Level 5 and Studio Ghibli collaboration Ni no Kuni hit the Nintendo DS in Japan this week. It appears to have done many favors for the DS overseas, but it was still Monster Hunter Portable 3rd in first place.

PlayStation 3 real driving simulator Gran Turismo 5 is off to a great start in Japan, with first week sales topping 430,000 copies, knocking former champ Call of Duty: Black Ops down to sixth place.

The bestselling game in Japan this past week was an American-made game, with Treyarch's Call of Duty: Black Ops nabbing the first place spot on the country's sales charts. Just how well did Black Ops do?

The Ogre Battle series has still got it in Japan, with the latest entry in Square Enix's tactical role-playing game series getting a great start on the PSP.

The most exciting new addition to this week's Japanese game sales chart is the appearance of Fallout: New Vegas. Looks like that "protest" against Japanese role-playing games campaign worked.

Two games, one for the PSP, one for the PlayStation 3, helped kick Mario's latest game from its perch at the top of Japan's bestselling games chart. Who's responsible for Super Mario Collection for the Wii settling for third?

After five weeks at the top of Japan's sales charts, Pokemon Black and Pokemon White have met their match — Mario. Nintendo's budget priced Super Mario Collection for the Wii has landed in Japan and has dominated the competition.

Pokemon Black and Pokemon White continue to be super effective at maintaining a stranglehold on Japan's software sales charts, easily moving past 4 million copies sold overseas and handily defeating Kirby's Epic Yarn for the Wii.

Nintendo's Pokemon Black and Pokemon White enjoy another first place showing in Japan this week, nearly another quarter million copies sold to Nintendo DS owners overseas. The monster hunting game easily takes down newcomer Red Dead Redemption in Japan.

Another week, another few hundred thousand copies of Pokemon Black and White snapped up by Japanese gamers. The Nintendo DS game appears to be on track to break the 4 million mark any minute now.

Nintendo and Game Freak see great success in week two of Pokemon Black and Pokemon White's existence on Japanese store shelves. The Nintendo DS game moves another 800,000 plus copies, handily fending off Sega's latest Yakuza game.

No surprises here. Pokemon Black and White launched in Japan to record numbers, moving more than 2.5 million copies of the Nintendo DS game in its first week on the market. How did Halo: Reach and Front Mission Evolved fare?

The battle for hearts and minds and portable gameplay time in Japan has been won by One Piece. The latest manga-based spin-off has kicked MonHun Nikki, the cuter version of Monster Hunter, from its top spot overseas.

Monster Hunter is huge in Japan. So in MonHun, the softer side of the monster-slaying, loot-hunting adventure series and still the bestselling game in Japan. It's more popular than Metroid this week, which is worth noting.

The Monster Hunter brand is big in Japan. Big enough to support an adorable, gameplay changing spin-off in the form of MonHun Nikki: Poka Poka Ailu Mura. It's Japan's biggest game right now.

A new face joins the list of bestselling games in Japan this past week as A.C.E.: Another Century's Episode: R for the PlayStation 3 becomes the country's currently bestselling game. It's not the only PS3 game enjoying top ten status.

Nintendo's latest Wii hit shows its impressive legs once again this week, with mini-game collection Wii Party returning to its first place spot on the Japanese video game sales charts. Almost zero competition certainly helped.

Last week's sales champ, Sengoku Basara 3, was soundly defeated by Namco's latest Tales game, which draws upon the powers of a big PSP install base and Japan's love of doe-eyed anime-style characters. How well did Tales of Phantasia do?

What does Japan like this week? Feudal Japanese fantasy battles in the form of Sengoku Basara 3 and rhythm games starring vocaloid Hatsune Miku. Yep, shirtless samurai warriors and sexy singing robots are just what Japan needed more of.

After taking a breather from dominating Japan's sales charts, Nintendo's Wii Party continues to party hard at the top of the list. Wii Party could be a great game, so why shouldn't it sell really well?