Canadian variants and exclusives

[gbpxl]

How many games had a Canadian version and what are the differences? The only Canadian game Ive seen is a Super Mario Bros. 3 cart. Before that I had always assumed there was one version of a game that was intended for U.S. and Canada (NTSC-U/C). I assume the only difference would really be an inclusion of French as a language?

[Pr3tty F1y]

Is Super Mario Bros 3 really a Canadian variant or is it just different box art/box language? I only ask as of all ROM dumps available for SMB3 on the net, no one has catalogued a unique Canadian release.

However, there were unique Canadian releases of Legend of Zelda - Link to the Past for the SNES, The Legend of Zelda - Link's Awakening for the Game Boy, and Kirby's Adventure for the NES. Interestingly, these were all released by Nintendo during the 1992-93 time frame and I'm seeing no other Canada-specific release from any other big manufacturers unless you go back to the Atari 2600/ColecoVision/Intellivision era. So - yah - Canadian specific releases from classic systems seem relatively rare.

[gbpxl]

Is Super Mario Bros 3 really a Canadian variant or is it just different box art/box language? I only ask as of all ROM dumps available for SMB3 on the net, no one has catalogued a unique Canadian release.

However, there were unique Canadian releases of Legend of Zelda - Link to the Past for the SNES, The Legend of Zelda - Link's Awakening for the Game Boy, and Kirby's Adventure for the NES. Interestingly, these were all released by Nintendo during the 1992-93 time frame and I'm seeing no other Canada-specific release from any other big manufacturers unless you go back to the Atari 2600/ColecoVision/Intellivision era. So - yah - Canadian specific releases from classic systems seem relatively rare.
It had a code ending with -CAN. I didnt play it though

[Gameguy]

There are plenty of Canadian released games, I assume you're mostly talking about Nintendo releases but other consoles like the Genesis had them too with different box art and manuals.

With NES/SNES/Gameboy variants usually the only difference is with the label, manual, and box while the game is unchanged, but there were also several French versions released in Quebec. It's really the first party games that often have alternate Canadian versions.

[Steve W]

There were plenty of games released exclusively in other countries, but were there many (if any) games released in Canada that weren't generally released in the US? Or, being next-door neighbors, did we all get the exact same games for every system?

[Gameguy]

There were plenty of games released exclusively in other countries, but were there many (if any) games released in Canada that weren't generally released in the US? Or, being next-door neighbors, did we all get the exact same games for every system?
It depends on which system you're talking about. I know off hand there were several for the Atari 2600 that were only sold in Canada, including the various Zellers carts and the two Puzzy releases(though these were possibly also sold in US towns near the Canadian border, but so far unconfirmed). Extra Terrestrials is another one which was made in Canada and only sold door to door in extremely limited numbers.

There were several Sega Master System games released in Canada that weren't released in the US, these were mostly European games that were also released in Canada.

For the NES there's the French versions of some games, though I'm not sure if you're counting language variants as exclusive releases.

[goldenband]

Intellivision had Super Cobra and Tutankham, which both saw a limited Canadian release.

What were the Master System games that made it to Canadian shelves?

[Gameguy]

What were the Master System games that made it to Canadian shelves?
Just checking the DP rarity guide it seems Dynamite Dux, Golfmania, OutRun 3-D, Scramble Spirits, Tennis Ace, and Ultima IV are a few of them.

They have "European copies were also distributed in Canada" listed in their entries. There are other European releases described the same way, but those have US versions too. There may be other European games that were distributed in Canada that aren't documented properly, it's difficult to know for sure.