Japan News, Japan Features - Page 25 of 27

360,000 copies sold in first week

The sequel to Nintendo's astonishingly successful Wii Sports has smashed its way to the top of the Japanese sales charts, according to figures released by Media Create. Wii Sports Resort sold a whopping 360,000 copies in its first week on sale. According to Japanese magazine Famitsu, 353,000 of that figure were shifted in its first four days at retail, making it..

Overseas price cuts hitting Japanese publisher hard; company "feels like crying."

Fact: The world economy is in dire straits. Do you have any money? I don't have any money. Marvelous Entertainment, publishers of the upcoming Little King's Story and Muramasa: The Demon Blade as well as the Harvest Moon series, No More Heroes and Rune Factory...

Stream Tom Cruise into your living room.

Video services are breaking through on consoles in the West: Netflix is up and running on Xbox 360 in the US, with SkyTV coming soon for the UK, and Sony has their own iTunes-like video store. Nintendo? Not so much over here, but in the company's homeland it's a totally different story. In addition to the Nintendo's own quirky Wii no Ma service, Fuji Soft..

If you're considering getting a Japanese Wii, here's some tips and suggestions on getting the most out of it.

Ever since the Japanese took over the home video game console market in the mid-80s there's been a major gulf between game releases in the consoles' country of origin and nations importing them, either because Japanese publishers lacked...

Avert your eyes - SNK Playmore's worrying sequel gets the trailer treatment.

Doki Doki Majo Shinpan is a DS title produced by SNK Playmore that revolves around touching little girls in order to see if they're witches. Unsurprisingly, it failed to get a western release. However, the Japanese absolutely lapped it up and a sequel is now inbound. Entitled Doki Majo Plus, the goal remains very much the..

Capcom and Nintendo sure do like money.

There's no doubt that the newfangled black Wii will light up the charts when it hits Japan. And it wouldn't be much of a stretch to predict that Monster Hunter 3 will print money, too. Capcom's planned bundle must surely be some kind of impending supernova then, because this much star power is sure to light up the charts. Out on August 1, the bundle will..

Pedometer accessory to ship with copies of upcoming Pokémon DS games in Japan.

Today's episode of the Japanese Pokémon Sunday officially revealed the "PokeWalker", a pedometer-like accessory that will come bundled with copies of the upcoming Pokémon remakes, Pokémon Heart Gold and Soul Silver The Poke Ball-shaped device allows you to...

Faithful Japanese customers rewarded with exclusive sky-coloured controller collection.

Hot off the heels of Nintendo's announcement concerning the stylish new black Wii and red DSi designs, Japanese Wii owners will soon have another chance to snag some colourful new swag. Customers who register their Wii Sports Resort game through the Club Nintendo Japan website between June 25 and August 1 will..

Finally, the white Wii's monopoly is over!

When the Wii was first revealed all those years ago, Nintendo showed off a wide range of colours you'd be able to buy the machine in, ranging from fire red to vomit green. Sadly when it came to launch only the white console was available, but Nintendo Japan are finally ready to deliver on some of that early pigmentary promise by releasing their popular..

More top-notch RPG action coming to the DSi

Famitsu magazine has revealed that Square Enix is to release Dragon Quest Wars on the Japanese DSiWare service some time in June. The game appears to be a mixture of turn-based strategy and a traditional board game. Both local and online multiplayer modes are expected to feature. Development duties are being handled by Intelligent Systems (Advance Wars,..

Capcom finally comes clean with a launch window

Capcom has confirmed that its long-awaited Monster Hunter 3 (Tri) will be launched in Japan on the 1st of August. A limited edition bundle will be available for collectors to wet themselves over. Capcom has confirmed that a Western release is happening, but given the late arrival of the Japanese version it's probably not going to come out here until..

Sega shows off some battle footage from its upcoming space-sim/RPG.

Just weeks away from release in Japan, Sega has finally released some combat footage from the upcoming DS space opera Infinite Space (known as Infinite Line in Japan). The top screen displays the action via a cinematic battle camera, with the touch screen used to give commands and display the inside of the player's cockpit. Epic,..

The English guide for the English version that never was

Nintendo's Mother series might not be all that well known here in the West, but the name Earthbound certainly is. You see, Earthbound is actually the English-language version of the Japanese Super Famicom game Mother 2: Gyiyg no Gyakushū. Its sequel - which took 11 years to produce and was published in 2006 on the GBA - was never released in..

A recent episode of the Japanese-only Pokémon Sunday TV show has provided the biggest hint yet that Nintendo is currently working on remakes of Pokémon Gold and Silver. The classic duo originally appeared on the Game Boy Color and remain two of the best-loved entries in the insanely successful series. Apparently a "world-exclusive first announcement" will be made on May 10 during the..

But it's still not enough to catch the 'reborn' PS3

Capcom's Monster Hunter G has given Wii a much-needed kick up the arse in Japan, where the console is currently being outsold by Sony's resurgent PS3. Sony's machine has been enjoying a rare period of sales supremacy thanks largely to killer titles such as Resident Evil 5, Yakuza 3 and - although it's not actually a video game - Final Fantasy VII:..

Oh noes! Mystery Dungeon sales down!

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Sky (AKA: Pokémon Fushigi no Dungeon: Sora no Tankentai) was recently released in Japan and promptly sold 141,000 copies, which equates to around a 30% sell-through. This retail performance was enough to place it at the top of the Japanese multi format games chart. However, when looking at the figures posted by the..

Is Arino up to the challenge?

If you don't already know what Game Center CX is well, I'll tell you: a Japanese T.V. show which started out being about Japanese arcades and retro games, with a "challenge" featuring Shinya Arino, a Japanese comedian with meagre gaming skills. The series has had its own DS game (released in the west as Retro Game Challenge) and a sequel has just been..

The Japanese simply cannot get enough of this machine

According to Japanese magazine Famistu, the Nintendo Wii crossed the '8 million sold' mark in Japan on April 19th. Enterbrain has also released the top five selling Wii games in Japan (it's worth pointing out that Wii Sports was not bundled with the console): 1. Wii SportsLaunch: 12/2/06Life-to-date: 3,481,469 copies 2. Wii FitLaunch:..

Tecmo's survival-horror title denied a stateside release by Nintendo.

Wii-exclusive survival-horror title Fatal Frame IV: Mask Of The Lunar Eclipse has been out in Japan since late July. Co-developed by Tecmo (Ninja Gaiden, Dead Or Alive) and Grasshopper Manufacture (Killer7, Contact, No More Heroes) and published by Nintendo, many assumed a worldwide release was inevitable. An official statement..