Original Xbox appreciation thread

[anonymous1975]

I was following the japanese Xbox scene since the console debuted on the market. This was because the lack of japanese interest in a largely western-centric system meant whatever exclusives came out would be worth noting. This eventually lead to the creation of my detailed list of Xbox Japan-exclusives including cancelled games for that region.
Secondly, I have collected and played alot of the japan-only games. While there are some excellent ones, I can't say they were all necessarily better than what we got in the west (as opposed to what most weeaboos would prefer to believe). In fact, some of them were among the most abysmal games on the system such as Blackstone and Metal Dungeon! But there are some gems worth checking out and I've been interested in attempting some fan-translations myself. So far, Metal Wolf Chaos is the only one that's had that honor.

Third, Blinx also became the official Xbox mascot in Japan for a brief amount of time. Unfortunately the series never caught on and he was dropped. Kind of a shame because I wanted the series to gain momentum.

Could you list some of these excellent japanese-only games that are worth playing?

[Jeckidy]

Could you list some of these excellent japanese-only games that are worth playing?

-If you like good video game adaptations of traditional board games, the Seminar Series by Success is worth trying.
-Tenerezza is a good Action-RPG, just a bit too easy.
-Thousand Land is reccomended for RTS games, and I believe there are some guides to help non-japanese speakers play through it.
-The ports of Shikigami no Shiro and Psyvariar 2 are also solid.
-Dinosaur Hunting is a pretty good third-person action game where you rescue dinosaurs on an island about to erupt.
-DroneZ is essentially a western game released exclusively for the japanese market (except the PC version which was only released in Russia or something like that). It is entirely in english and is very playable. It's somewhat of a cross between a third person shooter and a puzzle game where you must properly angle and rebound shots from your laser gun to hit the appropriate targets.
-Double Steal: The Second Clash is also entirely in english but only came out in japan. It's the sequel to the game Wreckless which did infact see a US release. Not one of my faves but its certainly playable.
-Magatama is a first party game made with a japanese audience in mind. It's also not my favorite but reccomended if you like games like Otogi.
-Metal Wolf Chaos is an obvious choice but not generally my type of game. It does seem to have the biggest following out of all Xbox imports and is the first japanese Xbox game to have a fan translation.
-Petit Copter got a release in the US years later on the Wii as "Mini Copter: Adventure Flight". It's a simulation of an RC helicopter with an obstacle course.
-Plus Plum 2 is a decent puzzler that is the sequel to the Dreamcast original. If you know how that one plays (matches trigger changes to the surrounding pieces) then you'll like this one.


Some of the ones that disappointed me was stuff like MagiDeath Fight. The game has this cheap dojin look and feel. It also looks fun but plays like the worst combination of Breakout and Bomberman I could think of. Worth picking up only if you can snag it for dirt cheap.

[Tom M.]

and sonic heroes was god damn awfull
i was also very sure sega was going to turn tails in to a girl after that game his voice was obviously female

on the whoel sonic heroes is one of the worst sonic games
and off course one of the best sellers

Completely agree. The worst 3D platformer I have had a chance to play so far. Even the rock solid framerate cannot help it.