Video by Matt S. Hanafuda cards – particularly the Koi Koi game that is played using those cards – might just be my favourite Japanese traditional game – I like Shogi and Kendama too, don’t get me wrong, but there’s a beauty about Hanafuda cards that has always drawn me…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Now we’re talking. Here’s a shooter I can get on board with. Nathan Drake’s got nothing on the girls of Bullet Girls 2. Now, I can’t see this game ever getting an English localisation, but whether you’re able to understand the narrative or not, if you are…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. I can’t actually think of a fighting game that is more beautiful than Koihime Enbu. The impression that it leaves, before you even hit that first button, instantly marks this brawler out to be something special indeed. DigitallyDownloaded.net was provided with a copy of this game…
Read MoreSo, Natsuiro High School is a game in which its sole reason to exist is to give people the chance to skulk around a school and nearby town, with a camera in hand, and equipped with the mad skills necessary to slide under a girl’s skirt and photograph her underwear…
Read MoreIf you want an example of a rhythm game that could never really work in the west, it’s surely Taiko no Tatsujin V Version. With huge tracklist that could only ever be relevant to the Japanese, Taiko is also ridiculously colourful and has an energy to it that can only…
Read MoreLike I was going to pass up an opportunity to grab a new vocaloid game while I was in Japan. Especially since it’s a game that we’re being told can never be localised into English. IA/VT Colorful might feature a vocaloid whose popularity by comparison to Hatsune Miku is like…
Read MoreReview by Clark A. Fire Emblem turning twenty five years old doesn’t have the impact that it should here. Western fans have missed out on at least seven games over the years so the sheer lineage of Intelligent Systems’ console strategy franchise is lost outside Japan until the magical day…
Read MoreReview by Clark A. MonkeyPaw’s Japanese import titles have varied in terms of accessibility for non-native speakers. With that said being a retro run n’ gun shooter, Wolf Fang does a bang-up job of being fully playable. Unfortunately, the problem lies more in the game itself than the language barrier.…
Read MoreArticle by Matt S. You would think that with all the popularity of the likes of Smash Bros that the Jump heroes version of the character mash-up would be a shoe in for the west. And yet it’s not, and that’s a pity. For those that aren’t aware, Jump is…
Read MoreIn the near future, the population of mankind has radically increased and food supplies are at an all time low. To counteract this, scientists have artificially created beasts, which now serve as a new way of harvesting meat. They’re placed in Japan for testing, but mutate along the way, so things go…
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