Six Japanese PlayStation One games coming to US PSN

If you’re into Japanese imports, you’ll want to jump on PSN next week. GungHo Online Entertainment is bringing to the west six games released only in Japan for the original PlayStation, to be played on US PS3s (or PSPs, if you still have one) with the Japanese Imports program. Each game will cost 5.99 dollars and they will  all be included in the PlayStation Store update on May 20th.

If that introduction caught your attention, I guess you’ll be interested in what games will be ported to western consoles. The company revealed on the PlayStation Blog that Dragon Beat Legend of Pinball is one of them, and that all the important text for the game is already written in English, so there’s no need for knowledge of Japanese language. Heroine Dream 1 and 2 will also be available, and they seem to be a 90s-era idol simulation game about becoming famous (looks like one of those dating sims if you ask me).

Neo Planet is another simulation game, but this time it’s about terraforming a second Earth. Sarara’s Little Shop or Danjyon Shoutengai: Densetsu no Ken Hajimemashita is a manager type game, where players “take control of a stereotypical RPG item shop and help outfit adventurers to safely traverse treacherous dungeons and snag some fantastic loot”. And finally we have Tokyo 23-Ku Seifuku Wars, a post-apocalyptic game set in… Tokyo (who would’ve guessed?), where civil war erupted after school uniforms were banned.

If these games seem a bit weird, it’s because they are, but that’s half of the appeal Japanese games have. They might be quirky and you may not understand a word of the on-screen text, but you can have loads of fun with them. I’ve personally not played any of these prior to the news that they are coming to western consoles, but I’m a little bit intrigued by Tokyo 23-Ku Seifuku Wars and Sarara’s Little Shop. I might even pick one up next week, even though I don’t speak the language.

Are you at least curious about these games? Let us know in the comments section.