Pokemon Sword and Shield Debuts Last Week and Ranks #1 at Japan’s Video Game Rankings

Famitsu’s Video Game rankings last week revealed that the highly anticipated Nintendo Switch game Pokemon Sword and Shield immediately hit #1 in the ranks with 1,364,544 copies sold in Japan alone from November 11 to 17. This was then followed by Death Stranding at #2 and Luigi’s Mansion 3 at #3.

Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield were released worldwide on November 15. The two versions of the game will feature Pokemon from the Galar region, and players can choose one of the three basic starter Pokemon namely Gookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble. This is also the game where the Gigantamax forms are featured, in which Pikachu, Eevee, Meowth, Butterfree, Charizard, Alcremie, and Corviknight will be having their own, said forms in this game. Two legendary Pokemon will also be introduced.

Other features in the Pokemon Sword and Shield game include the Max Raid Battles, Dynamax, Gigantamax forms, the Battle Stadium, Poke Jobs, Pokemon Camp, and Surprise trades. This is the second Nintendo Switch game for the popular franchise.

Even before the release of the two games, people have already shared their frustration and disappointment over some Pokemon that are missing from the game. Fans say that this is saddening as people expected so much from the game’s developer Game Freak thinking that it would be better than its first Nintendo Switch games of the franchise, Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee! which were based on the 1998 video game Pokemon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition.

The first Nintendo Switch games Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu, and Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee! was released in November 2018. The release of the games was a huge success as it had a record of more than 11.28 million combined sales as of September 2019. This huge number has made the games known as one of the best-selling games for the Nintendo Switch.

Death Stranding was released for the PlayStation 4 on November 8. A PC release was also announced and is expected to be released in summer 2020. This is Hideo Kojima’s first game since he left Konami after working for the company for three decades. He then created his own game studio, Kojima Productions, in which this game is their first-ever game release.

The main character Sam Bridges is based on actor Norman Reedus, who is also the voice actor for the mentioned character. Cliff, the antagonist of the game is based and voiced by Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen. Other actors mentioned below are based and voiced the respective characters:

Fragile – Lea Seydoux

Mama – Margaret Qualley

Deadman – Guillermo del Toro

Heartman – Nicolas Winding Refn

Die-Hardman – Tommie Earl Jenkins

Higgs – Troy Baker

Amelie – Lindsay Wagner

Kojima Productions, the ones handling the game development has released synopsis of the game:

“Besieged by death’s tide at every turn, Sam Bridges must brave a world utterly transformed by the Death Stranding. Carrying the stranded remnants of the future in his hands, Sam embarks on a journey to reunite the shattered world one step at a time. What is the mystery of the Death Stranding? What will Sam discover on the road ahead? A genre defining gameplay experience holds these answers and more.”

The game us developed using the Decima Engine of Guerilla Games. It was previously revealed as an open-world action “with some degree of freedom.”

Luigi’s Mansion 3 is an action-adventure game released worldwide for the Nintendo Switch on October 31, 2019. The main character of the game is Luigi, the popular plumber character from the Super Mario Bros. franchise.

You play the role of Luigi as you explore a haunted high-rise hotel that has different themes on each floor. You must rescue your friends from the different ghosts that inhabit the house. The game has generally received favorable reviews from both critics and gamers.

Here is the complete list of the video game rankings for the mentioned week, including the weekly and total sales so far.

Source: Famitsu, Anime News Network