Get all the latest news on the best games from the US and Japan in this month's import round-up.
Ben Davies

Best-sellers in brief
With the release of PlayStation2 on March 4 in Japan, Sega and Nintendo's attempts to deter sales of the new Sony machine have made February a rather interesting month. On Dreamcast, the Japanese Sega GT: Homologation Special, a highly anticipated title, sold well, despite being classed by some as a disappointment. Still selling well since its launch way back in December is Yu Suzuki's finest creation, the epic Shenmue. Despite chapter one still awaiting an English translation, development of the second chapter is already well underway.

Crazy Taxi, now available worldwide, is also one of the better sellers on both American and Japanese DCs. Although not without its faults, it's an enjoyable racing romp with high-speed arcade thrills. As the latest instalment in the increasingly popular Bio Hazard series (known to westerners as Resident Evil), Bio Hazard: Code Veronica is doing very well on Japanese Dreamcast. Probably because of the fact that it was co-developed by Capcom and Sega, original features in this version are more prominent than in the standard PlayStation updates - the ability to play from a first-person perspective, for instance, notably improves the shooting action.

Amazingly, the hype and anticipation surrounding the imminent arrival of PlayStation2 has done nothing to slow the constant onslaught of PlayStation titles being released. Indeed, February saw the debuts of many top titles. With production soon to cease, a rush to purchase the final copies of the USA Final Fantasy Anthology has increased sales of this popular RPG collection dramatically.

Another popular Square RPG series is Saga Frontier. With the availability of the latest instalment in its American incarnation (a rarity for genuinely classic RPGs), Saga Frontier 2 has done the business on import. Also from Square, Vagrant Story became a surprise hit on Japanese PlayStation. This is primarily because of the fact that the hugely influential Weekly Famitsu, the finest Japanese games magazine, awarded the RPG/horror title a perfect 40/40 score. In the past, 40/40 scores have been awarded to the likes of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Soul Calibur.