quest: The Chapters of the Chosen. Odd, if you ask us.
Analysts at DFC Intelligence are preparing to release their gaming industry forecasts soon, and they see Nintendo's domination in Europe as a good thing not just for the company, but for the industry overall. See, they think that over the next few years Nintendo will continue to dominate there, with the benefit coming from Nintendo's success showing their competitors the region is a strong marketplace and deserving of more focus.
But, with all of this attention being turned to Europe in the future, supposedly, can it be a bad thing for Nintendo in the end? Added attention means added competition, but we're not too sure that Nintendo needs to worry about anything. In the U.S. and Japan, two very strong markets, Nintendo is still kicking butt and selling its products like there is no tomorrow. So while Nintendo's success in the region might drive the competition to more aggressively pursue consumers there, the appeal of the DS and Wii are much too great, in our eyes. At least, for the time being.
Featuring charts from across the region, Another Week in Europe documents the buying habits and quirky tastes of a whole continent of DS lovers.
It's business as usual for the DS in Euroland, where Brain Training and Mario & Sonic have once again ruthlessly harvested the wallets of gullible (probably non-DS Fanboy-reading) consumers. We would love to suggest that this madness will end soon, but Brain Training has been around these parts for almost two years now, while the for-real Olympics will surely only boost people's interest in assaulting their DS's poor touch screen. In a word: gah.
More pleasingly, there's been a mini-renaissance for (of all games) Mario Kart DS. Sales of the game rose in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, and Sweden, and we're pinning this sudden rebirth on the success of Mario Kart Wii, which continues to run down the opposition at an alarming pace. Then reverse back over it, just to make sure.
More charts await your attention past the break, though we're sorry to say that the Spanish top ten is taking a siesta this week (see what we did there?). With any luck, it'll be back next Saturday.
News of a European release date for Super Smash Bros. Brawl has dominated coverage of Nintendo's latest European release schedule, but there are a number of tasty morsels on the list for DS owners.
For a start, the continent will finally be getting Atlus roguelike Etrian Odyssey, and it's about time -- lest we forget, the title made its U.S. debut last May! Notably, there are also dates (of varying specificity) for Race Driver: GRID (May), the new Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games (July 4th), New International Track & Field (Q2 2008), and Cooking Guide: Can't Decide What to Eat? (June), the European version of Cooking Navi. "ArchimDS" appears on the list as well, though we presume this refers to LOL, or Bakushow as it'll be known in Euroland.
Add all of those to this morning's Final Fantasy IV announcement, and Europe has quite the line-up of games to look forward to. Check past the break for the full list!
Finally. After forever (or one year, depending on your calendar), there appears to be some progress toward the promised European release of Cooking Navi. The German USK ratings board database now contains an entry for a Nintendo-published game called Kochkurs: was wollen wir heute kochen? The name, which is (appropriately) quite a mouthful, translates to Cooking Course: What do we want to cook today? We find it quite likely that this is the German name for the game that was known as Shaberu! DS O-Ryouri Navi in Japan.
Now all that needs to happen is for Nintendo to make a for-real announcement, then release the thing. Then release the thing outside Germany, sell a lot, and therefore convince Nintendo of America to release it. That's ... actually a lot of steps.
Featuring charts from across the region, Another Week in Europe documents the buying habits and quirky tastes of a whole continent of DS lovers.
The emergence of Mario Kart Wii this week caused tremors throughout the charts, something that didn't bode well for the DS. Apparently, training your brain has become a far less appealing pastime now that you can perform cartwheels on a bike as a giant ape, whereas Mario & Sonic could only hang on to third spot pretty much ... everywhere. As usual, the MIA titles are a greater source of interest, with Assassin's Creed failing to chart anywhere on its opening week.
Next week sees a sudden rush of shovelware (and we bet The Sun Crossword Challenge does really well, depressingly), and The World Ends With You.
It looks like Myst isn't the only oldschool PC adventure game to be ported to the DS. According to Mindscape, Syberia is on its way, too. Since it's only a port, it won't contain any new content. Yet, we're glad to know that the game will feature touch-screen functionality, since that's always a plus in adventure titles. You can also expect an improved interface and menu system, to make inventories easier to navigate.
In Syberia, you take control of businesswomen Kate Walker, who's looking for the long-lost heir of a toy-making family. One of Syberia's best aspects, though, is its surreal, steampunk-esque setting, which we hope translates well onto the DS.
The game is scheduled to release in Europe this October, but there's no word yet of a North American localization.
Chalk this one up in the "better late than never" category, Europe. Rising Star, niche game publisher extraordinaire, will be bringing Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon to the continent in September, only a year after the game came out in North America and two years after it first released in Japan. In case you're confused, yes, we mean the first Rune Factory, not the hopefully-soon-to-be-localized sequel.
