After dominating the Japanese gaming world for the entire fall season, PlayStation game titles finally seem to be losing ground to Game Boy and Dreamcast titles as we enter the important pre-holiday selling period. This week only five of the Top Ten titles are for the PlayStation. The remaining five spots are split between Nintendo's Game Boy (3) and Sega's Dreamcast (2).

Old habits die hard, however, and the top game this week is, as usual, designed for the PlayStation. Tokimeki Memorial 2, sequel to Konami's strangely popular dating simulation game, has knocked Chrono Cross out of the top position after only one week, illustrating that even if Japanese high school kids don't have time to date, they still have time to practice dating on their PS consoles.

Pokemon Gold and Silver have both slipped slightly in the top 10 ranking, from numbers 3 and 2 to 4 and 5, respectively, but are still racking up huge sales numbers, in spite of the supposed shortage of games. Gold and Silver have yet to debut in North American versions, but die-hard games who can't wait to get their hands on them, can buy the Japanese versions at ActionAce.com. The games are in Japanese, of course, but are fully compatible with US Game Boy units--no special adaptors or other hardware are needed.

Most of this week's Top Ten consists of new game titles, as companies are putting out their best (?) work for the end-of-the-year sales rush. The number 3 game, Pachislot Aruze Okoku 2, is a pachinko/slot machine simulation game. Maken X, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, and Medarot R are adventure, battle and RPG games, respectively. Finally, numbers 7 and 9 are sequels to popular dance simulation games released earlier this year. None of these new titles strikes me as having much staying power in the dog-eat-dog world of video games sales, although the PS version of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure did moderately well when it was released several weeks ago. Stay tuned to the Zine for all the latest import video game news!

Japanese gamers just love these titles:

1. Tokimeki Memorial 2--Konami--PS
2. Chrono Cross--Square--PS
3. Pachislot Aruze Okoku 2--Aruze--PS
4. Pokemon Gold--Nintendo--GB
5. Pokemon Silver--Nintendo--GB
6. Maken X--Altus--DC
7. Dance Dance Revolution 2^nd Remix Append Club Version 1--Konami--PS
8. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure--Capcom--DC
9. Beat Mania GB 2--Konami--GB
10. Medarot R--Imagineer--PS