Kirby Can't Stop Pokemon in Japan

First week Epic Yarn sales outclassed by five week old Black & White.

Kirby's Epic Yarn is off to somewhat of a slow start in Japan. In its first week, the Wii title sold 92,000 units, well short of the previous Kirby game, Ultra Super Deluxe, which debuted with 266,000 units back in November 2008.

All may not be lost, though. Media Create's analysis of the week's sales suggests that the game could end up seeing long Mario-like sales if Nintendo actively pushes it through television commercials.

The big game for the week in terms of sales was, once again, Pokemon Black & White. With nearly 170,000 units, this is the fifth week in a row the DS title has been at number one. It has already crossed the 4 million mark and shows no sign of stopping.

Also new last week was Lord of Arcana, widely viewed as Square Enix's attempt at getting in on the popular Monster Hunter market. The PSP title debuted at 70,000 units, selling through less than 50% of stock. With God Eater Burst arriving next week and Monster Hunter Freedom 3 hitting in early December, we could be seeing our first victim of a crowded market.

Here's the full top 20 for the week covering October 11 through October 17:

• Pokemon Black & White (Pokemon, DS): 168,541 (4,161,397)
• Kirby's Epic Yarn (Nintendo, Wii): 92,280
• Lord of Arcana (Square Enix, PSP): 69,932
• Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded (Square Enix, DS): 31,247 (126,753)
• Red Dead Redemption (Take-Two, PS3): 26,293 (96,892)
• Wii Party (Nintendo, Wii): 23,304 (1,122,732)
• Macross F (Namco Bandai, PS3): 18,071 (170,769)
• Yakuza Black Panther (Sega, PSP): 11,263 (247,748)
• Class of Heroes 3 (Acquire, PSP): 9,848 (40,420)
• Dead Rising 2 (Capcom, PS3): 9,761 (113,872)
• K-On! Ater School Live (Sega, PSP): 9,745 (202,048)
• F1 2010 (Code Masters, PS3): 8,680 (33,953)
• Legend of Heroes: Zero no Kiseki (Nihon Falcom, PSP): 8,293 (103,799)
• One Piece Gigant Battle (Namco Bandai, DS): 8,150 (194,869)
• Monster Hunter Portable 3nd G PSP the Best Reprint (Capcom, PSP): 6,529 (449,895)
• Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo, Wii): 6,270 (855,836)
• Red Dead Redemption (Take-Two, X360): 6,203 (31,877)
• Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo, Wii): 5,990 (2,092,697)
• NBA 2K11 (Take-Two, PS3): 5,167
• Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo, Wii): 5,023 (2,952,634)

Here the hardware sales chart, with last week's sales in parentheses:

• 1. PSP: 37,127 (33,683)
• 2. PS3: 22,201 (19,948)
• 3. DSi LL: 21,084 (21,777)
• 4. DSi: 20,749 (22,301)
• 5. Wii: 12,810 (12,158)
• 6. DS Lite: 5,268 (5,960)
• 7. X360: 2,342 (2,746)
• 8. PS2: 1,715 (1,373)
• 9. PSP go: 1,590 (1,191)

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