What is your most RECENT import? Post often!

[neogamer]

Here we go:

Sega Ages: Last Bronx - PS2

Sega Ages: Galaxy Force II - PS2

Sega Ages: Panzer Dragoon - PS2

Garou: Mark of the Wolves - PS2

Love the classics and Sega does a great job of bringing them back to life!

[blue lander]

I just picked up Densetsu no Stafi 2 and 3 for the GBA. Even though I hear 3 is far better than 2, I decided to start with 2 anyways. So far I'm enjoying the game, but the difficulty curve isn't nearly steep enough. It's getting a bit more challenging so hopefully that trend will keep up. I'm not too suprised, though, since it is geared towards younger children. The level designs are a little generic too, but I hear Stafi 3 addresses those issues.

[Wolfrider31]

My copy of Mother 3 just arrived from Play-Asia. Quite happy, though I think the box with the phallic like joystick and the Hong Kong sticker on the top made the guy at the post office think I had ordered something erotic.

They were all giving me weird looks. :(

[Tron 2.0]

Famicom
Holy Diver cib
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1c/Holydivergame.gif

Well i finally got this game and i tend to agree what most say about it.

The game is rather difficult and is similar to castlevania in some degree.

Still i'm glad i finally got a copy of it i like the theme it has.

[Drag0nsfyre]

Gunstar Heroes: Treasure Box (ps2)
Simple Series 2000 vol. 37 The Shooting: Shienryu (ps2)
Kid Dracula (nes/famicom)
Klonoa Volleyball (psx) $2 ebay :D
Puyo Puyo Da! (DC) $2 ebay :D same seller so $4 for both plus he was in the U.S. so good deal. :cool:

I think that's it for recent stuff.

[RadiantSvgun]

After an import drought, I placed an order today for Strikers 1945 I&II and Dodonpachi on ps2. I also plan on getting Arcana Heart next month.

[Wolf]

http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/5900/picture72cp7.jpg

http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/8034/picture71za9.jpg

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/1753/ffxiiintcovernm8.jpg

[tritium]

Dragonball Z Buyuuretsude Megadrive
Capcom vs SNK 2 Dreamcast

Should have 'em anyday now.

edit: in my hot little hands as of yesterday.. oh yeah....

[fahlim003]

I just wish I could find an unboxed X-Men VS. Street Fighter SS that didn't originally come with the box(ie, it has the back lining and spine, etc..). The search continues!

I've spoke too soon, thankfully I did find a complete non-boxed:
X-Men VS. Street Fighter for Saturn, so I'm looking forward to that.

Notable:
Gradius Gaiden (original release) complete

Onto the hunt for SFZ2'!

[Lord Contaminous]

PC Engine
-----------
Tengai Makyo/Far East of Eden II: Manji Maru
Final Soldier
Sidearms Special

Ganbare Goemon: Sarewata Ebisumaru (Game Boy, loose, in the WILD)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOsoUonJvDQ
Busting up a nice score on Final Soldier.

[Fighter17]

Rolling Thunder 2 Sega Megadrive complete.

$20 shipped.

[Spartacus]

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/67/jpn4vr4.th.jpg (http://img504.imageshack.us/my.php?image=jpn4vr4.jpg)


Agent Armstrong - King of the Jungle 1997 PlayStation
This is a 3D arcade/platform shooter about a British Secret Sevice agent who's attempting to thwart an American organized crime syndicate from taking over the world in 1935. Rather than simply running and gunning to the end of a level, you're tasked with completing objectives like destroying targets, rescuing hostages, or simply killing key personel. The character's and settings are humorous and cartoonish, giving it a slight Metal Slug vibe. There are 30 missions to the game with plenty of power-ups and a few secret area's to find. The only real knock I have about the game is that properly lining up for jumps seemed more difficult at times than it should be and some of the narrow areas were easy to fall off. It's a fairly nice looking game, the FMV is especially nice looking.
Here are some screenshots courtesy of Moby Games...
http://www.mobygames.com/game/agent-armstrong/screenshots

GAMEPLAY: 7
GRAPHICS: 7
SOUND: 7
ENGLISH FRIENDLY: 8
OVERALL: 8


Firo & Klawd - Interactive Studios 1997 PlayStation
This is another comedic Mob shoot-em up game done in an isometric style. Klawd is a cat who was an unwitting courier for the Mob until he realizes he's delivering money and decides to steal some of it. Firo is an ape cop who busts Klawd for spending the counterfeit money and then deputizes him to help him take on the Mob. The Mob retaliates by plastering the city with wanted posters for Firo and Klawd and do their best to rub them out - including by doing drive-by shootings. All the characters in the game are animals such as dogs, cats, pigs and walruses and the game takes place in New York City in the 1930's with eight worlds, branching paths and multiple endings.
Firo and Klawd work together to basically blow everyone away and tear down as many wanted posters as they can find for extra lives. You can switch between playing as either Firo or Klawd at anytime and you can play with the game with two players as well. You find powerful weapons along the way as well as bullet proof vests, first-aid and extra lives. The game scores you by the number of kills and your accuracy.
The game tries hard to be funny with spoken one-liners and visual gags and succeeds more often than not.
I didn't run across any screenshots, but here's some game footage on YouTube...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpZm9Xva5nE

GAMEPLAY: 7
GRAPHICS: 7
SOUND: 7
ENGLISH FRIENDLY: 9
OVERALL: 8


Chou Kousoku Grandoll - KID 1997 PlayStation
This is based on the Hyper Speed GranDoll anime about a school girl who discovers she's really an alien with super powers. The games an old school style platform shooter, but her armored suit gives her some powers like a grappling hook that was fun to play with and she earns other suits with different abilities as well. For being a platform game though, the controls for jumping accurately from point to point were really loose. The between stage anime looked good, but the in game graphics were only fair considering it's only 2D. It's worth a play even though it really doesn't do anything you haven't done before.
Here's some pics courtesy of C-Games....
http://www.c-games.info/games,002,1514.html
And some info on the anime it's based on here...
http://www.absoluteanime.com/hyper_speed_grandoll/index.htm

GAMEPLAY: 7
GRAPHICS: 7
SOUND: 7
ENGLISH FRIENDLY: 8
OVERALL: 7


Cosmo Warrior Zero - Taito 2000 PlayStation
This is a 3rd person combat shooter based on the Cosmo Warrior Zero anime. I wasn't familiar with Leiji Matsumoto's work, notably Galaxy Express 999, Star Blazers or the "Leijiverse" , but I found the story, characters and locales in the game to be pretty interesting. You travel from planet to planet, exploring small bits of worlds and fighting enemies that range from mechanical droids and tanks to specters. Ultimately you'll find yourself in a one on one boss battle in an area with plenty of stuff to duck and hide behind. The combat aspect of the game isn't superb by any description. You can strafe and roll, you can shoot regular and charged shots, toss grenades and if you're close enough - launch a powerfull melee attack. You don't even have a target reticule to aim with, but the game does help a little with a small amount of auto aiming. It was the people and places that made it interesting to play. Just seeing a long train being pulled by a steam locamotive chugging thru space was cool, but getting to fight in and on it was cooler yet! The between stage anime was a mix of moving and slide show type, but the voice acting (entirely in Japanese) was good and there's little reading involved. The game starts you out as Warrior Zero, but you can unlock other characters to play as and they all handle and fight differently. The stages and enemies remain the same, but all the story anime changes for each character, which was pretty cool. Damn shame you can't seem to save your progress though. There's also a VS fighting game that two players can battle it out with all the different characters. Just an interesting game, with lots of the original artwork to unlock and it's well worth a look.
You can see some screenshots of the game here...
http://www.c-games.info/games,002,3042.html
You can see the games intro, as well as many clips of the actual anime here......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzMAtSQBbfo
And finally, you can read an in depth description about Cosmo Warrior Zero anime series here......
http://enokifilmsusa.com/library/cwzero_np.htm

GAMEPLAY: 7
GRAPHICS: 7
SOUND: 7
ENGLISH FRIENDLY: 7
OVERALL: 8

[importaku]

http://img167.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/users/5/5/9/2/arrowtable-img450x600-1191087643img_5196.jpg
Finally after years of trying i have the full set.

[bust3dstr8]

Super Star Soldier
AeroBlasters - (NM+,EX+,EX+)
PC Denjin (Air Zonk) - (NM+,EX+,EX)
Avenger - (EX,NM,EX)
Gunhed
Twin Bee
Daisenpu (NAPH-1014)
Dungeon Explorer - (NM,EX,EX)
Vigilante - (NM+, NM, EX)
Bikkuriman World - (EX,EX,EX)
Majin Eiyu Wataru (Keith Courage) - (NM,EX,VG)
Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu - (EX,EX,EX)
Bomberman '93
Bomberman '94
Splatterhouse - (EX,EX,EX) slight smokey smell
Genpei Toramaden
Bloody Wolf - (NM,EX,EX)
Shinobi - new/sealed
Kato & Ken
New Adventure Island
Shubibinman 2
Jim Power - (M,NM,NM,spine,reg card, insert)
The Kung Fu (China Warrior)
Space Battleship Yamato (HMCD2004)


Dean at multimods hooked me up, $104 shipped for this stuff.

