When you're talking about obscure video games, they don't come much more obscure than 1993's Cosmology of Kyoto, developed by Japanese studio SoftEdge. A nonlinear CD-ROM adventure, the game was lucky enough to get a Western release in 1994, and while it wasn't commercially successful, it has since gained a cult following online.

However, as leftfield as Cosmology of Kyoto undoubtedly is, its sequel is even more unknown—in fact, until very recently, it wasn't even known if it had actually been physically released. Entitled TRIPITAKA 玄奘三蔵求法の旅, the game sold on Yahoo Japan in 2023 for almost $300—and video game academic Bruno de Figueiredo has successfully managed to get it preserved online.

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A new collection of Darius minifigures is set to be released in Japanese stores tomorrow (Thursday, May 22nd), giving fans the chance to collect some of their favourite bosses from across Taito's popular shoot 'em up series.

The brand-new range is the work of Toys Cabin, a niche manufacturer of capsule toys based in Shizuoka, Japan, and is set to include four figures in total: King Fossil, King Fossil Clear, Iron Fossil, and Knight Fossil.

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Tue 29th Oct 2024 Konami's Castlevania series is to get its own musical in Japan, it has been revealed.

The vampire-hunting franchise – which began life back in the mid-'80s – will be adapted into a musical by Takarazuka Revue (thanks, Famitsu).

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The owners of the legendary Tokyo game center Nakano TRF (Nakano Tokyo Ranking Fighters) announced yesterday that it will be closing its doors for good later this year, in yet another blow to Japan's struggling arcade scene.

Nakano TRF first started operating in 2004, and over the decades since has become a pillar of Tokyo's fighting game community, thanks to its wealth of 2D fighting cabinets, hosting tournaments for games like Samurai Shodown and serving as a hangout for fans of Psychic Force 2012, Aquapazza, and Cyberbots.

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"Currently, in our bank account, we have £2100 (around $2800). It's not even enough to pay the rent for one month," explains Joseph Redon, head of the Japanese Game Preservation Society. He's describing the end of the non-profit organisation he set up in 2011 with the aim of properly safeguarding Japanese gaming history before it is lost forever.

The GPS has successfully preserved thousands of Japanese games—including many floppy discs, which have a finite lifespan—and related media, such as magazines and books. Honorary members of the society include Tomohiro Nishikado (creator of Space Invaders), Yuzo Koshiro (Streets of Rage composer), Yoshio Kiya (Dragon Slayer, Sorcerian) and Tokihiro Naito (creator of Hydlide)—yet, despite attracting the support of such legendary figures and operating in one of the world's most influential nations when it comes to interactive entertainment, the organisation is on its last legs.

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SNK is teaming up with the Japanese retro video game retailer Beep to rerelease some classic merchandise based on its old arcade titles Athena and Psycho Soldier (thanks Famitsu).

The new merch is available now to order from Beep's online store and includes reprints and rereleases of various pieces of video game ephemera, that originally debuted in the 80s back when the games were originally released, such as stickers, instruction sheets, and posters.

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D4 Enterprise, the company behind retro initiatives like Project EGG and EGGCONSOLE, has announced it will be bringing out a new physical collection celebrating Nihon Falcom's classic action-RPG series Ys (h/t: Famitsu).

The Ys Collection is scheduled for release in Japan in 2026, for Windows 10 & 11 PCs, and is available to pre-order now on D4 Enterprise's AC-Mall website.

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Although there are notable exceptions—Tetris and Populous being two that spring to mind—it wasn't always easy to sell Western-made games to Japanese players back in the 1990s.

While North American and European gamers would gleefully lap up Japanese output, games moving in the opposite direction often failed to make an impact. That's probably why Sony Computer Entertainment took a rather unique approach with its commercials for early PS1 releases WipEout and Destruction Derby, billing them explicitly as British-made software.

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Japanese company City Connection turns 20 this year, and has a series of releases and events planned to mark the occasion.

Taking its name from a Jaleco title, City Connection managed to pick up Jaleco's IP when its parent company Game Yarou declared bankruptcy in 2014. Since then, it has published games across a wide range of platforms, including vintage systems and modern-day consoles, like Switch and PS4.

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The concept of importing video games from other regions has become less popular in recent years thanks to the introduction of region-free software and release dates being much closer together than they were many decades ago. In the modern era, many games will launch internationally on the exact same day, something that was largely unheard of during the '80s and '90s.

Importing games and hardware from Japan was a big deal once upon a time, largely thanks to the fact that Western consumers often had to wait months (if not years) to get their hands on the latest consoles and games.

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As part of its 5th-anniversary livestream earlier today, G-Mode announced it would be rereleasing the FromSoftware mobile game Armored Core: Mobile Mission on Nintendo Switch and Steam in Japan.

The Nintendo Switch version is available to buy right now if you have a Japanese Nintendo account for 1,100 yen, whereas the Steam version will be released later this month, on April 30th.

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In a new interview with the Japanese publication AV Watch, the former PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida revealed that Sucker Punch's 2020 action-adventure Ghost of Tsushima marked a sizeable achievement for Sony's Japanese localization team.

Remarkably, according to Yoshida, it marked the first foreign first-party PlayStation game to sell over 1,000,000 copies in 22 years, with only the PS1 title Crash Bandicoot 3 having previously hit the incredible milestone when it was first released in 1998 in the country (h/t: @Genki_JPN).

