Tag: Imports
Opinion Cult Classic 'Tokimeki Memorial' Hits Switch - But 30 Years On, It’s Still Out Of Reach
Forever with you; never with us
True love lasts forever – and so do some games. Tokimeki Memorial: Forever with You, the legendary dating sim from 1995, is hooking up with Switch next month to celebrate 30 years on the scene. Immaculately presented but bewilderingly complex, TokiMemo is a foundational piece of video game history that defined a...
Dragon page
As the Western world waits for a localisation announcement, Zelda fans in Japan have been poring through The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Master Works, the latest tome dedicated to 2023’s Nintendo Switch masterpiece. Part art book, part development deep dive, part history lesson, Master Works delivers the final word on Tears...
Review Dodonpachi DaiOuJou Blissful Death Re:Incarnation (Switch) - Poetic Bullet-Hell Perfection
Get Hyper
Cave, a shoot-'em-up developer assembled from the ashes of Toaplan, was preparing to fold in 2001. The arcade scene was moving in new directions, relying on increasingly ostentatious Taikan cabinets to compete with the emerging technology of home consoles. For Cave, the 2D shoot 'em up, no matter how unerringly creative, was struggling to...
Hell Wing
M2’s garage doors are open for business again, continuing to pay homage, and in fastidious attention to detail, to the shoot 'em ups of yesteryear. Zero Fire, a portmanteau of collected titles Zero Wing (1989) and Hellfire (1989) represents Toaplan during the height of its glorious arcade tenure. Although released just four months...
Review Batsugun Saturn Tribute Boosted (Switch) - The Best Home Release Of Toaplan's Final Shmup
The Iceman Cometh
Toaplan, a shooting game developer that flew high in the '80s with titles like Twin Cobra and Truxton, possesses a formidable resume. Batsugun, the company's swan-song shooter, and one of its most historically significant works, spearheaded an evolution of the genre that remains prevalent today. Programmer Tsuneki Ikeda joined...
Send in the Toaplanes
M2’s ShotTriggers series has been an ongoing pilgrimage of preservation for some of the greatest shoot-em-up’s in arcade history. Hishou Same! Same! Same! combines an early Toaplan series of two: Hishouzame and Same! Same! Same!, known in the West as Flying Shark and Fire Shark, respectively. Both original arcade titles are...
Review Pocky & Rocky Reshrined (Switch) - A Thrilling New Interpretation Of A SNES Classic
Rise and shrine
Note: This review is based on the Japanese release — the game launched in North America and Europe on 24th June 2022. Pocky & Rocky, a Super Nintendo top-down run-and-gun, was developer Natsume’s gold standard, fondly remembered for its taut arcade action, adventurous stage design, and beautiful visuals. Where Tengo...
Review Touken Ranbu Warriors (Switch) - A 'My First Musou' That Adds Little To The Formula
The way of the Warriors
At first blush, Koei Tecmo’s Touken Ranbu Warriors appears to be something of a "My First Dynasty Warriors", or a "Diet" Musou. It’s based on DMM’s (popular in Japan) free-to-play browser-based collectable card game, targeted at Japanese women — specifically a subculture of otaku known as “katana women” – ladies...
Jumping on the Band Dragon
No option to rotate a display in a vertical oriented shoot-em-up is a worrying sign. Nevertheless, the option is conspicuously absent in Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid. What it does boast, though — unusually for a niche Japanese release — is a top-to-bottom English language translation, which makes this a more tempting...
Mini Review Raging Blasters (Switch) - Another Fantastic Shmup We'd Love To See In The West
Compile killer
It’s just as well one can never have too many shoot-'em-ups, because, no bones about it, Raging Blasters is absolutely fantastic. A Japan-only release on Switch (though available on Steam) that's magically entirely in English from top to bottom, this is the kind of indie-gaming labour of love that deserves a great lungful of...
Review Cotton Fantasy (Switch) - A Joyful, Mischievous, And Incredibly Varied Shmup
Any Witch Way
When it comes to the cute-’em-up sub-genre, the characterful witch Cotton and the series to which she lends her name are effectively royalty. There are other games that have been important in defining a niche where shmups’ staple fighter craft, tanks and laser turrets are replaced with kittens, candy canes and cuddly toys, of...
The T is for ‘Terrific’
Super Robot Wars T is the most recent entry (and the first on Switch) in Bandai Namco's very successful series of tactical mecha adventures that stretch all the way back to deepest darkest 1991. With dozens upon dozens of previous entries under their belt you'd imagine they'd have exhausted Japan's supply of pilotable...
Review Dead Or Alive Xtreme 3: Scarlet (Switch) - A Sun-Soaked Romp That Loses Its Appeal Too Soon
Leer, there and everywhere
Welcome, one and all, to this beautiful tropical retreat – a place where weary people come to unwind with a host of activities including ball sports, endurance races, knocking opponents off platforms or simply relaxing on the beach. Oh yes, you can do all this and more on wonderful Wuhu Island... Hang on, that’s not...
Guide Understanding The Basics Of Japanese For Import Gaming Goodness
Prospective import players: We've got you covered
Buying and playing Japanese imports is one of gaming's little adventures. It can be exciting and rewarding, but it's not without its pitfalls — the most obvious of which is the language barrier. While many import games will feature a small amount of English text, most will be impenetrable to those...