My useless thoughts on some of the games.

Space Battleship Yamato: Great animated intro, but can't play this stategy game without knowing Japanese.

Jim Power: Crappy enemy pathing and tankish contols make this game too frustrating to play.

Avenger: Raiden style shooter with multiple weapon configs before each stage. Your ship pivots while turning and can shoot at up to a 45* angle. You can lock in any angle by holding the second button. I was surprised how much I enjoy this game. The music is great and the controls are very tight. The grafix are a bit bland for a CD game though.

Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu: Solid platform game with some nice catchy toons. You start off with normal attacks and then can power up with special kicks and even a Jackie Hadouken. This is a pretty big game, I've played far into it and I don't know if the end is even close.

[Aussie2B]

I really should pay closer attention to this topic, considering all the loads of great info and pictures here.

I got a small lot of imports for various systems recently, but it's nothing too notable in value or quality. I actually spent more on shipping than the total for all the games, and I even went with relatively cheap Airmail.

So far the only one I've played is Galaxy Fraulien Yuna for PC Engine Duo. This was somewhat of a significant game in Japan and spawned a series that stretched to Saturn and PlayStation as well as an anime. The production value is pretty good, especially with its really long intro and multiple j-pop songs. The art is pretty nice too. I have a weak spot for cheesy, cutesy late 80s/early 90s style anime. The only problem is that gameplay is kind of nonexistent. Its got a window view of where you are, but as opposed to adventures like Shadowgate and Deja Vu where you can point and prod at things, the player's interaction with Yuna is limited to selecting whatever options the game is currently giving you like "look", "talk", etc. If it was in English, that would be fine and dandy and make for a great digital comic if the story was engaging, but as an import, it doesn't offer much unless you know FLUENT Japanese or are in the mood to let your brain go numb and just enjoy some pretty pictures. My knowledge of Japanese is extremely limited, but I've still played RPGs, dating sims, you name it in Japanese but this is a bit much even for me. I'll probably be in the mood to slog through it some day, though, just to appreciate the graphics and see how much of the story I can figure out. I just wish Yuna's voice wasn't so darn irritating, especially since there's A LOT of voice acting.

I'll get to the other games later, but I've also been buying a lot of other stuff from Japan related to video games. I got the second volume of the Star Ocean: Blue Sphere 4-koma manga series (now I have 1-4, but still missing 5), and I picked up two hentai doujinshi, one with Star Ocean 2 and King of Fighters and the other is entirely about Valkyrie Profile. I usually just buy hentai as a joke since I'm not the type to get my jollies from it. The Star Ocean 2 doujinshi caught my interest because it was drawn by Minato Koio, the OFFICIAL artist for the Star Ocean 2 designs. That's comedy gold to me. That's basically official hentai, in my book. :P What really took me by surprise was the rough sketch section it has (which is non-porngraphic, I should clarify). Not only does it have Koio sketches of the Star Ocean 2 cast, which I believed were used in the designing process, but he also did renditions of some of the Star Ocean 1 cast, which is beyond awesome to me and an amazing find. The official art for the first Star Ocean wasn't that great to begin with, and with the Star Ocean remakes coming out on PSP, it makes me sad that their art is largely disappointing. To top it all off, the sketch section also has drawings of Picard, Riker, and the Enterprise from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Forget the porn, now THAT is nerd-gasm worthy. :P

[Bloodreign]

Got a gaming jewel I've been waiting to get ahold of for awhile, Bubble Symphony for Saturn, now alls I need is a Saturn to play it on (got the hookup on the Saturn, just need to set up for the guy to send it to me). This hookup also was the one who snagged Bubble Symphony for me off Yahoo Japan. Right now stuck playing it in an emulator, still loads of fun to play even this way. :)

[chang2]

its an wonder ful gamez love its graphics n characters

[DragonBomber]

Sega Saturn Digital Pinball: Necronomicon
$31 shipped (high but I REALLY wanted it)
Two loose Famiclones with one multicart [one seems broken]
$6.50 with option to have returned the likely dead one
Bomberman pencil board cardboard game unopened
$27 shipped (REALLY wanted this also)

Nothing super fancy but I was happy. As soon as I find my NES power supplies in the garage tubs I intend to grab some various PAL and Famicom carts now that I finally have a toploader. Friend in town gave me a working deck sans PS. I will always need more Bomberman naturally. :D

Drache

[namzep]

A couple of things from Play Asia:

Sega Saturn Action Replay
Puzzle Bobble 3 (SAT)

What can I say, I love me some puzzle games. Got both for a little under $50/shipped, total.

[Nightram]

64DD Auction goodness!! (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300156616266&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebay.com%3A80%2Fsearch%2Fse arch.dll%3Ffrom%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dm37%26satitle%3D 300156616266%2509%26category0%3D%26fvi%3D1)

http://www.japan-games.com/eBayPictures/NIN_64DDbare_1A.jpg

Shown there:
A Japanese 64
The 64DD
Mario Artist: Polygon studio
Mario Artist: Talent Studio
SimCity 64
F-Zero X Expansion 9with track editor and car editor!)
Doshin the Giant
Microphone
1 Controller
Capture Card
Other supplies, including the RandNet Modem.

Can't wait to try this stuff out. I also snagged the Mario Artist: Paint Studio off of Play-Asia.
Now all I need for pure 64DD goodness is a N64 mouse.
I also grabbed an F-Zero X Japanese Cart so I could play around with the expansion.

I also recently got Dream Mix TV World Fighters for PS2 and a slim kit for my silver slim.



Also, Congrats Importaku!

[Spartacus]

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/8877/6jpnrg9.th.jpg (http://img207.imageshack.us/my.php?image=6jpnrg9.jpg)


G Vector - Soft Office 1997 Sega Saturn
This is a storyless chase-plane rail shooter that unfortunately is entirely too difficult to enjoy. You fly a fighter ship through 6 stages that include asteroid belts, tunnels, over cities and above oceans and clouds. The terrain is 3D and while you can't actually run into it, enemies can and do use it for cover. There's a pretty good mix of enemy types that include air and ground vehicles, mecha and mechanical insects. You're equipped with slow and rapid-fire lasers as well as homing missiles. You also have two shields per stage and they aren't anywhere near enough as this game literally sweeps the front of the screen with blobs of incoming fire. It can be so intense at times that it actually causes the frame rate to stutter and slowdown. It probably doesn't help that they decided to show hits and model damaging on enemies as streams of colored chafe flying off.
A score attack mode option let's you play any of the stages you have already completed with unlimited shields. You'll probably wish you had the unlimited shield option in the regular game and there is an Action Replay code that will do just that.
The game graphics are colorful but pixilated. One nice feature of the game is a menu option that allows you to scroll through 62 enemies and manipulate and view them from any angle. It's not a game I would care to recommend to anyone.
Didn't run across any screenshots of the game, but you can see some gameplay footage here...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2g5rGgvBKQ

GAMEPLAY: 4
GRAPHICS: 5
SOUND: 7
ENGLISH FRIENDLY: 10
OVERALL: 4


Stellar Assault SS - Sega 1998 Sega Saturn
Engrish from the back of the manual...
The Furious COSMOS!
FINAL BATTLE Have Just Started Now!
WHY they come attack us biyearly?
WHERE are they from?
And WHO ARE THEY?
LOL
This is supposed to be a sequel/remake of the Sega 32X Stellar Assault (Shadow Squadron) game. It's a free flight space shooter that's displayed in a letter-box format, which is pretty unusual considering it's age and gives it something of an epic feeling. You can select from two types of ships with shields, radar and minor differences in speed and weapons. You're usually accompanied by multiple wingmen who I often wished would just shut up! Regrettably, they are impervious to ahh - weapons malfunctions. The missions are varied, lengthy and at times - rather fun to play. The game feels as immense as space itself and I seldom felt the playing field was constricted in any way. The graphics were so-so, but I never thought the Saturn was worth a damn for 3D games anyway. Somehow they managed to make the explosions appear like sparklers or small fireworks had gone off on the screen which looked good, but most of the big stuff breaks up into big flat polygonal shards and floats away. The Japanese voice acting (and there's plenty of it) sucks donkey balls. The sound effects were acceptably average except for the constant drone of your fighter's engines, which sounded like something that could have been done on an Atari 5200.
The numerous smaller enemy ships act as cannon fodder and sweeping the stars clear of them isn't really much of a challenge, but the large capital ships take some pounding and they do have formidable defensive laser cannons. The ground installations built on large floating asteroids were even more formidable still. Those built inside asteroids severely tested my flight skills and definitely make use of the ships otherwise useless roll capabilities.
The game provides for 2 players, but it's not the split-screen kind of play. Instead, one player flies the ship and the other player handles the weapons. It sounds dumb, but this game has missions that seemed designed to make that style of play very advantageous. The gunner has complete independent control of the target reticule and can aim and fire at anything on the screen. Instead of making kamikaze head-on charges into targets that the single player is forced to do, the pilot can take evasive action while the gunner is still able to hammer away at the target.
There's supposed to be 15 missions in the game, 2 of which are dependent on your actions while playing. All the game text is in English, but all the speech is in Japanese. It may not be worth the price of admission, but it is a reasonably challenging game to play.
Didn't find any screenshots of the game, but there is some gameplay footage here...
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Stellar+Assault&search=Search

