Japanese Nintendo downloads: Parodius, Genius Personal dictionaries

Though today is a fairly low-key day for downloads on the Japanese Wii and DSi Shops, there are a few things available that we'd love to see in North America but never will. The Virtual Console has MSX releases of two wonderful shooters, the Gradius/Twinbee/octopus mashup cute-em-up Parodius, and Salamander, which we know as Life Force. The MSX ports are inferior to most other versions, so maybe we can live.

The other programs we desperately want but won't have: the Genius Personal series for DSiWare, which allow you to write a word in English or Japanese (depending on which version you download) and get a translation and definition. Perfect for people who have to read and translate Japanese DSiWare titles all the time!

• Parodius (MSX, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points)

• Salamander (MSX, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points)

• atChess Battle Spirits (DSiWare, 1 player, 200 DSi Points)

• G.G. Series D-Tank (DSiWare, 1 player, 200 DSi Points)

• Artist Ni Narou! MInna ni Nurikai Jukyuu-hen (DSiWare, 1 player, 500 DSi Points)

• Pinball Attack! (DSiWare, 1 player, 500 DSi Points)

• Genius Personal English-Japanese Easy Dictionary (DSiWare, 1 player, 800 DSi Points)

• Genius Personal Japanese-English Easy Dictionary (DSiWare, 1 player, 800 DSi Points)