As of June 30th, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door sold 1.76 million. The remake of the 2004 Nintendo GameCube classic garnered strong critical reviews at launch (as noted in its accolades trailer).

Meanwhile, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, based on the 2013 Nintendo 3DS title from Next Level Games, sold 1.19 million units. It launched on June 27th for Nintendo Switch, thus achieving that milestone within three days, so it should be interesting to see its performance in the long term. You can read our review for our thoughts.

Nintendo’s Princess Peach: Showtime! is also confirmed to have sold over 1.3 million units since launching on March 22nd (up from 1.22 million sold as of March 31st). Check out our review here.

The Switch exclusive sold over 77,000 copies, which is a solid start for the game. In comparison, developer Good-Feel’s previous title, Yoshi’s Crafted World, sold over 50,000 copies upon its Japanese debut. Meanwhile, the last time we got a Princess Peach game – which was Super Princess Peach for the Nintendo DS back in 2005 – it sold over 29,000 units upon release. Recently-released fellow Mario spinoff Mario vs. Donkey Kong, meanwhile, sold over 61,000 units upon launch. Princess Peach: Showtime! has seen higher sales than all of them.

In second place is Dragon’s Dogma 2, selling over 68,000 physical units in Japan upon release. Compared to its predecessor, those are significantly lower numbers. Upon its release in 2012, the original Dragon’s Dogma sold over 321,000 units in Japan, and the sequel has definitely fallen short of those numbers.

Finally, Team Ninja and Sony’s Rise of the Ronin has debuted at No. 3 with over 64,000 units sold. That’s a better launch than Team Ninja’s last game, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, which sold over 47,000 units upon its release last year. However, both Nioh game enjoyed notably better launches, with the first one selling over 89,000 units when it launched in 2017, and the sequel selling over 91,000 units upon its 2020 launch.

On the hardware front, the Nintendo Switch was once again the best-selling console in Japan last week. It moved over 60,000 units, which is a healthy boost from last week’s sales (when it sold over 42,000 units). The PS5 follows behind in second place, with over 27,000 units sold.

You can check out the full hardware and physical software sales charts for the week ending March 24 below.

Software sales (followed by lifetime sales):

1. [NSW] Princess Peach: Showtime! – 77,562 (New)
2. [PS5] Dragon’s Dogma 2 – 68,592 (New)
3. [PS5] Rise of the Ronin – 64,646 (New)
4. [NSW] Dragon Quest 10 Online: The Door to the Future and the Sleeping Girl (Square Enix, 03/21/24) – 17,919 (New)
5. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 9,276 (5,758,176)
6. [NSW] Super Mario Bros. Wonder – 8,118 (1,795,584)
7. [PS4] Dragon Quest 10 Online: The Door to the Future and the Sleeping Girl – 7,333 (New)
8. [PS5] Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth – 7,121 (305,756)
9. [NSW] Mario vs. Donkey Kong – 6,987 (131,428)
10. [NSW] Minecraft – 6,563 (3,476,939)

Hardware sale (followed by last week’s sales):

• Nintendo Switch – 60,828 (42,883)
• PS5 – 27,788 (26,516)
• Xbox Series X/S – 1,360 (1,496)

And there will be a lot of younger and new players who will be looking into Princess Peach Showtime! Created in the wake of the massive success of the Mario movie last year, this game is very clearly meant to be an onboarding ramp for younger girls who saw that movie and liked Peach, and want a game starring her. Unlike Nintendo’s past, very tone deaf attempts at having Peach centred games, Showtime! is actually a great premise which allows just enough contextualization for Nintendo and developers Good Feel to give a nice story reason for all the otherwise loosely connected (if at all) ideas and themes for their stages and gameplay mechanics.

"While you are always gong to be using the same three buttons to play the game, what they do and how they allow you to interact with the stage (er, play) you are in will change by the level."

And that’s the interesting thing, the game actually changes how it plays across stages – from basic sword fighting to lassoing as a cowgirl while chasing down bandits on horseback, from figure skating on ice to fighting off aliens, every stage in Princess Peach Showtime! Is different. And by different I don’t just mean the aesthetic and theming, I mean the entire gameplay changes. While you are always gong to be using the same three buttons to play the game, what they do and how they allow you to interact with the stage (er, play) you are in will change by the level. Meaning Princess Peach Showtime is a delightful smorgasbord of a lot of different ideas, mechanics, and themes. As mentioned at the outset of this review, none of these are explored to any real meaningful depth or iteration. You get the basic concept introduced early in the stage, and then you use that signature mechanic to complete the stage before moving on. Every level feels like its own completely distinct and unique “genre” – the game is very clearly designed to cast as wide a net as possible, and to cater to kids with something new to keep their attention spans engaged constantly.

