What is your most RECENT import? Post often!

[smork]

I recently picked up the following Japanese games..

GBA:

Hajime No Ippo [Treasure 2-D Boxing Game]
Mother 3 [Finally copped this]


Nintendo DS:

Jump Ultimate Stars [Sequel to Jump Super Stars]
Touch! Bomberman Land 2: Star Bomber's Miracle World


I'm liking Hajime no Ippo & Jump Ultimate Stars. The online multiplayer on Bomberman Land 2 is good, but I don't like the single player too much. Haven't gotten a chance to play Mother 3 yet and won't until I beat Mother 2.

Aren't you in Japan? Don't think those qualify as imports for you I never post my purchases in this thread since all mine are imports as well.

[Family Computer]

yeah smork I feel a bit weird about it, but I got chewed out by one of those "POST IN THE HUGE RANDOM THREAD TO KEEP DOWN CLUTTER" posts when I tried to create a new topic about new Famicom games

[smork]

yeah smork I feel a bit weird about it, but I got chewed out by one of those "POST IN THE HUGE RANDOM THREAD TO KEEP DOWN CLUTTER" posts when I tried to create a new topic about new Famicom games

Ah. I've always thought we needed more posts in Import-Mania!, not less!

[fahlim003]

I finally got Street Fighter Zero: Fighters Generation for PS2. It's a shame too since it's gone up in price over the summer.

[Tron 2.0]

Famicom
Ninja Ryukenden cib:Just won it on ebay can't wait to play it again too.

Famicom Disk System
Castlevania:Interesting on the fds version you can put,your name in and save the last stage you played.

[Chuplayer]

After a long import hiatus, I got Wangan Midnight for the PS3.

http://www.ncsx.com/2007/072307/wangan_midnight.htm

After a little research on various parts of the intarwebs, this game is fun! I got stuck at a spot, but then I learned a little bit more about the card system. I don't totally understand it because it's mostly in Japanese, but I can be competitive!

Damn, the last import I got was KOF2002 for the Dreamcast. That was over four years ago! It's good to get back into imports.

[oceanfr]

Goemon shin sedai for the ps1 and Boy Kanipan

[Spartacus]

Here's a few imports I've pickup recently and had a chance to spend a little time with.

Acid - ISCO/Taki 1999 PlayStation NTSC-J
This a very unusual techno puzzle style game that has you tasked with defending a Tron like cybernetic world by destroying targets using a fixed placed futuristic cannon. You are placed in an area full of stacked cubes that seems to hang in the middle of black space. Blue colored cubes will detonate your shot on contact, but black cubes will cause your shot to ricochet. Since the game quickly progresses past easy line of sight shooting to around the corner shots, the black cubed walls can be used cautiously like the bumpers of a pool table. I say cautiously, because any ricocheting shot that careens back at you and hits your cannon immediately ends your game. There are a limited number of shots you can fire to accomplish your objectives and you are awarded points in the game based on the "flair" was involved in destroying the targets.
The cannon can be swiveled in any direction including up and down and like any good artillery piece, the movements are assigned numerical values so that you can make incremental adjustments and find your range. You can control the trajectory and velocity of your shot using a sliding power-band. The power-band moves up and down until you set it by tapping a button. That means you have to time the button push precisely on the power-band to accurately repeat each shot. There is also a second power-band to put "English" on your shot that will make your shot curve to the left or to the right to varying degree. Like the first power-band, it requires you to time your button push precisely on the band to accurately repeat the amount curving your shot will take.
Between the ricochets, velocity, "English" and repeating your power-band settings so that you can accurately dial in the distance and windage to your target - you'll have your hands full. But they also let you make some incredible shots and hit targets that seem improbable, if not nearly impossible!
Before you take any shot, you can scan over the playing field in a top down view to identify targets out of your line of sight and also to scope out attack methods that you think might work.
There are two types of ammunition for your cannon. The first is a blue plasma ball that requires a direct hit and earns you more points. The second is a red plasma ball called shot that covers a broader area when it detonates. Both types leave a trail behind them when fired that allows you to watch their flight paths and gage needed adjustments.
The single player game is plenty challenging and the number of targets and the difficulty of the shots increase as you progress thru the game. You'll also start seeing cubes that move back and forth, opening and closing shot possibilities. I haven't gotten that far in the game yet, but the instruction manual shows a level in which your targets are located on a moving gigantic arachnid looking thing! You can save your progress in the game on a memory card.
There's also a two player VS mode that let's you pick one of several different levels, assigns colors to each opponents cannon and you take turns trying to eliminate each other's cannon. In the two-player mode, you might have several cannon that belong to you on the playing field and you can switch back and forth between them when it's your turn to take a shot. Again, like in the single player game, before you take your shot you can scan over the playing field to determine your best shots, angles of attacks and come up with a sound strategy - like first eliminating any of your opponents cannon that might have easy shots at your cannons.

