What is your most RECENT import? Post often!

[luffy744]

I went a bit crazy shopping for new goodies for my Megadrive over the last week, got two packages today contianing (all complete, all japanese):

Alisia Dragoon
Musha Aleste
Strider Hiryuu
Bare Knuckle 2
Sonic 2
Golden Axe 2
Thunder Force 3
Raiden Densetsu

God Japanese cover art is so much better than the US versions.

I am in 16-bit Sega heaven right now.

[Spartacus]

Atlantis no Nazo (Mystery of Atlantis) -Japan only by Sunsoft 1986
This is one of the games in the Japan only NES games thread, so I picked it up. I have a Pitfall II for my Atari 5200, so it's nice to have a completely different and much better looking version for the NES. In the game you're an explorer who's looking for treasure chests and a door to get out of each level within a time limit. You can jump/duck and throw bombs and you meet up with plenty of enemies who can kill you with a single touch! You get just 7 lives to get through (I'm told) 100+ levels! So far, I haven't found any way to increase the number of lives I have or even the amount of time I'm given to complete the level. Nice enough game, but just way to tough for me!
On a side note, it was interesting to read that DreamTR has the only known proto type of a planned US version called Super Pitfall 2. I've heard that name before somewhere.
GAMEPLAY:8
GRAPHICS:8
SOUND:8
ENGLISH FRIENDLY:10
OVERALL: 8 - but way too hard!!!




ASO: Armored Scrum Object by SNK 1986 aka Alpha Mission
Well OK, so I didn't know this was their version of Alpha mission until after I got it. [shrug] Well, at least the artwork is different, but I actually prefer Alpha Missions!
I think this game would be a lot better if you didn't have to completely restart the level when you get hit.
GAMEPLAY:7
GRAPHICS:7
SOUND:7
ENGLISH FRIENDLY:10
OVERALL:7 old school




Astro Robo Sasa -Japan only by Ascii 1985
Now this game is FUN! In a nutshell, the game is about collecting all the energy cells on a level before you run out of energy, in order to move onto the next level. You control an armed spaceman looking fellow with the D Pad. On the land you can walk left or right. If you push up you'll lie on your back. If you push down you'll lie face down. Each time you fire the gun while you are off the ground you'll move in the opposite direction you're facing/firing in a low gravity type situation. One single shot will not shoot you across the screen, but will start to give you momentum in that direction until gravity takes over again. Your energy level decreases by one point every time you shoot and the game will end when your energy is depleted, so the trick is to get all of the energy available using the least amount of shots. That would be simple except that the game throws in something interesting at you on each level that keeps you from just standing around not using up energy. Plus if you come into contact with any of them, you will give you an electrical shock that REALLY reduces your energy. You'll see cows wandering around, rolling barrels, flying scissors, and shooting helicopters, just to name a few. It's pretty cute and lots of fun!
GAMEPLAY:10
GRAPHICS:9
SOUND:7
ENGLISH FRIENDLY:10
OVERALL:9




Attack Animal Gakuen -Japan only by Pony Canyon 1987
Here's a game with a Japanese schoolgirl and it's about the closest thing I have to an upskirt video. The gameplay is identical to Space Harrier and you'll be blasting away at animals that attack you. Six levels with an endboss at the end of each. The Japanese are certainly fascinated by schoolgirls and if you are too, it may have some charm, but the animals aren't very interesting and the game is short and hard.
GAMEPLAY:5
GRAPHICS:4
SOUND:3
ENGLISH FRIENDLY:10
OVERALL:4




Bird Week -Japan only by Toshiba EMI 1986
Another game from the Japan only NES games thread. I think if I wasn't a parent I would have liked his game more. You play as a momma/pappa bird that hunts for insects to bring back to the nest to feed baby birds that fly off when they've been given enough to eat. There are enemies in the air and on the ground that can kill you with one touch, but you can pick mushrooms up off of the ground and bomb them. Everything in the air has an up/down floaty aspect to it and the controls take some getting used to and seemed a bit unresponsive at times. If the game didn't remind me so much of real life, endlessly feeding kids, I might have liked it more.
GAMEPLAY:7
GRAPHICS:8 nice pastel colors
SOUND:7
ENGLISH FRIENDLY:10
OVERALL:8




