Nintendo SWITCH IMPORT GAMES – Play Japan & EUR Games on US Switch!

The Nintendo Switch is region free, meaning you can easily pick up physical versions of games in other territories and play on your US console…and often in ENGLISH!

GAMES SHOWN:
Capcom Belt Action Collection
Taiko no Tatsujin: Nintendo Switch Version!
Psikyo Collection Vol 1 & 2
Okami: HD Remaster
Child of Light / Valiant Hearts
Runbow – Deluxe Edition
Syberia
Opus Collection
Gal*Gun 2
Peach Ball: Senran Kagura
RXN -RAIJIN- [LIMITED EDITION]
Flashback: 25th Anniversary [Collector’s Edition]

VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION (English)

– Hey guys, Metal Jesus here. Now people often forget that the Nintendo Switch is region-free, meaning that you can easily pick up physical versions of games from other territories and have them play just fine on your console, and often in English. So in this video I’m gonna share some of the latest Switch imports that I’ve picked up recently. Also, be aware this is not a sponsored video. I’ve bought all these games myself, and I’ll share where I bought most of ’em with you.

The first one I want to share with you is the Capcom Belt Action Collection. This is a collection of seven classic beat’em up games from Capcom, including King of Dragons. You have Captain Commando, Knights of the Round, Final Fight, of course, Powered Gear, Battle Circuit, and Warriors of Fate. A couple things I like about this collection is that you can switch between either the English versions of the games or the Japanese, and you can also adjust the difficulty. These being arcade games, they are notoriously difficult, so you can either lower it, if you’re just looking for a more casual experience, which is pretty cool, or you can raise it, if you’re looking for a little bit more challenge. And then I’ll quickly show you three of the games here. This is the King of Dragons, a game I wasn’t really familiar with, but as you can see, it’s kind of based on medieval D&D. And then here you have Armored Warriors, or also known as Powered Gear in Japan. And as you can see this one is a mech-based beat’em up, something really cool you don’t always see. And then here you have Warriors of Fate, which I guess is part of the Dynasty Wars franchise. I had no idea, but I like how you can ride on a horse here, that’s a nice touch.

Here’s a game I was really looking forward to checking out, this is Taiko no Tatsujin, Nintendo Switch version. This is typically called Taiko Drum Master in English, and as you can see here, it is a Japanese drum/rhythm game. By default the game uses the Joycon’s motion control for fairly subtle emulation of the real Japanese drums. I mean, it’ll even detect if you’re hitting the center of the drum, or the rim, and also how hard. But I guess there’s also a real drum controller for this as well, I kinda wanna pick that up. Now I haven’t gotten very far in this game yet, ’cause I just picked it up, but supposedly there’s about 20 songs included on the cartridge. You get tunes from Disney, Studio Ghibli, as well as Splatoon 2, and even Super Mario Odyssey. And I guess there’s up to 70 songs that you can download for this in the e-shop. Haven’t gotten there yet, but I’m enjoying it so far.

Now here’s something I have put a lot of time into, and that’s the Psikyo Collection. I’m gonna start off with Volume One right here. Volume One includes four games on the cartridge. So you get Strikers 1945, you get Sol Divide, Samurai Aces, and the original Gunbird. Sol Divide is a two-player horizontal shooter, which, in my mind, actually looks pretty cool, because it has those pre-rendered sprites. Definitely reminds me of a little bit like Donkey Kong Country. Samurai Aces is a vertical-scrolling shoot’em up, originally released in 1993. Now I think this is my first time playing this game, and I’m definitely getting a Strikers 1945 vibe from it, which is a good thing. Here is the second volume of Psikyo shooters. This one includes Strikers 1945 II, Tengai, Gunbird II, and also Dragon Blaze. All of these shooters are still a blast to play today and are considered stone-cold classics, it’s just a little lame that they only put four on each cartridge because I know they’re not very big. They could have easily doubled that, but what you do get, it’s definitely worth it.

