Japan Charts: Final Fantasy spin-off claims the top spot

The Japanese software charts are littered with new releases this week, although the almost total market dominance of the Nintendo DS remains unchecked - with the titles for the handheld accounting for more than half of the all-formats top ten.

In all, 20 new releases made their debut in the top 100, generating 62.82 per cent of overall software sales. Sony's PlayStation 2 was the only other platform to feature alongside the DS in the top ten, with four titles including this week's number one.

Series spin-off Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII claimed the top spot for Square-Enix, racking up sales of 392,000 units, while Capcom's Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams achieved sales in excess of 100,000 units, taking third place in the all-formats top ten.

Banpresto's RPG title, Ar Tonelico, sits in seventh place, and the only remaining PS2 title is Konami's Winning Eleven 9 bonus pack, which scraped in at number ten. As in previous weeks, the remainder of the chart belongs solely to the DS, the only noticeable decline in sales coming from Animal Crossing: Wild World (previously shifting in excess of a million units in the first fortnight on sale) which slipped from two to five, and Mario Kart DS, which dropped four places from five to nine.

Nintendo's efforts to diversify the content for its handheld and include educational elements doesn't appear to have affected sales in the slightest, as English Training DS jumps into second place with sales of approximately 240,000 units.

Brain Age 2 and Brain Age continue the trend, both titles performing well at retail and resting in the charts in fourth and sixth place respectively. SEGA's Bleach DS completes the strong performance for the device, entering the charts at number eight.

Sales of the DS and the plethora of innovative and original software titles have been considerably increased thanks to the availability of connected gaming via Wi-Fi hotspots in locations such as cafes, pubs and transport stations. Almost 50 per cent of US users took advantage of the online service in its first week of availability, and the service currently boasts over 3 million users worldwide.