Pokémon Mystery Dungeon pair Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness reached mainland Europe this week and performed well on the whole, achieving lofty positions in the charts of Holland, Germany, Spain, and Italy (in the UK, they're occupying 21st and 24th place respectively). Cooking Guide (top ten in Ireland, Spain, and Italy) continues to help most Europeans to be better cooks (I emphatically do not count myself in that number), and would you check out that German top ten. Ho boy, go Deutschland!
There's so much DS software love in the top ten that we don't know what to highlight! If pressed, though, we'll have to choose Densetsu no Stafi 5, because 1) Stafy is just the cutest and 2) it performed better than the rest. Band Brothers DX is inching toward 200,000 sales, though, and will probably hit that landmark next week.
The other DS love goes to Hana Yori Dango: Koi Seyo Onago, an otome based on an anime/manga/j-drama. Although the chances of it happening are about ... zero ... we'd love to see that one localized, as Hana Yori Dango is one of our guilty pleasures. Last but not least, we'll mention the sometimes inappropriateGegege no Kitarou, which debuted in ninth. (Oh yeah -- there's also Derby Stallion, but really.)
Software sales gave DS hardware a small boost, but Nintendo's handheld is still stuck behind the PSP:
PSP: 56,998 (559)
Nintendo DS: 48,540 (1,085)
Wii: 41,768 (2,757)
PlayStation 3: 12,458 (1,901)
PlayStation 2: 10,405 (1,363)
Xbox 360: 3,807 (969)
To check out the Japanese software sales numbers and rankings, just click past the break. (Our apologies -- we could only find translations for the top ten games!)
Last week, we nonchalantly predicted that the two Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games would lay siege to various European top tens. And we were right, if you replace "various European top tens" with "Germany." Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness came fourth and fifth respectively in Germany, 30th and 34th in Britain, and ... that's it. Such is the limited commercial appeal of the roguelike, we suppose.
Meanwhile, Cooking Guide: Can't Decide What to Eat? continues to look like a slow-burning hit, rising to fourth in Spain, second in Italy (yes, we're covering Italy from this week onwards! Go us!), and holding on to tenth place in Ireland.
Make the jump for the latest sprinkling of Euroland charts.
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.
In a week when Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift and Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword failed to penetrate any of Europe's charts, the locals instead turned to the non-game. Ubisoft's My Health Coach: Manage Your Weight (My Weight Loss Coach in North America) was the highest-ranking new DS entry on the continent, with a TV campaign ensuring it reached 27th in the UK. Cooking Guide: Can't Decide What To Eat? also enjoyed a more successful second week, rising eight places in Britain and just squeezing into Ireland's top ten.
Next week, Europeans welcome the arrival of Bakushow and Arkanoid DS, and will hopefully not stave off the newest Space Invaders. Let them take you over, puny Earthlings! Heck, they'd run this planet better than us anyway.
As far as serious chart contenders go (because let's face it: none of the aforementioned three are going to sell in the bajillions), the two latest Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games are hitting stores. Expect some top ten finishes from those.
Oh, Japanese gamers, how we love you -- after all, only you would buy 150,000 copies of Derby Stallion in one week. Such sales were enough to put this DS horse racing sim into first place, above Band Brothers DX and even the Wii's Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. Besides Derby Stallion and Band Brothers, another DS title that made it into the top ten was Higurashi no Naku Koru ni Kazuna, a murder mystery visual novel.
The beauty of it all is that this DS software success managed to propel DS hardware into second place, barely skating past the Wii:
PSP: 58,861 (490)
Nintendo DS: 48,884 (12,285)
Wii: 48,480 (7,443)
PlayStation 3: 17,973 (2,363)
PlayStation 2: 7,673 (1,327)
Xbox 360: 5,104 (2,549)
To see sales numbers and rankings for the top ten games, just click past the break.
If Europeans feel their food has lacked variety and flavor this week, they've only themselves to blame. Cooking Guide: Can't Decide What to Eat? was a bit of a failure with consumers, despite our predictions of great things for the title last week, so don't come moaning to us when your beef bourguignon goes awry! Only the UK showed a mild appetite for the non-game, pushing it to 19th. New International Track & Field, meanwhile, didn't even get close to any chart.
Still, it's not as though Euro consumers Can't Decide What to Buy -- most top tens are filled with the usual suspects, at least until next week, when Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift and Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword arrive on our fair shores. Until then, scour all manner of charts past the break!
The DS found itself back in cozy old third place in this week's chart, as the hype from Metal Gear Solid 4 died down a bit in Japan:
PSP: 59,531 (5,325)
Wii: 41,037 (4,527)
NDS: 36,599 (2,602)
PS3: 20,336 (54,975)
PS2: 6,346 (951)
Xbox 360: 2,555 (392)
Meanwhile, Let's Make a Pro Baseball Team's steady climb back into the top ten makes us wonder if supply just wasn't meeting demand a few weeks earlier, when the game fell out of the top thirty.
Yet overall, the DS had a relatively boring week in terms of software, with no exciting new releases to congratulate or poke fun at (unless you consider the budget-priced re-release of Puyo Puyo 15th Anniversary "exciting" and "new").
If you want to see what Japanese gamers were buying last week, though, just click on past the break.
