What is your most RECENT import? Post often!

[StealthLurker]

Gotta say that 2006 has been a great year so far for my game collecting. Between the end of January and February got several large boxes of the goodies. Today was the last pair of good sized boxes. Got another load of stuff coming but after that I think I'm going to chill a bit on the collecting. Kinda running out of space. But here's the big '06 early year update.

Some hardcore jpn megadrive goodness:








Here's all the new games together. Basically doubled my collection with this load in one shot:



The awesome 16-bit megadrive encylopedia (lists all md carts) and the all mega-cd soft catalogue:


Some jpn mega-cd games. My fav here is sengoku:


A little bit o' DC:


Some GG stuff:


Some of the more interesting saturn stuff from the new pile:




The rest of the new jpn saturn game pile. Actually got a bunch of stuff I don't already have. So it's a good haul:


Some neo stuff. Got a great deal on the Fighter's History, otherwise I would have passed:




Some PS1 games:


IMHO a kickass set of jpn ps2 games:


Rockman & Forte and Ghouls n Ghosts wonderswan.. mmmmmm:


Some Super Famicom lovin:






All the jpn sfc games together:


Some boxed FC games and an N64 title.


Some boxed gameboy games:


Some choice GBA games:


Some PCE and SuperGrafx titles:


And finally, an awesome, large scale, detailed Rei figure from Hokuto no Ken. Very nice detail up close. A great addition to my large scale Kenshiro figure from the same figure series. Also, volumes 1-29 of the Berserk manga!


All in all a great haul this year so far. Many more games and systems currently in transit. In addition got a ton of RGB cables to use on multiple systems for my new Sony PVM-2530. Maybe not a big deal for you euros, but here in America... the land of the mostly RGB deprived, the image quality is amazing!

________________________________________

[ The Game Collection Pics ]

[Lord Contaminous]

Stealth, you're my muthafuckin idol.

2 more PC Engine cards on Deck to be in sometime next week:
Gradius
Genpei Toumaden 2/Samurai Ghost

[Xiados]

Starting back up my occasional import collecting with two goodies I've wanted for a while:

Atelier Elie Deluxe box set - GBC
Eldorado Gate Vol 2 - DC

[Spartacus]

But here's the big '06 early year update.

Seeing that SFC Phalanx box artwork made me realize there's a better solution than just hiding the banjo picking version I have behind the family photo!
Great haul ya got there StealthLurker!

[luffy744]

StealthLurker:

"a great haul this year so far."

This year so far?! I'd say that's a pretty god damn good haul for this LIFETIME. Kudos man. Just... damn. Looks like you took a trip to Japan and loaded up a bunch of suitcases or something. Or you raided Yahoo Japan and found a shit load of crazy mad deals. Just thinking how much all that must have cost, even if you got a good deal on ALL of it.... yowza.

[Spartacus]

I've come across over a dozen different romanisations and English
translations for the titles of these games and all seem equally valid. I've
simply chosen these names without prejudice and thought I'd share my
impressions of them.

Simple 2000 Series:
Vol. 61: The Oneechanbara-The Older Sister Sword Battle
Vol. 80 The Oneechanpuru-The Older Sister: Special Compilation
Vol. 90 The Oneechanbara 2-The Older Sister Sword Battle 2


The story as I understand it....
The name of the "Older Sister" is Aya. She has a stepsister named Saki. Aya
was trained to use the katana by her father who had left Saki and her
mother to become a master swordsman. When Saki's mother becomes ill and
dies, she blames her father's neglect for her mother's death. Saki swears
revenge and takes up the way of the sword, challenges her father to a fight
and kill's the old boy! Unable to accept the loss of her mother, she begins
delving in the black arts hoping to bring her mother back to life conjuring
ancient spells. As we all know, the necronomicon incantation Klaatu,
Verata, Nikto MUST BE REPEATED EXACTLY! and regrettably Saki muffs it! She
has unleashed an army of the undead! Saki believes it's still possible to
resurrect her mother by cutting out Aya's heart and using it to complete
the ritual. This story has got it all going on. Patricide, fratricide,
necrocide...necrocide? Yes, NECROCIDE! Aya sets out to put an end to Saki's
plans and to any zombies who come between them.



Speaking of zombies, there are all kinds of different undeadites wandering
around. There are police zombies with handgun's and shotguns who shoot
first and moan questions later. There are nurse zombies who throw scalpels
and politically incorrect native zombies who chuck spears. There's pacifist
zombies who've self immolated themselves protesting something or other and
some zombies somehow broke into a hardware store somewhere and have managed
to arm themselves with axes, hammers, scythes and anything else they could
get they're cold dead hands on!

Armed or unarmed, these Hell spawned zombies can only be stopped by
complete dismemberment. Hack off the head, the arms, the entire upper torso
and they just become stubby kicking zombies! Every cut on their corpse's
sprays blood that corrupts anyything it comes into contact with. As Aya
uses her katana to cut down zombies, blood splatter begins sticking to the
blade. A katana shaped meter fills up as it becomes more and more blood
drenched. When the meter is full, the katana becomes cursed and will
attempt to remain imbedded in the bodies of the undead as if it belongs to
them. It's very difficult for Aya to yank the bloody thing back out and
every zombie in the vicinity will do it's worst while she struggles with
it. To prevent that from happening Aya has a motion that cleans the katana
by swinging it downward forcefully, flinging the blood from it with a
satisfying splat.