GAMEPLAY: 8
GRAPHICS: 7
SOUND: 6
ENGLISH FRIENDLY: 7
OVERALL: 7


EOS: Edge Of Skyhigh - Micronet 1997 PlayStation
This is a chase view flying mecha-suit shooter. You can transform yourself at anytime from flying Superman style to standing upright while in flight. You're a much bigger target upright, but you now have the ability to charge a weapon for a powershot. In either mode you can fire homing missiles or rapid fire plasma bolts. There are 6 stages in the game with the last devoted to "killing the core". The stages include flying over oceans and clouds, through forests and swamps, over cities, through twisting canyons, caverns and tunnels. In this game you can run into objects, so you need to avoid tree's, bridges, beams and other obstacles. The enemies included the expected assortment of fighter ships and aircraft, other mecha and some fixed point ground turrets. Where I thought it got to be pretty interesting was in the forest/swamp level. At first you're dodging through the trees blasting away at mechanical dragonfly's, then you get to the swamp and porpoise and other fishes are jumping out of the water shooting at you, get to the end of the swamp and gigantic metallic shrimp take flight and start to hassle you. Get past all that and you reach the stage boss - a towering praying mantis spewing flames with some sort of grabby three finger appendage coming out of it's groinal region. Some fairly original stuff!
The games features autosaves and unlimited continues that will restart you right about where you lost.
I will say this about the game, with all the stuff going on I never experienced a bit of slowdown. The game is colorful for the most part, the intro and ending FMV looked really nice, but the between stage stuff was just talking heads who's lips didn't even move in synch with their voices. The game is just mindless shooting fun that doesn't do anything new but also isn't overly difficult.
Here's some screenshots of the game, courtesy of C-Games...
http://www.c-games.info/games,002,3305.html

GAMEPLAY: 6
GRAPHICS: 7
SOUND: 7
ENGLISH FRIENDLY: 7
OVERALL: 7


Cowby Bebop - Bandai 1998 PlaySation
Another 3rd person flight shooter based on the Cowboy Bepop anime. The crew of the Bebop finds itself lost in an unknown galaxy and comes under attack. You take the Swordfish II on 6 missions to defend the good ship and crew. This plays a little differently because you don't really feel like you're steering the ship but rather you're steering the target reticule and the Swordfish II merely follows as if being towed. You can however, send roll inputs to the Swordfish II and control how it's oriented while it's tagging along. You're pretty much forced to fly a specific flight path with a guiding arrow on your target reticule showing you the way, but there are branching paths in the game if you can find them. If you release the controls entirely, the game will automatically take over and navigate the route for you. If you attempt to leave the preset paths, the ship will lose control, force you back on path and probably crash several times in the process. You don't want to do that because even though the Sworfish II has shields, everything it makes contact with in the game damages it.
Most of the missions force you fly through skinny spots - a narrow twisting canyon, between skyscrapers in a city, over and under bridges or even chasing a train through a tunnel, hence your ability to roll the ship. The challenge of the game is moving the reticule around to attack enemies while keeping an eye on the position of the Swordfish II so that it isn't running into anything. It's fairly challenging and after some of my early frustrations with it wore off, I actually started to enjoy it.
The first three missions take place on a hostile planet. Once off the planet, you'll fly one mission in space dodging through asteroids and then the last two have you attacking a death star complete with trenches, tunnels and walking At-At's.
At the end of each mission stage, you face a boss and can fly freely around in a small death match arena. The areas are a little cramped for space, but the Swordfish II is perfectly capable of doing loop-de-loops and you can attack your enemy in vertical power dives instead of wide circular runs.
The Swordfish II is equipped with a 12.7 mm machinegun with unlimited ammunition and a Ruby laser gun that fires for a few seconds before overheating. Successfully completing a mission earns you points that can be used to purchase upgrades for the Ruby laser, buy armor piercing or explosive ammo for the machinegun, or add new weapons like missiles and energy bolts.
The machinegun was my favorite weapon of the game. Not that it was all powerful, but the bullets would kick up dirt and shred leaves from tree's and look - well, like what real bullets would do and I liked that. More so for the fact that the game offers plenty of opportunities for strafing runs on trains, ships, vehicles and buildings.
The game handles the anime license by having the Bebop crew pop up in small windows during play offering encouragement and words of advice. The cut scenes looked like they were done with the in-game engine and suffered jaggies, but at least the voices were done with the original Japanese cast and they took the time to synch the lips with the voices. For a flight shooter it's not a bad game at all. If you wanted a game to play the Bebop characters, you'd be very disappointed.
Here some screenshots of the game courtesy of C-Games...
http://www.c-games.info/games,002,1546.html
And here's some low resolution gameplay footage on YouTube...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8857192130701555605&q=cowboy+bebop+psx&total=51&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

GAMEPLAY: 7
GRAPHICS: 7
SOUND: 7
ENGLISH FRIENDLY: 7
OVERALL: 7


Choro Q Jet: Rainbow Wings - Takara 1998 PlayStation
This is a 3D chase view shooter from Takara's Choro Q series. You start by selecting from eight different miniature aircraft, most of which are piloted by kids who are verbally enthusiastic for missions, while at the same time are apologetic for each enemy aircraft shot down. The aircraft are based on actual fighters and bombers that range from a WWII Dauntless dive bomber and P-38 Lightning to modern F-15 and F-117 jets. There's even an attack helicopter thrown in for good measure. Each is rated according to it's speed and armor and each has a unique special weapon that tries to look impressive in action but doesn't perform nearly as well as you would hope for. Your mainstay weapons are machineguns with unlimited ammunition and radar guided homing missiles. The missiles pack a good punch but are notorious for breaking off the intended target and chasing the nearest target of opportunity even though it doesn't have the range or maneuverability to have a chance in Hell of intercepting it.
The game tasks you with performing both offensive and defensive missions while the skies are filled with a never-ending supply of harassing enemy fighters trying to shoot you down. Your target area is always sprinkled with repairs, spare ammo and invisibility power-ups, but it's also defended with everything from missile batteries to monolithic structures firing super weapons. When you have successfully completed you're mission, you are immediately thrown into a one-on-one aerial boss battle with someone who seems none too pleased with your success.
All of the aircraft fly quite slowly, but you can use a never exhausting supply of boost for short bursts of speed. The tradeoff is that your weapons will be rendered useless for a few seconds after using it.
The game is done in a free flight form so you can perform your missions in whatever manner you choose, although some do have a time limit. There are only 4 missions to the game and the first three are easy enough to consider it a child's game. The fourth and final mission is a 3-stage marathon against an aerial armada and the end boss's "dirigible of doom". It's so well armed and armored that I think it was designed specifically to make children cry and has so far outlasted me despite every conceivable aircraft and tactic combination I could try.
I enjoyed the freedom that free flight gave the game, though it's very short and graphically designed for a younger audience. Sadly, I considered the games graphics to be below average. The difficulty is simply unconscionable!
The only pic I could find of the game is the case artwork....
http://noujoumonogatari.sakura.ne.jp/ps.parts/tyoroqjettoreinbouxingusu.jpg

GAMEPLAY: 4
GRAPHICS: 4
SOUND: 8
ENGLISH FRIENDLY: 0
OVERALL: 4


Gamera 2000 - Surveyor Corporation 1997 PlayStation
This is a game I've wanted to own for a long time. I don't know that it will ever achieve the status of "all your bases belong to us" in gaming lore, but even Gamespot had an article discussing it's notorious FMV while reviewing the game. They even manage to put the game in the proper timeline to the Gamera films. HG101 classicgaming did a thorough review, so between the two there's really not much I could add. But for those who are particularly fussy about the completeness of their games, something that neither article mentioned is that the game did include a sheet of memory stickers. And by the way, I enjoyed Gamera 2000 much more than I did Zero Wing.
You can see some screenshots courtesy of c-games here...
http://www.c-games.info/games,002,1776.html
Classicgaming's review here...
http://hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/gamera/gamera.htm
Gamespot's review here...
http://www.gamespot.com/ps/action/gamera2000/review.html
And you can see the games intro and all the cheesy FMV courtesy of YouTube here...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0UQOCx7L1c

GAMEPLAY: 8
GRAPHICS: 8
SOUND: 8
ENGLISH FRIENDLY: 10
OVERALL: 9

[Julio III]

