Gamertell

With the recent success and nearly universal acceptance of Personal Trainer: Cooking, a localization of Shaberu! DS Oryouri Navi, this could be a great opportunity for Nintendo and other companies to take a chance and and localize some of the non-games that are quite prevalent in Japan.

The thing is, there are quite a wide selection of these games available in Japan. So many, that it’d be difficult to start sorting out and seeing which ones would be best to bring to the US. So for Important Importables today, we’re going to look at some of the programs that I’d feel would be a boon to the US DS catalog. Some are fun, some are useful and some will do a good job at actually teaching you something.

Of course, you could always get these games direct from Japan. If you’re not fluent though, you’ll have trouble making good use of them.

Educational DS Programs

Title: 100 Classic Book Collection
Where was it released? Europe and Australia
What’s it do? It has 100 classic books and plays that you can read at your leisure. In addition, you can use the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection to download another 10 books.
Why does the US need it? It’s already in English, so no translation is necessary. Imagine how nice it would be to be able to read a classic book without carrying the actual book with you. I think high school students and college English majors or minors would especially benefit from having instant and immediate access to important works of fiction.

Title: Chikyuu no Arukikata DS
Where was it released? Japan
What’s it do? There are a wide variety of city guides by Square Enix to help people get around Great Britain, New York, France, Shangai, Seoul, Hong Kong, Hawaii and other assorted cities. It’s a handy tool that gives you information you’d find in a typical guide book, choice phrases in the city’s language to help you get around, a clock, a calendar to help you see important dates and plan better, information on places you can stay or different services and even a dictionary.
Why does the US need it? If you’re going to visit a foreign city, which would you rather have - two or three guide books or a single DS cartridge? It would be a great boon for travelers. Plus it’d be a very portable and affordable way to learn more about a foreign city.

Helpful DS Assistants

Title: Bartender DS
Where was it released? Japan
What’s it do? It has drink recipes and basically is a handy program to have at a party.
Why does the US need it? Admittedly, this may not be the best program to localize. A bar is not the safest place for the DS, especially as the night wears on. It would be a cool idea though, to have all the recipes organized and together. There’s also a wine guide called Sommelier DS as well.

Title: Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten
Where was it released? Japan
What’s it do? It’s a Japanese/English dictionary. It also has touch screen functionality where if you draw a character, you can immediately see what it means.
Why does the US need it? It’s already one of the most popular import DS titles, so why not just release it as-is in the US? It’s a wonderful tool for someone who’s just learning Japanese or English. In fact, since it already has the option to input English and get Japanese, there shouldn’t be that big a problem when it comes to localization.

Just for Fun

Title: 99 no Namida
Where was it released? Japan
What’s it do? It’s a collection of short stories design to make you cry.
Why does the US need it? Admittedly, it probably isn’t an essential DS program. But, sometimes you have a day where you just need a good cry. Or maybe, you want a little touching and dramatic story.

Title: Fujinomori Midori no Let’s Tarot
Where was it released? Japan
What’s it do? It helps you tell fortunes.
Why does the US need it? Okay, it isn’t going to be accurate. But it could be fun to have a fortune telling program for the DS. If anything, release it as a budget program.

Title: Zombie Shiki: Eigo Ryoku Sosei Jutsu English of the Dead
Where was it released? Japan
What’s it do? It helps people who speak Japanese learn to speak English by blasting the zombie menace.
Why does the US need it? Because learning languages by obliterating zombies is all kinds of awesome. Perhaps it could be tweaked and become Japanese of the Dead instead of English of the Dead. I’m sure it’d be an instant hit.

COMING NEXT WEEK: It depends. If Play-Asia’s service is extra good, maybe there’ll be a review of HimeHibi: Princess Days Portable for the PSP. If it isn’t, we’ll look at how Jrock factors into video games.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Last week Important Importables talked about the Suikoden III manga.

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