Whether it was the golden age of Toonami or the early days of Adult Swim, there’s no doubt that the greatest feeling of our Friday night’s youth was coming home after a long crappy week of school and letting our imaginations run rampant with fictional characters that not only understood us better than our peers, but left an impression of values in our mentality that not even the best school lessons could teach.
It’s that same highlighting sensation we get after playing a really good video game and living out the adventure through character’s that we can, on some level, attach ourselves to emotionally. Well, if you’ve ever felt the same way about an anime as you have your most cherished gaming fantasies, then you might find your interest peeked with this list of classic anime-inspired games that you probably never even knew existed simply for the reason that they were never released here in the U.S. or because they just didn’t get enough sale’s hype to be noticed.
1) Cowboy Bebop
Everyone’s favorite ragtag team of bounty hunters aboard the half broken down ship, The Bebop, led by its main character Spike, was a popular show in the 90’s that stemmed not one, but two video games for the Playstation and Playstation 2 that never set one foot here or in any other country for that matter. The first game released in 1998 for the PS1, simply entitled Cowboy Bebop, was your basic, Star Fox-like third person scrolling shooter that had players flying around and aiming for bounty heads. Not nearly as popular as its 2005 successor for the PS2, Cowboy Bebop: Tsuioku no Serenade, or in English, Serenade of Reminiscence, which was the all out action adventure game that every die-hard U.S. fan would have wanted to own had it been given a fair chance.
2) Berserk
Another short lived anime series from the late 90’s, Berserk was all about a giant-sword wielding man named Guts, who pretty much kicked ass and took names of both humans and demons alike, spilling out all of their…well, you know. While there was a not-so popular game released for the Sega Dreamcast here in North America called Sword of the Berserk: Guts’ Rage, the ‘one that got away’ so to speak, was its 2004 successor for the PS2 called Berserk: Millennium Falcon Hen Seima Senki no Shō, which was yet another action adventure game that was never even considered for U.S. distribution. Tsk tsk, Japan, tsk tsk!
3) Rurouni Kenshin
Remember that golden age of Toonami I mentioned earlier? Well here’s another childhood treasure that you can scratch off the list of games that you’ll never know the joys of playing, unless of course you go out of your way to buy a Japanese PS2 console and then a copy of the game itself which usually runs for about $80.00! I can recall watching the intro theme to this anime as a kid just like it was yesterday. Rurouni Kenshin was by far, one of my personal favorites, about a wandering samurai who has vowed to never kill again, and somehow manages to pick fights with the toughest guys around without breaking that vow. Check out the gameplay for the adventure game, Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan: Enjō! Kyōto Rinne, released in 2006 and made available all through out…Japan.
4) Gungrave
The good news about this highly underrated anime series is that it spawned two video games in 2002 and 2004, both of which were actually released in North America! To be even more precise, the 2002 game actually came first and gave rise to this anime’s creation. However, after receiving moderate reviews from critics, both of them inevitably fell off the radar. Following the events of a man with a troubled past with the mafia, Brandon Heat sets out in this Devil May Cry-styled action adventure for one thing…revenge. As this anime is as I mentioned above, underrated, so are the video games. So not only would I highly recommend this show to anyone, I would also say that any true fan of the show won’t be disappointed if they gave this lost gem a shot.
5) Yu Yu Hakusho Forever!
Now I know what you’re probably thinking, that Yu Yu Hakusho did in fact have a U.S. released game back in 2004 called Dark Tournament, but what I bet you didn’t know is that the following year, there was a sequel to this game called Yu Yu Hakusho Forever, covering the entire story arc with all of the main characters and more. Though it seems rather strange that this game never got the approval for American gamers seeing as how its predecessor did rather well with sales. Of course, there were many games based off of this particular anime that never saw the light of day on U.S. grounds, but for whatever reason, we didn’t get the opportunity to play this direct sequel to a game that we did get. The gameplay for Forever isn’t as choppy as the first one and it looks kinda baddass to me, so what gives?
Well, there you have it. This list could go on and on, but these are the top five anime-inspired games that I thought deserved to be mentioned. If you can somehow manage to find a copy of any of these games, Japanese or otherwise, more power to ya! Because if there’s one thing that our childhoods probably all have in common, its the countless hours spent zoned out in the middle of a classic anime or a really great video game…or both!
