Japan Charts: Super Mario Bros 3 tops the charts... again

Nintendo's GBA re-release of Super Mario Bros 3, Mario Advance 4, has debuted on top of the Japanese sales charts - adding to the some 18 million units the game has already sold in previous incarnations.

The game sold some 87,000 units in its first week on sale, not a bad figure for a game which is already the third best selling game of all time (after the original Super Mario Bros at number one, and Tetris on the GameBoy at number two).

In fact, Nintendo was having a good week in general - GameCube racing title Kirby Air Ride took the number two place, with sales of around 80,000 units, and Animal Crossing e+ is still in the top five (at number four), with GBA RPG titles Mother 1 + 2 and Pokemon Sapphire also making appearances in the top ten.

The only other new entry in the charts is the PlayStation 2 baseball title, Slotter Up Core: Enda! Giants' Star, which debuts at number seven in the chart. Sega's Initial D Special Stage is still the top-ranked PS2 title, at number three.

In terms of hardware sales, the PlayStation 2 led the pack this week as usual, with a 42.27 per cent market share, but the Game Boy Advance wasn't far behind - with 41.88 per cent share (31.42 from GBA SP, 10.46 from the original GBA).

GameCube had a 13.30 per cent market share, and Xbox lagged behind as ever on 1.09 per cent - only a tiny margin ahead of the venerable PSone, which had 1.01 per cent.

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