Skip to main content

Long read: The beauty and drama of video games and their clouds

"It's a little bit hard to work out without knowing the altitude of that dragon..."

If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

DSi LL Japan's best selling hardware

As Fire Emblem, Dragon Quest top chart.

Nintendo's DSi LL was the best selling game console this week in Japan, having shifted 28,916 units.

Combined, DS sales were 51,264 (DSi LL 28,916, DSi 17,356, DS Lite 4992) and miles ahead of everything else, according to Media Create data.

A joint PSP and PSPgo total of 25,467 (PSP 24,421, PSPgo 1046) sales was just enough to edge past Wii - with 24,604 sales - to second.

PS3 held fourth with 18,345 sales. Xbox 360 sales were on the high side of average at 5688, and PS2 bottomed the pile with 1558 sales.

In the software chart, new DS game Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem - Hero of Light and Shadow debuted at the top.

A quick Wikipedia trawl shows this to be another remake of an old Fire Emblem game - in this case Fire Emblem: Monshou no Nazo, the sequel to Shadow Dragon.

Shadow Dragon, remember, has already been remade for DS. It's a nightmare to find in shops, but is worth a purchase should you get lucky. Eurogamer's Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon review explains why.

There's no news on Hero of Light and Shadow heading West.

In second this week is another newcomer, RPG Dragon Quest: Monster Battle Road Victory for Wii. This is an eye-catching adventure with a card-based battle element. Battles appear to be quite complicated, and involve picking cards before deploying troops for a turn-based face-off. There's a video on GoNintendo of the action.

Both Fire Emblem and Dragon Quest sold 136,000 units, but Fire Emblem's shown at the top of the chart.

From there, Jikkyo Powerful Pro Baseball 2010 (PS3) took third, Wii Party fourth and Capcom's Last Ranker (PSP) fifth.

Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2010 (PSP), Inazuma Eleven 3: World Challenge!! Spark / Bomber (DS), White Knight Chronicles: Awakening of Light and Darkness (PS3), Harvest Moon: Twin Villages (DS) and Momotaro Railway Tag Match: Friendship - Cooperation - Winning Volume! (PSP) rounded out the top 10.