Japan Charts: Mario Tennis scores a number one for the Cube

Nintendo has taken the top spot in the Japanese sales chart this week, with Mario Tennis GC selling some 186,000 units as the launch of several new games saw overall game software sales rising by almost 40 per cent week on week.

Other key new titles to be launched during the week included From Software's latest Armoured Core game, Armoured Core: Nine Breaker, with the PS2 mech action title coming in at number three, while Atlus' Stella Deus and Sony's RPG Wagy Ryu wo Miyo came in at number five and six respectively.

The Japanese obsession with pachinko gambling machines propelled yet another pachinko game into the top ten, with Tecmo's Raksuho! Pachinko Slot Sengen 2 in at number seven, while SNK Playmore's The King Of Fighters 2003 proved the continued popularity of 2D fighting games, in at number eight.

EA's Burnout 3 dropped out of the top ten this week in Japan, but was replaced by another western-developed title - with Capcom publishing Activision's True Crime: Streets of LA in the territory, and scraping into the top ten at number ten.

While none of the other new releases managed to challenge the sales of Mario Tennis, chart supremos Media Create do note that both Stella Deus (which sold 34,000 units) and Waga Ryu wo Miyo (around 31,000 units) sold out their initial allocations in most stores, and could have performed much better if additional stock had been available.

In terms of hardware, the PS2 is at its lowest ebb in quite some time, with market share of only 34 per cent as stocks dry up and the market waits for the arrival of the slimline redesigned model in the near future. Game Boy Advance rules the roost once more, with 55 per cent market share, while the Cube experiences a significant boost thanks to Mario Tennis, rising to 11 per cent share.