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Insect Wars preorder papercraft
Now that Kanji Dragon's release is behind us, it's time for us to set our sights on the next Success Corp. release that we plan to obsess over: Insect Wars (Konchuu Wars). The latest update on the tactical RPG's site shows off a papercraft model of a horned beetle -- just one of the dozens of customizable units in your army of mechanized bugs -- equipped with an intimidating cannon on its back. This will presumably be offered as a limited gift to gamers who preorder Insect Wars in Japan. Scurry past the post break for a better look at the paper replica.
Gloss Silver and Metallic Pink DS Lites now available for import
The new DS Lites have been released in Japan and have shown up on import shopping sites. That's right, for only $179 + shipping, you can have a DS Lite in one of the two new Japan-exclusive colors! You have your choice of Like the Regular DS Phat Color but on a Lite, or Like the Pink One but Shinier. Sure, you pay a premium, but it may be worth it to have a DS that looks somewhat different from other DS's in the immediate area. Depends on how you feel about the new colors! What do you think-- Gloss Silver or Gross Silver? Metallic Pink or Me-tacky Pink?
Insect Wars is the bee's knees
We shooed Insect Wars (Konchuu Wars) away when the game's beetle-filled screenshots first flew into our periphery, believing the bug to be an uninspired pest. "Go away," we said, "and bother us no more." In our defense, language barriers kept us from understanding what the Success Corp. title was trying to communicate with its antennae and movement patterns. Having studied its habits, we found that the game isn't a Mushiking clone as we'd originally assumed, but a tactical RPG where you command an army of customizable, mechanized insects. Our mouths were agape, monocles falling from our faces when the truth was revealed. Below is a sampling of Insect Wars' creepy crawlers: a rifle-mounted praying mantis with buzzsaws -- my god, buzzsaws! -- for arms a lightning bug that terrorizes foes with its beam cannon tail a heavily-armored, treaded snail (pictured above) which acts as a transport for other units while healing them Not since Puzzle Quest have our loins ached for such a game. Insect Wars swarms into Japanese stores this August 2nd. Head past the post break for a minute-long trailer.
DS Daily: Import dreams
There are so many games for the DS in Japan -- a veritable flood each week, it seems -- that they couldn't all possibly make it outside the islands. To be fair, we probably wouldn't be interested in all of them, but sometimes there are great games that we just don't get. For those who are willing to import, that's fine, and luckily, the DS is region-free. But not everyone can manage it, or can handle even the lightest foreign text. So we're curious: what non-English language game do you want localized as soon as possible? Even if there's no chance of it ever happening, we want to know what you dream about.
Love Cat Life shows love for dogs, too
Specifically, Nintendogs. And more specifically, the cash generated by Nintendogs. Forgive us for being cynical, but Love Cat Life does look exceedingly familiar. But for our (hypothetical) pet simulator money, Love Cat Life wins over Nintendo's masterpiece, for mostly hilarious reasons: Simulated litterboxes Riding a little cat-sized truck over a ramp Meowing music game! We started off being sarcastic, but we just convinced ourselves. It was the music game that did it.
Import Kururin Paradise for only $10
Long hailed as one of the GBA's best puzzle titles, Kururin Paradise never landed on North American shores, preferring instead to limit its release to Japan. Play-Asia has taken pity on our Kururin-less souls, listing the 8ing-developed game at a dicount price of $9.90! This deal lasts until next Tuesday, so you'll have more than enough time to collect change on the sidewalk for this purchase. Pilot your spinning craft past the post break for a video preview of this simple-but-addictive game!
Translate! Ultimate Stars
Jump Ultimate Stars is one of the most popular DS games with importers. Since it's a fighting game, it's not a huge deal to play Jump without knowing Japanese, but there are a lot of missions that may be difficult to figure out. Also, the game actually tries to tell a story, which is rare for a fighting game. Abel Tamayo wrote in to tell us about a wonderful wiki project he's managing, called, appropriately enough, the Jump Ultimate Stars Translation Project. We've seen amazing fan translation projects from single translators, but never a project done in a collaborative wiki format. It's a great idea, one that will allow tragically busy people to help out. If you know Japanese, why not sign up? Translating a fighting game-- that's another rarity. SNK never bothered to do it.
