Japan Charts: Robots and Pachinko knock Vice City off the top

Banpresto's Super Robot Battle MX and a Fist of the North Star Pachinko Slot title from Sammy outstripped virtually all the competition in Japan last week, with previous number one Grand Theft Auto: Vice City dropping off significantly in its second week on sale and propping up the robots and slots in third position. Both titles sold in the region of 300,000 units more than the Capcom-distributed Rockstar action game.

Elsewhere Nintendo's grip on the top ten lessened somewhat, with all of its Famicom Mini titles slipping down the chart and out of the top ten, although sales remained strong enough to keep them above plenty of new releases, most of which sold between 10 and 50,000 units in the week ending May 30th.

The GameCube version of critical darling Wario Ware slotted in at number four in its first week on sale, while GBA remake Metroid Zero Mission came in at number six and last week's number two Pikmin 2 held on at number nine to mark nearly a month in the top tier of the Japanese charts.

Sandwiched between Wario and Metroid was Gust's PS2 RPG Atelier Iris - Eternal Mana, with Tensyo Gokuen Gensouroku at seven, train sim Densha de Go! Final at number eight and another Pachinko Slot title, this time from Success, rounding off the top ten behind Pikmin 2.

Further down the charts, From Software's release of Xbox title Tenchu: Return From Darkness failed to help that console's dwindling hopes in the region, securing 65th position on its opening week with just over 2,000 sales - roughly a tenth of the number of units the console itself has sold in Japan this year.

The only other Xbox title in the charts was Microsoft's Live-enabled flight combat title Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge at number 99, with under 4,000 sales from its first fortnight on sale.

Hardware sales continued to reflect the PS2 and GBA's dominance in the software charts, with the PS2 taking over 50 per cent of hardware sales for the week at just under 40,000 units, while the Game Boy Advance and SP enjoyed over 40 per cent between them with around 32,000 units, and the GameCube hung on with around seven per cent share and more than 5,000 units. Xbox took one per cent with less than 1,000 units.

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