Steam is about to start getting some of the best Japanese pixel art in gaming history

Japan's NEC PC-98 series of personal computers, popular in the 1980s and 1990s, were home to hundreds of adventure games and visual novels with absolutely impeccable pixel art. It was a whole vibe— sometimes cute, sometimes incredibly detailed with a very limited color palette, and very (very) often pornographic. Very few of these games were ever officially released in English—the whole pornographic thing probably being a big reason why—but better late than never, right?

A fan translation group named WINE has released five English translations for PC-98 games in the last three years, including a pair of horror adventures called Dead of the Brain and Dead of the Brain 2. And the first one is now getting an official release on Steam juuuust in time for Halloween, with enhancements like autosaves and "optional quality-of-life improvements such as hover hints and hit boxes."

I've played a chunk of Dead of the Brain 2, and can't fully recommend them—they're pretty basic and …