[A recurring feature each time I complete a year in the UK, in which I catch up with the games to have been #1 in the archived Japanese sales charts of that year, as reported in Famitsu. Thanks to Game Data Library for running the resource that makes finding these out easy.]
1989 is the height of missing data – from 1990 on out we’ll get an increasingly representative selection, but this year has a measly three #1s listed to add to our mere five in the UK. One of Japan’s is an introduction for a new format too, though. No longer will all be Famicom.
ファミコンジャンプ 英雄列伝 / Famicom Jump: Heroes History (Bandai, Famicom)
Nothing is new under the sun. Massive cross-over games and comics companies turning to a campaign of releases on other media to big success are certainly not new – here’s Shueisha celebrating the 20th anniversary of their manga anthology Weekly Shonen Jump with a game featuring a big cast characters from its manga, from Fist of the North Star to Dragon Ball to another Captain Tsubasa appearance.
ドラゴンボール3 悟空伝 / Dragon Ball 3: Goku’s Story (Bandai, Famicom)
After Akira Toriyama’s decisive contributions to the Dragon Quest series and Dragon Ball showing up in Famicom Jump, it makes sense that Dragon Ball games would have a big audience too. This one is… some kind of card battle based RPG?
Tetris (Nintendo, Game Boy)
The perfect fit for a new, portable way of playing games, Game Boy Tetris was a big success. Unlike in the West, the game was sold separately from the Game Boy itself, so it showed up at the top of the charts too. This seems like a good place to stick a reminder that as well as singing on Kingdom Hearts soundtracks and the whole pop star thing, Utada Hikaru is a very good Tetris player.