Pokemon Platinum DS Tops Japanese Charts Once More

Pokemon Platinum has retained its number one spot in the Japanese Media Create software sales chart, selling another 315,000 copies to beat off competition from the new entrant Dragonball DS in second.

Namco Bandai’s title sold a fairly impressive 72,000 in its first week, 9,000 more than Rhythm Tengoku Gold, which rounded out a clean sweep of the top three for Nintendo’s omni-popular handheld.

Konami’s Quiz Magic Academy DS takes fifth place in the charts, while Wii titles Wii Fit, One Piece Unlimited Cruise: Episode 1 and Mario Kart Wii all find themselves among the top ten sellers this week.

Continue our story for the full top 30 listing – DS and Wii entries highlighted.

Famitsu DS, Wii Roundup

It was a busy week for games on the two Nintendo consoles in Famitsu, with news on eight upcoming titles as well as reviews of two soon to be released games.

We have already covered the 7th Dragon and Level 5 news, but there are a number of other RPGs making their way to the DS over the next year.

Sega have been funnelling a large chunk of resource into DS RPG’s recently, and that trend continues with Infinite Space, described as a space opera RPG and slated for a Spring 2009 release. Acquire will tip their hat into the ring with Dungeons and Dams, while December will see the release of Gungho’s Ragnarok Online, which will allow up to 3 players to connect and play together over a Wi-Fi connection.

Sega Reveals 7th Dragon For DS

This week’s Famitsu magazine has a blow out feature on Sega’s upcoming Nintendo DS RPG 7th Dragon, which had previously been shrouded in mystery.

7th Dragon is being helmed by Etrian Odyssey director Kazuya Niinou and looks to share a number of similarities with that series, namely in the number of classes (7), the number of different appearances within each class (4), the skill trees and the statistics that are attributed to your characters.

The battles will be command based, while general movement through the world will see the DS’ top screen displaying a top down map, with the bottom screen given the task of showing the conquest map.

7th Dragon is scheduled for a Spring 2009 release in Japan and will be shown to the public in some form at the Tokyo Game Show in October.

Level 5 Announces Inazuma Eleven 2, Ninokuni For 10th Anniversary

Celebrated developer Level 5 have announced two new Nintendo DS titles at their Vision 2008 shindig in Japan, as they celebrate their tenth year of existence in style.

Level 5 have already enjoyed success on the DS with their Professor Layton series and hope to continue that trend with a sequel to their mildly-popular football RPG Inazuma Eleven, which is due to hit Japanese retail in 2009.

In addition, they also announced a entirely new RPG, entitled Ninokuni. Also slated for a 2009 release, Ninokuni will feature the animation talents of Studio Ghibli, famed in anime circles for the likes of Castle In The Sky and Spirited Away.

The game will come packaged with a book of magic information and spells that will need to be referred to whilst playing the game. It sounds like an interesting concept, but one that could rather spoil the portability of the title. However, if anyone can pull it off, then Level 5 are probably the guys to do it.

This Week’s Japanese DS Releases

It’s a fairly well stacked week for Japanese DS releases this Thursday, with no fewer than eleven titles set to hit store shelves.

The Image Epoch developed Sega RPG World Destruction is the most notable release of the week. It received a 31/40 score in Famitsu and makes use of an expanded size DS cartridge, allowing it to be voice acted and include a stunning soundtrack by Yasunori Mitsuda.

In less exciting Sega release news, this week also sees the launch of handwriting training game U-Can Pen Ji Training DS as they attempt to muscle in on the casual craze of self-help games.

The rest of this week’s releases are the usual mix of anime-based adventure games, dress up a girl simulators and Mahjong, although eating-stuff themed puzzler Gabu*Gabu Planet could also be one to look out for, if only for the character design by TOUMA. Hit the jump for the full list, videos and purchase options.

Nintendo Is A Top Forty Brand

Nintendo has moved up four places to number forty in Interbrand’s ranking of the best global brands for 2008, following a year of worldwide success for the Wii and the DS.

The ‘Big N’ is the only video game-specific brand to make the top 100, sitting squarely between cereal producer Kellogg’s in 39th and investment company UBS in 41st following a 13% rise in brand value over 2007.

Microsoft and Sony both charted in front of Nintendo, with Microsoft bumped down to third by IBM, while Sony maintained their 25th position from the 2007 list. Coca Cola continues the lead the way.

New Valkyrie Profile DS Trailer

Square Enix have today updated their Valkyrie Profile website with a new trailer for the forthcoming DS RPG, subtitled ‘Toga o Seoumono’, which is due to hit Japanese stores on the 30th October.

The near four minute trailer can be accessed via the ‘Special’ section of the website, directly downloaded as an 86.5mb file, or viewed via Youtube if you are so inclined as to check out the rest of our story below.