Just because last week saw only two new titles enter the Japanese Top 20 doesn't mean it was uneventful. On the contrary; a good many titles have started clawing their way back up the list to compete with the reigning king, Dragon Quest V, creating drama and tension along the way! Or at least as much drama and tension as can be produced by selling a few extra copies of One Piece: Going Baseball. Thrilling Japanese sales data is care of Dengeki Online.

As mentioned earlier, Dragon Quest V: Bride of the Sky continues to beat the everliving snot out of every other game out there. The remake debuted two weeks ago at #1, selling approximately 1.1 million copies, and the numbers keep growing. To put things into a clearer perspective, the total sales for the top 100 games that week were around the 2 million mark, giving DQV over half of the total units moved out of a hundred games. Not too shabby.

The two new entrants into the market are Koei's Nobunaga's Ambition: Tenka Sousei and SCE's Doko Demo Issyo: Toro to Nagareboshi. Koei fans know to turn to the former for their historical Asian fix, but it takes a discerning eye to recognize Toro to Nagareboshi as the leader in anthropomorphic cat adventure titles. With the aid of his friends, SCE's pseudomascot Toro must track down the shards of a comet that crashed on earth in order to fulfill everyone's wishes. If you don't think it's your cup of tea, at least take a look at some of theincredible merchandise first.

Famicom Mini: Super Mario Brothers climbs three spots since last week without breaking a sweat, managing to sell more than the similarly upward bound Pokémon remakes. Namco's vastly underappreciated Katamari Damashii jumps from 17 to 15, and even Top 20 veteran World Soccer Winning Eleven 7 International gains a slot after over a month and a half on the chart. We're still scratching our heads at One Piece: Going Baseball's unprecedented eight-slot leap.

Top 20 Video Game Sales in Japan, Week of 3/29 - 4/4 No. Was Title Publisher Platform Release Date 1 1 Dragon Quest V: Bride of the Sky Square Enix PS2 3/25 2 - Nobunaga's Ambition: Tenka Sousei Koei PS2 4/1 3 2 Dragonball Z Bukuu Tougeki Banpresto GBA 3/26 4 7 Famicom Mini: Super Mario Brothers Nintendo GBA 2/14 5 9 Pokémon Fire Red Pokémon GBA 1/29 6 4 Shin Sangoku Musou 3 Empires Koei PS2 3/18 7 3 Fullmetal Alchemist Bandai GBA 3/26 8 10 Monster Hunter Capcom PS2 3/11 9 13 Pokémon Leaf Green Pokémon GBA 1/29 10 - Doko Demo Issyo: Toro to Nagareboshi SCE PS2 4/1 11 6 Golden Gash Bell! Friendship Tag Battle Hudson PS2 3/25 12 5 Pro Baseball Spirits 2004 Konami PS2 3/25 13 11 Netsu Chu! Pro Baseball 2004 Namco PS2 3/25 14 8 Sega Ages 2500 Series Vol. 11: Hokuto no Ken Sega PS2 3/25 15 17 Katamari Damashii Namco PS2 3/18 16 16 Bobobobo Bobobo 9 Kyoku Senshi Gyagu Hudson GBA 3/25 17 15 The Legend of Zelda: The Four Swords+ Nintendo GCN 3/18 18 19 World Soccer Winning Eleven 7 International Konami PS2 2/19 19 14 Armored Core Nexus From Software PS2 3/18 20 28 One Piece: Going Baseball Bandai GBA 3/11

Copyright © 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in 1UP.