I got these a week or so ago and promptly forgot about them. I should get round to opening them and playing them, let alone taking a pic for here:

DS:
Slide Adventure Mag Kid (with the stand/optical pointer add-on in a huuge box)
Nodame Cantabile

[fahlim003]

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/8877/6jpnrg9.th.jpg (http://img207.imageshack.us/my.php?image=6jpnrg9.jpg)


Stellar Assault SS - Sega 1998 Sega Saturn
Engrish from the back of the manual...
The Furious COSMOS!
FINAL BATTLE Have Just Started Now!
WHY they come attack us biyearly?
WHERE are they from?
And WHO ARE THEY?
LOL
This is supposed to be a sequel/remake of the Sega 32X Stellar Assault (Shadow Squadron) game. It's a free flight space shooter that's displayed in a letter-box format, which is pretty unusual considering it's age and gives it something of an epic feeling. You can select from two types of ships with shields, radar and minor differences in speed and weapons. You're usually accompanied by multiple wingmen who I often wished would just shut up! Regrettably, they are impervious to ahh - weapons malfunctions. The missions are varied, lengthy and at times - rather fun to play. The game feels as immense as space itself and I seldom felt the playing field was constricted in any way. The graphics were so-so, but I never thought the Saturn was worth a damn for 3D games anyway. Somehow they managed to make the explosions appear like sparklers or small fireworks had gone off on the screen which looked good, but most of the big stuff breaks up into big flat polygonal shards and floats away. The Japanese voice acting (and there's plenty of it) sucks donkey balls. The sound effects were acceptably average except for the constant drone of your fighter's engines, which sounded like something that could have been done on an Atari 5200.
The numerous smaller enemy ships act as cannon fodder and sweeping the stars clear of them isn't really much of a challenge, but the large capital ships take some pounding and they do have formidable defensive laser cannons. The ground installations built on large floating asteroids were even more formidable still. Those built inside asteroids severely tested my flight skills and definitely make use of the ships otherwise useless roll capabilities.
The game provides for 2 players, but it's not the split-screen kind of play. Instead, one player flies the ship and the other player handles the weapons. It sounds dumb, but this game has missions that seemed designed to make that style of play very advantageous. The gunner has complete independent control of the target reticule and can aim and fire at anything on the screen. Instead of making kamikaze head-on charges into targets that the single player is forced to do, the pilot can take evasive action while the gunner is still able to hammer away at the target.
There's supposed to be 15 missions in the game, 2 of which are dependent on your actions while playing. All the game text is in English, but all the speech is in Japanese. It may not be worth the price of admission, but it is a reasonably challenging game to play.
Didn't find any screenshots of the game, but there is some gameplay footage here...
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Stellar+Assault&search=Search

GAMEPLAY: 8
GRAPHICS: 7
SOUND: 6
ENGLISH FRIENDLY: 7
OVERALL: 7


Hohoho. Isn't that the truth. I'm quite curious to hear how much this cost you? Although I will I don't agree with your 'review' of G-Vector, if anything, the challenge keeps you coming back, oh well.

[Spartacus]

Hohoho. Isn't that the truth. I'm quite curious to hear how much this cost you?Although I will I don't agree with your 'review' of G-Vector, if anything, the challenge keeps you coming back, oh well.

Hey, I think it's great to have people giving differing opinion's about games. Someone else might be interested or undecided about a game and would probably enjoy hearing as many views as possible.
I'm glad to hear you enjoy G Vector and think of it as a worthy challenge that gives you your money's worth. No doubt about it - it's tough. The slowdown and stuttering wasn't an issue for you? The lack of any intro, ending, between stage cut-scenes or story of any kind didn't give you the feeling that Soft Office just sort of slapped it together without much thought or effort? Well, I did enjoy how the game coaxes you into using the lock on missiles often by having so many enemies use the 3D terrain for cover. But I guess I'm the lazy casual gamer type who feels that if I have to replay a level over and over to get through it, then you damn well better let me save my game. I'll be much more likely to try again the next day if I know I won't have to start all over again from the beginning.

There was a time 3-4 years ago when I had made up my mind on what I wanted to own from the Sega Saturn's library and I remember looking at that list and thinking "Yeah, like that's ever going to happen!" But, with persistence....
Now I'm at the point where I can experiment a little with some games that I never even dreamed I would ever think about buying. So I decided to take a peek at what Stellar Assault SS and Psychic Assassin Taromaru were going for. There was one copy of Taromaru on Ebay for $350-ish BIN. There was this copy of Sellar Assault SS, without the sticker or spine, on Yahoo Japan for 9000 yen. I thought OK - I'll get a little kooky and give SS a whirl. Is it worth it gameplay wise? No, that would be tough to do. Do I feel some sense of satisfaction in owning and playing it? Yeah, I do. I probably couldn't explain why to anyone else's satisfaction, but I do.

[josekortez]

I got a copy of Lode Runner Extra for the Saturn off Ebay in the mail the other day.

[Shinichi Chiba]

I just got Konami MSX Ultra Pack for sega saturn about a week ago .

[Damaramu]

Got the following PSone imports:

Macross: Digital Mission VF-X
Bust A Move (dance/rhythm game aka Bust a Groove in the States)
Mini-Moni- Dice de Pyon!

[ScourDX]

Just purchased

- Shining the Holy Ark (Saturn)
- Tales of the World: Summoner's Lineage (GBA)

[RockNRollJerk]

I got these a week or so ago and promptly forgot about them. I should get round to opening them and playing them, let alone taking a pic for here:

DS:
Slide Adventure Mag Kid (with the stand/optical pointer add-on in a huuge box)
Nodame Cantabile

When you get a chance to play them, please post your impressions. I've been interested in both of these games.

[Tron 2.0]

Famicom
Argos no Senshi (Rygar)
Ninja Ryukenden 3 (Ninja Gaiden 3)

Got both games cib beside the jpn version of,Rygar having "different music" then what the u.s version has.Plus with the jpn version of,NG3 it is easier then what the version u.s is as well.

[Hwj_Chim]

Just got Arcane Heart in the mail today
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q197/hwj_chim/100_1330.jpg

[azuma2007]

:texaschain:
Just added the below games to my PS2 imports
Yoshinoya
Zenosaga Freaks
Zone of the Enders ZOE
Dragon Quest VIII
Space Channel 5 Part2
NANA
Another Century's Episode
R-Type Final

[chang2]

I had just imported Shaman King: Soul Fight for game cube. But my GC is with my friend :bawling: cant wait to play it ........

[otaku]

Just got in:
crows the battle action
waku waku 7
groove on fight

All for saturn

[Drag0nsfyre]

Parodius Portable for the PSP :)

[kain76]

Long time Lurker but thought id post as im so happy about finding 2 of my "white whales"
Psychic Assassin Taromaru , paid a mint to get it but it is a great game not sure yet if its totally worth the price maybe once i get some more time with it.

Metal Wolf Chaos so far the only game i could see worh importing for the orginal xbox. Anyone elce know of any other hidden jems for the xbox in japan

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/sunshower/newgames.jpg

[Spartacus]

Those are some nice finds kain76!
So far I've done diddly squat on importing Xbox games, but some that have caught my interest are...

Dinosaur Hunting: Ushinawareta Daichi (Action)
http://www.xbox.com/ja-JP/games/d/dinosaurhunting/

Dennou Taisen: Drone Z (Action)
http://www.xbox.com/ja-JP/games/d/dronez/details.page/default.htm

Drihoo (Action)
http://www.xbox.com/ja-JP/games/d/drihoo/details.page/

ExaSkeleton (Action)
http://www.xbox.com/ja-JP/games/e/exaskeleton/details.page/

Magatama (Action)
http://www.xbox.com/ja-JP/games/m/magatama/details.page/

Magi Death Fight! (Action)
http://www.xbox.com/ja-JP/games/m/magideath/details.page/

Muzzle Flash (3rd Person Shooter)
http://www.xbox.com/ja-JP/games/m/muzzleflash/details.page/

Psyvariar 2: Extend Edition (Shooter)
http://www.xbox.com/ja-JP/games/p/psyvariar2/details.page/default.htm

Shikigami no Shiro (Shooter)
http://www.xbox.com/ja-JP/games/s/shikigami/details.page/

Shikigami no Shiro: Evolution Aka (Shooter)
http://www.xbox.com/ja-JP/games/s/shikigamirvr/details.page/

Shikigami no Shiro: Evolution Ran (Shooter)
http://www.xbox.com/ja-JP/games/s/shikigamirvb/details.page/

Shikigami no Shiro II (Shooter)
http://www.xbox.com/ja-JP/games/s/shikigami2/details.page/

Galaxy Angel (Adventure)
http://www.xbox.com/ja-JP/games/g/galaxyangel/details.page/

Rent A Hero No. 1 (Action/RPG)
http://www.xbox.com/ja-JP/games/r/rentahero/details.page/

Tenerezza (Action/Rpg)
http://www.xbox.com/ja-JP/games/t/tenerezza/details.page/

[fuchikoma]

Wow... is that metal wolf chaos sealed?

