Import PSN Games, You Don't Know What You're Missing
As an inquisitive person, I'm always curious to see things that I'm not supposed to see. The PSN is a really good example of this. When I got a Playstation 3, one of the first things I wanted to check out was Sony's online offerings. As an almost-early adopter, I was a little disappointed with the lack of content up, especially in the PS1 "Classics" department. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Japanese PSN store not only exceeded the US store in the number of PS1 titles they offered but in the number of quality games as well. For those adventurous enough to import a Japanese prepaid PSN card and brave the foreign menus, there's plenty of undiscovered gems on the service, many of which are already in English!
You guys and gals know that I'm in love with just about every Treasure game under the sun (sans Stretch Panic), so it should come to little surprise that I'm a big fan of the Gunstar Heroes-wannabe classic, Gunner's Heaven. The Media Vision developed title follows Treasure's formula to the finest detail while injecting a few personal touches. The view, layout, and control of the game is very similar to Heroes, except for the addition of a Bionic Commando-like grappling hook and a time based weapon power-up system that pressures on the player to keep moving forward. Sure, it's derivative, but the game is fun from beginning to end!
I could see the game getting a sizable audience here if the powers that be brought it to our digital shores. The menus are entirely in English, the old school side-scrolling combat featured in the game will never go out of style, and for most PS3 owners it's a completely new game. With the success of the Wii's import titles on Virtual Console, it's difficult to understand why Sony would not want easy money from fans dying for a cheaper foreign fix.
Game-Boy
Posted to Video Games on 6 October 2008
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