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It somewhat flew under our radar due to its previous release in Western territories, but Mario Party: Island Tour arrived in Japan only last week — proof that it's not always North America and PAL regions kept waiting. With that release the 3DS enjoyed an increase in sales, while the Wii U has crept closer to five figures.

To start with the software top 20 (via Media Create), Mario's latest party has managed to get started in quite a few Japanese households, amassing 132,668 sales. In a break from convention, however, many of the ever-present 3DS titles — including other new releases — have been pushed out of the top 10 by a mix of J-Stars Victory VS iterations, as well as two entries apiece for fellow Sony system newcomers Samurai Warriors 4 and Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. The top 20 is below — physical retail sales only — with lifetime sales in parenthesis.

1. [3DS] Mario Party: Island Tour – 132,668 (New)
2. [PS3] Samurai Warriors 4 – 120,452 (New)
3. [PS3] Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes – 119,615 (New)
4. [PS3] J-Stars Victory VS – 118,240 (New)
5. [PSV] J-Stars Victory VS – 97,821 (New)
6. [PS4] Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes – 91,903 (New)
7. [PS3] Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2014 – 63,898 (New)
8. [3DS] Yokai Watch – 44,659 (614,379)
9. [PSV] Samurai Warriors 4 – 39,597 (New)
10. [PS3] Dark Souls II – 37,285 (292,482)
11. [3DS] Game Center CX: 3-Choume no Arino – 33,618 (New)
12. [PSV] Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2014 – 30,261 (New)
13. [PSP] Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2014 – 27,823 (New)
14. [PSV] Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 2: Sisters Generation – 26,845 (New)
15. [PSV] Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode 2 Deluxe Package – 16,152 (New)
16. [3DS] Hero Bank – 15,060 (New)
17. [3DS] Kirby Triple Deluxe – 14,060 (515,895)
18. [3DS] Kaseki Horider: Mugen Gear – 13,512 (107,413)
19. [3DS] Dragon Quest Monsters 2: Iru and Luca’s Wonderful Mysterious Keys – 13,283 (750,876)
20. [3DS] Harvest Moon: Tsunagaru Shin Tenchi – 10,293 (186,473)

The hardware results for the week remain intriguing as, no doubt helped by those fresh releases in the software top ten, the Vita and PS4 remain on top, though the latter didn't enjoy a substantial bump through Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes — that's despite still being relatively fresh on the market. Both 3DS models also increased — combining the two still places the portable on top — with Mario Party's number one arrival assisting, while the Wii U enjoyed an increase to return closer to the modest 10,000 unit mark; results are below with last week's sales in parenthesis.

PlayStation Vita – 35,374 (28,270)
PlayStation 4 – 30,201 (29,677)
3DS LL – 28,291 (23,372)
PlayStation 3 – 15,455 (14,128)
3DS – 11,985 (10,772)
Wii U – 9,982 (7,654)
PSP – 3,563 (3,461)
PlayStation Vita TV – 1,754 (1,447)
Xbox 360 – 288 (278)

Nintendo will no doubt be pleased to see Mario Party fight off a number of competitors in the software chart, actually assisted by its exclusivity as opposed to sales being split between formats. The hardware trends remain as per last week, though we can at least point to a near-25% increase for Wii U.

[source gematsu.com]