Nice.

[smork]

Wow... is that metal wolf chaos sealed?

Nice.

I actually have two sealed Metal Wolf Chaos's (and an open one!). I wish I had one Taromaru, though...... :(

[Spartacus]

http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/8508/microwg0.th.jpg (http://img339.imageshack.us/my.php?image=microwg0.jpg)


Microman overview: Microman was a line of small toy action figure's manufactured by Takara. They were originally imported to the US as Micronauts, but would evolve over time into the Transformer toy line. Since they were never based on a TV show or anime, their story was provided by a mini-catalog that came with each toy. Eventually, Takara would commission a manga series about the Microman. The story has Microman as cyborg beings from the planet Micro Earth that was destroyed in a war with the Acroyears race. They escaped to Earth, disguised themselves as toys and allied themselves with children to stop the Acroyears from dominating the universe.


Chiisana Kyojin Microman - Takara (1999) PlayStation
A very comical action shooting game with loads of funny voice acting. You choose from a cast of Microman to fight individual battles in separate areas of a large complex. There are 21 areas to the complex that are grouped into 3-4 levels each to make up the 7 stages of the game. The game uses a changing cinematic view of the small fighting areas, but it's never an issue. In each stage, you assign different Microman to each of the 3-4 level areas and then fight them in quick succession. If you should lose a battle, you don't replay it, instead that specific Microman has died and is no longer available for the rest of the game. Other Microman will arrive during the game, giving you a grand total of 26 Microman to choose from. Each Microman has a bit of unique personality with his own western name, voice catch phrases, mannerisms and different colored uniform. Each is equipped with a basic projectile weapon with unlimited ammunition and 3 grenades of various types. Many other weapons can be found and a Microman who picks one up will keep it for the rest of the game until he runs out of ammo or finds another. Each Microman can lock on to enemies by projecting a wire-frame radar net around him. Some missions involve defending a mechanical device, so you need to be careful about what you're shooting at.
During each individual battle, the Microman will face multiple cyborg enemies who either rush into the room through doors or are teleported in. After defeating them, he will face an Acroyear boss character. Whatever damage the Microman suffered in battle will carry on with him through the rest of the game, but there are health pick-ups in most areas, so taking a moderately damaged Microman into another battle isn't a recipe for defeat.
If the Microman loses, the enemies will celebrate gleefully. If he wins, his normal reaction is to do a little gloating himself.
Once you've completed all 21 missions plus two bonus rounds, you'll have the opportunity to play the Extra Game. This is the exact same missions and bonus rounds in identical order to the regular game, but now all the Micromen characters are available from the beginning and the number of enemies in each area has been increased. Complete that and the Tom Alone mode becomes available. Again, it's the exact same missions and bonus rounds of the regular game, but this time the only Microman you have is Tom and if he dies - game over. Graciously, Tom's health is replenished between each level.
As you unlock the new games, you are also unlocking bonus movie clips and pictures. There are 11 movies and 68 pictures to unlock, but best of all, there are 21 original Japanese Microman television commercials to unlock and they are the highlight of the bonus material. The game allows for 2-player action and memory card saves.

Note: This game was made after Takara "reset" the Microman line to attract a newer audience. Called the New Microman, they were assigned M-00X numbers and you will see that in the game. M100 Tom was special give-away contest prize during the promotion for Chiisana Kyojin Microman. Only 1188 Toms were produced for this give-away. (1188 was the number of known Microman currently living on earth according to Takara Microman lore)

Here's some screenshots of the game, courtsy of C-Games....
http://c-games.info/games,002,3628.html

GAMEPLAY: 8
GRAPHICS: 8
SOUND: 9
ENGLISH FRIENDLY: 8
OVERALL: 8



Chou Jiryoku Senshi (Magnetic Power) Microman: Generation 2000 - Takara (1999) PlayStation
This is a 3D action adventure game based on characters from the Microman Magne Power toy line. Called super-magnetic soldiers, they were equipped with a magnetic beam device. The story has several Microman being held prisoner in an Acroyears complex. One Microman attempts to destroy the power core and accidentally? sends beams into the city that teleports a child into the fortress. You choose from a blue haired boy or green haired girl to play the game. The child will be rudely shocked to discover that not only have they been abducted, but they've also been transformed into a cyborg Microman. Their mission is to free several captured Microman and make their escape. The game places emphasis on their magnetic powers to move and manipulate objects to navigate the complex. The beam can also be used as a rope to span chasms or even to shove and drag enemies. A single button controls punching and kicking, but by holding down the button they can also slowly charge up a blast weapon. The fortress is massive with multiple levels and is interspersed with teleporter pads that transport the player to far-flung areas. It's also conveniently placed with machines that will restore energy/health and save your progress. The Acroyears enemies in the complex aren't to bright and can often be picked off while you stand in the doorway unnoticed. But each stage of the game not only has you figuring out how to free a Microman, it also forces you into an arena boss battle to escape each stage. These bosses's include DemonAcroyers who have the ability to summon AcroMonsters from the depths of Hell in the forms of vampires, scorpions and lizards. They also include Acro-Change Troopers who can change themselves into robotic snakes, spiders and other insects. After freeing a Microman prisoner and defeating the boss, you are sent to a new area of the complex by way of a rail shooter ride on various hover vehicles through underground tunnels or airshafts.
The game has been simplified so that you don't even need to jump, just move the character to a jump point and push forward and they will conveniently make all the jumps for you. The camera view will swing around on it's own providing a cinematic view of your character, but you can snap the view to 3rd person at any time to see exactly where you are going. There's an overhead map view available at all times to show where you are and have been, but of course it only shows to floor you're on at the time.
I really wanted Magnetic Power Microman: Generation 2000 to be just like Chiisana Kyojin Microman with the quick battles and zany voice acting and I almost gave up on playing it very early on after realizing it was an entirely different type of game. The in game graphics were average at best and your character moves like a tank. Not unheard of in a PlayStation game, I know. But as I played it awhile I began to appreciate it for its exploration and path problem solving and also for the fact that it's a much larger and longer game. The Acroyears boss's were always visually and verbally weird, but the Microman you freed acted strangely aloof, ungrateful and even condescending towards you. The only help they seemed willing to give to free the other Microman prisoners was advice (in Japanese). On the rare occurrence that they'd actually join you in a fight, they were so stupidly arrogant that they got themselves killed in the process. Don't let the graphics or controls put you off. It's definitely worth a play.

Didn't run across any screenshots other that what's on the case artwork, courtesy of Consolecity.....
http://www.consolecity.com/games/action-boxart/game_id-14017.html

GAMEPLAY: 8
GRAPHICS: 7
SOUND: 7
ENGLISH FRIENDLY: 7
OVERALL: 8

Some great sources of info about Microman, starting with the Microman home site.........
http://pierrot.jp/title/microman/index.html
http://www.microforever.com/



Hakaiou: King of Crusher - Fab Communications (1998) PlayStation
A 3rd person game of wanton destruction - with an odd sense of humor. The intro shows a petulant child who likes to smash his toys. He grows up to become a salaryman in Tokyo and starts his own family with a newborn son. An alien insect has other plans for him and delivers a bite that transforms him into a raging maniac.
The whole game is based on the premise that the salaryman will stay alive so long as he is crushing things. His life or energy bar continuously depletes without the destruction. Another bar records the cumulative amount of damage he's done in a level. If he can reach the end of a level after doing a sufficient amount of destruction, he will transform into a larger even more powerful version of himself and start a new level. There are 18 levels in the game that will see him change into a werewolf like ogre after being bitten by a Doberman to morphing into a Godzilla like monster after being struck by lightning.
At first people will just run away from him in horror, but as Tokyo's destruction mounts, the police and armed forces are sent in to destroy him with tanks, helicopters and jets and they can inflict serious damage to him.
Ultimately, he becomes so powerful that he sprouts wings and takes his carnage to New York City on a mission to destroy the Empire State building, the Twin Towers and even the Statue of Liberty. Lady Liberty doesn't take this lying down and gets off her pedestal to give battle! It's an ending you have to see to believe!
Most of the crushing can be done with punches, kicks and head butts, but there are also two power moves available that will change with each incarnation of him. When he's small he can do leg sweeps and back flip attacks. As Godzilla he can do sweeps with his tail and breath fire. His winged version wages battle in the air with fire breathing and death rays.
The sound effects of destruction were a bit disappointing at times. The same china plate hitting the floor sound used for smashing his forehead through a window was heard when his death ray destroyed an apartment complex. But the music was decent and appropriate for destruction.
Graphically the games nothing to brag about, but there are a few nice touches in the game that I appreciated. In Tokyo there were billboards of pretty Japanese girls. You could cross rivers by walking under water. If you destroy a section of overpass, the cars zipping along on it would stream over the edge. The game let's you destroy just about anything you can think of including gas stations, dams, bridges, trestles, power lines, convoys and even forests. Mostly it was a straight path of destruction from the beginning to the end of a level, but there were some branching paths and dead ends. The cut-scenes looked nice and sometimes had a humorous clip to introduce a new area of destruction. The alien insect, who looks a lot like a flying tick with bat wings, appears often between stages to gleefully narrate what's about to happen in a metallic reverb sounding Japanese voice.
The most shocking thing for me to see was the FMV intro of New York. Fighter jets are seen streaking by the World Trade centers in anticipation of his arrival and it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up watching it.
If you can ignore some of it's failings, you'll be rewarded with some satisfying destruction and a memorable ending that will both stun and puzzle you. Worth a play.

