Top 5 Import Fighting Games

With titles like Arcana Hearts and Battle Phantasia finding publication in North America, there’s a growing hope for fans that more doujin soft (independently made video games) and other Japanese fighting games might make their way stateside. Unlike in the States, fighters are still big business in Japan. Crack your knuckles, ’cause here’s a taste of the best of what you’ve been missing!

#5 – Fatal/Fake
One of the doujin soft heavy-hitters is Type-Moon, known mostly for their “eroge” (non-otaku will have to look that term up) visual novels. A fellow game developer, Light, took their popular Fate/Stay Night series and transformed it into an exciting fighting game, rendered in toon-shaded 3D graphics that match the anime style of the source material. Think of it as an anime-stye Soul Calibur. It’s available only for PC and you can download a demo here.

#4 - Big Bang Beat: 1st Impression

Big Bang Beat: 1st Impression is a 2D fighter made by NRF, based on AliceSoft’s Daibanchou: Big Bang Age “insult sim” eroge (there’s that word again!). The game itself also borrows from other fighting game series, giving a mix of elements that many a fighting game can find familiar, thus making the learning curve a bit less painful. This title is also only available on PC. The demo is no longer hosted by NRF’s site, but you should be able to find it somewhere on the web.

#3 - Hokuto No Ken

“You are already dead.” This one especially excited me because I’m a fan of the Hokuto no Ken (aka Fist of the Northstar) anime! This game was developed by Guilty Gear’s Arc System Works and was released both in Japanese arcades as well as on PlayStation 2. What’s most fun is how faithful this game is to the anime, injecting as many of the characters’ most memorable moves from the show into the game. You can watch the timer tick down until your opponent’s head explodes with Kenshiro’s “North Star Remorse Fist” or stun your opponent as Raoh by sticking a sword through his foot. If you’d like a free sample, someone managed to make a Flash-based version of the game, which you can try here.

#2 - Melty Blood: Act Cadenza

Type-Moon’s first visual novel series, Tsukihime, gained so much popularity that they came up with an even more popular fighting game based on those characters. Melty Blood was originally released as a PC game, but because it’s generated such a huge fan following, it was upgraded and given an arcade release. This arcade version was later re-released on the PC and even given a PS2 port.

Tsukihime has also been made into anime and manga series, both released in North America under the name “Lunar Legend”. However, none of the games have made it overseas, possibly because of the doujin novel’s adult themes. Plus a game with a title like “Melty Blood” is probably a tough sell for North American publishers, given the current taboo surrounding video game violence.

#1 - Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom

This game’s been getting plenty of press on its own and was even included in the 2008 EVO fighting game tournament. For those who don’t recognize the name, Tatsunoko is the Japanese animation company responsible for such shows as Gotchaman, Speed Racer, Casshern, and more. Alas, this game may never make it stateside, since the Tatsunoko characters in the game are licensed by multiple companies in North America, gumming up the works with a lot of legal red tape.

There is a shred of hope, however: it has been suggested that if Capcom were to reclaim the license to publish games using characters from Marvel Comics, they’d be able to use most of the material already produced for T vs. C and simply replace the Tatsunoko characters with Marvel characters. Then, at long last, the fans can have the precious Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 they’ve been whining about for so long.