Help!
The following list is compiled from a mix of our research and tips from various people. If you see something missing, please let us know.
To find out which games you can import from which region check out this region compatibility guide.
Check out Play Asia’s guide here, which also includes some language information.
The following Japanese 360 games run completely in English:
Ace Combat 6
Beautiful Katamari
Bioshock
Chromehounds
Crackdown/Riot Act
Dark Sector
Dead or Alive 4
Dead or Alive Extreme 2
Dead Rising
Devil May Cry 4
Forza Motorsport 2
Full Auto
Fusion Frenzy 2
Gears of War
Kameo
King Kong
Lost Planet
Ninja Gaiden II
Perfect Dark Zero
Project Gotham 3
Project Gotham 4
Ridge Racer 6
Riot Act
Rockstar Table Tennis
Rumble Roses XX
Shadowrun
Sonic the Hedgehog
The Orange Box
Vampire’s Rain
Virtua Fighter 5
Viva! Pinata
Viva! Pinata Party Animals
Winning Eleven 2008
WWE2007 Smackdown vs Raw
The Japanese versions of these games do not fully support English:
Army of Two
Battle Fantasia
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat
Blue Dragon
Burnout Paradise (but it’s simple enough to play anyway, and highly recommended)
Burnout Revenge - In game text is English, menus in Japanese
Call of Duty 3
Call of Duty 4
Condemned
Culdcept Saga
Dynasty Warriors 4 Empires
Dynasy Warriors 4 Special
Earth Defense Force X
Enchant Arm - Japanese
Everyparty
Fifa 2006 - Road to World Cup: Japanese menus
Final Fantasy XI
Halo
Halo 2
Halo 3
Idol Master
Kengo Zero
Love Football
Musou Orochi
NBA Live 06
Need for speed most wanted
Ninety Nine Nights
Onee Chanbara Vortex
Phantasy Star Universe
Pro Baseball Spirits 3
Project Sylpheed
Rainbow Six: Vegas
Saints Row
Samurai Warriors 2
Tenchu Senran
Tetris Grand Master Ace
The Conbini
Tomb Raider: Legend
Touryumon
Trusty Bell
Wrestle Kingdom
Zega Pain NOT
Zega Pain XOR
Ziria: East of Eden
Zoids Infinity Ex Neo
EA games usually don’t have English support.
Xbox Live Arcade
Most Arcade titles run in English, you can always download the demo to find out.
Asian Version Games
Games from elsewhere in Asia, such as China or Hong Kong, should run on a Japanese 360 without problems. These games are usually in English (Halo 3 is a notable exception) and are available from various online retailers such as playasia.
The following Asian version games are available in English:
99 Nights
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat
Bioshock
Blue Dragon
Call of Duty 2
Call of Duty 3
Dead or Alive Xtreme 2
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Far Cry Instincts: Predator
F.E.A.R.
FIFA Soccer ‘07
Fight Night: Round 3
Gears of War
Grand Theft Auto IV
Gun
Hitman: Blood Money
Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II
Moto GP `06
NBA ‘06
NBA Live `07
NBA 2K7
Need For Speed: Carbon
Need For Speed: Most Wanted
Open Season
Prey
Quake IV
Saints Row
Superman Returns
Table Tennis
Test Drive Unlimited
The Godfather - the game
The Orange Box
The Outfit
Tiger Woods PGA Tour ‘06
Tiger Woods PGA Tour ‘07
Tomb Raider: Legend
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent
Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland
Top Spin 2
Viva Pinata
X-Men - the Game
XBox 360 Hardware:
The XBox 360 dashboard allows you to select your language, which makes all the system/dashboard run in English, and the games default to English if available (see list above). The descriptions in XBox live marketplace will be in the language selected when you register on XBox live. If you entered a Japanese address you will have been forced to select Japanese as you language and will therefore receive marketplace content in Japanese. I phoned XBox customer support (dreadful) and was told the language couldn’t be changed. Bear this in mind when creating your XBox live account.
The following XBox games work on the Japanese 360:
Check the official list here.