Cosmo Genesis -Japan only by ASCII 1986
A cockpit view space shooter that I simply could not figure out! Wish I could tell you more about it but, even though it appears simple enough, I couldn't shoot down anything in the game. It has a space map screen to guide you, frickin lasers and a throttle, but I got nowhere in the game after several attemps!
GAMEPLAY
GRAPHICS:5
SOUND:5
ENGLISH FRIENDLY:0
OVERALL




Gyrodine -Japan only by Taito 1986
I liked this game! A simple scrolling helicopter shooter with a pretty good weapons scheme. You'll fly across various terrain and come up against gun emplacements, ships, tanks, jets, dirigible balloons, and other helicopters, of course. You're given machine guns and (I believe cannon - of sorts) that can be aimed at air and land targets depending on which button you press. Pressing two buttons together will launch a fire and forget homing missile. Cool! I liked the fact that you can outrun/out maneuver enemy shots, including their homing missiles, so you have a decent chance at the game. Moby games says it has no levels, but there are points in the game when the scrolling stops and you have to take out an end boss like scenario, be it a fortress of gun emplacements or big ships firing cannons.
This is a Taito arcade game that was also released on the MSX and NES.
On an interesting note, this was the only game developed by a company called Clax before going bankrupt. Some of this team would go on to form Toaplan.
GAMEPLAY:9
GRAPHICS:8
SOUND:7
ENGLISH FRIENDLY:10
OVERALL:8.5




Penguin Kun Wars -Japan only by ASCII 1985
A game that I really enjoyed! I wish I knew what Kun means though. You are a penguin who plays best of three timed rounds to win a match against an opponent across the table from you. There are 5 balls on each side of the table when the game starts and whoever has the most balls on his side of the table when the time runs out loses. So you're trying to chuck all of your balls over to the other side while your opponent is trying to do the same thing. You can move from side to side on the table while you chuck a ball to put some angle on the ball and bounce it off a side rail. You can also throw a ball and deflect an incoming ball coming right at you. If you hit your opponent, it will temporarily stun him, giving you a second or two to really chuck a lot of balls over to his side. If he hits you, you get stunned and can fall behind quickly. If either of you gets all the balls on the opponents side before the timer runs out, you win automatically with a perfect score. Simple to play with a lot of strategy! I love games like that. The penguin has good animation and will cry when he loses and clap with glee when he wins. The game will show you climbing up a hierarchy with each match, with variations on gameplay as you win matches, until you reach the championship game. Up to eight people can play, by taking turns. The game is a port of a UPL arcade game. Great fun!
GAMEPLAY:10
GRAPHICS:9
SOUND:9
ENGLISH FRIENDLY:10
OVERALL:9.5




Ucuusen: Cosmo Carrier -Japan only by Jaleco 1987
This game seemed pretty promising and I did enjoy screwing around with it, but it has so much depth to it that it pretty much requires being able to read Japanese. It's a space shooter with an almost RPG type quality to it. It's a shame, because I really think I would have enjoyed it if only I could have understood.
GAMEPLAY
GRAPHICS:8
SOUND:7
ENGLISH FRIENDLY:2 (Some menus in English, but not enough!)
OVERALL



All of these games were listed individually by a single seller on Ebay. After contacting him, I negotiated a deal that I would pay $3 each for the games, plus $4 each for shipping.
I certainly don't mention what I pay for games to brag. I buy on Ebay, where there's seldom any reason to brag about. I just figure that somebody who's considering getting into imports can read my post and have some kind of reference to cost.

[Julio III]

Hanagumi Taisen Columns 2 for Dreamcast arrived today however it doesn't support VGA so can't play it at the moment. Hopefully Puyo Puyo 4 will be arriving in the next couple of days also and hopefully that does support VGA

[luffy744]

My Sega rampage continued yesterday and today, when I recieved:

Monster World 4 (Megadrive)
Sonic CD (MegaCD)

Still waiting on a couple more packages, hopefully they arrive this week.

