Marvelous's farm-sim makes for a surprisingly strong 3DS debut...

The Media Create data today almost sees yet another 3DS game top the charts in Japan, but not quite. However, it's a surprisingly bold opening from a Harvest Moon title, earning the best debut for a game in the franchise.

Harvest Moon: The Land of Origin marks the series' proper transition onto 3DS (not counting The Tale of Two Town's western-only 3DS port from DS). The strong debut will surely buoy publisher Marvelous Interactive, who often have mixed fortunes on Nintendo platforms. Last year, Tomio Kanazawa admitted that the series would likely stay on handhelds rather than venturing onto HD consoles.

The potent 3DS trinity of Mario Kart, Super Mario and Monster Hunter continue upwards unrelentingly. The trio has not seen a week out of the top ten since Monster Hunter 3G released in December.

There were also big second-week drops for New Love Plus and Theatrhythm Final Fantasy - the latter likely due to stock issues, following a high sell-through of a reported initial shipment of 70,000 units.

The software chart for the week of February 20th to 26th is as follows.

3DS rides high after a hefty boost last week. In contrast, Sony's Vita is finding a tough time gaining any traction. The next boost Nintendo's handheld looks set to receive is with the one-two combo of Hatsune Miku: Future Stars Project Mirai and Metal Gear Solid 3D: Snake Eater (including special edition 3DS) on March 8th.