Japan Chart: Bandai's new Naruto title debuts in the top spot

The latest title in Bandai's immensely popular Naruto franchise, PS2 fighting game Naruto: Narutimate Hero 2, has gone in at number one in the Japanese chart and is selling significantly faster than the previous game in the series.

Based on a popular manga which originated in Shonen Jump and a major TV anime series, the Naruto franchise - which follows the adventures of a trainee ninja in a fantasy world - has become one of the most powerful in Japan in the past few years.

This latest game to be based on the license sold some 231,000 units in its first weekend on sale, well ahead of the sales of its predecessor, which sold around 136,000 units in the same period of time, reflecting the growing popularity of the series.

The Naruto manga compilations are currently being released in the USA, with the TV series likely to follow, and the franchise has the potential to become a massive overseas hit much as other properties such as Dragonball, Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokemon have.

Only two other new titles make it into the top ten ranking this week, both also based on anime franchises - with Tomy's Cube title ZOIDS Vs. III at number five, while Bandai's Sergeant Frog: Meromero Battle Royal on PS2 comes in at number seven.

Nintendo's Pokemon Emerald and Namco's Tales of Symphonia (PS2 edition) continued to sell well this week, at number two and three respectively, although the market as a whole saw a fairly major decline with only Naruto really keeping sales alive.

In terms of hardware sales, the Game Boy Advance continues to dominate the market, helped by consumers holding back from buying PS2 hardware until the new redesigned model hits the market; the GBA had over 52 per cent share this week, compared with 39 per cent for PS2 and eight per cent for Cube.