Here's some pics of the game, courtesy of c-games.com ...
http://c-games.info/games,002,1299.html

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



Lone Soldier - Virgin Interactive 1996 PlayStation NTSC-J/PAL
This is a 3rd person parody shooter with a bit of an arcade feel to the way it looks and plays. I really felt like I should be droppings quarters in and I would have dropped quite a few because I was laughing my ass off the whole time I played thru it.
The story told thru cutscenes is about our hero, simply called the Lone Soldier, being tasked with finding and eliminating some bad guys who have hijacked an experimental nuclear missile. The trail will lead him thru a jungle stage, a mountain stage, a city urban warfare stage and culminates with him on an alien spaceship who's technology has clearly advanced far beyond any need of a nuclear device. It makes no sense what-so-ever and it's not supposed to as it's a silly tongue-in-check parody.
Our Arnold Schwarzenegger inspired beef cake hero, the Lone Soldier sports a crew cut, fatigues and an olive drab wife beater t-shirt. He speaks with a slow Ahhnold drawl and will articulate the name of each weapon or item he picks up. Lone Soldier takes a knee and sadly says "You got me!" when killed. Beyond that, he strictly sticks to his role as the strong silent type. I might add that Lone Soldier is afraid of water and won't go in it even though he can walk into flames and fire hurts him!
Lone Soldier can move and aim in 4 directions, not eight, so there's no diagonal aspect to his shooting style. His target reticule turns red when pointing at enemies that are in range. He starts out with an Uzi sub-machinegun with unlimited ammo and 15 grenades that he can only toss while holding the Uzi. He's so muscle bound his grenade toss usually only travels about 3-4 feet and they do hurt him if he's too near when they go off! Weakling enemy soldiers toss grenades 15-20 feet and much farther than that if they are up in a guard tower! Fortunately, they seem so eager to toss grenades at Lone Soldier that they will often carpet bomb each other in the process!
They enemies have their own vocabularies. Soldiers cry Uhhahhh when shot. Ninja's scream Neeho! when they toss shuriken's. The natives excitedly shout Umbawunga, Umbawunga, Umbawunga as they throw spears and shoot blowguns. Soldiers who handle attack dogs will yell Get Him Boy! when they sic the dog on the Lone Soldier and the dog barks and growls as it tries to tear Lone Soldier a new one. Kill the handler and the dog will whimper and run away. The other cast of characters include mutants, 3 armed freaks, zombies, space aliens, robots, mecha, and molotov tossing gang members from the hood. The boss characters for each stage, looking like motley rejects from the "Who Wants to Be a Superhero?" TV show, deliver their own antagonistic one liners.
The game covers all the bases and includes exploding fuel drums and crates that the enemies always seem to be crouching behind or lolly-gagging around. You'll see gun turrets, trucks, tanks, half-tracks, helicopters, river boat gunships, Easter Island monoliths spewing flames and plasma and landmines that are "buried" above ground in plain view!
There are four themed stages to the game, each divided into four levels. Lone Soldier has lifebar and 2 extra lives to last him the entire game, but his life bar is refilled each time he completes a level and he's also restocked with 15 fresh grenades. Completing a stage earns him a an extra life, an opportunity to save his progress to a memory card, but he also losses all the pickup items acquired on the previous stage. Each level has a countdown timer displayed in the lower right corner, if you exceed the time limit, you'll have to re-do the level with a replenished health bar and supply of grenades. You will also be required to re-do a level if his kill count dips below %70.
Pickup items include invincibility, medi-packs, extra lives, bazooka, flame thrower, M-60 machinegun, spare grenades and ammo.
Controlling Lone Soldier only requires the diagonal pad for movement and the four face buttons to run, fire, toss grenades and cycle weapons.
If you enjoy a sense of humor, don't flippantly wave your hand at the mention of a UK developed game as eurotrash and rather like the idea of a cheap Duke Nukem knock-off, then you probably couldn't help but to have fun playing this zany game.