News Monster World IV Comes Westward, Finally
If the OFLC is to be believed
We've got almost every single Wonder Boy game ever made available on Virtual Console, including several double entries with different names. However, one game has been missing all this time. Monster World IV, the final game in the series, is frequently regarded to be the very best of them all and is, without a doubt,...
Features Celebrating Super Famicom's 20th Anniversary
Nintendo's Mode-7 machine turns 20
For those who aren't aware, the Super Famicom console is celebrating its 20th birthday today. On this day in 1990, Nintendo released the much-anticipated follow-up to its immensely popular Famicom system onto the eager Japanese gaming world. The Super Famicom became an instant hit in Japan and a North American...
Guides Everything You Need To Know About Importing a Wii
Are considering getting a North American Wii?
Given the pan-Wii coverage on Nintendo Life there's been plenty of opportunity for the green-eyed monster to make himself known on both sides of the Atlantic. You might have considered buying a Wii "from the other side" to avoid waiting for your favourite downloads or disc releases, so here's a few tips...
First Impressions Classic Controller Pro
We go thumbs-on to determine whether it's for pros or schmoes
Launched in Japan alongside Monster Hunter 3 Tri and the Dark World Wii, the Classic Controller Pro is Nintendo's attempt at righting the wrongs of its original old-school pad. The good news is, it largely does. The bad news? It's got a few quirks of its own. We snagged a shiny black one:...
Nintendo Download Bits, Tanks, Ants, Commandos, Pulses and Brains (US)
Nintendo of America counters Nintendo of Europe with an import week of their own. Also, more WiiWare!
Nintendo of America sure loves WiiWare all of a sudden. This week sees yet another three new WiiWare releases, along with two VC imports recently released in Europe. DSiWare only gets a single new game. As previously announced, today is the North...
Feature Tending and Feeding Your Japanese Wii
If you're considering getting a Japanese Wii, here's some tips and suggestions on getting the most out of it.
Ever since the Japanese took over the home video game console market in the mid-80s there's been a major gulf between game releases in the consoles' country of origin and nations importing them, either because Japanese publishers lacked...
News Doki Majo Plus Set To Interfere With Little Girls
Avert your eyes - SNK Playmore's worrying sequel gets the trailer treatment.
Doki Doki Majo Shinpan is a DS title produced by SNK Playmore that revolves around touching little girls in order to see if they're witches. Unsurprisingly, it failed to get a western release. However, the Japanese absolutely lapped it up and a sequel is now inbound...
News USA VC Update: Bomberman '94 and Detana!! Twinbee
As was pretty much already confirmed by Hudson Entertainment, today's VC update brings a duo of well-loved PC Engine imports.
Naturally, both of these games cost 700 Wii Points because of import costs! Bomberman '94 is, naturally, the sequel to Bomberman '93. Aside from having quite impressive graphics and sound, the game mostly just expands on what...
News The TurboGrafx-16 Returns to North America in March
Remember when the last TG16 games were released in North America? It was way back in October last year. Since then there hasn't been a single Hudson game on VC - A lot of people even thought that they dropped support entirely.
We can now say for sure however that this is definitely not the case - Hudson Entertainments's North American TG16 VC site...
News Hori Announces New Classic Controller For Japan
We've already seen a wealth of third-party classic controller offerings, but for those who love auto-fire capabilities on their controllers, Hori has just what you're looking for in their creatively titled new classic controller called the Classic Controller. There's really no telling how much marketing money was thrown at coming up with just the right name for this unique controller, but those funds were obviously well spent.
Not only does the controller mimic the original Gamecube controller in form and function, but it also offers up three different autofire...
News USA VC Releases: Gradius II and Digital Champ
After a failed earlier attempt, Hudson have finally managed to get their latest games out - They were initially listed to be released multiple weeks ago, but were delayed until now for no apparent reason.
Gradius II: Gofer no Yabou is the sequel to the original Gradius. Strangely enough, neither the arcade version, nor any of its home ports ever...
News US VC Releases - 9th June - NES Import Duo
If you've been pining for some more imports in the US, you're in luck today - There's two of them. You might think one of them was in fact released outside Japan, but the contrary is true - It, surprisingly, never was.
That game is Dig Dug, the arcade game from Namco where you control "Dig Dug" (Later officially named Taizo Hori), a digger...
News Another OFLC Update - Turbografx Imports Galore!
The Turbografx is getting lots of imports - Recently, the OFLC rated Break In and Final Soldier, both of them imports for the system never released outside Japan. Those two haven't even been released yet, but Hudson already submitted four more games to the OFLC, and all of them are, once again, both imports and Turbografx titles.
The strangest pick...
News OFLC Update - Another Konami Import Title
In an OFLC update today, three more titles have been rated for eventual Australia release (As always, this should most likely mean they will also come to Europe).
The only "new" game of the bunch is Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa (Bio Miracle Baby Upa), a Kirby-esque game starring a baby called Upa. This baby would later appear in a few of...
News Finally – You Can Now Play Imports On Your Wii
Wii Freeloader Arriving In March - hurrah!
Those of you that graduated to the Wii from the GameCube will probably be aware of Datel’s excellent Freeloader disc, which allows you to play import games on your Cube console. Well, after months of silence the company has now announced that it’s producing a version for the Wii – and amazingly, it...