[Aridyme]

Received my Berserk, Final Fantasy Tactics, Minna Daisuki Katamari Damacy, Taiko no Tatsujin 3, Wanda to Kyouzou, and Nico DVD!

Also have Virtual On Marz on the way.

[Lemmy Kilmister]

Recently bought complete copies of Shin Nekketsu Kouha: Kunio Tachi no Banka, Ganbare Goemon Kirakira Douchuu and Mickey no Tokyo Disneyland Dai Boken for the Super Famicom off of Gaijinpunch.

[Tron 2.0]

Since i, got both imports threads mix up i'll mention it again

PCE
Chiki Chiki Boys

[Julio III]

Couple of Dreamcast games:

Puyo Puyo 4
Ikaruga

[Tachikoma]

Just got a new non-arcade style IIDX controller.

[luffy744]

Nabbed the following off ebay for a total of $22 shipped:

Japanese Saturn:

Burning Rangers (didn't come with the extra music cd, but I knew that going in)
Detana Twinbee Yahoo Deluxe Pack

[evil_genius]

I got 2 copies of Radiant Silvergun on the way and I am waiting patiently.

[luffy744]

I have spent way way too much this month and last, hopefully I get some nice christmas money to help make up for it.

Arrived today:

Shadow Dancer (Megadrive)
Ys Book 1-2 (PC Engine CD)
Popful Mail (Mega CD, brand new!)
Final Fight CD (Mega CD, brand new!)

Played the Mega CD stuff on Kega for a little bit, still waiting for my actual Mega CD system to arrive.

I think I'm gonna hold off buying anything new for a while and actually play through some of this stuff... I also have a HUGE Saturn bundle on the way, but it's mainly US stuff...

[importaku]

Got jpn sonic rush & oideyo doubutsu no mori (animal crossing) for DS.

Online is going to be a blast on doubutsu no mori.

[dj898]

here are things I picked up in Korea as well as few titles I bought from local EB.



Pokemon Edition of GB Micro. I was shopping for DS but when I saw this I had to have it since I also have Pokemon edition GBA-SP... Bit hard to get as many places were sold out whereas 20th Anniv. Famicom version was every where... ? also had hard time to find JPN release of MSAdv sealed as most of places were selling US bootleg...



Half-Life 2 is Asian version that I picked up for just over 100 HK$ at TRU and God of War, Sakura Taisen 3 LE, GT4 LE, Come On Baby are Korean version I picked up while I was in Seoul. The rest are brand new PAL releases that I bought from local EB on 50% off day with half the price of RRP knocked off except the Biohazard 4 LE that's from p-a with metal gun - I'm collecting the other three gun models btw...

[Spartacus]

Oh! Bakkyoun/Ghoul Panic is a light gun video game that has a total of 53 mini games all with a haunted house theme. After 4 mini games are completed the player must battle a area boss. This Playstation conversion of the arcade game offers 3 extra extra game modes plus difficulty levels. The ghouls and ghosts in the game are done with an emphasis on cuteness, making the game child friendly. Unfortunately this Japanese version has many menus and little English, but once you do get to where the shooting starts you'll see a very nice looking and fun playing game. A well done Namco port of the Eighting/Raizing arcade game. Released only in Japan and Europe, I choose the safer bet Japanese version when I saw it for $14.99 new on Ebay.
GAMEPLAY: 9
GRAPHICS: 9
SOUND: 9
ENGLISH FRIENDLY: 1 (Everything but the scores are in Japanese)
OVERALL: 9