Afraid I couldn't find any screenshots of it other than the back of the Pal case cover....


GAMEPLAY: 7
GRAPHICS: 7
SOUND: 7
ENGLISH FRIENDLY: 10
OVERALL: 9



Pop'n Tanks! - Enix 1999 PlayStation NTSC-J
This is a comical super-deformed tank combat game that has you fighting one-on-one battles on 3D terrain littered with buildings and houses that can be destroyed to uncover hidden power-ups. In between the battles, you can visit the Tank Shop to purchase better parts for your tank. There are eight selectable character/tanks, each with their own unique weapons. The game includes a Story Mode, Quick Battle and a two-player Versus Mode.
Each of the character's personality's gets fleshed out with some bits of story anime. The battles are three timed round events and you can also jump on opponents as well as shoot them. The camera can be your worst enemy at times, as it prefers to keep both tanks in view instead of looking ahead of where YOU are driving. But, because you can swivel your turret, you can also deliver broadsides while scooting off in another direction. A simple tap of a shoulder button will point your tank towards your opponent for head-on charges.
There are 10 different battlefields to fight on which seemed to be sized to keep the action pretty constant.

I didn't come across any screenshots of the game other than those on the back of the case.


This clip is some of the games anime and it gives you a taste of the games story style.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEoLn13gSxs

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



Fuuun Gokuu Ninden - Aicom 1996 PlayStation NTSC-J
Wu Chengen's classic Chinese novel Hsi Yu Chi (Journey to the West) has inspired quite a few video games including Monkey Hero, Monkey Magic, Dragonball Z and Saiyuki: Journey West - just to name a few. It's also the inspiration for this side scrolling platform game. Play as Monkey God, Pigsy or Sandy and help Tripitaka obtain the sutras needed to save the world!
Each character plays with their own unique style. Monkey Hero has a gold rod to bash enemies and a special attack that spews purple bubbles. Pigsy carries a trident and has the longest lifebar of the three. He's also a bit slower and his special attack shoots a short-ranged fireball. Sandy carries a staff with a crescent moon shaped object on the end of it. She's the lightest, fastest and can jump the highest. Her special attack is to fire out an object that looks a lot like Mr. Hanky. All three can swing their weapons up and down as well as sideways and the all perform a type of jabbing dash attack.
All three can also pick up enemies and objects and hurl them and this ability is a necessary technique to complete the game.
I thought the levels were inspired and well done and included hidden areas and secrets. The colors and details are good and the backgrounds parallax scroll. Each stage is comprised of 3-4 levels and culminates in a boss battle. There's usually a brief area in each stage for your selected character to ride on Monkey Hero's cloud gathering in blue orbs and hearts. The orbs are used to powerup the characters special attack and can also be used at the end of each stage to restore the life for any of the characters. If you kill off your character in a level, you simply choose any of the others that are still alive in that stage and restart the level. If all three are killed, you drop back one stage and start over again. Finding hearts to restore health are few and far between, so getting a character killed isn't unusual. Even rarer are powerups that gives a brief invincibility. There's no way to save your progress on a memory card, so you just have to gut it out and complete the game from start to finish.
My favorite stage is the graveyard that has you leaping across caskets adorned with cross's where you will eventually meet up with Count Dracula - who looks an awfully lot like Count Chockula!

Couldn't find any screenshots of the game other than those on the back of the case.....


GAMEPLAY: 8
GRAPHICS: 8
SOUND: 7
ENGLISH FRIENDLY: 10
OVERALL: 8

[otaku]

segata sanshiro for saturn is on its way to me

[importaku]

This finally turned up, yay

[mrmeatball]

This finally turned up, yay

Damn, forgot about that one since it made a buzz around the net when announced. How is it?

[josekortez]

I got Clockwerx for the Japanese Saturn in the mail from a trade with legeek the other day. It was funny that this game was only released on the Saturn in Japan when the guy who created Tetris has his picture right on the front of the manual. Very challenging game...

