by cyberlink420
Those who know me know I love me some N64 games. It was the first home console I ever owned, and thus it still holds a special place in my heart. So much so, in fact, that my childhood dream was to own every game ever made for the system. And nearly 30 years after the system's stateside launch, I actually did it, with a little extra credit: I now own a copy of every N64 game ever published in North America, and am currently working on doing the same for those that were only released in Japan and Europe.
As a result, I've gradually become more familiar with all the Japanese games that never came to America, allowing me to come across some hidden gems (and absolute trashfires) that I might not have discovered otherwise. While a select few did get released in Europe (Airboarder 64, Centre Court Tennis, and Rakugakids, to be specific), there's still over 80 games that have never left the country in any capacity. Thankfully, over the last decade or so, N64 hacking has taken off in a big way, and a lot of talented hackers and translators (including a few recurring names in particular) have taken up the daunting task of converting these games over to English. As a result, over 1/4 of the Japanese-only library is now Anglophone-friendly, allowing audiences who might have missed out to give them a fair shake. Exciting stuff.
This list is my way of documenting all the Japan-exclusive games for the N64 that have already been translated into English, along with some of my personal thoughts. The list also includes translated games for the system's 64DD add-on, and even a few Japanese protoypes of unreleased games that were later found, dumped, and translated. My hope is that this list will help draw people's attention to games they might not have been aware of or may have previously skipped because of their reliance on Japanese text, and that it encourages further growth in the N64 translation scene to help the remaining games get the same treatment. I'll continue to maintain and update this list as new translations become available, or if existing translations undergo substantial updates.
(All N64 translation patches are available on Romhacking.net unless otherwise specified, while all 64DD translations can be found on 64DD.org. I also considered including translated Aleck64 arcade games, but left them out for being a bit too out-of-scope. If you'd like me to change that, though, please let me know in the comments!)
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Okay, this one is kind of an edge case, since when it released, Sin & Punishment famously featured full English voiceover, allowing players to enjoy all the insanity of its story without being able to read a word of Japanese. In fact, the only thing keeping it from being fully import friendly is the fact that all the text remains untranslated, which isn't a dealbreaker, but does slow things down a bit. Thankfully, Nintendo themselves decided to remedy this years later with the 2007 Wii Virtual Console re-release, which fully translated all of the menus and tutorial text into English, allowing anyone to pick up and play, and it's that version that you've probably played already since it's still easily available on the Nintendo Classics service. In fact, the only bits of text that remain untranslated are the subtitles for the aforementioned already-in-English VO (which would be nice to have for accessibility reasons, but again, not a dealbreaker). If you want those last gaps filled, though, Vanit Studios put out their own patch a year before the VC re-release that translates everything, including the subtitles.
If you dig any flavor of (Spike-)Chunsoft's Mystery Dungeon series, be it Pokémon, Chocobo, etc., you owe it to yourself to try the Shiren the Wanderer games, the only Mystery Dungeon permutation not tied to an external license. Nintendo themselves published this second main Shiren entry, and SharkSnack and ozidual spent two and a half years hard at work on this translation before releasing it in 2021. The sheer amount of Japanese text in this game makes the translation patch ESSENTIAL. As someone who was actively following the public updates on this one's progress while it was being developed, it gave me much greater understanding and respect for the hard work that goes into translation and localization, even for fan efforts. This one is definitely one of my strongest recommendations on this list.
Bangai-O! is a cult classic, and did get brought to the west for its Dreamcast release, but that translation was...let's call it "awkward" to be charitable. Thankfully, fans of this Treasure shooter have been spoiled with not one but TWO translations, both released on nearly the same day in 2026. One by deadsnare that features a more direct translation, and another by GammaTrove and RoboVerse Translations which adds some extra flourishes to make it more in-line with the localizations of later series entries on the Nintendo DS and Xbox 360. There's no bad blood between the two, though; both translations are great, and each group is quick to hype up the other's work. In fact, after the patches released, deadsnare gave GammaTrove access to their custom character fonts, bringing the two translations even closer together on the presentation front. There's no wrong answer as to which translation to use; give them both a try and see which one works for you!
