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Of all the consoles currently available, the DS in particular has a thriving import scene. Why? Well, because the DS itself is region-free, so it can play carts from any country, plus unlike Sony, Nintendo hasn’t imposed any restrictions on retailers flogging games to overseas players.

There’s also the simple fact that a great many games never make it to Western shores. Sometimes, it’s because their inherent Japanese-ness would be a turn off to most, while others are too niche for publishers to take a chance on localising. If you’re a DS owner and you’ve never imported, then you really don’t know how much you’re missing out on. With US releases commonly appearing months before their PAL counterparts - and usually for a lower price - there’s no reason why you shouldn’t.

For this feature, I’m focussing my attention not on the games which may reach PAL shores but haven’t quite yet, but the games which will never see the light of day outside the land of the rising sun. So hit the jump for the Top 5 Japanese Imports on DS.

5. Daigasso! Band Brothers (Nintendo)

If you were paying close attention to the DS around the time it was first unveiled, you’ll undoubtedly have noticed that among the games shown off to both gamers and the media at E3 and other events was a title called Band Brothers, or Jam With The Band. Released at the handheld’s launch in Japan, Nintendo somehow saw fit to ignore calls for a Western release, and it remains available only from import sites. A baffling decision, particularly as the game is so good. Though it’s intended as a multiplayer game, with up to eight DS owners playing one instrument each  - making for huge laughs when someone messes things up - it’s almost as enjoyable in single-player, with some really dextrous thumbs required for some of the faster, harder tracks. Though the songs are disappointingly output in MIDI (presumably it was easier to split the instruments up that way), the fully-featured Create Mode more than makes up for it, allowing you to build your own song from the ground up and save it to the cart to play alone or with friends later. Quite rare now, but it’s worth hunting down if you like music games.  

4. Jump Ultimate Stars (Sega)

Licensing issues have put the kybosh on any chances of this being seen outside Japan, which is a pity, as fans of the manga comic Shonen Jump would be in absolute raptures at this. It’s essentially a portable take on Smash Bros, with fast and frantic battles, and a focus on multiplayer action. What makes it slightly different is the use of comic-book panels on the touchscreen which represent different powers. These can be combined, and activated at any time to pull off a special move. There’s a staggering three hundred characters featured, from Bleach, Dragonball, Eyeshield 21, Naruto and a wealth of other manga series. If you’re big on Japanese comics or anime, then this is your dream game - even Smash Bros. itself can’t dream of such thorough fan service. It’s not the most import-friendly game for non-Japanese speakers, admittedly - but you can find plenty of translation guides online if you look hard enough.

3. Puzzle Series Vol. 5 - Slitherlink (Hudson)

Okay, it might not look like much, but Slitherlink is easily among the best puzzlers on DS, and its biggest fans would undoubtedly argue that it’s one of the best brainteasers ever. It’s a deceptively simple concept - you’re given a grid with various squares containing numbers, each of which corresponds to the number of lines of the square’s four sides which need drawing in. These need to be joined up to form a continuous, snaking loop (hence the title). Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Well, it’s actually incredibly fiendish, particularly when you move onto the larger grids, the opening puzzles lulling you into a false sense of security before the difficulty ramps up and you’re chewing your stylus feverishly, trying to work out the solution. What makes Slitherlink so great is the interface - the stylus works well, but button controls are arguably superior. You can draw lines, delete them, mark sides which you’ve deduced can’t possibly be lines - all at the tap of a face button. The music is relaxing, the screen clear and uncluttered, and there’s a delightful rainbow effect on the completed loop when the level ends - the congratulations text and jingle which appear when you’re done somehow makes you grin each time. Slitherlink is a classic example of a great idea, perfectly executed, and as such is an absolute must-own. Why no-one has tried to localise this, I don’t know - pitch it at the Brain Training crowd and it’d sell millions.

2. Rhythm Tengoku (Nintendo)

Okay, so this is cheating a little - it’s a GameBoy Advance game. But then you can easily still play it on your DS, so I’m going to include it. Rhythm Tengoku at least has a decent excuse for not arriving in the West, as the GBA was on its last legs by the time it came out in Japan, and at least over there the Micro was shifting a few units, with the DS also taking off (and featuring heavily in the adverts Nintendo produced for the game). It’s essentially rhythm-action in its purest form, breaking everything down to simple, timed button-pressing to match a beat. You’re given a number of short stages which range from plucking the hairs out of an onion to blocking incoming shuriken with your ninja sword - all set to a different tune whose beat you must follow to get the timing perfect. Though you can initially pick up on visual cues, the game constantly does its best to make things difficult by putting you off - a rhythmic baseball-whacking level sees your avatar’s face turn into a rabbit, then an angry tomato, while the screen scrolls in and out, focussing on a tiny alien spaceship. Another, where you need to shoot ghosts with a bow and arrow fools you by fading out the music and increasing the background rain sound effect, forcing you to tap your foot to catch the beat before it disappears. That may all sound utterly bonkers, but then - as you’d expect from the team that made Wario Ware - that’s all part of the fun. Though it won’t take long to reach the credits, to truly finish the game, you need to perfect every level - a pulse-pounding tightrope walk of a challenge that requires an acute sense of timing and a steady nerve. Like the best games, it’s easy to learn and tough to master. Import it immediately.

1. Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan/Moero Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2

Two for the price of one in pole position, and that’s simply because there’s barely a hair’s breadth between them in terms of quality. Ouendan 2 is almost the perfect sequel, improving on the original in almost every way, except for one key factor - the songs aren’t quite as good. The original has the edge on tunes, but return to it after its successor and you’ll be annoyed at the loss of the intro-skip feature, and the four additional songs. The games themselves are two musical masterpieces, introducing a central mechanic that’s not only perfect for its host console, but for the rhythm-action genre itself. Who hasn’t ever tapped a pencil on their desk to a catchy tune? Hitting touch points with the stylus feels like a natural progression of that, and it helps you feel like you’re not just playing along, but creating a helpful percussive accompaniment. Each stage has a story - a man trying to attract customers into his run-down cafe, or a boy attempting to win over the heart of a girl by beating his rival at dodgeball - with the protagonist yelling for help from the Ouendan, a cheer squad who dance to J-Pop tunes to encourage the subject to triumph. Though it’s all in Japanese, the stories are presented in a way that always makes it obvious what’s going on, even if you don’t understand the dialogue. The exaggerated style of the art is frequently amusing, and you feel genuine affection for these characters, which gives the impetus to try again if you fail (though occasionally it’s even funnier to watch the results). And you will need to repeat stages, because Ouendan is a tough game in places, amazingly so on the hardest difficulty level, with complex beat patterns that require ninja-like reactions to execute the stylus taps, drags and spins necessary to prevent disaster. Sometimes you’ll only need to miss two or three notes and it’s game over - that may seem harsh, but the sense of progression in Ouendan is tangible - you always seem to get that bit further each time. There’s something incredibly heartwarming about the games that make them both such a joy to play - even though Western reimagining Elite Beat Agents struggled to quite match the charm (and its tracklist didn’t help) of the Japanese titles, it still left players with a grin on their faces. Funny, sometimes sad, and altogether uplifting, Ouendan and its sequel are two of the very best games on the DS. If you don’t own them yet, make them a top priority purchase right now.

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