I do appreciate that the game gives reasons to keep replaying its levels – usually to collect any collectibles you may have missed – because generally speaking, this is a fairly easy game. It’s still engaging and fun for the sheer charm and whimsy, but at no point will your skills or thinking be challenged by anything – action, combat, puzzles, traversal – in the game. Peach does, however, make concessions for even newer players who may need more help than the game’s default setup provides – for instance, you can get an additional three hit points if you struggle with avoiding obstacles or enemy hits. Or, if you die at an end-stage boss enough times, the game offers you to use all the currency you’ve earned in the level to auto-complete the stage. You don’t have to – but it’s a good option for younger players who may be stuck or frustrated by a specific section of the game, to allow them the flexibility to skip past it and go do other things (plus, as mentioned, the replayability means you can always come back to what you skipped and try again later).

"The game is acutely aware of the fact that that it is taking place on the stage at all times, and it constantly reinforces that – from having a spotlight constantly shined on Peach to being able to see the strings on some sets and characters as they move through the stages."

With each level being so varied and different, and having its own distinct genre and mechanics, you would expect the quality to vary wildly across levels. And you would be right. While none of the levels is bad, the limited control scheme paired with the lack of meaningful iteration means a lot of them don’t really feel too compelling to play. Again, this may very well be an opinion exclusive to more seasoned players, and younger players may have zero problems with, for example, the loose-ish controls the can create frustration in some rhythm mini game sections of Princess Peach Showtime!, but at the very least, it is evident that some levels very obviously work better than some others do.

What remains consistent across the game, surprisingly enough, is the quality of the boss fights. Now, again, these are simple boss fights for a simple game – don’t go expecting Monster Hunter World or Elden Ring here (I mean, seriously, what is wrong with you if you were expecting that?). But they’re delighgtfully well designed, both visually and in terms of the mechanics they involve, and definitely among the best parts of the game.

Also great – the game’s commitment to its central theatre motif. See, the story of Showtime!, such as it is, is that Peach went with a couple of Toads to a theatre to watch a play, where things went wrong, and now she has to help. This theatre has multiple auditoriums, each with their own plays (which is where the different costumes and genres for each level come from), and you have to clear them off one by one. The game is acutely aware of the fact that that it is taking place on the stage at all times, and it constantly reinforces that – from having a spotlight constantly shined on Peach to being able to see the strings on some sets and characters as they move through the stages.

"Ultimately this is a game for younger and newer players, and it’s a well designed version of that. Younger players, or their parents playing with them, will have a great time with it, and you can still enjoy it if you don’t fall into those categories – but just keep your expectations in check."

The new theme also allows Princess Peach Showtime! To have its own very distinct identity from the mainline Super Mario games. Very little to no elements from the main games make it here – I mean, sure, okay, you have the toads, you have castles, and you have Peach herself, but really, this is very much its own thing – as it should be, rather than feeling like a lesser offshoot of Super Mario.

Unfortunately, while Peach is definitely a winner on the presentation front conceptually, the execution definitely does it in. To put it in nice terms, this game is fairly lacking from a tech perspective. There are loads of load times (and while they aren’t interminably long, I wouldn’t call them short), and the game itself is running at an alarmingly low resolution leading to a soft image as well as very obvious deficiencies like jaggies and blurring. Again, this is presumably something the target audience will neither notice, nor care about – but bear in mind that this game definitely seems to have less of the polish hat you would otherwise expect from a Nintendo first party game.

Is Princess Peach Showtime! Worth it? I would say it is if you have players you want getting into games, especially if they are coming off of the Mario movie, and want to play as Peach on her many adventures. It’s also a great game to just chill with – it’s inventive enough to make sure you’re not totally tuning out, but easy enough that you can afford to let your guard down. But ultimately this is a game for newer players, and it’s a well designed version of that. They will have a great time with it, and you can still enjoy it if you don’t fall into those categories – but just keep your expectations in check.

Speaking of expectations, I’ll be hoping this game gets a follow up that iterates on and fleshes out this one’s ideas, and hopefully starts an ongoing series. I would hate for this to be the last time we saw Peach in a starring role, after all.

This game was reviewed on Nintendo Switch.

Capcom’s open world action RPG was “narrowly ahead” of Princess Peach: Showtime!, which slotted in at No. 3, while another new release, Rise of the Ronin, entered the charts at No. 5. Meanwhile, THQ Nordic’s Alone in the Dark reboot came in at No. 6.