Decent sale on imports at Renchi
We love region-free consoles! Not only does it allow us to play games that never get released in the US, but it also gives us freedom to choose the cheapest version of worldwide-release games. Renchi.com has marked down a load of DS games, and there's plenty of stuff for US gamers to enjoy. First, the Japanese versions of US games. You can get Yoshi Touch & Go (Catch! Touch! Yoshi!), Mega Man ZX (Rockman ZX), Star Fox Command, the just-released Honeycomb Beat, and a few others for $10. If you want a uniquely Japanese experience, there's a bunch of stuff including Mawasunda!!, a lot of miscellaneous non-games and puzzle games (including an amusing-looking coloring game), and a nice selection of D3's Simple Series stuff. Stock is rapidly diminishing, so go browse right now.[Thanks, joe!]
Rumor: Wii Freeloader this month?
This particular bit of news concerns PAL gamers, but-- if it's true-- we can all benefit soon enough. A listing has popped up for a Wii Freeloader on an Italian shopping site called YouToo.it. The listing says that it will be released on June 30 for € 24,99 ($33.59), but that the price and release date are subject to change. In addition, that box looks exceptionally mocked-up, so take this whole thing with a grain of salt.A NeoGAFfer named radioheadrule83 then contacted Datel's technical department to try to get more information. The Datel rep told him that "Its my understanding that there is a product on the way that will work for Wii games as well, yes" but also that "There's no release date as yet". We may yet enter a world in which we can all play games when they're released. [Via NeoGAF]
Kanji Dragon scheduled to kick Akihabara's ass
We're well aware that the gaming press couldn't care less about Hissatsu Kung Fu: Kanji Dragon; interest for a kanji-training beat 'em up is niche at best, and to be honest, this whole kung fu theatre advertising push is a bit silly. But are we going to let that stop us from inundating you with every single scrap of Kanji Dragon news that we come across? Of course not!Success Corp. will be celebrating the educational brawler's June 7th release with a special event this Sunday at Akihabara's Sofmap amusement complex. Attendees will be able to play the game and will even receive a limited edition T-shirt if they pre-order a copy. The title's fumbling mascot will also be making an appearance, handing out Kanji Dragon Director's Cut DVDs. Make sure to check past the post break for a larger version of the disc's explosive cover.To say we're disheartened by the fact that we won't be able to attend is an understatement. We wept bitter tears as we read the press release's jumbled Google translation, yelling out in grief when we learned that we'd miss out on free souvenirs. Rod Stewart poignantly sang "So Far Away" as a montage of us drowning our sorrows with too many drinks and loose women played right before fading to black.
Marugoto Teikoku Hotel provides accommodations for your DS
Shaberu! DS O-Ryouri Navi Marugoto Teikoku Hotel (Talking DS Cooking Navi Marugoto Teikoku Hotel), the cooking tool based on recipes from the upscale hotel, is headed to Japan on June 21. When it comes out, e-gourmands will have an option as to how they'd like their service: with or without pouch.For 4,280 yen, Japanese consumers can buy the basic program, but for only 1,000 yen more (about $8.25) they can add this Koei-branded DS case. What's $8 to someone who eats at the Marugoto Teikoku Hotel? Probably a roll or something.
English guide to Ouendan 2 menus
Among its other many virtues, Ouendan owed a lot of its overseas hype and success to its undaunting language barrier. Despite the menus and manga panels being filled with Japanese text, importers were able to follow the rhythm title's illustrated screwball plots and quickly pick up its self-explanatory controls. Ouendan's recently-released sequel, Moeru! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2, likewise requires little-to-no familiarity with the Japanese language in order to enjoy the game.Even with these assurances though, there are still many import-shy gamers who hide behind their mothers' skirts at the sight of kanji characters. Fortunately for them, the Platformers has translated Ouendan 2's menu selections, providing a visual guide with an overlay of English text. Most of the buttons and icons are obvious, but having a quick reference like this would be useful for first-time importers. Now there's no excuse for avoiding the cheer squad!
DS Daily: OUENDAAAAAAN
It's out, and we don't have it. It kinda hurts. Some bloggers seem to have gotten their hands on a copy, so we know it's possible that one of our faithful readers has Moeru! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2! We need to live vicariously through you, hypothetical reader! We need your impressions! Those of you who don't have it or just don't have it yet: do you have one on the way? Do you consider this the biggest game release of the year? Or are you holding out for a US release? Or an Elite Beat Agents 2: Beat Harder? Personally, we'll take any and all iNiS music releases and will be importing Ouendan 2 as soon as finances allow.