Never, ever, ever, ever rule out the power of Kawashima. We're going to have that tattooed across our foreheads, because despite us slyly noting Brain Training's slow decline in the Euro charts these last few weeks, the blighter has bounced back mightily -- bugger.
Next week could be interesting, mind. Were we gambling types, we'd put good money on Cooking Guide: Can't Decide What to Eat? (which twoof the Fanboy team have already purchased) and My Weight Loss Coach doing pretty well, what with their angle on training and self-improvement (and Europe's baffling collective urge to improve itself). And what of New International Track & Field? Well, as much as we'd like it to do well, we can't see it leaving much of a dent. I mean, a track and field game starring famous characters and mascots from the franchises of a major gaming company? El-oh-el! It'll never work.
Just as we were starting to get comfortable with the DS coming in third consistently on the Japanese hardware charts, Metal Gear Solid 4 came out and helped push our favorite handheld down to fourth. Fourth! Meaning, it only did better than the PS2 and 360. Snaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake!
DS hardware did get a little boost, though, despite the fact that not much new software made its way into the charts:
Playstation 3: 75,311 (64,455)
PSP: 64,675 (2,659)
Wii: 45,564 (925)
Nintendo DS: 39,201 (4,181)
PlayStation 2: 7,297 (1,018)
Xbox 360: 2,163 (117)
There were some surprises this week, as Let's Make a Pro BaseballTeam! found itself back in the top thirty (so did Pokémon Diamond). But, you can just see all the hot software action for yourself after the break.
Everybody knows that Europe is frequently treated like a second-class citizen of the gaming world, and one of the best examples of this is Etrian Odyssey, which was finally released in Euroland last week, a whole damn year (and then some) after it arrived in the States. Predictably enough, it's not appeared in one European chart during its opening week, but are we surprised? Are we heck. Anybody with a serious interest in Etrian Odyssey would have already imported the game, completed it, and be looking forward to importing the second title. In fact, this sort of makes the European release feel futile; you have to wonder why they even bother in the first place. Oh, woe, woe.
It's not as though much else is selling on our beloved handheld, either -- even though the Spanish charts weren't released in time for this week's update, the current charts are worryingly low on DS software. Hit the break to see what we mean.
We're crying for Namco Bandai's Tears of 99 right now, as the game debuted in the twenty-third spot this week. We guess Japanese gamers just didn't feel like being bummed out, and therefore avoided buying this original title. Sad, indeed.
DS software is feeling the strain in Europe this week as big names on other consoles continue to shake things up. This week it's the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Codemasters' Race Driver: GRID that have mostly disrupted the standings (note: the DS iteration didn't appear in any charts), forcing Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training to actually drop out of the UK top ten for the first time in several months (though the polygonal prof has still performed respectably in Ireland, Holland, and Germany).
That aside, it's mainly all about Mario where DS games are concerned. The plumber has sprinted, jumped, and karted his way into a number of Euro charts, and it was also nice to see Phantom Hourglass rise back into the UK top 30 (it's currently 28th). Next week, we'll see if European folk have the stomach for an Etrian Odyssey (yes, the first one), though we suspect that LEGO Indiana Jones is more likely to register high on the chart.
Make the jump for this week's full rundown of numbers from Europe!
Two DS games debuted in the top ten this week (Endless Frontier: Super Robot Wars OG Saga and the cutesy spatial puzzler Empty Space Training), but otherwise, DS software had a relatively lackluster performance. Only twelve titles ended up in the top thirty, which is low for Nintendo's handheld. As for hardware, the DS is getting comfortable in third place behind the PSP and Wii:
PSP: 71,986 (7,537)
Wii: 50,851 (1,804)
Nintendo DS: 38,355 (951)
PlayStation 3: 9,169 (98)
PlayStation 2: 7,203 (14)
Xbox 360: 1,959 (12)
Front Mission 2089: Border of Madness is another game that premiered last week, taking twelfth in the charts. If it follows the path of games like Let's Make a Pro Baseball Team! and Glory of Herakles, though, it's likely to drop soon. As for English of the Dead, the game didn't debut in the top fifty, and according to Famitsu it only sold 1,500 copies in its first week.
Click on past the break to see the other software numbers and rankings from 5/29 to 6/1.
Yeah, that's right: we're number one! Take that, world! It's just a shame that us Europeans can't also be the best in the category of buying totally rad games, because things aren't looking too hot for DS software right now -- even Brain Training is showing signs of tiring this week, and we all know how longthat has been knocking around.
Other than that, this week is only really notable for Grand Theft Auto IV's continuing dominance and Wii Fit's dramatic plunge. Truth be told, we think those new DS Lite colors might just be arriving in the nick of time -- the PSP benefited from a boost in sales when it received a fresh lick of paint in Japan, so maybe the same will happen here.
There's so much DS software love in the top ten that we don't know what to highlight! If pressed, though, we'll have to choose 
559)
2,757)
The most recent Japanese charts showed us that musical instruments have more legs 
The DS found itself back in cozy old third place in this week's chart, as the 
Just as we were starting to get comfortable with the DS coming in third consistently on the Japanese hardware charts, 
We're crying for Namco Bandai's 
DS software is feeling the strain in Europe this week as big names on other consoles continue to shake things up. This week it's the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Codemasters' 
Two DS games debuted in the top ten this week (