Oh, and I got a copy of .hack Vol. 1 & 2 (Best) for the Japanese PS2 off Ebay. Too bad I can't understand a word they're saying...

[fishsandwich]

Pulseman for Megadrive. Won't play on an X'Eye, dammit. Gotta find that covertor cart now.

[Sailorneorune]

Have you tried a Game Genie for Pulseman on your X'Eye?

I know it sounds odd... but it works on a Genesis 2 and Nomad...

Game Genies are dirt cheap, and I've practically memorised the region protection break code.

[MrSmiley381]

I got cart only copies of Final Fight 2 and Super Fire Pro Wrestling Special for the SFC.

I left my copy of Fire Pro on overnight, and I think that may have done permanent damage. Gross.

[shadowforte]

DDRMAX Final 6th Mix. Friend of mine who is Japanese bought it a while back in Japan, this remembered that he does not have a japanese PS2. So I was over his house buying some Japanese toy's (his house is like a little import shop) when I saw it. Asked how much and he gave it to me for $3. It was disc only but I printed the cover of it online and made a case. It's my first import because I can't find a place to get cheep ones, but I would love to pick up some more like Kindom Hearts Final Mix.

[tritium]

Trigger Heart for Dreamcast

[Spartacus]

Kaettekita Cyborg Kuro-Chan - Konami 2002 PlayStation
This is a side scrolling shooter game along the lines of Gunner's Heaven. Unlike Gunners Heaven, you can play this game with two players and it does allow saves to a memory card.
Cyborg Kuro-Chan is a japanese manga series about cats who were transformed into cyborg's by an evil scientist who wants to take over the world. Many of character's from the manga appear in the game, but you select from 3 cyborg cats named Kuro, Mie or Matatabi to play. Each has 6 different weapons that vary slightly depending on which you character you choose. One of the weapons will have unlimited ammo and the rest require finding ammo packs to refill them. The ammo packs are global in nature and refills all the weapons in your cats arsenal, which was nice.
I liked how each weapon varied in appearance for each different character. One cats pistol might be a revolver and another cat's pistol a laser. The weapons include miniguns, boomerangs, swords, bats, mallets, pistols, lasers, flame weapons, nunchucks and missile launchers. Each weapon has four upgrades and each upgrade changes the appearance of the weapon as well. Each time you upgrade a weapon, your character will grin maniacaly as the new weapon appears in his hand. Cute!
The same pickup power-pill that you can use to upgrade your weapons can also be used instead to upgrade other character attributes, such as a larger ammo capacity, faster speed, better armor or simply to replentish your lifebar.
The game was developed by Konami and one of the levels is eerily similar to Contra III, where you must find a way to traverse across an area by hopping on large missiles that are moving in the opposite direction. There's also a stage in which you mount a rocket sled and the game becomes more like a horizontal shooter.
I won't say the game is cel-shaded, but the character's have a very hand drawn cartoon look to them and the visuals are very good. The explosions also look and sound great. It's a great game to pick up!

Here's some screenshots courtesy of c-games.com....
http://c-games.info/games,002,1955.html
The back case artwork courtesy of NCSX...
http://www.ncsx.org/2002/ncs120202/cyborg_chan.htm
Some info about the manga series courtesy of kodanclub.com....
http://www.kodanclub.com/cgi-local/c...7-00146-01-011
And finally, some YouTube video of the manga series - not the game!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlLMoQhMGnk

