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…

The DS is definitely not hurting for games. However, there aren’t as many titles published by Nintendo as you would expect. The games Nintendo does publish in North America tend to be part of popular franchises, and the company has been accused in the past of favoring established series over new properties.

Things are starting to gradually shift. Nintendo took a chance and released Rhythm Heaven in North America. The Legendary Starfy, the fifth game in the series, is going to mark the series’ debut outside of Japan. Perhaps this is a good sign that Nintendo is going to be more accepting of new properties in the future.

Gamertell’s taking a look back today at some of the Nintendo published DS titles that have been passed over until now. A few had tentative US release dates that never happened, and whispered rumors have spread about the possible release of others. One thing’s for sure, all of the following games would be welcome additions to the North American game library…

Title: Soma BringerPrice: $48.90System(s): Nintendo DSRelease Date: 2/28/08Publisher (Developer): Nintendo (Monolith Soft)ESRB Rating: N/A

Soma Bringer is an interesting effort from Nintendo and Monolith Soft. It basically is everything that people wanted Children of Mana for the DS to be. Its a fairly straightforward action/rpg/dungeon crawler with the primary focus on customizing characters and providing an effortless battle experience.