Some of you may recognize this as Okami, the HD remaster. Obviously this was a beloved PlayStation 2 and Wii game back in the day, and of course, here is the HD version, but physical, for Switch. Now obviously this HD remaster is also out on the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4, but again, in North America, we never got the physical version for the Switch. And for a lot of fans like me that absolutely love this game, it’s great to have a physical version in my collection here. And as you can see, this game is just as revolutionary and as beautiful as ever. Such a fantastic third-person action puzzle/platforming game. And I know I haven’t mentioned it yet, but again, it plays completely in English, so you don’t have any problems having to try to read Japanese or anything like that, it just works great.

Here’s something I wouldn’t mind seeing a little bit more of and that is a compilation of two indie games on one cartridge. Many of you are gonna be familiar with Child of Light, because it won all sorts of gaming awards when it was originally released, and here we have the physical version, and it is the Ultimate Edition of this game for Switch. And what’s nice is that if you’re a fan of the game, well, this has a bunch of cool stuff, like an additional mission, extra skins, extra skills, as well as DLC packs already included. The other game included on here is Valiant Hearts, which is a game that I first heard of from by buddy Reggie. And that’s a hand-drawn puzzle adventure game about World War I. What’s interesting about it is that you get to see the effects of war from the viewpoint of an American, a Frenchman, a German, and a Belgian. It’s actually pretty heavy stuff, but obviously very beautiful, and again it’s cool to have the physical version of it.

Here’s a physical game I picked up at PAX in Seattle a couple years ago, and it was a total blind buy, I didn’t know anything about this, but it’s called Runbow the Deluxe Edition. This game was primarily designed to be a multiplayer party game both online and on the couch, but can also play it solo like you see here. And the premise is pretty simple, I mean, you just wanna be the first person to get the treasure at the end of the level. However, you’ll notice that the rainbow color washes over the screen, see that there? Well depending on the color, it makes part of the levels disappear and reappear. So this game is constantly changing, and way more tricky than it looks. It’s also more about timing and strategy than really just running as quickly as you can. This Deluxe Edition that I got at PAX comes with stickers. There’s also a lanyard in here, so you can hang around your neck. Also, it has all the DLC, and it comes with the soundtrack on CD.

Next up is the physical import version of Syberia. Many of you are already going to be familiar with this because it is a port of a classic point-and-click adventure that I think got its start on the PC back in the early 2000s. What I like about this game is that it really relies on puzzles. This is as old-school as it gets. However, I also like its kind of cool, steampunk look to the environments, and also the objects that you mess around with. And I’m hoping that you can kinda tell from the footage I’m capturing here that they slightly upgraded the 3D models, which look pretty good compared to the older backgrounds. This physical version came out in Europe, and it’s pretty easy to find on Amazon, that’s where I got my copy. But what’s cool is they also got a couple other versions also on physical, so they have a version that has the first and second game included together, as well as a physical version of the third game in the series.

And speaking of multiple games that come on one Switch cartridge, here is Opus Collection. This cartridge contains two games. The first one’s called The Day We Found Earth, and the second one called Rocket of Whispers. In the first game, you play as a lovable robot that is living millions of years in the future, and your mission is to try and find the original location of earth. This game is a trip, it kind of plays like a telescope simulator, where you try to use clues to search the cosmos for planets that might be kinda close to what earth is described to be like. It’s a fairly simple game, it only takes about two hours to complete, and I highly recommend it. It’s got a really cool story. And then the second game is completely new, but plays a little bit more like a traditional adventure game. Now both games are highly regarded, and definitely worth a play.

And now we get to two games that, well, they’re not gonna be for everybody. I’m not saying they’re pornographic, but they are a little perverted. So if that’s not your thing, then go ahead and just skip about two and a half minutes ahead.