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



Dangan - KSS 2000 PlayStation
Dangan (which means "bullet" in Japanese) is a run and gun game using a top down view. You pretty much need to run more than gun as enemies respawn and there's no point in trying to clear areas. You can fight by punching and kicking, though your kick is a power move that uses up your lifebar. You must have hands and feet made of steel because you can destroy anything with them, including tanks! You are also equipped with a pistol with unlimited ammunition. You can fire in any direction using the shoulder buttons, but it does hold you in place as you pivot. Destroying box's, barrels, statuary and enemies will sometimes leave you new weapons such as a machinegun, laser rifle, flamethrower and rocket launcher. These you will need to find ammunition for. Ocassionaly you'll find health refills as well.
The stages are comprised of running through 3-4 ambush filled levels looking for a door that leads you to the next level. The final level is a boss fight. I would guess there are around 15 stages in the game.
The good: The level designs were varied, detailed and fairly interesting. The enemy types were also interesting and included goons, soldiers, giants, midget suicide bomber chicks, ninja's, tanks, and lots of fixed point pivoting turrets firing flame's, laser's and machine guns.
The bad: Even though everything was interesting, you mostly just run around looking for the door because fighting would usually end up with you being surrounded and killed! Despite all of the weapons I picked up, I seldom used them as they weren't very powerful and punching and kicking seemed easier and quicker! Not only do you feel like you're always outnumbered and surrounded, but when you're hit you flash for a second or two and are unable to hit back or shoot while this was happening! Meanwhile, the enemies can still get in licks on you, so you naturaly end up trying to avoid fights whenever possible. Worse still is the boss fights, who were always much more powerful than you and still had turrets and goons helping them out by shooting you in the back while you were trying to fight them. That could get really frustrating at times and if it weren't for the fact that your progress was being saved to a memory card, I probably would have quit early on. On the bright side, there seems to be unlimited continues.
The games worth a play, but expect to have a tough time until you learn it's better to run than gun!

The only pic I could find of the game is the case artwork, courtesy of noujoumonogatari.com.....
http://noujoumonogatari.sakura.ne.jp...rts/dangan.jpg

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



Expert - Nihon Bussan 1996 PlayStation
Playing Expert kind of reminded me of watching the original Godzilla movie. You know what your seeing is pretty darn cheesy, but somehow you can enjoy yourself with it anyway. The Expert is a member of a police SWAT team that is tasked with saving some hostages held by a gang in a multi-story building. Clear a floor, rescue any hostages you find, throw some switches and hop in the elevator to the next level. Before you start you are given a choice of two or three different weapons packages to select from. What I liked most about the game is the fact that whatever ordinance you've used or found on the previous stages carries over to the next and necessitates husbanding your resources. I think Nichibutsu was attemting to make a serious 1st person shooter game at the time, there's an orchestral score and the between stage cut-scenes showed some hand drawn images of the team members, but it's so old now it's almost approaching being a bit campy. For what it's worth, I enjoyed it the game, but then again I like B-movies too!

Here's some screenshots courtesy of c-games.com.....
http://c-games.info/games,002,1704.html
And Greg Wilcox discusses it briefly in Did You Know the Badness....
http://www.digitpress.com/archives/d...ow_badness.htm

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



Hybrid - Motivetime/SPS 1997 PlayStation
Hybrid is a sci-fi 1st person shooter with extremely large and intricate levels. You'll need to throw switches and find key cards to open doors and there are secret rooms and passageways. Most of the enemies are mechanical - robots, flying drones, ect., but there's also female amazonian type enemies who'll produce a large pool of blood when killed. You can select from four different characters to play and all speak with a bit of an English accent that I found amusing. Each character has thier own special weapons and upgrades for them. Each is also capable of a last ditch melee attack that doesn't require ammo.
The game reminded me quite a bit of Alien Trilogy, both with it's graphics and because there are a lot of very dark places in the game.
A pulldown zoomable map shows where you are and where you've been and without it you'd easily get lost. The levels are multi-storied with spiraling staircases, elevators, acid pits, secret passagways and overall are pretty darn complex. The darkness and constant search for health and ammo gives a darn near survival-horror type feel to it.

This is the only screenshot of the game I could find courtesy of tsn-catv.com. The bottom half shows the 4 playable characters. It's interesting to note that the enemies and item are placed differently in the game for each character!
http://tcn-catv.easymyweb.jp/member/oxama/1698_A.jpg
The DP online guide lists Hybrid as only having a PAL release, but here's the Japanese case artwork, courtesy of consolecity.com.....
http://www.consolecity.com/games/act..._id-22553.html

GAMEPLAY: 9
GRAPHICS: 7
SOUND: 8
ENGLISH FRIENDLY: 10
OVERALL: 9

[Tron 2.0]

Famicom
Ninja Ryukenden 2 cib

Well now i got 1&2 all if left is to find 3 cib.

I just,hope i don't have too much of a problem getting 3 cib later on.

[fahlim003]

Marvel Super Heroes VS. Street Fighter - Saturn

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!