Interestingly, as per Dring, owing to the significantly higher share of physical sales that Nintendo Switch games usually see in the UK, Princess Peach: Showtime! has had a “weak launch”, with sales lower than what the Mario vs. Donkey Kong remake managed upon its release last month. Even though Dragon’s Dogma 2 is only “narrowly” ahead of Princess Peach in the physical charts, when accounting for digital sales (data for which will arrive later in the week), it’s likely to have had a much better launch.

Meanwhile, Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown re-entered the charts at No. 10, a whopping 693 percent increase in sales from last week, courtesy of Amazon’s Spring Sale.

Rise of Ronin is at No.5, while Alone in the Dark is the final new release in the charts at No.6. Amazon Spring Sale sends games up the charts, including Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown at No.10 (+693% week-on-week). Best to wait on digital to draw conclusions

— Christopher Dring (@Chris_Dring) March 25, 2024

In the UK, Switch games are much more skewed towards the physical market, vs Xbox and PlayStation. Much more. Dragon's Dogma could be 80 – 90% digital, whereas Princess Peach — based on third-party Switch sales — could be 70 – 80% physical.

— Christopher Dring (@Chris_Dring) March 25, 2024

Famitsu has released its latest weekly charts for video game software and hardware sales in Japan for the week ending April 7. Bandai Namco’s newly released tactical card game, Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission, has taken the top spot in the sales charts in its debut week, selling over 70,000 copies. 

Yoshi’s Crafted World, last week’s top selling game, drops down to second place, still managing to sell a respectable 28,000 copies. Meanwhile, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is still going strong in third place, with over 18,000 copies sold. 

The rest of the top 10 is almost entirely dominated by Nintendo releases exclusively for the Switch. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe have consistently been charting high since their releases, and they have done so yet again, occupying the fourth and fifth spots with sales of over 14,000 and over 12,000 respectively. Minecraft sits in between the two- not a Nintendo game, but still the Switch version. 

The rest of the top 10 is occupied by other Switch evergreens- the usual suspects, with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Splatoon 2, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Super Mario Party.

On the hardware front, sales for the Switch are steady once again. Nintendo’s hybrid sees a minor drop of 3,000 units, moving over 46,000 units in total this week. The PS4, meanwhile, has seen a significant drop in sales. While last week, it sold a collective 24,000 units (which in turn was down from over 35,000 the week before that), this week, the base model and the PS4 Pro have in total managed to move only over 13,000 units. 

You can check out the full software and hardware charts below.

Software charts (followed by lifetime sales)

1. [NSW] Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission – 70,990 / NEW
2. [NSW] Yoshi’s Crafted World – 28,468 / 78,745
3. [PS4] Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice – 18,101 / 212,961
4. [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 14,775 / 3,000,151
5. [NSW] Minecraft – 12,278 / 719,845
6. [NSW] New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe – 12,111 / 560,098
7. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 9,551 / 2,246,416
8. [NSW] Splatoon 2 – 8,161 / 3,028,994
9. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 6,309 / 1,281,348
10. [NSW] Super Mario Party – 6,305 / 991,550

Hardware charts (followed by last week’s sales)

Switch – 46,850 (49,852)
PS4 – 8,347 (17,286)
PS4 Pro – 5,507 (6,577)
New 2DS LL – 3,469 (4,291)
New 3DS LL – 919 (765)
PS Vita – 482 (717)
Xbox One X – 60 (64)
Xbox One S – 33 (28)

Yoshi’s Crafted World topped sales charts in Japan and the UK alike upon release; however, at the very least in Japan, it could have sold even more. According to Media Create’s follow-up report regarding the game’s performance, Yoshi’s Crafted World sold only 36% of its initial shipment in week one in Japan.

Given that it sold over 50,000 units in the country, this means that the initial shipment was actually closer to 150,000 units. It remains to be seen if it will be enough to meet all lifetime sales necessities for the game in Japan, or if it will sell through that shipment and need more copies.

Media Create also reports—and this is something that was evident from the initial sales charts—that Switch sales did not rise from Yoshi’s Crafted World’s launch at all. This makes sense, I guess—though the game looks well-made, the Switch is hardly wanting for another sidescrolling platformer at the moment. If you hadn’t already picked up a Switch for New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, or Kirby Star Allies, I don’t think Yoshi’s Crafted World would have pushed you over the edge.

UKIE/GfK Chart-Track have released their latest weekly charts for boxed video game sales in the UK, and for the week ending April 6, The Division 2 has climbed back to the top of the pile, in spite of seeing a 30 per cent week-on-week drop in sales (via GamesIndustry). Yoshi’s Crafted World, leader of the charts last week, has fallen down to third place, seeing a 61 per cent drop, while FIFA 19, which also saw a drop of 23 per cent in sales, moves up a couple positions to claim the second spot.