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Japan has a long and proud history in the realm of video games. Some of the most significant and influential games originate from the country, and names like Nintendo, Capcom, Konami, and Sega are globally famous, their fame reaching far beyond the realms of interactive entertainment.

What's amazing is people are still finding stuff out about Japan's association with games, even today. As highlighted by Bruno de Figueiredo, it would seem that the nation's first-ever video game has been discovered—and it's all thanks to a post by a nostalgic train enthusiast.

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Last year, it was confirmed that another classic retro platform was getting the 'micro console' treatment: the Japan-only NEC PC-8801 mkII SR personal computer, originally released in 1985.

It has now been revealed that legendary composer and game designer Yuzo Koshiro is collaborating with manufacturer Dempa Shimbun to promote the new system. Koshiro is helping to recreate an original PC-8801 mkII SR advertisement from the '80s and will serve as an ambassador for the new 'mini' variant.

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Japan is pretty awesome when it comes to celebrating tech and video games, so it should come as no great shock to learn that it has the best flea markets (or 'car boot sales', if you're in the UK) in the world.

While an early trip to a similar flea market in our part of the world might turn up some battered copies of FIFA or Madden, a visit to Tokyo's Shinagawa flea market offers a dazzling range of video games, consoles and even 'feature' phones and other old tech.

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It's been no secret that Japanese arcades have been struggling over the last few years, with the impact of COVID-19 and other factors (such as tightening profit margins) forcing more and more businesses to close their doors.

So it was encouraging recently to see Famitsu taking the time to shine a light on Mikado Game Center in Tokyo's Takadanobaba neighborhood — one of an increasingly small number of game centers in Tokyo still dedicated primarily to featuring arcade gaming as opposed to claw machines and redemption titles.

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Earlier this month, the Tokyo-based developer and publisher Mebius announced a new series of MSX reissues for the Nintendo Switch, in Japan, with the first of these scheduled to be a rerelease of the MSX2 version of the RPG BURAI Joukan (thanks Famitsu!)

BURAI Joukan, in case you've never heard of it, is a title that focuses on the story of eight warriors spread across the world who are suddenly entrusted with the task of saving the land from the followers of an evil god named Daar. It was initially released for the PC-88 and PC-98 in 1989 and was later ported in 1990 to the MSX2.

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Update : @chibax7jp has offered an update on the future of the a-cho's YouTube channels "a-cho GAME" and "a-cho Battle Movie" following the closure of the Kyoto-based amusement arcade late last month.

At the start of the year, an announcement was made on Twitter that the channels could potentially face deletion, taking decades-worth of fighting history with them. Now, though, @chibax7jp has issued a set of tweets, stating that the ownership of both channels will be transferred over to a-cho's parent company, Daiichi Bussan Co., Ltd, and that they will "continue to remain", implying that the future of the channels is safe for now. The third channel a-cho staff seemed to be exempt from this announcement, with @chibax7jp looking likely to continue this channel themselves under a new name.

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Update #3 : The English version of Cho Aniki COLLECTION has now landed on the UK and US eShop.

As reported below, the collection includes the first two games in the series — Cho Aniki (PC Engine) and Ai Cho Aniki (PC Engine) — and was initially released in Japan on December 12th, 2024 after being crowdfunded on the website Makuake earlier in the year.

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A Japanese arcade which was home to a wide selection of classic games has been consumed by fire, we're sad to report.

The conflagration at Osaka's Retro Game Arcade Zarigani was reported by Colin Williamson on social media.

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Update : Black Screen Records has revealed on Twitter that it will be selling imported copies of Super Mario World's upcoming soundtrack release on vinyl and that pre-orders are available now on its website.

The soundtrack is priced at €111,00 and is expected to ship in May 2025. The amount of copies is fairly limited, with Black Screen Records encouraging customers interested in the album to act quickly to prevent disappointment.

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Update : Following the earlier news that a new trademark had been registered for the series, Japanese studio Genki has revealed that a fresh instalment in the Tokyo Xtreme Racer series is now in development for PC.

There's not much to go on so far, outside of some attractive renders of cityscape roads and a short YouTube teaser.

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Update : City Connection has announced a release date for P-47 II for the Sega Mega Drive. According to the information shared on a recent livestream, the game will be released on March 13th in Japan and is currently available to pre-order now on Clarice Disc and Amazon Japan for ¥8800.

Pre-ordering from Amazon will net you the bonus of a soundtrack CD, while Clarice Disc is offering a set of two large badges for those who reserve a copy ahead of time from its store.

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Don't worry – you're not suffering from déjà vu. If you feel like you've read this before, it's because we're republishing some of our favourite features from the past year as part of our Best of 2024 celebrations. If this is new to you, then enjoy reading it for the first time! This piece was originally published on May 3rd, 2024.

While the pandemic led to a

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Don't worry – you're not suffering from déjà vu. If you feel like you've read this before, it's because we're republishing some of our favourite features from the past year as part of our Best of 2024 celebrations. If this is new to you, then enjoy reading it for the first time! This piece was originally published on February 8th, 2024.

At Time Extension, we like to promote the noble work of preservation groups such as the Japanese Game Preservation Society.

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