Gamer Shelf

When us old folks were forming our tastes as gamers, it was nice to see and learn about what was being sold in the country of origin for most videogames. Oh, how we'd squeal when a game magazine would show us a selection of awesome games from Japan, in all their explosive, wacky, mostly expensive glory. A Japanese game can still be quite a curio, but price markups still make it harder to get them.

Digital distribution has made it easier, at least with the older games that we'd dream about in the '90s. More game publishers are willing to re-release games that were previously only available in Japan. On the Wii, you can get several different Japanese games on the Virtual Console service, like Bomberman '94 on TurboGrafx or Sin & Punishment for Nintendo 64 (both really good and well worth buying, in our humble opinions). Still, it hasn't exactly been a smorgasbord of fun, with a lot of Japanese games we've treasured for years still not showing up on American download services. (It's fairly easy to set up a Japanese PlayStation Network account and download Japanese PS1 games, but that doesn't mean it's just as convenient.)

So, with that in mind, we decided to list some import games that we still want in an official capacity, gosh dang it. They're games that may show up here someday, and some that might not (especially not until someone figures out how to reliably emulate Sega Saturn games on every platform without the aid of an atom smasher) -- on one hand, we don't care too much in the end, but on the other, it's still nice to dream.