Meanwhile, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is in at fifth place. Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2 continues to chart, coming in at number 6, as does the far older Grand Theft Auto 5, taking the eighth position. Nintendo evergreens Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate also continue performing impressively, taking the fourth, ninth, and tenth spots respectively. The Lego Movie 2 Videogame in seventh place rounds out the top 10.

You can check out the full top 10 below.

1. The Division 2
2. FIFA 19
3. Yoshi’s Crafted World
4. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
5. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
6. Red Dead Redemption 2 
7. The Lego Movie 2 Videogame
8. Grand Theft Auto 5
9. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe
10. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

I’m happy to report that Yoshi’s Crafted World has opted to continue down the path of having a new, distinctive aesthetic while remaining unquestionably Yoshi. Crafted World sheds the yarn and replaces its visuals with a world designed almost exclusively out of household items. The game never stops proving that it is dedicated to its sense of consistency and attention to detail. Structures and background items are often made from material like cardboard or paper, and if you look hard enough, you’re bound to recognize things like soda cans, glass bottles, cookie boxes, and toilet paper rolls. Strangely enough, I enjoyed trying to find and identify all of these individual items throughout the game almost as much as making my way through the levels.

"Yoshi’s Crafted World has opted to continue down the path of having a new, distinctive aesthetic while remaining unquestionably Yoshi."

The rest of the game is a mixture between traditional Yoshi gameplay and brand-new mechanics that expand the game in interesting ways. You still eat enemies and turn them into eggs, shoot those eggs at things to collect them or knock them down, and use Yoshi’s adorable kick-float jumping to make platforming as easy as ever. However, quality of life improvements make this entry in the franchise feel like a meaningful evolution. You no longer have to press down to swallow enemies Yoshi grabs with his tongue, and you now have full control over where you aim eggs. These sound minor, but the reduction in busywork truly makes a difference in the moment-to-moment gameplay.

Quality of life updates are one thing, but it’s what Crafted World does differently that makes it such an enrapturing experience. It opts for a mostly two-dimensional structure, but many elements of the game implore players to engage with it in three dimensions. Buildings or items in the background can often be fired at and knocked down with eggs to reveal flowers or coins, Crafted World’s primary collectibles. Additionally, upon completion of a level, NPCs will always request you return to the level to track down random background items for them like paper airplanes, cardboard sheep, or lobsters made from buckets.

Revisiting the levels after completion allows you to return to the base level or opt to track down three puppies by tackling the level from a new perspective known as “the flip side”. This new level perspective essentially just flips the level so that you explore the back side of the original, meaning much of what you’ve already seen remains intact, but there may be new paths available behind items or walls you couldn’t see from the front. The initial revisit is often exciting, but Crafted World asks you to replay the same levels for these collectibles and puppy hunts upwards of 3-4 times, eventually leading to fatigue and boredom. Thankfully, this content is mostly optional, so I rarely felt like I had to partake in anything I didn’t want to.

"Quality of life updates are one thing, but it’s what Crafted World does differently that makes it such an enrapturing experience. It opts for a mostly two-dimensional structure, but many elements of the game implore players to engage with it in three dimensions."

These design decisions make Yoshi an ideal co-op game, however. I spent a solid 90% of my time with the game playing alongside my wife, and as the old saying goes: “Two heads are better than one.” Finding secrets is easier with two sets of eyes, and using one another to reach higher areas is a cinch. You can even hilariously eat one another to create an egg version of that player and then shoot it like a normal egg, which is obviously cute, but it also came in handy more often than one might think when we ran low on normal eggs. As fun as it is, however, it can be downright infuriating when trying to frantically navigate perils together and one Yoshi attaches to the other’s back. I would’ve preferred a dedicated button to activate piggybacking, but it’s a small price to pay, because co-op is still the best way to play the game, and the low difficulty only enforces it further for families with casual gamers or children.

That said, the general lack of difficulty could be a turn-off to some gamers looking for something to test their platforming skills. Crafted World is no doubt a game designed for casual exploration and bringing smiles to faces – there’s only a handful of difficult moments to be had during the campaign. But that doesn’t mean it’s without challenge at all. The best part of Crafted World simply comes from exploration and tracking down its bevy of collectibles. And while I’d never call the game “hard”, not all of these paths and items are a breeze to find. Some levels required me to replay them multiple times over to finally realize what I’d missed.

