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Japan in my Hand: An Import Introduction
Written by Philip Jones on Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Afraid of import gaming? Don't be! We'll show you the ropes...
Ever purchased an imported game? If its something you've never done, you could be missing out on a whole world of extra fun! So how do you go about engaging in this wonderful activity? Well, getting games imported is easier than ever before, thanks to there being so many websites dedicated to selling the latest Japanese releases direct to our very doors. Gone are the days of a game being marked up double or more just because of a sticker saying import stuck to the case. So now the price is right, and more people are importing than ever before.
Still, there's an enormous amount of people who've never seen any reason to import. Why should you even be bothered? The fact is that Japan sees a huge amount of exciting and original portable games that either never see the light of day over here,
take an absolute age to get over here, or are changed beyond all recognition into an entirely different game. The presentation of the packaging is often a level above ours, with superior artwork and sometimes little bonus treats, like sticker sets. It's the feeling of holding something you know very few people around you have held. Like the landscape shape of the Japanese Gameboy Advance boxes - they're only boxes, but they feel a little more special somehow.
The games that don't make it to our shores usually don't make it for various reasons. Often the games need a lot of translation work, and publishers feel the title is too niche to cover the cost of localization, marketing, and distribution. Some games are considered to be just too plain crazy to have any appeal over here - often they're the ones that are the most fun! There are also many licensed anime titles that don't even get considered for release due to the fact the TV shows they're based on aren't available here, as was mentioned in our review of Bleach : Souten ni Kakeru Unmei. While Bleach might make its way over here eventually, it's too late for the developer Treasure's other portable fighting game, Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting! A polished GBA boxing game from 2002 based upon the anime and manga comic of the same name. Never released in the west, despite there being a serious lack of boxing games, it remains a quality title that is now remarkably difficult to get hold of.
There have been, in the past, been plenty of obstacles to importing, like having to have your console modified to play the games, paying high prices and of course the language barrier that comes with the games being in Japanese. Price is no longer really a concern and for portables neither is that of regional locking, with all of the current generation of portables being able to play games from anywhere in the world. That leaves us with just the language barrier to contend with, and of course the almighty task of selecting something to play.
Some genres are easier to understand in a foreign language than others, like fighting, driving, shooting and puzzle games. Then there's your RPG's and strategy games, where people can get stuck easily because of the sheer amount of text. Many games having complicated in-game tutorials, for instance. It isn't always impossible though. These games have a dedicated die-hard fanbase, who often make up intricately detailed FAQs and walkthroughs, which can be very useful if you're intent on playing these text heavy games. If you want to play the simpler action games, you'll find that if you've been playing games for long enough, you should be able to pick up and play most Japanese games to some extent without having to read any kind of instructions.
posted September 1, 2006