Japan's DS sales bounce along on the back of Yoshi, in the week ending 3/18.

Courtesy of Media-Create, we have the most recent sales figures from Japan.

Software sales were again led by Yoshi's Island DS. A couple notable releases making their way into the top 10 this week include Word Puzzle Mojipittan DS and Tokimeki Memorial: Girl's Side 1st Love. The former is another Bandai-Namco effort aimed at the suddenly lucrative non-gamer group anchored by Nintendo DS hits. The latter is an adventure game that stuffs the player into the cute shoes of a schoolgirl intent on reeling in one of a cadre of stereotypical school heartthrobs. As the title indicates, the Konami-developed game is aimed mostly at girls...the question is whether the company deems non-Japanese markets as diverse and established enough to take a chance on a relatively unknown genre.

In hardware, the Wii and PSP again flip-flopped positions as recent excitement from the PSP's Monster Hunter Portable 2nd ramps down. Also note that, with little fanfare, lower-tier platforms such as the GBA and GC have been dropped off the charts barring extraordinary sales performances. Nintendo has moved on (as evidenced by the now total lack of software support for these platforms) and now so must we.

The weekly software numbers follow:

The week's console numbers follow: