There's been a lot happening on the import news front. Here's a nice big pile of what's been happening in Japan this week.

　　JoJo's Bizarre Adventure for the PlayStation will feature a number of minigames based on certain storyline elements from the original Japanese manga of the same name. For example, you encounter one boss who challenges you to a card game or a game where you drop coins into a full glass of water, trying to raise its level without causing it to overflow.

　　Grandia for the PlayStation is almost ready to ship to Japanese retailers and import shops across the country. Grandia is scheduled to arrive in stores on June 24.

　　Spriggan: Lunar Verse is an action game based on a Japanese animated movie, comparable in quality to Ghost in the Shell. From Software is the developer of the game, which will be available on June 17.

　　In other From Software news, the PlayStation game Echo Night, soon to be available in the US through AgeTec, has spawned a sequel that will be available sometime this August.

　　Racing Lagoon, Square's newest hybrid RPG for the PlayStation, will be out early next week on June 10.

　　Sony's Wild Arms 2: 2nd Ignition for the PlayStation will have a fully revolving world map and 3D backgrounds, unlike the first where most of the gameplay took place on 2D bitmaps. Character models will be made of 2D sprites, however, until the battle scenes, where everything becomes fully polygonal.

　　The newest installment of Toshinden is entitled Toshinden Subaru with no relation to the car manufacturer. This latest chapter for the PlayStation features the next generation of Toshinden fighters, with Kayin's daughter Naru, last featured in Toshinden 3 as a secret character, appearing along with Eiji look-alike Subaru, as well as other characters like Rook, Lancelot, and Puella. Toshinden Subaru will be out in Japan sometime this summer.

　　Electronic Arts' futuristic strike-like game Future Cop: L.A.P.D. is being reworked for the Japanese market. Additions include, mainly, the incorporation of Japanese/manga-style voice-overs and character artwork in the dialogue boxes. The rendered intro also has more of a manga feel to it.

　　SNK's Hyper Neo-Geo game Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition is scheduled to arrive on the PlayStation on June 24. The conversion should be practically arcade-perfect, if not better.

　　In other SNK news, Fatal Fury: 1st Contact and Metal Slug: 1st Mission have just been released for the Neo-Geo Pocket Color in Japan. King of Fighters: Dream Match 1999 for the Dreamcast will also be available on June 24 and is linkable to the already released King of Fighters R2.

　　Namco has been revealing information on Soul Calibur's facial details. Each character will have a wide variety of facial expressions, from closed eyes to cocked eyebrows and open mouths - nothing too spectacular, but these additions should add a lot of personality and realism to the final product.

　　In addition to Jeffry and Wolf appearing in Sega's Giant Gram All Japan Pro Wrestling 2: Featuring Virtua, VF3 favorite Kage Maru will also be making an appearance. Kage will not adhere to traditional "wrestling" tactics and will adhere to his own particular brand of throws and grab moves.