Kicking off

Level-5's Inazuma Eleven series has become something of a hit in its native Japan, spawning an anime series, comic adaptation and countless other items of merchandise. The games have also been released in Europe, but thus far they have ignored North America — possibly down to soccer's relatively lowly status when compared to other sports in the region.

However, according to Nintendo's official release calendar for 2014, the game will finally be making its US debut. Nintendo has "Inazuma Eleven" listed for release in Q1 2014, but doesn't state which game is coming. Given that Inazuma Eleven 3 recently came out in Europe, the sensible money would be on that instalment making the jump.

The latest entry — Inazuma Eleven GO 3: Galaxy — hit Japanese shelves in December 2013, but seeing as previous games in the "GO" sub-series haven't been translated, it's unlikely that it will be the game mentioned on Nintendo's North American schedule.

We gave Inazuma Eleven 3 a solid 7/10 when we reviewed it back in September 2013, stating that it "lacked the spark" of previous entries, but offered hours of "charming, light-hearted, over-the-top adventure".

North American players — are you keen to get your hands on Level-5's sporting RPG series at last? Or are you simply not interested? Leave a comment to tell us.

[source nintendo.com]