Mario & Luigi RPG 3, as predicted, topped the charts, but there was a disconcerting lack of Wii games in the Japanese top ten this week, as Sony dominated the upper echelons of the chart.Though some were predicting even higher numbers for Mario & Luigi, just under 200,000 copies is by some distance the best first week for the handheld franchise. Indeed, it beat the first week sales of both Superstar Saga and Partners in Time combined. A localisation really can’t come soon enough (will it launch alongside the DSi in Europe perhaps?)

Elsewhere, the sole other Nintendo console representative was the DS version of Echoes of time, hanging in there with a small drop in sales this week to a still-healthy 20,000 units. The Wii take on the game is outside the top 30 despite a hefty price cut. Ouch.

Meanwhile, Street Fighter IV was the other dominant force, the exceptional revival of the 2D beat-em-up genre’s most famous series coming in at second on PS3 and 5th for the 360 iteration. Many Japanese stores reported selling out, which, assuming Capcom gets plenty of stock back in, could make it a contender for the top next week (though Xbox 360 exclusive RPG, Star Ocean 4, could yet have a say).

Full chart below - hardware will follow tomorrow.

01. [NDS] Mario & Luigi RPG 3 (Nintendo) 193,000 / NEW
02. [PS3] Street Fighter IV (Capcom) 86,000 / NEW
03. [PSP] Kidou Senshi Gundam: Giren no Yabou (Namco Bandai) 40,000 / NEW
04. [PS2] Kidou Senshi Gundam: Giren no Yabou (Namco Bandai) 38,000 / NEW
05. [360] Street Fighter IV (Capcom) 38,000 / NEW
06. [PSP] Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (Konami) 27,000 / 174,000
07. [PS2] Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (Konami) 25,000 / 170,000
08. [PS3] Demon’s Souls (SCE) 22,000 / 62,000
09. [PSP] Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2 (Namco Bandai) 22,000 / 280,000
10. [NDS] Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time (Square Enix) 20,000 / 156,000

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CliffsNotes: Mario & Luigi good, Another Code: R not so good.

Yep, this week’s edition of gaming Koran Famitsu carries reviews of CiNG’s Wii adventure and the moustachioed brothers’ third handheld RPG outing. The latter proved to be more popular, nabbing 9s from three of Famitsu’s four-strong review team, and a comparatively stingy 8 from the other. Another Code: R garnered a comparatively low 28/40, with all four critics slapping down a score of 7/10.

The suggestion is that Another Code’s story is perhaps a little too intrusive, taking up a substantial portion of the game and slowing its pace, while there aren’t enough puzzles, hints one of Famitsu’s team. It all sounds a little more Hotel Dusk than the original, but I’m optimistic that a decent translation will help it fare better with western reviewers. Dusk was all about the chat, with precious little genuine puzzle-solving, but its noir-tinged script, brilliantly localised by Nintendo’s crack translation squad at Treehouse, managed to save the day, creating a thoroughly compelling adventure game/visual novel hybrid.

Meanwhile, Mario & Luigi scored the same as its immediate predecessor, Partners in Time. Which could be a good or a bad thing, depending on your standpoint. I’m firmly of the opinion that Partners was a great game, slightly less so than its GBA forebear, mainly thanks to its reduced runtime and more linear worlds. More of the same in those respects in the third game would be a little disappointing, but the early videos suggest it’s as gleefully inventive and amusing as Superstar Saga. Let’s hope that gets a Q2 European release, too.

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“I HAVE FURY!”

If you’ve played GBA classic Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, then you’ll know why the return of videogaming’s Best Evil Sidekick, the hilarious Fawful, is a very good thing indeed. His broken English - speeches about “mustard of doom” and “brothers of badness” - caused many a belly laugh, and while sequel Partners in Time saw his appearance reduced to a brief cameo as a badge shop owner, it looks like he’ll be playing a key role in the imminent threequel.

Original developer Alphadream is returning, too - and it looks to have a fair few neat ideas up its sleeve if the videos dotted about the game’s official site are any indication. They’re mostly the sort of thing we’ve seen in the clips posted on the Touch-DS minisite yesterday, but it’s interesting to see exactly how Bowser will affect Mario and Luigi’s progress and vice versa -a potentially more elegant and less confusing central mechanic than the baby heroes in Partners.

The art is delightful too, with some excellent character designs, engaging animations and a general spit-and-polish for the whole presentation. To paraphrase Fawful, if you don’t want this then you are idiots of foolishness. “Snack on my wrath, fink-rats!”

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