Still, for what it's worth, this blogger thoroughly enjoyed the game. Are any of you European Harvest Moon fans excited about this news, or has that ship sailed long ago?
Featuring charts from across the region, Another Week in Europe documents the buying habits and quirky tastes of a whole continent of DS lovers.
Old Kawashima's not wrong, you know -- well, as far as the DS goes anyway. Y'see, Europe is all about Gran Turismo 5: Prologue this week, but when it comes to Nintendo's handheld, the not-for-profits Prof (along with Mario & Sonic) is making sure no other DS game gets a look-in. Oh sure, you have your Cooking Mama 2s and New Super Mario Bros.s sniffing around the fringes and occasionally racking up a top ten spot, but other than that, there's little resistance. So here's to next week, when hopefully Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles will make a dent in this tedium.
Oh, and if you're reading, Germany: Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Seriously?
Perhaps we're just cynics, but we're not at all surprised that this list of the 100 top-selling games in the U.S. and Europe isn't filled with more good games. We understand that not everyone has the tastes of the DS Fanboy staff (as much as we try toramitdownyourthroat), but some of these are just crazy.
Of course, some easy picks like Pokemon Diamond & Pearl and Brain Age 2 populate the list, but where is the love for some other great DS games? Phantom Hourglass at the 23rd spot? For shame. 1.2 million copies of High School Musical: Makin' the Cut sold and Drawn to Life only selling 820,000 copies? For shame.
In all, it's an interesting list that you should take a look at.
There's plenty of DS languagetraining available for kids in Japan, but language software elsewhere seems to fbe focused on either adults or ... whoever Spanish for Everyone was supposed to be for. Virgin PLAY is taking advantage of this gap by releasing a series of language training games designed for kids, based on Berlitz language training materials. The series also covers the one language that gamers always clamor for in language-learning materials: Japanese.
The first two Mind Your Language games planned for release this summer (in Europe, we believe) include Learn English and Learn Spanish. But Berlitz and developer Spiral House are also working on three more programs to teach French, German, and Japanese, to be released this fall.
Signature Devices has picked up the rights to publish dungeon-crawler Mazes of Fate in Europe at some point this summer, with the game still to be released in the U.S.
Regular readers may recall us recoiling in horror upon first seeing the title in "action" earlier this year, but later impressions, combined with some above-average review scores, revealed our initial pessimism may have been misplaced. And that's pretty fortunate, because Europe remains thoroughly neglected by publishers when it comes to portable dungeon crawling, with Orcs & Elves the only current option.
Update: Looks like we got ahead of ourselves a little there -- as our commenters correctly pointed out, the U.S. is still waiting also!
Featuring charts from across the region, Another Week in Europe documents the buying habits and quirky tastes of a whole continent of DS lovers.
After a gray, unrelenting winter (for most of us in the unglamorous northern bits, anyway), the clocks went forward for Europe earlier this week, which we suppose means we're now fully immersed in spring (hence the daffodils, you see -- we really think longand hard about those pictures). Fittingly, the European sales charts are full of the joys of spring themselves!
Wait, no, hold on, we're lying again. Must stop lying. In reality, they're still pretty much unchanged from last week, with the one notable exception being Magic Made Fun (known as Master of Illusion in the U.S.) which debuted on the continent this week, where it reached 8th in Germany, and 7th in Spain -- we expected a little more from this sorcery sim, considering its catch-all appeal.
Ubisoft has signed on to publish Team Ninja's Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword in Europe this June. This is good news for Europe, and bad news for Naruto, who has just lost the title of coolest ninja in Ubisoft's lineup.
We don't yet know how Dragon Sword has fared in the American retail market, but it arrived in Japanese stores silently, escaping the attention of pretty much the whole DS audience (not the ideal time to be silent and unnoticed). Will Europe be more attuned to the arrival of a deadly ninja? Maybe Ubisoft will step on a branch or something.
For a continent that gave the world tiramisu, Audrey Tautou, and the Renaissance, Europe sure does disappoint us at times. Yep, it's another week of gray, predictable drudgery when it comes to sales of DS software.
Apparently, a listing for 
Analysts at DFC Intelligence are preparing to release their gaming industry forecasts soon, and they see 
Featuring charts from across the region, 
News of a European release date for 
Chalk this one up in the "better late than never" category, Europe. 
There's plenty of DS 
Signature Devices has picked up the rights to publish dungeon-crawler 
Featuring charts from across the region, Another Week in Europe documents the buying habits and quirky tastes of a whole continent of DS lovers.
Ubisoft has signed on to publish Team Ninja's 