Picross DS bound for the US, one way or another
Relations between the US and Europe have been strained enough over uncompromising war policies and disparate diplomats, but Nintendo's decision to localize Picross DS for our Atlantic opposites while ignoring North America's pleas threatens to escalate the conflict even further. Already, protesters are rallying on embassy steps, stomping on french fries and singing hymns of freedom.Hoping to avert an international crisis, GameStop has put up a Picross title on its site for $19.99, announcing a July 31st stateside release for the logic puzzler. For some, that distant date is unacceptable. Others refuse to even believe that it's the same game and not a generic product. To appease their ire, online shop SendIt has agreed to offer the UK version of the game at a discount. Picross DS has a £14.89 (approximately $30.00) listing on the site, and CAG forumers have reported paying $32.87 after US shipping and handling charges. As far as import prices go, that's quite a deal![Via CAG]
Explosions! Car crashes! Kanji Ken!
Mentioning Kanji Ken earlier this afternoon prompted us to make a beeline for the Japanese game's official site, scrounging its pages for any new developments on the kanji trainer/brawler. Amidst a pile of nonsensical videos, we were able to unearth a pair of magnificent downloadable wallpapers of incalculable value. Just seeing them will blow your mind right out your ass. Keeping with the game's kung-fu theatre theme, the desktop decorations parody martial arts movie posters with cliches like city skylines in the background and uh... a man screaming for no visible reason. Needless to say, they're every bit as zany as Kanji Ken's cover art! Sweep kick right through the post break for the new trailers and previews of the wallpapers.
Blood on the dance floor
As you've probably picked up from our coverage of Puzzle Quest's RPG/Bejewled mix and Kanji Ken's beat-em up training game, we are in love with titles that mix genres in new ways. Banpresto's Custom Beat Battle: Draglade does just that, weaving together rhythm, fighting, and RPG elements into an exciting pattern.You customize and arm your fighters with beat combos, pulling off special attacks by timing button presses with a meter that displays a rhythm sequence. You can also level up your characters and buy items for them at shops. Punch and kick your way past the post break for some Custom Beat Battle: Draglade trailers. Now that we've got rhythm fighting, rhythm action, and rhythm platforming on our handheld, what's next? We're hoping for a math-and-music-based shoot-em up where you solve equations with the beat while trying to dodge bullets. We'll call it... a logarhythm-up.
Deals of Mana
Amazon must have a warehouse teeming with Childen of Mana shipments, as the online shop seems to have a sale on the game every other week. Square Enix's dungeon crawler has sold for less in the past, but today's $17.99 pricing is still a significant discount from it's regular $29.99 tag. This offer disappears tomorrow -- likely reappearing in a fortnight -- so don't wait too long to drop the game into your cart.Play-Asia's Heroes of Mana sale will stick around until the end of the week, but there's no guarantee that the title will stay in stock. The Japanese text might be too much for first-time importers, but according to what we've heard, this RTS/RPG is a quality purchase. You can grab Heroes of Mana for $19.90, paying an extra $2.60 for shipping to the US. [Via CAG]
DS makeup game defies mockery with sales potential
We were all set to make fun of Cosmetic Paradise, but then we thought about it and realized that a makeup game on the DS will probably be something of a hit in Japan. Here's our reasoning: All people in Japan have at least one DS-- including little girls. This may be marketed as a "training" game for cosmetics, and the word "training" opens the sales floodgates. Using the stylus to apply makeup is probably a lot of fun for people who like dolls and stuff. We admit, then, that this game is a good idea, from a business perspective, at least. And it does seem to have some adventure game elements, which we support. What do you think? Are there any little DS fans in your family that would enjoy this kind of thing?
Import game releases for the week of 04/08/07
Unfortunately for importers, there aren't any new import games this week. Don't get too down, though. You can always view our archive and import a great, older game. On another note, this import drought will be over next week. Fellow importers should leave their favorite import PSP game in the comments. Let our readers know or all the great games that have never hit our shores.
Import game releases for the week of 04/01/07
Every week we pray to the import gods and ask them to give us more import games to enjoy. This week we have an anime based game, a sports game and a ton of budget re-releases. Keep reading to see what's coming from Japan this week. Continued after the jump ...
