I have to agree that the early 90's were great for import games. Alot
of magazines covered Japanese games and especially the Turbo (one
reason I bougth my Duo was looking through old EGMs). Unfortunately I
think the import scene and US gaming scene have changed quite a bit.
Back in the good ole days both countries played platform, shooter, and
fighting games but now especially after the introduction of CDs
Japanese gamers have leaned to more niche and text based games.
There's a ton of digital comics out there and a good deal of games
released in Japan today require a good deal of the language to enjoy
the game. In the US, we've also dropped a lot of games, fighting games
are about dead (well 2D ones) as many people don't have the patience to
master them.
Companies are a little more open to qualtiy games too, even if they
know they're not going to sell great. Bangaio, E.G.G., Metal Slug X
all did poor sales but the old school gamers picked them up in a
instant. Therefore if a game is good there's a great chance we'll see
it in the US (wish it was like this with the Saturn).
Great imports are greater rarer and rarer too but they still appear
(unless Konami USA suddenly picked it up, the new Playstation MSX rev
of Castlevania is a good import IMO). *-neo