F-Zero X is a certified banger, no question, but in early 2000, Captain Falcon looked at the screen and announced "THIS ISN'T EVEN MY FINAL FORM!", as Japan received the only 64DD expansion ever released. When combined with the base game, it adds not only 12 new tracks, which would be cool enough on its own, but a remarkably robust editing suite that lets players create their own custom race tracks and vehicles. Obviously, we in the west never got the 64DD, but Zoinkitty thankfully not only translated the whole thing back in 2015, but later produced a special hacked version of the game (and every other 64DD game) capable of running on flash carts! So even if you lack both the hardware and language skills, you too can live life in the fast lane to the fullest!
The sheer amount of Japanese text makes this robot-girl-raising life sim fully impenetrable to anyone not sufficiently fluent, so Ryu's 2007 translation patch is a more than welcome addition, especially in its VERY plot-heavy second part. One of the first N64 fan translations ever released, it's not surprising given the timeframe that it uses some language that is perhaps a little...edgier than really fits the game's aesthetic. If you're willing to look past that, though, Josette's story is absolutely worth a look, as it's an experience unlike anything else on the system.
Not to be confused with that OTHER game called Bomberman 64 from 1997, which was called Baku Bomberman in Japan; fans instead sometimes refer to this one as "Bomberman 64: Arcade Edition" to differentiate the two. THIS Bomberman 64 was the last N64 game released in Japan, and is basically best described as Bomberman Land 1.5. In addition to standard Bomberman, Panic Bomber, and SameGame modes, "Bomberman Park" mode retains the same "walk around a theme park and play minigames" gameplay as the rest of the Bomberman Land series, with minigames from both the original Land and the then-upcoming Land 2. It's a good thing Zoinkitty released an English patch in 2017, as while it's not impossible to play without it, doing so does make navigating the park and figuring out where to go next quite a bit harder.
Ever wanted to make your own shmup? Well that's exactly what Dezaemon 3D lets you do, with an incredibly robust creation and customization suite that gives you plenty of options. Its absurdly lengthy tutorial is all in Japanese, though, so you'll definitely want a translation patch to help you figure out what you're doing. Thankfully, Zoinkitty and translator Whowasphone404 have made the game fully accessible in English as of 2024, including the premade sample games, letting you create to your heart's content. Make sure to look into the game's 64DD features and the unreleased prototype expansion if you really want to expand your scope!
Nintendo's Custom Robo series wouldn't make its way to the west until its fourth entry, Battle Revolution, released on GameCube in 2004. Thankfully, we can now enjoy the series' humble beginnings thanks to a 2017 fan translation by the Star Trinket team. Keep in mind, there are a few issues that can cause crashes, mostly related to very infrequent text box shaking animations during some particularly tense story moments, but you can work past them, and it's very much worth it for the opportunity to enjoy one of the only first party N64 games (and an absolute blast in multiplayer) that never made it overseas.
Custom Robo V2 is basically an improvement on the original in every way, with additional parts, new tag team mechanics, and lots more. Unfortunately, while Star Trinket did begin work on a translation of this one, extenuating circumstances led to the team disbanding and the patch being left unfinished. A beta version of this patch can be found if you're willing to do some digging, but while enough was done that the machine parts are all named and you can get to the end of the story, the postgame segments are in rough shape, and a lot of menu and stage text is still untranslated. Still, it's good enough to get by for the most part, but I still hope that someone will pick up the torch and finish things off in the future.
This one ALMOST got localized by Mindscape back in 1997, but their negotiations with Hudson Soft fell through, meaning it wouldn't be until Zoinkitty's 2017 translation patch that the game would get the full English treatment. That said, this mecha fighter is still plenty playable without it, thanks to all the menus being in English. All you're really missing out on otherwise are the story text and the names of the various bots and weapons, though you can still see their images and their stats in the selection menu, so it barely impedes your ability to effectively choose the one you want. Whether you play patched or unpatched, though, it's still worth giving this Virtual On-like a go at least once.
