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The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes has rolled out around the world, with the quirky spin-off bringing a multiplayer focus on the 3DS. It's with interest that we check out the latest Media Create results in Japan, then, to see whether it's hit it off with the portable's audience in Nintendo's homeland.

There are positives and negatives. The good news is that Tri Force Heroes has made its debut at number one, albeit in a week with fairly low sales. The downside is that it's performed far worse than predecessor The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds; based on this analysis from early 2014 the new game has sold less than a quarter of what ALBW achieved at launch, albeit the single-player adventure arrived in the peak Holiday week period (in Japan) in 2013.

Beyond that the top 20 is at least full of 3DS and Wii U games, with PriPara Mezase! Idol Grand Prix No. 1! being a newcomer in second place. You can see the top 20 below with lifetime sales in brackets.

  1. [3DS] The Legend of Zelda: Tri-Force Heroes (Nintendo, 10/22/15) – 54,394 (New)
  2. [3DS] PriPara Mezase! Idol Grand Prix No. 1! (Bandai Namco, 10/22/15) – 34,035 (New)
  3. [3DS] Yo-kai Watch Busters: Red Cat Team / White Dog Squad (Nintendo, 07/11/15) – 20,824 (1,674,995)
  4. [Wii U] Super Mario Maker (Nintendo, 09/10/15) – 15,817 (337,039)
  5. [3DS] 7th Dragon III Code: VFD (Sega, 10/15/15) – 13,299 (85,776)
  6. [Wii U] Splatoon (Nintendo, 05/28/15) – 13,159 (737,478)
  7. [3DS] Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer (Nintendo, 07/30/15) – 8,625 (1,098,904)
  8. [PSV] Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition (SCE, 03/19/15) – 7,547 (375,264)
  9. [PS3] Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 (Konami, 10/01/15) – 6,442 (82,413)
  10. [3DS] Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon (Nintendo, 09/17/15) – 6,402 (243,494)
  11. [3DS] Picross 3D 2 (Nintendo, 10/01/15) – 5,905 (58,147)
  12. [3DS] Pro Yakyuu Famista Returns (Bandai Namco, 10/08/15) – 5,894 (38,421)
  13. [PS4] Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (Konami, 09/02/15) – 4,944 (411,720)
  14. [PSV] Tokyo Xanadu (Falcom, 09/30/15) – 4,793 (116,835)
  15. [PS4] Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 (Konami, 10/01/15) – 4,528 (63,769)
  16. [PS4] Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection (SCE, 10/08/15) – 4,439 (37,049)
  17. [3DS] Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (Square Enix, 08/27/15) – 4,208 (801,043)
  18. [PS4] Grand Theft Auto V (4,990 yen Version) (Take-Two Interactive, 10/08/15) – 3,673 (10,875)
  19. [3DS] Chibi-Robo: Zip Lash (Nintendo, 10/08/15) – 3,647 (25,083)
  20. [PS3] Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (Konami, 09/02/15) – 3,614 (190,093)

It was a pretty poor week for hardware, overall, with the only gains being found in the lower reaches of the results. PS4 still leads overall with the New 3DS LL (XL) holding a solid second place - the Wii U dips back into four figures for the first time in a while, though considering the general declines across systems it's not a particularly poor outcome for the Nintendo console. The results are below with last week's sales in brackets.

  1. PlayStation 4 – 22,801 (25,699)
  2. New 3DS LL – 16,144 (17,881)
  3. PlayStation Vita – 12,981 (14,546)
  4. Wii U – 9,961 (11,658)
  5. New 3DS – 3,530 (4,514)
  6. PlayStation 3 – 1,909 (2,105)
  7. 3DS – 1,277 (1,232)
  8. Xbox One – 1,009 (438)
  9. PlayStation Vita TV – 782 (696)
  10. 3DS LL – 478 (625)

It doesn't strike us as a great week for Nintendo, with Tri Force Heroes certainly getting a less enthusiastic reception than its main-series contemporaries. Here's hoping it'll be an evergreen release on the portable.

[source gematsu.com]