It's numbers time again! The latest hardware sales figures from Japan's Media Create has been release, and competition is getting tighter as the PS3 inches closer and closer to the top, needing only about a thousand more units before overtaking the long-reigning DSi.

In the near future, a mysterious, growing, black void dubbed the Schwarzwelt appears at the Earth's southern pole. So begins the story in Atlus' first-person sci-fi RPG, Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey. Next year, DS owners in North America will don their own retro-cool helmets and plunge head-first into that black spot.

The powers and resources of the NPD, Enterbrain, and GfK Chart-Track have all come together and the results are in - Dragon Quest IX dominated the global sales charts spanning over three months ending September of this year. What's more amazing is that the DS-exclusive title has only been released in Japan. See how the others fared.

As if a new Zelda game isn't enough, Nintendo is sweetening the purchase of The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks in Japan with a cool bonus. For those picking this up at Day 1, you'll be getting a neat feather stylus for your Nintendo DS.

Tri-Crescendo, the studio behind Eternal Sonata, and D3 Publisher have teamed up together to bring US DS gamers a whole new game of RPG adventure in the form of Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadow.

The new jumbo-sized Nintendo DSi will not only be heading to Japan. A Nintendo spokesperson has confirmed today that the super-sized DSi LL is also due to North America and Europe early next year.

Just a couple of days after calling the Nikkei report on the big-screen DSi "conjecture," Nintendo has announced the new DSi model via an update on their official Japanese site.

Shigeru Miyamoto has an impressive record when it comes to successful games. The Mario franchise alone is as big a cash cow as a game franchise can get. Still, the man has his share of disappointments. The Star Fox series is one of them.

Word out of Japan is that Nintendo has a new DSi iteration slated for release in the land of the rising sun later this year. There's really nothing new about this particular DSi model -- except for the fact that it's bigger than those currently out in the market.

It's that time of the week again. Media Create has released the software sales results in Japan for the week of October 5th through October 11th. Keeping the top spot is still Pokemon HeartGold/ SoulSilver for the DS.