You know it's a slow sales week in Japan when there are no Wii games in the top 10 games. The new game sales charts for Japan are in from Media Create and they indicate that the Nintendo DS has dominated the charts for the week ending on October 21. The PS2 is in second place, and a lone Xbox 360 and PSP game also were thrown in the mix.

The slow down may very well be just the eye of the storm that is Super Mario Galaxy, which will hit in just a few days. The first Wii game to enter the charts is in Wii Sports in 12th place. The first PS3 game to enter is Lair, in 21st place. Here are the top 10 games in Japan for last week:

1. Seaman 2 (PS2, Sega) - 33,000 units
2. DS Literature Collection (DS, Nintendo) - 32,000 units
3. Dragon Ball Z: Sparking! Meteor (PS2, Bandai-Namco) - 20,000 units
4. DS Nishimura Kyotarou Suspense Detective Series: Deadly Intent (DS, Tecmo) - 20,000 units
5. Gundam Battle Chronicles (PSP, Bandai-Namco) - 19,000 units
6. Pokémon Mysterious Dungeon: Time Expedition Party (DS, Pokémon) - 19,000 units
7. Beautiful Katamari (Xbox 360, Bandai-Namco) - 19,000 units
8. Pokémon Mysterious Dungeon: Shadow Expedition Party (DS Pokémon) - 16,000 units
9. Flash Focus: Vision Training in Minutes a Day (DS, Nintendo) - 15,000 units
10. Racehorse Owner Life Game: Winner’s Circle (DS, Genki) - 15,000 units

Wangan Midnight fans rejoice: Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) is now taking the highly-acclaimed racing series from the arcades and your living room to your very own handheld, with Wangan Midnight Portable for the Sony PSP. With this newest Namco Bandai and Genki game, you can experience the BlackBird and the Midnight Blue Devil Z facing off against each other once more in the longest stretch of road in Japan. We'll also see the epic battle in action in the Japanese trailer of Wangan Midnight Portable in the video below.

Not just a mere racing game on the Sony PlayStation Portable, Wangan Midnight Portable aims to bring the high-octane intensity that the anime series and its previous video games offered. Characters from the show make their first-ever debut on the Sony PSP, each with his or her own signature vehicles and personalities - including the mysterious Doctor Tatsuya Shima and his Porsche 911, as well as main protagonist Akio Asakura with his Nissan Fairlady Z S30Z. Add to that already-awesome mix some heated racing action, and you've got yourself a keeper.

Check out the video below. Enjoy!

We found new accessory items that you can use with your PlayStation Portable (PSP) over at the official PlayStation Japanese site. Nope, they are not headsets, and no, not some solar-powered charger either. But they're useful: a case and a carrier, both of which are sold separately.

The items were created by local design company PS Pictogram, the same bunch that gave us a similar porter bag back in 2005. Aside from the said company, luggage manufacturer Porter is also part of this project as well as dance group Genki Rockets. Those who play Lumines II might remember the band as the one who performed its opening theme song.

However, it seems to us that the items are rather costly. The case can be purchased for US$ 82 while the luggage bag is at around US$ 138. If you want to know more about these items, you can refer to the Read link below. It should take you to PlayStation's product page.

We know that there's a lot of you who are big fans of Lumines, be it Lumines 2 on the PSP or Lumines Live on X360 via the Xbox Live Arcade. Actually, so many things have been said already about these two versions. Being on different platforms, not to mention from opposing companies, things such as those can't be avoided.

At any rate, we have something today that will make both sides happy. If you are a Lumines fan, it is highly probable that you are familiar with the in-game hit song Heavenly Star. Developer Q Entertainment excitedly announced today that the song is available for download both in U.S. and Japan via iTunes. According to the company's Chief Creative Officer, Tetsuya Mizuguchi:

We are delighted to introduce our first self-produced song Heavenly Star on iTunes. It is an important element in Q Entertainment's global entertainment and distribution strategy. As the world's most popular digital download store, iTunes is a key platform for serving our existing audience as well as introducing our work to others around the world.

Heavenly Star is currently being employed as the background music for the PSP version. On the other hand, it will be introduced to Live early this coming January as the Heavenly Star Pack. The said track was performed by the band Genki Rockets and was produced by Mizuguchi himself.

Lumines has been heavily dependant on the range of soundtracks available, and is a element of the game which adds to it's originality. To put it simply - it wouldn't have sold as much if it didn't feature a bucketload of catchy tunes, and the sequel to the PSP puzzler won't be any different. The game from Q Entertainment combines a Tetris-style puzzle game with upbeat tunes and some pretty good graphical effects to keep you occupied for hours.

The title song for Lumines II comes from a gorillaz-style band named Genki Rockets and is called “Heavenly Star”, the first song ever produced by Q Entertainment founder Tetsuya Mizuguchi in an exclusive deal. The group Genki Rockets is a hybrid group that consists of a few artists. The group will be collaborating with other artists in the future to bring new music and videos. Mizuguchi said "While most of my creative energy has been devoted to video games, because music plays such an important role in them, it seemed ideal to create an original music video."

And aren't we glad that Mizuguchi has taste in music too. If he didn't where would Lumines be now? Give your music tastes a challenge and watch the music video here. Lumines II is due to be released on November 8th this year.

Buy: [Lumines 2]