Japan Charts Oct. 29-Nov. 4: Super Mario Galaxy's 250K debut

This week, Nintendo's iconic mustachioed plumber deftly worked the pipes stateside, racking up high praise for his debut on the Wii with Super Mario Galaxy. However, Mario's space odyssey has been out in Japan since November 1, and Japanese gamers have been ushering his arrival with a plateful of yen. In the four days since launch, Super Mario Galaxy has sold 251,000 units, according to the latest figures from stat trackers Media Create.

Indicative of the island nation's continued fascination with Nintendo's hardware, the House that Mario Built commandeered eight of the top 10 slots in this week's sales chart. The Nintendo DS accounted for the bulk of those sales, with Final Fantasy Tactics A2 landing in the third position with 51,000 units sold, DS Literature Collection in fifth selling 18,000, and DS Nishimura Kyotarou Suspense Detective Series: Deadly Intent at sixth with 18,000 units.

Flash Focus: Vision Training in Minutes a Day, World Soccer Winning Eleven DS: Goal to Goal, and Pokémon Mysterious Dungeon: Time Expedition Party rounded out the top 10 with 15,000, 15,000 again, and 14,000 units, respectively. A staple of Japan's charts, Wii Sports, which is not packed in with Nintendo's console in Japan, moved 16,000 more units, bringing its lifetime total to 2,182,000.

While the Xbox 360 continues to struggle in Japan, some homecourt publishers have been able to find a foothold in the market. Case in point, Namco Bandai made a strong debut for the week with Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation moving 77,000 units, securing second place. Another new entrant in Japan's charts, Banpresto's Super Robot Wars Scramble Commander the 2nd, sold 21,000 copies and filed in at the fourth slot.