Nintendo rarities head to the Wii

Import games festival comes to the Virtual Console

Nintendo has officially announced that they are hosting the first 'Hanabi Festival' for PAL consoles, meaning a spate of new titles are about to hit the VC, having never been available on UK consoles before.

The festival begins on Monday and is to be split into three weekly themes. First up is Mario Week, which will see the Japanese version of Super Mario Land 2, and Super Mario's Picross. The week beginning September 21 is Ninja Week, and will mark the VC release of the NES Ninja Gaiden, and Ninja Ja JaMaru-Kun. After that comes Sci-Fi Week, when Sin & Punishment and Gradius III join the festival.

Though games like Super Mario's Picross are dominated by a large amount of Japanese text, this list of unusual titles makes an exciting addition to the expanding VC line up.