The katana isn't the only thing being sprayed with zombie blood. Aya
herself becomes covered in blood and the evil within it will turn on her as
well. Just as there was for the katana, there is also a meter for Aya that
shows how much zombie blood is clinging to her. Should it become full, her
life will ebb away with each heartbeat as she begins transforming into a
zombie. The death process both enrages her and enables a massive increase
in her strength and speed until she succumbs and dies! Aya can purify
herself by finding statuary of angels that washes the evil from her.

Since zombies occasionally keep interesting trinkets in their pockets, Aya
has no qualms about robbing the dead. There are pocket sized angelic
statuary good for a quick clean up, charms for invincibility, potions to
restore health, increase speed and power. She can use these immediately or
save them for later. Decimated zombie's leave behind gold orb's that
increase Aya's experience level. Unlike the temporary effect of trinkets,
experience will permanently increase Aya's attributes.



Fighting with a katana comes easily for Aya. She can carve zombies slowly
with straight forward thrusts, horizontal slashes and a "You're not gonna
be having any damn zombie babies!" upward slash or deliver a devastating
combo attack that can be "upgraded" with experience. Aya can also perform a
power attack that puts the game into slow motion and directs all of her chi
into a single thrust. It costs Aya a bit of her life to do this, but the
effect is similar to a blast wave that can be directed at a group of
zombies. She can also mix in some high roundhouse or low leg sweep kicks.
Kicking zombies to death is almost as fun as hacking them and is completely
bloodless!



The main menu is in English, as is a suprisingly large amount of this game.
There you are given choices of playing...

A Story mode comprised of six stages. Each stage requires finding keys to
open up new areas where eventually Aya will meet up with an endboss. These
can be quite long and there are no save points. In the sixth and finale
stage the endoss waiting for Aya will become a playable character should
Aya defeat her.

A Survival mode that consists of fighting waves of zombies. It's a great
place to earn experience orbs for leveling up Aya that she keeps when she
die's. This is very different from the story mode where Aya can only keep
her experience IF she completes the stage!

A Quest mode where Aya can see a list quests that can be performed in any
of the stages of the Story mode to unlock rewards in the game.



Taking into account that these are budget games, I felt less inclined to
take a harsh attitude towards maps being recycled and zombies being
respawned. That being said, I've decided to score all three games
identically and direct my likes and dislikes towards each game accordingly.
GAMEPLAY: 8
GRAPHICS: 8
SOUND: 8
ENGLISH FRIENDLY: 8
OVERALL: 8

Vol. 61: The Oneechanbara
What I Liked: The original had its flaws to be sure, but I ended up playing
it the most and liking it the best. There are no extraneous or inexplicable
characters and it IS Oneechanbara in its purest form.

What I Disliked: There were some issues with the doors in this version
because the game would send you through a doorway if you simply got near
it. When you put that together with spawning, it could get frustrating.
Imagine clearing a hallway of zombies to get to a door you needed to enter
a room. The room requires you to clear three waves of zombies to get a key
for another area. You dispatch 2 waves and then get close to the door while
fighting. Suddenly you are whisked back out into the hallway that has
respawned full of zombies. When you go back through the door and re-enter
the room, you'll still have three waves of zombies to fight for the key
again!


Vol. 80 The Oneechanpuru
What I Liked: This is an "upgraded" version of Oneechanbara. To reward
those who already owned Oneechanbara and bought this too, D3 had the game
check your memory card for an Oneechanbara game save. If one is there,
everything obtainable from Oneechanbara's quests is unlocked automatically!
Very nice of them! The door issue was fixed by having the game ask you if
you wish to go through or not.

What I Disliked: The game in this version is EXACTLY like it was in
Oneechanbara, with only the location of the Survival mode changed from a
church graveyard to a walled church courtyard. D3 decided to slap Riho
Futaba's mug on the game cover and added her and her younger sister Makoto
to the game as unlockable characters. Why? Because they are very popular in
Japan, both are featured in several of D3's other Simple 2000 games and D3
figured they'd sell a few more copies I guess. Since they have nothing to
do with the story, I thought they were useless clutter and a cheap ploy.


Vol. 90 The Oneechanbara 2
What I Liked: A fresh story with some new zombie types, end bosses, better
level designs, a new playable character called Rieko and some minor overall
improvements throughout. The zombies can now quickly close short distances
by rushing you. An entire level map was added for each stage. A new
practice area was added that places one single respawning zombie in a room
with you. It does not attack and let's you practice whatever you like
(kicks, slashes, combos, whatever) to help you determine what is effective
and what isn't. Not a bad idea I guess. They added a new swivel head camera
control with the right analog stick.