Here's some screenshots of the game, courtesy of C-Games...
http://www.c-games.info/games,002,1845.html

GAMEPLAY: 7
GRAPHICS: 7
SOUND: 7
ENGLISH FRIENDLY: 7
OVERALL: 8



Oh No! - Asmik Ace (2000) PlayStation
An odd game that tasks you with simultaneously controlling from two to four young male characters that march inexorably down paths as you try to keep them from running into people, traffic and other hazards. Your characters are losing energy while marching, but can restore their health by picking up hamburgers along the way. They must also be careful not to pick up any poisonous fish sandwiches strewn along the course. You can freely switch the characters from marching abreast of each other to marching in single file and you can jump over many hazards. Complete the course and you get to watch the characters dance on stage while you tap control buttons in time with visual clues on screen to earn bonus points. The music is entirely in English - there's even a "Where's Waldo" type poster of the boys included with the game and all of the song lyrics are printed on the back of it. There are 10 stages of marching and dancing in the game and the various paths take you through beaches, ski-resorts, amusement parks, zoo's and even down expressways. There are also some modes of play that 2-players can compete side by side through the courses.
This is a very, VERY Japanese game. Not just because of its almost complete lack of English, but the story and art style makes you distinctly aware that we are not all the same culturally. The boys are attired in those Japanese loincloths that look suspiciously like diapers and have some of the most incredibly pronounced ball sacks I've ever witnessed in a game! I gathered it's some sort of coming of age story about the boys, as there seems to be some sort of love/hate thing going on with girls. During the cut-scenes, they explore these feelings of fascination and revulsion by poking a finger into a shop-woman's butt and invoke the wrath of her husband who chases them through one course in a bulldozer. Other butts, usually naked, are dispersed throughout the story. They also engage in some minor voyeurism with some older male relatives. In one unforgettable scene, a naked male relative is standing on the beach flying a small hand towel from his obvious erection. One of the boys nonchalantly bends over to use the towel to wipe his sweaty brow! YEESH! Can't say I really understood the game and I couldn't say that I enjoyed playing it. Successfully negotiating the courses was really all about trial and error and memorization.

Couldn't find any real screenshots, but you can see the case artwork here...
http://tenant.depart.livedoor.com/t/quicklink/item2662549.html
And a single game image here...
http://game.goo.ne.jp/search/title/PGMNTPDasm00202/index.html

GAMEPLAY: 5
GRAPHICS: 7
SOUND: 7
ENGLISH FRIENDLY: 0
OVERALL: 5

[Damaramu]

Just picked up Raiden Project (JPN) off Ebay.

[fuchikoma]

I actually have two sealed Metal Wolf Chaos's (and an open one!). I wish I had one Taromaru, though...... :(

Open MWC wouldn't happen to be for sale, would it?

[Drag0nsfyre]

Picked up the japanese verson of Marvel vs Capcom 2 for the PS2 $16 via ebay that came w/ some madcatz controller. hell of alot cheaper then the domestic version (even though I still don't have that one either yet.)

Spartacus: Thanks for the review on the Micromen games I was wondering about the PS Chiisana Kyojin Microman game for a while now, because I like the Microman/Micronauts line of toys and have a few vintage ones too :D Never knew if it was a good or shitty game though so I had'nt picked it up when I ran across it online.
Keep up the good work with your reviews I always enjoy them :) helps add to to my import list of games to check out and get. :cool:

[skipperscott]

Shining the Holy Ark is Best Game for saga saturn. Battle music and sounded great.The dungeon music is not as good. Graphics are impressive.

[udisi]

Just picked up Vib Ribbon for PSX off the bay for $5. Very neat game wish it had more levels though. The use you own CD idea is neat though.

[kain76]

Picked up a few more games:
Gals Panic SS - Fun little puzzle game , very much like Qix.
Bubble Symphony - Bub & Bob at there best
Jojo no Kimyou na Bouken: Phantom Blood
Arcana Heart- Seems like a fun little Fighter gotta give it more play time.
Sega Rally 2006 - After playing the new one on PS3 I felt I had to track this down.
Divine Sealing - I heard this this game plays like s**t and now I belive it. But do have some questions about the game , as the box is totally cardboard , and the cart doesnt look like any other Mega Drive Game I own , might this game be an non-offical release maybe?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/sunshower/DSC03170.jpg

[fishsandwich]

Kain76... Divine Sealing was unlicensed

The last thing I got was Fray for Game Gear.

[importaku]

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jasonmuir/DSCF2063.JPG
yay

[josekortez]

I got my Sega Rally 2006 w/ Sega Rally Saturn bonus disc for Japanese PS2 in the mail from Playasia last week, and I scored a complete copy of All Star Japan Pro Wrestling featuring Virtua for Japanese Saturn at a local shop this afternoon.

[Drag0nsfyre]

I was finally able to get a HRAP 2 stick from Japan Video Games. :D I jumped at it when I saw they were back in stock. This thing is friggin huge! :eek 2:
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g142/drag0nsfyre/HRAP2.jpg
Other purchases/wins
PS2
Taito Memories Joukan $10
King of Colosseum Wrestling Red & Green $10 for both

[josekortez]

I found a complete copy of Tenchu: Shinobi Taizen for Japanese PSP at a Gamestop here in Virginia over the weekend. Someone had traded it in and they accepted it as a PS2 Tenchu, but it had English instructions in the booklet that appear right after the Japanese instructions, so I scooped it up for $16.19. Good deal since playasia.com is selling the Best version of the same game for $29.99 right now...

[Julio III]

When you get a chance to play them, please post your impressions. I've been interested in both of these games.When you get a chance to play them, please post your impressions. I've been interested in both of these games.

RE: Slide Adventure: Mag Kid DS.
Well, i know its been a long time but i finally got around to playing this and I think its great fun. It has a very "old video game" feel. You move about a top-down 2D landscape on surfaces in a house and have to solve this little tasks. When you defeat enemies you can connect to their remains (as you are magnetic) and you gain their abilities. Thus you can utilise different enemies to do different things. Its quite exploration orientated and has featured a couple of nice boss battles so far. There are also some nice quick score attack mini-games i've unlocked so far. I would recommend the game. I don't know how long the game will last though.

[fahlim003]

Got Cotton Boomerang and Silhouette Mirage on Saturn again, for replacements.

[josekortez]

When I got home today, I had a package from Playasia.com waiting for me in the mailbox with brand new Japanese PS2 games.

Jojo no Kimyou na Bouken (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure): Phantom Blood - $14.90
Soccer Kantoku Saihai Simulation: Formation Final - $6.90 (Is this part of the Winning Eleven/Pro Evolution series?)
TVDJ - $9.90

[Damaramu]

Just got in Wonder Project J2 via Ebay. Now I need to mod my N64...
http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/5114/54f81sblwq8.jpg

[RadiantSvgun]

Just got a copy of Sidearms Special for the DUO for $8 from Canada.

[josekortez]

I got 2 cheapie puzzle games for the Japanese PS1 for $10.49 total off ebay:

Hello Kitty Cube Cute
Stressless Lesson Les Les (a block dropper/dating sim by Compile)

[Tron 2.0]

Famicom and Famicom Disk System Games.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v389/MetalSlug01/0004.png
Mad City (The Adventures of Bayou Billy)
Zelda No Densetsu 2 (Zelda II Links Adventure)
Konamic Ice Hockey (Blades of Steel)

Interesting enough Zelda II and Mad City are easier on the Famicom.

[EX-Soldier]

streetfighter zero (alpha) 3 & Policenauts LE both 4 saturn.....jealous??? 0_o

[fahlim003]

streetfighter zero (alpha) 3 & Policenauts LE both 4 saturn.....jealous??? 0_o

No, as I own and have owned both several times. But it's all in good fun eh ;)

On-topic: Scooped a Brave Blade pcb kit up recently. Go Raizing!

[josekortez]

XII Stag for PS2 showed up today in the mail from playasia.com. It was a pre-owned copy but it was in mint condition.

[EX-Soldier]

No, as I own and have owned both several times. But it's all in good fun eh ;)

On-topic: Scooped a Brave Blade pcb kit up recently. Go Raizing!