It was never frustrating, but it offered enough of a mental challenge to keep me invested when the difficulty of the core gameplay didn’t. You can make the game even easier via the inclusion of optional costumes that offer extra damage protection. Sadly, despite their usefulness, it never felt as exciting to unlock a bulky or awkwardly-shaped costume as it did to unlock Wooly World’s adorable yarn designs.

"The best part of Crafted World simply comes from exploration and tracking down its bevy of collectibles."

Rounding out the package is Crafted World’s weakest link – its sound design. A lot of the soundtrack is just remixes of the exact same tune over and over using different obnoxious toy-esque instruments, and the few that aren’t never stand out as anything beyond grating noise. Yoshi games have never been easy on the ears, but something about the clinks and clanks of Crafted World really tested my nerves after a few hours in ways even the worst of previous games never could.

Nevertheless, all of the game’s enthralling mechanics come together in such a way that I never got too bored of searching for flowers or coins in any of its core levels, and the slow pace of Yoshi games makes for a relaxing time doing so. Few levels required me to feel rushed or in extreme danger, so I was able to explore, shoot eggs, and kick my little Yoshi legs to float all over the levels to my heart’s content. This is what makes a Yoshi game a Yoshi game, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

This game was reviewed on the Nintendo Switch.

With Media Create no longer disclosing data for sales figures of video game software and hardware in Japan, we now turn to Famitsu’s weekly figures for the same. As per their numbers, Yoshi’s Crafted World has topped Japanese software sales charts in its debut week for the week ending March 31st, just as it did in the UK. It sold over 50,000 copies.

Meanwhile, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which was on top of the charts last week, dropped down to second place, selling over 44,000 units. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe are still performing strongly, as they have been doing for several weeks running since their releases, charting at third and fourth positions respectively, with sales of over 19,000 copies and over 15,000 copies.

Minecraft is in at #5 with over 13,000 units sold, while Winning Post 9 debuts in sixth place with 12,000 copies sold. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Pokemon Let’s Go, and Splatoon 2 are yet more Switch exclusives that continue to perform strongly, while Super Robot Wars T, which also had a strong debut last week, comes in at eighth place with nearly 10,000 copies sold.

Meanwhile, on the hardware front, sales have slightly dipped. The Switch sits at nearly 50,000 units sold, as opposed to last week’s 56,000, while the PS4 has collectively moved nearly 24,000 units, falling from last week’s 35,000 units sold. You can find the full software and hardware charts below.

Software charts (followed by lifetime sales)

1. [NSW] Yoshi’s Crafted World – 50,007 / NEW
2. [PS4] Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice – 44,139 / 194,860
3. [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 19,349 / 2,992,376
4. [NSW] New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe – 15,238 / 547,987
5. [NSW] Minecraft – 13,667 / 707,567
6. [PS4] Winning Post 9 – 12,130 / NEW
7. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 10,889 / 2,236,865
8. [PS4] Super Robot Wars T – 9,750 / 90,978
9. [NSW] Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu / Eevee – 9,227 / 1,479,158
10. [NSW] Splatoon 2 – 8,706 / 3,020,833

Hardware charts (followed by last week’s sales)

Switch – 49,852 (56,099)
New 2DS LL – 4,291 (4,731)
PS4 – 17,286 (27,061)
PS4 Pro – 6,577 (7,834)
New 3DS LL – 765 (912)
PS Vita – 717 (376)
Xbox One X – 64 (63)
Xbox One S – 28 (28)

Gfk Chart-Track and UKIE have released the charts for boxed video game sales in the UK for the week ending March 30th, and Nintendo’s recently released Switch exclusive Yoshi’s Crafted World has topped the charts in its debut week with two days on the market.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which topped charts last week, has dropped down to third place, while The Division 2 retains its position in the second spot. Meanwhile, the recently released Assassin’s Creed 3 Remastered has also entered the top 10, coming in at number 9. Avalanche Studio’s new release, the first person open world title Generation Zero, failed to break it into the top 10 though, taking the 19th spot.

Back at the top of the charts, FIFA 19 is in at fourth place, while Mario Kart 8 Deluxe follows behind at #5. Far Cry New Dawn has seen a bit of a jump, moving up from ninth place to sixth, while Red Dead Redemption 2 drops down to the seventh spot. You can check out the full top 10 below.

1. Yoshi’s Crafted World
2. The Division 2
3. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
4. FIFA 19
5. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
6. Far Cry New Dawn
7. Red Dead Redemption 2
8. The Lego Movie 2 Videogame
9. Assassin’s Creed 3 Remastered
10. Forza Horizon 4