What I Disliked: I haven't seen a translation of Onechbara 2 yet, so I
don't know what part the new character Reiko plays in the story. She wears
a motorcycle helmet and looks pretty silly really. Reiko packs a shotgun as
well as a sword and Aya has also been "upgraded" to throwing shurikens. I
feel the gameplay has suffered as a result of these "improvements". (They
also required significant changes to the button layout). The element of
danger the original game invoked by pitting a single player in close combat
against overwhelming numbers is completely lost by the introduction of
stand off weapons with unlimited ammunition. Bad call. BAD CALL! At least
Saki doesn't shoot. Instead she has a new move where she can charge up to a
zombie, choose an arm and tear the damn thing right off! Well, that parts
cool anyway! And the blood! My God, the gorgeous red blood has been changed
to neon pink! Why? You ASSHOLES!

These games warn about containing extreme violence and gore but I should
also warn you that the undead include men, women, children, and even
babies! If hacking any of these apart with a katana could upset you, find
something else to play. But in all fairness you should know that no one was
actually harmed while playing these games and that they are, in fact,
FREAKING ZOMBIES!



I ended up admiring D3 for producing Oneechanbara. Getting a company like
Tamsoft to develop them, with it's strong background in fighting games, was
probably a big part of why they played well. Making an over the top blood
and gore zombie hack fest mixed with Aya's overt sexuality and bouncing
breasts was probably enough to draw in male gamers. (Enough for me,
anyway!) But by making all the major characters female and using a
storyline about the rivalry between older and younger sisters, they also
made a game that could interest female gamers too.



My vote for the best animation in the games wouldn't go to Aya's mammery's
but to her way of walking when the lock-on button is being held. Officially
it's probably a stalk, but I've been in enough strip joints to know a great
strut when I see one! It injected her with personality and looked cool as
Hell! I don't know which programmer over there came up with her "stalk",
but I'd like to buy that man a beer!

Other people I'd like to thank...

simalcrum for his excellent Oneechanbara walkthrough with maps for each
stage and a translation of the quests. And IGN for hosting it
Here

Kevin Lee R. (kiwikevin) for his excellent Oneechanpuru walkthrough and for
detailing what was unlockable in the quests. And GameFAQ's for hosting it
Here

YesAsia.com for getting these Japanese games to my house all the way from
Hong Kong for about $20 apiece!

[Julio III]

Stealthlurker: wow! That is all i can say. Wow!

As for me, got myself one nice new game today:

Radirgy for the Dreamcast

Been playing it a lot. Its a really fun game. Shame there's only one more Dreamcast game left to be released...

[dj898]

finally got my Sega Wondermega from mate who suppose to return it last year!

[Animerforever05]

my first 3 import ds games came in! they rock!

[importaku]

A couple more ps1 games.

First 2 are pocketstation games. Paqa & poke tan.

& finally, tondemo crisi (aka incredible crisis)

[Mahoutskai]

Alcahest (complete)
Bahamut Lagoon (complete)
Tales of Phantasia (complete)
Chrono Trigger (complete with cards)
Sufami Turbo (complete, original release)

[importaku]

More Jpn Psone games for me. I happened to come across a complete set of the rockman games.

Best of all they are the 1st print versions, not the skanky psone books ver yaaaay.



Some hardcore platforming due tonight (^_^)

[vanadium]

About 25 NeoGeo CD games, and 3 Korean MD games incoming. If I posted pics, I'd kill even broadband connections.

Got 8 Marty games recently, my FM Towns Marty system, and another 10 NGCD games.

[Lord Contaminous]

More Jpn Psone games for me. I happened to come across a complete set of the rockman games.

Best of all they are the 1st print versions, not the skanky psone books ver yaaaay.



Some hardcore platforming due tonight (^_^)

good shit! I'm a huge Rockman fan myself.

[Julio III]

For the Dreamcast:
Plus Plumb
Princess Maker Collection

sometimes i feel i need a digital camera to bother posting in these threads, but i like to so...

[mrmeatball]

I bought Jump SuperStars and Bleach DS a couple days ago.

[importaku]

This turned up a few days ago. Yaay, the excellent cooking mama.

[Ridley30]

I just got Snatcher and Policenauts for my Saturn. I'm currently running through Policenauts for the first time. Oh, and I'm also having an orgasm at how freaking awesome it is.

[dj898]

wait till you try 3DO version...

[KJN]

Should have posted this one ages ago.


Electroplankton (the pack with headphones)
Touch Game Party
Once I get a DS I will actually be able to play them along with all the other DS games I've picked up, that will be fun.

Psyvariar 2: Ultimate Final
Great shmup. The PS2 version has an extra challenge mode (get X buzz, kill X enemies, etc), a roll button, stage sellects and an art gallery. It also commes with a DVD containing super play movies, music remixes and another gallery.

Otostaz
Otostaz is yet another great Sony game that was sadly never released in the west. It's a puzzle game with a town building theme. The menus are in english and there is a japanese / english language option for the rest of the text as well so you can play the game in full english. The game has a pop-up book look and a nice jazz soundtrack.

Electronic Game Collectors 1970 - 80's Choise

A book with pictures and a bit of information on various systems released in Japan during the 70s - early 80s. From computers, like the Commodore Max Machine, to consols, like the Kousokusen (Vectrex), and tons of LCD games.