....... :(

[Julio III]

Yosumin DS
A nice little touch screen puzzle game brought to us by Square Enix of all people. I believe it is a port of a game you can play for free on their website

[Ando]

Just got in Wonder Project J2 via Ebay. Now I need to mod my N64...
Any chance you could mod mine while you're at it? :P I have the game (as well as the first one), but I have yet to procure the means of modding my N64...

My most recent import, though, is my MOTHER3 Deluxe Box. It is SWEET. Comes with the coolest Game Boy micro ever.

[bust3dstr8]

Just buy the $3 gamebit and do it yourself, it's real easy. If you don't have a dremmel tool, you can just remove the whole cart bay/door assembly.

[Julio III]

A white PC Engine (with an RGB mod), one pad and 15 complete games:

http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/2206/pcenginecs0.jpg

Also found another game+manual hidden in one of the boxes, bonus:

http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/6010/hiddengamedv1.jpg

As I am posting images, here's 4 of my recent DS games:

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/9601/dsgamesat5.jpg

[RadiantSvgun]

Ninja Action Kaze Kiri. I'll post a picture tommorw.

[Windy Miller]

http://img398.imageshack.us/img398/6601/pc080132rw1.jpg

Theta arrived today from PA.

[Spartacus]

Spartacus: Keep up the good work with your reviews I always enjoy them :) helps add to to my import list of games to check out and get. :cool:

Thank you! DragOnsfyre. I work with mathematics and blueprints for a living. From lack of use, the written word is almost foreign to me now. I'm sure my thoughts don't come acoss as particularly literate or coherent, but I enjoy helping others whenever I can.

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/2545/next4ot3.th.jpg (http://img208.imageshack.us/my.php?image=next4ot3.jpg)

Tiny Bullets - Kuusou Kagaku/SCE (2000) PlayStation
This is a 3D-action/adventure game about a young boy hiking up Mount Curse to find herbs for his mother. Suddenly the sky blackens, the earth splits open and a dark tower rises from the ground. Trapped in a canyon formed by the earthquake, he has nowhere to go but into the tower armed only with his wits and a small slingshot - hence "Tiny Bullets".
The tower, ruled by an evil wizard and defended by his minions, is riddled with traps to confuse and waylay unwary intruders. Along his journey, the boy will encounter a dragon-rider and his dragon, who are attempting to free a young girl being held prisoner there. She has the power to heal curses placed on the wizard's victims. The dragon and dragon-rider are kind hearted, but seem skeptical of the boy being of any use to them or for his chances for survival. They opt to focus on their mission to free the girl and leave the boy to his own devices, but all help each other as best they can along the way.
The boy has a wide range of verbal expressions for most of his actions, whether it be to grunt and strain from exertion or reacting with wonder to discovery that make's him a quite endearing character to play. He is capable of exploring and interacting with the environment by pushing, dragging, grabbing, lifting, carrying, stomping, climbing, rolling, running, walking and side stepping. He can hang from ledges to lower himself down or just shimmy along them. He can travel hand over hand across pipes and bars and swing himself back and forth to launch jumps.
The attention to detail given to the tower's dungeons, hallways and rooms are impressive and lavished with woodwork, tiling and mosaics. There are bubbling, erupting lava tunnels made passable with a decrepit mechanical ski lift contraption - if he can figure out how to get it operational again. There's a wild Indiana Jones inspired rail riding section as well, flying through caverns, over waterfalls and gorges. Graphically, the game is about as good as you could ask for in a 3d PlayStation game.
The music is inspiringly good too and sets you in a castle exploring mood with strumming ballista's and flutes. I would often catch myself humming a tune or two while thinking about the game at work. And thinking about it is what you will have to do to succeed. This kid will have to be a very clever boy to advance through the game. Many times after finally figuring out how to open a new area of the tower, I would catch myself muttering "Clever boy! Clever, clever boy!".
You'll find a few paper scroll clues along the way. All are written in Japanese and are useless, but none of these are the least bit necessary to complete the game in its entirety. Others are simple visual clues and these are all you will ever need to help you to unlock or solve everything in the game. But most of the game isn't about finding clues. It's about minding your surroundings. Was that fancy mosaic on the wall just decoration, or something else? Noticing cracks in the walls and floors may lead to secret chambers. Noticing ledges or pipes might lead to hidden rooms. Secret areas are often rewarded with crystals that can be placed in devices that materialize specific items - such as bombs, cures for poison, rocks for the slingshot or just fountains of life - all in limitless quantities. Or they might just hold a key to a locked door.
For a change, the camera is really helpful in the game and let's you switch easily back and forth from a cinematic view to get a broad sense of your surroundings, to 3rd person view for easy jumps and navigation, to 1st person view to examine things up close or make pinpoint shots with the slingshot.
Saving your game can be done anywhere, at any time. And if you wish, you can practically retrace your path back through the entire tower - in case you think you might have missed something, remembered something, or just want to fill up on an item you have exchanged crystals for.
Clever, challenging, visually and audibly outstanding - I loved this game! Not one to miss - if you could stand to help rescue another damsel in distress without benefit of a sword or shield. It doesn't hurt that she's dressed in a mini-skirt! LOL

Here's some screenshots, courtesy of Sony...
http://www.jp.playstation.com/ps3/psn/ac_title/0707-05.html?keepThis=true&TB_iframe=true&height=345&width=560
The case artwork, courtesy of Console City...
http://www.consolecity.com/games/action-boxart/game_id-12670.html

GAMEPLAY: 10
GRAPHICS: 10
SOUND: 10
ENGLISH FRIENDLY: 0
OVERALL: 10



Kyoro-chan no Purikura Daisakusen - Tomy (1999) PlayStation
Kyoro-chan no Purikura Daisakusen is a light hearted side-scrolling platform game about a cartoon bird called Kyoro-chan who's the mascot for a Japanese chocolate candy called Chocoballs. Kyoro travels through 5 themed levels, each with 3 stages, avoiding enemies and gathering up Chocoballs. Getting hurt costs him Chocoballs and if he runs out - the game ends.
Entirely 2D, the characters and settings are sharply defined and colorful with parallax scrolling backgrounds. When I noticed that Kyoro-chan was leaving tracks behind him as he was trudging through the snow, I couldn't help but be a little impressed.
The game music is lively and upbeat and sets a good tempo for platforming. It's complimented with a generous assortment of cartoon sounds effects. Kyoro himself is a vocal character and can use his "squawk" to rattle enemies into providing hidden platforms to climb. Between levels, you are treated to small clips of anime.
Kyoro-chan is well animated and gets all of the advantages of being a cartoon character. For instance if he jumps or runs off a ledge and keeps his legs moving fast enough, he gets enough traction in the air to hover forward for a short distance. When he has a lot of Chocoballs he moves sprightly, jumps high and whistles a happy tune. When low on Chocoballs, he looks sickly and can barely jump at all. In a platform game - that's not good!
Kyoro-chan no Purikura Daisakusen covers it's platforming bases thoroughly with warp doors, cannon launching, power-ups and mini-games. Also known as Kyoro-chan's Photo Booth Blitz, there are over 100 photo booths hidden in the game that allow you to pose Kyoro in snapshots and save them to a Pocket Station. Being able to hide that many photo booths in 15 stages is an indication of their size and complexity and there's enough diversity between them to keep the game interesting. Kyoro's search for Chocoballs will take him anywhere from forest treetops to amusement theme parks. In the winter wonderland stages, he can find snowmobiles to commander and race across the frozen landscape, plowing over enemies and barreling over cliffs. In the pirate wharf stages, he can jump into shark-infested waters and scuba dive for Chocoballs equipped with an air tank and a shoulder fired torpedo launcher!
A bit on the playful side, it thinly disguises enemies as Chocoballs, power-downs as power-ups, and warp doors will sometimes transport you back to the beginning of a level. A painful gag, as all the Chocoballs you've collected will still be gone, but all the enemies will have already re-spawned.
Kyoro-chan's popularity in Japan spawned fan clubs, collectable memorabilia, his own anime series and video games for the NES, GBA and PlayStation. Purikura Daisakusen is a challenging, lengthy platform game that sadly doesn't offer to save your progress to a memory card, but Kyoro is a very likeable character and the snowmobiling and scuba diving made it unique enough in my opinion to be worth a play.