Oh boy, here we go, okay. So the first one is gonna be Gal*Gun 2. Now this is an on-rail shooter, it’s a sequel. The original I played on the Vita back in the day, but, the deal here is, girls in your school are being controlled by demons, and you put on a special pair of VR goggles that let you see them. And then you use the pheromone gun, yes, that’s actually what it’s called. But you use this pheromone to shoot the demons and then defend against the onslaught of approaching and aggressive girls. Now if you’re lucky, or maybe you got a little bit of skill here, you can shoot the girls in what’s called Ecstasy Spots. Again, I’m not making this up, but that’ll stop ’em even quicker. Notice how the Joycons also use the motion controls for aiming, which is pretty cool. As if you couldn’t tell, this is definitely a silly game, but it’s got a surprising amount of challenge. I mean, it is not easy.

And then the second game I have here is Peach Ball Senran Kagura, I hope I said that correctly, but as you may tell by that name, it is a spinoff of the main Senran Kagura series, but with sexy pinball. Just because. Now here’s an example of one of these imports where the main story is in Japanese, and there’s no English option for you, at least not one that I could find, so. But I’m gonna be honest with you, who cares? I mean, are you playing this game for the story? I don’t think so. But what do I think about the game itself? Well, it’s a decent pinball game with okay physics, but really the big problem I have with this is that the play field is just cramped and kind of claustrophobic. Also, the tables themselves feel pretty simple, especially compared to other better pinball games. I mean, that can be a good or bad thing, depending on, you know, how much you really get into pinball and how much challenge you like. After playing a while and meeting specific goals, you’re gonna activate something called Sexy Challenge, and basically what that is is it’s just multiball. And what’s funny about that is you can activate even higher levels of Sexy Challenge time, and, uh, yeah, I don’t know what else to say about this. I mean, is it a great pinball game? No, not really, I mean, I’ll be honest with you. It’s a fun game, DMP were playing it the other night. It’s silly, it’s weird, you kind of put it in if you want a good laugh, but honestly, after a couple hours, I don’t think you’re gonna play it much.

Moving on, we’re gonna check out an arcade-style bullet hell shooter called RXN, this is the Limited Edition here. And as you can see by the gameplay footage here, this is a game that is designed to run on a modern console, so it’s actually running in 16 by 9 as opposed to being squished and vertical. That can be good or bad depending on what your preference is. This game here I think is, overall, is just okay, it’s nothing really special. I think the gameplay itsel actually is really solid, it’s just that the levels are kind of boring. I mean, they’re really, really short, and they’re just not that interesting to look at. But the Limited Edition from EastAsiaSoft is pretty awesome. I mean, it comes with a physical copy of the game, which is of course region-free, and runs in English if you want. There’s a 48-page full color art book, but towards the back of it, it also has a novel that fills in some of the Story Mode. A numbered collector’s certificate, as well as a Steelbook with alternate cover art.

Now I know some of you are thinking, hey, wait a second, didn’t the Flashback 25th Anniversary Collector’s Edition come out in the U.S.? And the answer to that is, well, yes, maybe it did, but I missed it, and so I went for the import version instead. And I wanna be clear, you can actually find the regular version of this game in GameStops no problem, but again, I wanted the Collector’s Edition, ’cause it’s got some really cool stuff in it. Here’s the full-color instruction booklet that comes with it, but check it out. In the back here, in the Bonus section, there’s the level design. So you can actually see all of the levels laid out, which is really handy. Of course you get a physical copy of the game, but it also comes with a digital copy of the Remastered Original Soundtrack. And then this is why I really wanted it. I mean, look at the steel case. This has to be one of the coolest looking steel cases ever. And that’s what’s great about the Switch being region-free is that sometimes if you miss these Collector’s Editions, or these physical versions that came out in other territories, well there’s nothing stopping you from picking up the import version. It’s awesome.

Well guys, that’s a quick look at some of the import games I have picked up for my Nintendo Switch, and if you couldn’t tell already, I am loving this. It’s so much fun to have physical versions of these games that I love to play sitting on my shelf forever, and as you can tell, the vast majority of them have an English option. Now most of these I got from PlayAsia or EastAsiaSoft, but some of these I also got from other sources. If you have specific questions on where to get them, go ahead and post your question down below. Also, if there are other import games that you think I need to have in my Switch collection, please post a comment. Alright guys, thank you very much for watching, thank you for subscribing, and take care.