Lists: they're freaking well everywhere. Lists of the best games, of the worst games, of the worst boxart, of games to watch, of the best NES games, of the most kid-friendly games, lists of the greatest lists.

But what's that? You want more lists? You're insane! But Famitsu hears you! The venerable Japanese publication just published its top games of 2007, based on the magazine's review scores, and The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (the game that collects gongs and awards like they're going clean out of fashion) romped to top spot, thanks to its near-perfect 39/40 score.

The DS had other representatives in Famitsu's top 25, with Kousoku Card Battle: Card Hero (12th), Itadaki Street (21st), Gyakuten Saiban 4 (24th) and Final Fantasy IV (25th) all making their presence felt. Go past the break for the entire top 25, and join us in marveling at the Xbox 360 doing something right in Japan.

Nintendo just put a video up on touch-ds.jp showing all 130 cards available in Card Hero's in-game store. Within the game, it's possible to purchase "booster packs" of three cards, which can then be opened on the bottom screen. Many of these cards are rare in the game -- that's even rarer than the rest of the cards, which exist only in a game not released in the U.S. (a measure of scarcity in itself, right?)

Of course, being a video and not ... a gallery or something, you get more than just pictures of cards. Many of the cards are followed by video demonstrations of their featured characters or actions.

We don't exactly know why a bunch of screens of Intelligent Systems' currently-Japan-only Card Hero showed up on the UK press assets site GamesPress. The game hasn't been announced for release outside of Japan or anything; these screenshots are clearly Japanese (we can tell from the words on them), and GamesPress doesn't really make a habit of putting up information about import games unless there's an announcement.

Maybe Nintendo UK just thinks the game looks really neat and wanted to share. Maybe a guy in the office started playing the Japanese version. Who knows? Whatever the motivation, the result is that we've got a load of screenshots in our gallery.



[Via GamesPress]

Another week in Japan has come and gone, which means yet another week of ridiculous success for the DS. The hardware managed to top 300k for the week, while heavy hitters like Final Fantasy IV, Dragon Quest IV, and Mario Party DS littered the top ten in the software charts. It was also a good week for baseball game Dorabase, which debuted at the number nine spot with 96k, selling 90% of it's total stock.

Hardware:

• DS: 319,000
• Wii: 264,000
• PSP: 162,000
• PS3: 51,000
• PS2: 24,000
• Xbox 360: 8,100

Check after the break to see the software numbers for 12/17-12/23 in Japan.

We think card-based video games are pretty inherently hilarious on their own, in that they use expensive, cutting-edge electronics to simulate small pieces of paper. There are, of course, advantages to this approach (online play, computer-governed rules) but it's funny on a very fundamental level.

However, when video card games, like Card Hero, include dramatic, action-packed cutscenes in their card game, they leave "inherently hilarious" and buy tickets to LOLlapalooza. The kid in the intro is all screaming and posing and stuff, and crazy lightning effects show up, as if he's going to go have some flying Dragon Ball Z battle or something; when he is, in fact, playing some cards, which is one of the most sedentary things you can do.

Oh, but in general, Card Hero looks pretty neat.

If you were hoping for a peek at some of the actual screens featured in last month's magazine article on Kousoku Card Battle Card Hero, then today may just be your lucky day. In our freshly updated gallery below, you can get a closer look at Intelligent Systems' follow-up to the GBC strategy title, which seems to be coming along nicely.

It's time again to reap the bounty from, uh, some dude with a scanner and access to Japanese magazines! Three games are shown off in today's crop (to continue the farming metaphor for some reason), all RPGs of various kinds.

Most interesting (to us) is the first real blowout of images from Intelligent Systems' Kousoku Card Battle Card Hero, which we haven't heard from in about a month. Also in the "somewhat mysterious RPG project from Nintendo-owned developers" department is Soma Bringer, Monolith Soft's new RPG, which, according to NeoGAFfer charlequin, "has possibly the most generic character designs ever seen in a JRPG." It's probably going to be a pretty good game and all, but it does rather look like they put some money into a JRPG Character vending machine. "One EVIL LONGHAIRED GUY, and ... hmm, maybe GIRL IN ELABORATE DRESS."

We initially thought it was a strategy RPG, but the magazine description pegs it as an action RPG.

Finally, Dragon Quest IV gets a seven-page preview, which is thick with screens of, well, basically running around on the overworld and then also battling, which is what happens in Dragon Quest IV quite a bit.

Intelligent Systems is busy. We assume they're working on the Fire Emblem remake that we just now heard about, as well as any finishing touches that may need to go on the Wii Fire Emblem game. They're also in the midst of Advance Wars DS 2 development. But apparently that's not enough for the former R&D1, as they've revealed yet another strategy game project, this time a card game called Kousoku Card Battle Card Hero (Quick Card Battle Card Hero).

This isn't their first Card Hero game; the original, on Game Boy Color, came out in 2000 and was almost released in the U.S. In addition to the GBC game, Japan also got a real card game based on the property. Card Hero is a sort of meta-game, in that you play a video game about kids playing a card game, and, of course, play that card game within the game. We've got the first magazine scans of the game after the break!