The Operation Deathwing can be completed with just 4 missions in this 1st person space combat game, but missions 2 and 3 are branching, giving you reason to play thru it a few times to see everything. All in-flight information, including the voice of your Bitchin' Betty are in English. Each mission starts with a Japanese narrated cutscene displaying your primary targets and it's defenses in wire frame mode. Aggressive enemy fighter's protecting the primary targets provides fast turn and burn dogfighting gameplay and is the highlight of the game. Fortunately for you, you have shields that will SLOWLY regenerate while your numerically superior opponents do not. Once you managed to clear out the covering fighters you can concentrate on destroying your primary objectives, typically a large space or ground platform. Besides your main gun, with its unlimited supply of ammunition, you're given 3 types of homing weapons of limited quantity. Active radar screens in the cockpit targets and identifies your primary targets so you'll never become disoriented as to which way to go. Which leads you to the games main drawback, it does not do a very good job with scaling large objects. Huge spacecraft will appear as a small target box until you are almost right on top of them. It's very confusing, completely unrealistic and effectively destroys whatever suspension of disbelief the game managed to muster. The game tries hard by giving you multiple missions types, then let's you down by uninspired planets that use a single tileset for the entire surface. The Operation Deathwing was made by a group of enthusiasts who came together to form CyberTech Designs. This is the only game they made before disbanding and if they had spent more time polishing it, they might still be around. As it is, Deathwing just barely manages to be average. Picked up this copy on Ebay for $22.
GAMEPLAY: 5
GRAPHICS: 5
SOUND: 5
ENGLISH FRIENDLY: 9 ( Mostly English text and voices)
OVERALL: 5





Star Ixiom is the follow up to Namco's Star Luster arcade game, which was also released for the Famicom. As far as I know, this game is the final installment for Namco's Star series of games. At it's heart it's a space shooter, but it adds strategy elements by providing you with choices about where to attack and where to defend. The game is very well done with interesting enemies, planets, power stations and bases. There's plenty of NPC's to converse with at the bases, whom I'm sure are telling you vital information, unfortunately it's all in Japanese. Since you're going to be deprived of the epic story, you can at least console yourself with satisfying space combat gameplay with better than average graphics. All the large ships, planets and effects look quite good and I could sense that Namco wanted this game to be the jewel in the series. Found it on Ebay for $4.99
GAMEPLAY: 7
GRAPHICS: 9
SOUND: 7
ENGLISH FRIENDLY: 5 (Playable - without understanding the story)
OVERALL: 7.5




The entire Namco Star saga as I understand it.

[klausien]

The entire Namco Star saga as I understand it.

I am a huge fan of this series as well. Star Ixiom is pretty cool. I need to pick up a copy of Star Luster myself.

There is also a System 246 Starblade 2 that never went beyond test: http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=543&page=1#1390 How great would that have been!?! I wish they would have at least released a PS2 version.

Back to topic, I recently picked up Real Bout Fatal Fury Best Collection, Fatal Fury 3 & Hyper Reverthion for Saturn. I never played the Real Bout games before getting them in the mail and I must say that Real Bout Special is especially excellent.

[Spartacus]

I am a huge fan of this series as well. Star Ixiom is pretty cool. I need to pick up a copy of Star Luster myself.

You'd be amazed at how much Star Luster and Star Ixiom have in common. Being only 8bit, Star Luster cuts right to the chase and just gives you the action part, though the map section is still included.

There is also a System 246 Starblade 2 that never went beyond test: http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=543&page=1#1390 How great would that have been!?! I wish they would have at least released a PS2 version.

I didn't know about that one, thanks for the link! That does look good!

[icbrkr]

Candy Pink Japanese DS
Bubble Bobble DS
Animal Forest (N64)
Dobutso Bancho for the GC
and a PC Engine Duo-R (white)

[Aridyme]

Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne.

[klausien]

Got Star Luster from Joe's store

[Hokkus]

For Saturn:
Bulk Slash
Linkle Liver Story
Ronde

[Mr.collection]

just got a SFC a boxed mother, mother 2, final fight and some other games but it is the first thing that i have imported

[DTJAAAAMJSLM]

NeoGeo Battle Coliseum arrived in the mail today! So far, it's been rather underwhelming. I guess that's what happens when you hype up a game in your head for about two years...

[mb7241]

Recently, I found a Japanese copy of Namco Museum (PSP) at a local game store. It wasn't cheap ($35), but it's in near-mint-plus condition. I think I'll hang onto it for a while...

[dj898]

latest pick up with x-mas discount sales period...
two more 18+ rated title I found over here - for games MA15+ is the highest we have over here... Still Life is another 18+ titles though it's covered with MA15+ sticker)

and those two Bandai MG kits were for a small diorama project... :P