Japan Charts: Nintendo scores another Kirby number one

The latest GBA title based on Nintendo's Kirby character has gone straight in at number one in the Japanese charts, with Kirby: Labyrinth in the Mirror denying Square Enix' Dragon Warrior V a full month at the top.

Kirby sold some 189,000 units in its first week at retail, which is a bit lower than the previous title in the franchise, Nightmare in Dream Land, which sold 213,000 units in its first week - but as that game went on to sell over 800,000 units in total, Labyrinth in the Mirror is also expected to sell strongly in the coming weeks.

Dragon Warrior V is pushed down to number two this week after three weeks at number one, and there are a number of new releases in the chart - although the market remains depressed despite a slight improvement over last week's figures.

Banpresto's latest GBA title to be based on the popular Crayon Shin-chan kids TV series is at number three this week, selling about 19,000 units, while Koei's PS2 action title Crimson Sea 2 sold about 18,000 and makes it in at number five.

The remainder of the top ten is all made up of older titles, with Nintendo's Famicom Mini: Super Mario Bros and Pokemon Fire Red continuing to fly the flag for the GBA, while Koei has no less then three PS2 titles in the chart - with Dynasty Warriors 4 Empires and Nobunga's Ambition Tenka Sousei joining Crimson Sea 2 in the ranking.

In hardware terms, the picture is almost exactly the same as last week; the PS2 leads, with just under 49 per cent market share, ahead of the GBA which has just under 45 per cent. The GameCube's market share remains unchanged, at just over six per cent.

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