While Japan campaigns with a new Fire Emblem, the PSP gets a certifiable new hit in the week ending February 25th.

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

Surging software sales for the week were paced by Capcom's Monster Hunter Portable 2nd which moved over 700k units. The game is the sequel to the PSP's best selling title to date. Excitement for the game even spilled over into hardware sales, and it is likely MHP2 will be one of the rare PSP titles that garner sustained interest (a short list that includes the likes of Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops and, of course, the first Monster Hunter Portable).

The week also brought several notable new releases on Nintendo platforms. Debuting for the Wii were Fire Emblem: Goddess of Dawn and a new fighting game based on the popular anime series Naruto. Meanwhile, Electronic Arts graced the DS with a special version of Sim City. Fans of the city-building series will be excited to find a portable build that has been optimized with the DS' strengths in mind. The historically West-focused EA has several other DS titles in the pipeline that they feel will appeal to Japanese gamers, most notably a stylized version of The Sims that features cuter character models.

On the hardware front, though the PSP surged above Nintendo's Wii, the DS Lite would not be dethroned. Much maligned as of late, the portable Playstation nevertheless is outpacing its beefy brother, the PS3. Expect the pecking order to resume its usual order next week: it will be a while before Monster Hunter Portable 3rd sees its inevitable release.

The weekly software numbers follow:

The week's console numbers follow: