Gradius II is an object of desire for many Konami shooter fans

Well, it looks like Nintendo knows that we won't say no to imports, because today's update includes three games, all import titles, and all marked with the Hanabi Festival fireworks icon that the import titles last year were labelled with. They're also all 100 points more expensive than other games on their respective system, but surely this is worth paying to experience some awesome games you've (Most likely) never played before!

Leading the bunch this week is Gradius II: Gofer no Yabou (Ambition of Gofer).is the Japan-only sequel to the original Gradius. It is available on the Japanese Virtual Console on both the Famicom (NES) and PC Engine CD (Turbografx-CD), but thankfully, Konami has given us the superior Turbografx-CD version. As it is an import, it costs 900 Wii Points.

Final Soldier is the only main game (Non-spinoff) in the Star Soldier series never released outside Japan. It is generally considered to be one of the lesser titles in the series, but it is still quite enjoyable and shares many similarities to the other games available on VC. It costs 700 Wii Points.

The last import game sadly isn't really worth looking into - Columns III: Revenge of Columns is a rather subpar second sequel to Columns, also on VC. Columns 2 was never ported to the Mega Drive, so that explains the gap. Columns III is basically the same as the original Columns, but adds some features that feel more unnecessary than good. The game costs 900 Wii Points. This game was released in the US and Japan - This is the US version.

According to the Wii Shop, none of these three games are limited-time ones. Also, more imports will come in the next weeks, but it doesn't say which.

CONGRATULATIONS! go to VC:R staffer Damo today! His wife gave birth to a baby boy weighing 6 lbs 10 this morning at 2 a.m. Yay!