I didn't run across any screenshots of the game other than what's on the case artwork, courtesy of Console City...
http://www.consolecity.com/games/action-boxart/game_id-16797.html
Kyoro-chans official website...
http://www.sonymusic.co.jp/Animation/kyoro/

GAMEPLAY: 8
GRAPHICS: 8
SOUND: 10
ENGLISH FRIENDLY: 0
OVERALL: 8



Odo Odo Oddity - IDC Media Studio (1997) PlayStation
A very unique 3rd person flight shooter, of a sort. Your character is a child suspended by balloons that hold him aloft and carry him along with the breeze. He is capable of steering himself to a certain degree, but it's neither precise nor effortless as he sways back and forth at the mercy of the winds. In his hand he carries a magic rod. In it's most basic form it's simply a bashing implement, but by picking up power-ups it gathers in energy to fling pixie dust.
The story, told by very nice looking anime, is that three kids are screwing around with a wizards spell book. It sucks them into a vortex to another world where 2 are being held as captives and the 3rd is forced to fly a gauntlet in an attempt to free them.
The child fly's along on a predetermined path trying to grab power-ups and avoiding objects or enemies that could harm him or his balloons. It's not easy. In fact, the game is ruined by the difficulty. Various enemies that include calvarymen on hover vehicles and fire breathing dragons fill the air and are aiming right for him. Meanwhile his flight path is floating him through dangerous terrain where he can be crushed by falling buildings, smashed by storm tossed waves, electrocuted by lightning strikes, clobbered by boulder spewing volcanoes or simply shelled by cannon firing ships. With only three balloons keeping him airborne and facing such long odds, the game only provides him with an opportunity to pick a spare balloon once per level. The energy power-ups that energize his bashing rod and enable him to make short forward dashes are numerous, but scattered and not easy to reach.
On top of it all, he must face 6 separate boss characters that he can only defeat by maneuvering himself into position to bat their own shots back at them with his magic rod.
What a shame that the game's ruined by it's difficulty because it has some good ideas and some interesting sights to see. I can't recommend it to anyone, but if you ever get the chance to try it, use the Game Shark cheat codes for unlimited balloons, life and energy just to see for yourself how hopeless it was to play!

Couldn't find any screenshots, but here's the boxart, courtsy of Console City...
http://www.consolecity.com/games/action-boxart/game_id-22999.html
Here's some YouTube video of the 1st stage in Level 1....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni4q5ZKRFWE
Note that the player didn't make it through stage 1 and it's the easiest stage of the game!

GAMEPLAY: 2
GRAPHICS: 7
SOUND: 7
ENGLISH FRIENDLY: 0
OVERALL: 2



Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger - Bandai (2001) PlayStation
Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger aka 100-Beast Squadron Gaoranger, was the twenty-fifth production of a long running Japanese "superhero team" genre of television shows called the Super Sentai Series. The American Mighty Morphin Power Ranger television series was an adaptation of the Super Sentia Series and the footage from Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger was used in Power Rangers: Wild Force.
I was delighted to discover that the PlayStation game, and I'll assume the Japanese TV series, is much zanier than anything I've ever witnessed in the few dreadful Power Ranger episodes I've watched. You control GoaRed in the game and it plays like a typical beat-em up. The game makes it appear as if you are fighting in a 3D environment, but it's not. Simplified controls allow you to kick and punch and still throw together combos and special moves. GoaRed can also shoot (something I didn't know the Rangers could do) whenever he's fighting alone. But when he's with another Ranger, instead of shooting, they can double team bad guys with some super-moves.
The virginal priestess Tetomu, who acts as a mentor to Gaorangers, introduces each stage of the game.
The first levels in stages 1-4 are played out identically. GoaRed beats up his share of Orgettes(Orugetto?), and then joins up, one-by-one, with the other GoaRangers who are also fighting Orgettes and could use some help. After finishing off all the Orgettes comes the boss battle. GoaRed battles him alone at times and sometimes with the help of another Ranger. After kicking his ass, Duchess Org Tsuetsue will start chanting and use her staff to revive and enlarge the boss Org. The GaoRangers then summon GaoKing to fight the giant Org boss.
When fighting as GoaKing, it's a completely different game because you take turns fighting each other. When it's your turn to fight you have a 1st person perspective to help you hit the Org boss with your punches. The Org boss is dancing sideways trying to avoid getting hit. When it's his turn to fight, you see GoaKing in a 3rd person perspective and now it's you who are dancing from side to side trying to avoid getting hit. You take turns back and forth. If you can manage to bat one of the boss Org's shots back and hit him with it, it immediately becomes your turn again as reward. If it sounds a bit odd, well, that's because it is odd!
If GoaKing can get in a good hit, say with his sword instead of his fists, or if he just gets the boss Org's lifebar reduced enough, you get a see a short anime clip of him delivering a devastating attack.
Any fans of the TV series will enjoy hearing the original music and voice acting and there are loads of FMV clips from the show in the game.
The game graphics are actually pretty decent and aren't a sore point. I personally couldn't help but chuckle any time I saw one of the Rangers sneaking up on an Org by getting down on all fours and rapidly crawling into a fight! Not to mention when two would tag team an Org by each grabbing an arm and using the same rapid crawl to face drag him through the dirt. The voice acting is very funny to listen too also.

For a little background for anyone unfamiliar with the series, The Ogre Tribe Org is a race of Oni born from the sadness and madness of humans. They often take the forms of idols deep within an underground cavern known as the Matrix. Org" is short for "Organization", since the Org Tribe is an organization of demons and ogres. Orgettes (Orugetto?) are minions armed with clubs. They are considered the lowest class of Orgs because of their small, undeveloped horns. They scream a lot and hop around in an almost monkey like fashion and are pretty hilarious to see and hear.

The boss Orgs in the game include:
Stage 1 is Boat Org, who uses an anchor for a weapon and a steering wheel for a shield.
Stage 2 is Bulldozer Org, who like Boat Org has two horns - unlike most other Orgs.
Stage 3 is Highness Duke Shuten. A one eyed character who wields an axe. Refusing to accept defeat, Shuten takes Tsuetsue's staff to perform the Highness Duke secret technique to enlarge himself at full power.
Stage 4 is Duke Orgu Loki. An Org whose evil energy is contained inside the Dark Wolf Mask. He wields the Crescent Moon Blade which can perform the Crescent Wave and Moonlight Sonic attacks, and like Duchess Orgu Tsuetsue, he had his own Wolf Seeds that enlarge Orgs. Loki will transform himself into GaoHunter with a pronounced alligator (GoaLigator) appearance.
The GoaRangers transform into GoaGorilla to battle him.
Stage 5 changes it up a little as there are no Orgettes to fight. Instead, the GoaRangers fight 3 boss Orgs in quick succession.
1st) Duke Orgu Yaba-Iba - A crazed master of knives who often blurts out "Kore wa yabai-ba!" ("This is awful!"),
2nd) Duchess Orgu Tsuetsue - Org priestess in charge of reviving and enlarging the minor Orgs by using the Org Seeds fired from her staff while chanting "Out with the demons, in with good luck."
3rd) Highness Duke Rasetsu - A hermaphrodite with a mass of mouths with both male and female voices. He uses a knife and fork as his weapons and it's incredibly funny to see! He transforms into a larger version of himself and the GoaRangers transform into GoaGorilla to battle him.
Stage 6 is the final battle and appears to take place in Hell. I'm not sure who this Org is. The Japanese translation says King Org? His first incarnation is a mecha, then he transforms into a giant white ogre monster. The GoaRangers transform into GaoFalcon to battle him.

The only bad thing I can say about this game is that it's incredibly short! About an hour from start to finish. When you finish the game, which does save to a memory card, you unlock a Survival Mode that lets you take GoaRed against a limitless supply of Orgettes, but that gets old pretty fast.

Here's some screenshots, courtesy of C-Games...
http://c-games.info/games,002,1897.html
The developer Bandai's site for the game...
http://www.bandaigames.channel.or.jp/list/gao_rengaer/index.html
Toei's site for the Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger TV show...
http://www.toei.co.jp/tv/user/program/read_story.asp?Command=Old&SID=145
A great fan based site about the Super Sentai Series...
http://www.supersentai.com/
And some YouTube video of the intro and gameplay. Note that there are 7 clips and considering the brevity of the game, I wouldn't be shocked if you could watch the entire thing play out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pml1SYD33t4&feature=related

GAMEPLAY: 8
GRAPHICS: 8
SOUND: 10
ENGLISH FRIENDLY: 0
OVERALL: 8

[Drag0nsfyre]

PS2
DoDonpachi Dai-Oujou
Vampire DarkStalkers Collection (non best vers)
King of Colosseum Wrestling Red & Green
Taito Memories Vol. 1 (Joukan?)

[josekortez]

I got my Ebayed copy of Sunsoft Memories Vol. 4 for PS1 in the mail this weekend.

[BakaTanuki]

I haven't yet ever imported a game, but I'm going to purchase the PC Dojin Touhou game "Embodiment of Scarlet Devil" within the next couple weeks.

[Drag0nsfyre]

PS2
Arcana Heart
XII Stag

[Hwj_Chim]

Got Rumble Fish in the mail today! This is a nice 2D fighter

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q197/hwj_chim/100_1442.jpg

[Kyle15]

This finally came today from NCSX. I was lucky to be one of the few to get the promo disc; they only got enough for half of the pre-orders!
Sadly, I won't have much time with this gem because I'm going out of town with my family for a week.....

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i168/kyle152006/100_1117.jpg