Japan Charts: Evangelion Pachinko title storms in at number one

D3 Publisher's Hisshou Pachinko Series Vol.1: CR Neon Genesis Evangelion is this week's best selling videogame in Japan, with the anime-themed pachinko gambling title racking up some 72,000 sales in its first weekend at retail.

The PS2 game combines Japan's most popular form of legal gambling - pachinko - with one of its most popular animated series of all time, Gainax' 1995 series Neon Genesis Evangelion, and is the most successful Pachinko title of all time in terms of opening week sales.

Five other new releases are to be found in the top ten this week, with Nintendo's DS titles Pokemon Torouze and Super Princess Peach at numbers two and four, while Sega's attempt on the brain training genre on the PSP, Brain Trainer Portable, comes in at number three.

Further down the ranking, Kadokawa Shoten's anime-based dating game Shuffle! On The Stage is at number six, while Electronic Arts' Burnout Revenge debuts at number eight in the ranking.

Unsurprisingly, the Nintendo DS is still Japan's best-selling console, taking over 37 per cent of the market share by units this week, compared with just 24 per cent for the PlayStation Portable.

The Game Boy Advance platform, still being driven by the success of the recently launched Game Boy Micro, accounts for almost 20 per cent market share, with the PlayStation 3 bringing up the rear with 18 per cent share.