Sometimes video game companies just don’t listen to what fans want. It’s understandable. Publishers are focused on making money and working on games that will give them some kind of guaranteed return, and that often means games that people desperately want don’t get picked up for worldwide releases because financial success isn’t guaranteed.

That’s when fans step up, and get to work on fan translations. Ordinary people who happen to be fluent in Japanese, or know a bit about hacking, take on the task of preparing games for an English speaking audience. While actually getting to play the fan translations may be a questionable act (Piracy is very, very bad. Support your developers and publishers.), there are some situations where it is the only way to play a game that will never, ever see a worldwide release.

This week in Important Importables, we’re looking at some particularly notable fan translations that have either been completed, or are currently being worked on. Most of the headers below also double as links to the translation project or translation group’s pages, so you can read more about their endeavors…

It is no secret that the Game Boy Advance is dead or, at the very least, dying a slow death, barely kept alive by games based on popular children’s movies and TV shows. Rather than mourning and casting aside any hope, devoted fans of the system should instead look online for import games.

Due to the demise of the system, many online retailers who still carry import GBA games are reducing the prices of the titles. A game which normally would have cost $40 can be found for a fourth of the price.

When you add to that the fact that GBA games have no region protection and the DS is backwards compatible with those titles, it provides added incentive to see what is out there.

While many of the great GBA games were translated and released outside of Japan, there are still a few popular titles which never made it. Today we’ll look back Mother 1+2, Mother 3, bit Generations: Sound Voyager and Densetsu no Stafi 2. All four of these games would make a fine addition to your game library.