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Japan Charts: Robust Pokemon remakes can't bounce Dragon Ball

It looks like most Japanese gamers caught 'em all last week, with sales of Pokemon remakes Leaf Green and Fire Red losing three quarters of their momentum this week.

PS2 title Dragon Ball Z 2 has toppled Nintendo's Pokîmon remakes Fire Red and Leaf Green, taking top spot in Japan with approximately 324,000 units sold in its first week on sale, compared to a combined estimate of 271,000 for both Pokîmon titles.

Hardware market share also levelled off this week, with the PS2 sales up to 41.51 per cent from last week's 34.5 per cent, and the GBA slipping fractionally below 50 per cent to 49.68 (43.82 GBA SP, 5.86 vanilla GBA), although both systems still account for the vast majority of Japanese hardware sales, with their closest competitor the GameCube managing just 7.47 per cent and no titles in the official Top 10 list.

The highest new entry besides Bandai's Dragon Ball Z 2 this week was Sega's Puyo Puyo Fever, a multi-format puzzle title represented in fourth position by the PS2 version, which reportedly sold around 90,000 units in its first full week.

The Pokîmon twins weren't the only GBA titles slipping down this week, with Capcom's Upset Trial 3 and Mega Man Battle Network 4 titles gone from this week's listing, but elsewhere Konami's latest handheld Yu-Gi-Oh! title Duel Monsters: Expert 3 debuted at seven.

Also gone from this week's listing is Nippon Ichi's Disgaea follow-up Phantom Brave, which was at nine last week. Square Enix's "director's cut" of Star Ocean 3: Till The End of Time dropped a place to fill its shoes. Another PS2 RPG, Atlus' Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne Matrix, held onto its Top 10 status at the foot of the listing.

PS2 titles Hajime no Ippo 2: Victorious Road (ESP) and Fuun Shinsengumi (Genki) both dropped two places to accommodate the ascension of DBZ2 and Puyo Puyo Fever, while a former number one, Polyphony Digital's budget-priced Gran Turismo 4: Prologue, crept back to number eight this week.

Pos. Platform Title Publisher Released
1. PS2 Dragon Ball Z 2 Bandai 05/02/2004
2. GBA Pokemon Fire Red Nintendo 29/01/2004
3. GBA Pokemon Leaf Green Nintendo 29/01/2003
4. PS2 Puyo Puyo Fever Sega 04/02/2004
5. PS2 Hajime no Ippo 2: Victorious Road ESP 29/01/2004
6. PS2 Fuun Shinsengumi Genki 22/01/2004
7. GBA Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters: Expert 3 Konami 05/02/2004
8. PS2 Gran Turismo 4: Prologue SCE 04/12/2003
9. PS2 Star Ocean 3: Till The End of Time - Directors Cut Square Enix 22/01/2004
10. PS2 Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne Matrix Atlus 29/01/2004

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Tom Bramwell

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Tom worked at Eurogamer from early 2000 to late 2014, including seven years as Editor-in-Chief.