Unboxing [JP]: Wangan Midnight - The Best! Edition Reissue (PS3)

Next up on my importing ventures is a PS3 title that's actually becoming rarer but I decided to go for a pre-owned copy due to the new retail copies becoming too dear to own.

Wangan Midnight (湾岸ミッドナイト) is a racing game released in 2007 from developer & publisher Genki based on the 90s racing manga of the same name written by Michiharu Kusunoki. The PS3 version is the next game after the PS2 & PSP versions released by the publisher and is not related to the Arcade version that Bandai Namco developed called Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune despite both being based on the same source material.

If you are familiar with Initial D's PS3 instalment Extreme Stage, you will find some familiarity with Wangan Midnight's PS3 game. The game is entirely in Japanese but the gameplay itself is pretty basic as it's just a racing game adapting the story of the manga plus other modes including online multiplayer. The main menu is also entirely in English making it easier to select the game modes available. Overall this game indeed Import Friendly with the storyline and some parts of the menus being the only area that will require knowledge of the language. Like Initial D Extreme Stage, there is no local multiplayer for this game either.

For those who don't know, The Best! edition is a re-release released at a budget price that Sony uses for their Japanese PlayStation consoles for games that have sold very well in their market. The Best! line up is basically the Japanese equivalent of The Essentials edition in the UK. And like Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan!, this title is a reissue of The Best! edition to fit the current PlayStation 3 template for retail copies.

Format: PlayStation 3

Version: Japan

Exclusive: Yes

Local Players: 1

Online Players: 4

Resolution: 480p/720p/1080i/1080p

HDD Space: 2821KB (Save Data)

Trophies: No

As this game was released during the very first part of the PlayStation 3's lifespan (where every title had the Spider-man style border on the game covers), there aren't any trophies for this game since it wasn't a thing.

I bought the reissue of the PlayStation 3 The Best! Edition as it was re-released to include the newer PS3 border design that's more in line with most games in the catalogue these days). The first version of The Best! Edition actually retained the original PS3 Spider-man border. As mentioned I decided to go with the pre-owned copy because the new copies are quite steep as it seems this game is going to become out of print, which is no surprise considering it's many years old now. I got mine for £25 at Solaris Japan but at the time of this post it's currently only available via new copies.