AtariR Anthology
Brute Force
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds
Call of Duty: Finest Hour
Counter-Strike
Crimson Skies: High Road To Revenge
DEAD OR ALIVE 3
DEAD OR ALIVE Ultimate
Fable
Fatal Frame: Special Edition
Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly
Forza Motorsport
Grand Theft Auto Double Pack
HALO
Halo 2
Halo 2: Multiplayer map pack
Hitman: Contract
THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD III
Jade Empire
Jet Set Radio Future
Links 2004
Maximum Chase
Metal Arms: Glitch in the System
Mr Incredible
Muzzle Flash
NINJA GAIDEN
NINJA GAIDEN Black
Outlaw Volleyball
Panzer Dragoon Oorta
Puyo Puyo fever
Psyvaria 2 Extend Edition
Rallisport Challenge
Rocky: Legends
Sega GT 2002
Spider Man
The House of the Dead III
The Simpsons:Hit&Run
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Island Thunder
True Crime: Streets of LA
Wakeboarding Unleashed Ft Shaun Murray
Whacked!
X2: Wolverine’s Revenge
Super Monkey Ball Deluxe
XIII
Shadow the Hedgehog
Original XBox games:
PERFECTLY PLAYABLE (P+)
Dead or Alive 3
The menus are in English and the Japanese speech is subtitled in English.
MOTO GP URT 2: Online Challenge
This game is 100% in English. The manual of course is Japanese, but its not necessary to the game. A top quality racing game as well.
Project Gotham Racing 2
Another game that detects your language setting and then runs 100% in English. And another top game!
Winning Eleven 8 International
As you’d expect, this game features full English text throughout. Even the manual is in English!
Ninja Gaiden Black
Completely in English, like all Tecmo titles.
DOA Xtreme Beach Volleyball
Completely in English, except some non-essential in-game speech.
X-Men Legends
PLAYABLE(P)
PANZER DRAGOON OORTA
Very straightforward indeed, at least for the main game. The tutorial has pictures of the joypad. The main menu and secret menu’s are in English. The plot however is in Japanese. Totally playable.
NB - a couple of the unlockable extra missions feature tasks which go beyond just shooting everything in sight. Whilst working out the mission goals is not rocket science, it may be a little confusing since most of the game is so straightforward, and the non-Japanese speaker may not realise they need to do something extra
SSX TRICKY
The front end menu’s are all in English, although the in game menu’s are in Japanese. These aren’t too hard to figure out by trial and error though. Saving the game is cumbersome and features lots of Japanese text, but just hitting the A (green) button will get you through without problems. In game speech is mostly English. This is an excellent game that should pose no problems for non-Japanese speakers.
FIFA: ROAD TO WORLD CUP 2002
The menus are entirely in Japanese, although the presentation of the game is straightforward and you can figure most things out by trial and error.
Changing the game settings can be done if you understand katakana, otherwise it might prove troublesome - particularly annoying when you want to change the difficulty of the game.
As for the controls, the basic can be figured out by trial and error. The more advanced controls might be hard to figure out like this however. The basic controls are enough to enjoy the game? and win, even on the high difficulty settings. If you want to learn the more advanced controls however, you will need an online guide.
Outrun 2
The main game menu is in English, as is in-game text and speech. Option menus however are in Japanese, as are the detailed pre-level instructions. This is almost never a problem as you are given English instructions in -game. The game is not complicated to figure out either.
Blinx 2
Capcom Fighting Jam
Dead or Alive Ultimate
Fable
Halo 2
Jade Empire
Kingdoms Under Fire
Ninja Gaiden
Rallisport 2
Street Fighter Anniversary Collection
Top Spin
GUIDEBOOK REQUIRED (G)
HALO
At the start of the game you’ll be told to target certain points on the screen in order to orientate yourself. This is impossible to work out unless you understand the Japanese audio prompt. For the rest of the game, goals are marked by onscreen pointers if you don’t find them yourself.
Of course you won’t know the plot, but not too much of an issue as you can guess the main points, and it doesn’t impact on the gameplay. So this is playable appart from that annoying bit at the start.
G
JET SET RADIO FUTURE
This game is straightforward to play, but sometimes the player doesn’t know where to go to start the next mission, which can mean a lot of leg work, travelling through all the game’s locations hoping to stumble accross a goal by accident. Also the goals for bonus graffiti souls are problematic. Most of them are numeric, easily enough of them to complete the game, but to access all of them will require an online gude. This game is probably best played in conjunction with a guide for when you get stuck, but is otherwise fine.