What games were released on NES but not for the Famicom?

[Bratwurst]

It's pertinant to the Import forum, honest! I believe I may have found my own contact in Japan and would like to impress him / her when we get down to exchanging games in our respective areas.

I already know Legendary Wings was put out for the NES yet never made it into Famicom form. I believe I read somewhere that Little Samson was never released in Japan either. Ditto for the Tengen and Camerica stuff, I presume. But how about other licensed titles? Especially the fun stuff.

If Dire51 reads this, what was your contact interested in when it came to NES games?

EDIT: Ironic that the threads I was searching for would pop up -after- I posted this query, but here's a list of games already confirmed one way or another, mostly by ArnoldRimmer83:

Snake's Revenge
Lone Ranger
Startropics
GI Joe
Legendary Wings
Strider
Monster Party

[Raccoon Lad]

The odds that the games T*HQ made for the NES were released outside of the US were pretty low, but you still might wanna steer clear of those titles, as they're ALL crap.


you might wanna look into unliscenced games like Shockwave and what-not. those probably never made it to japan.

[Aussie2B]

If I'm not mistaken, Rad Racer II was not released in Japan.

[ArnoldRimmer83]

A few other Konami games that weren't released in Japan were:

Zen Intergalactic Ninja
Base Wars Cyber Stadium
Monster in my Pocket
TMNT Tournament Fighters
Mission Impossible
Roller Games
Contra Force

Most of those are fairly decent. Contra Force almost got released there as "Archound" but it got canned. The game is one of Konami's more mediocre efforts on Nes, so I'm guessing that's why. This also explains why the game barely had anything to do with Contra.

Your friend might want to try the Nes version of Maniac Mansion. Done by a completely different team from the Famicom one, I think it's a lot better.

Little Sampson was released in Japan as "Serei Densetsu Lickle".

I think two of Tengen's titles at least were released in Japan. Super Sprint, published by a company called Valtron, and Klax which Hudson published in Japan. I don't think any of Tengen's other titles were released there. (Not counting the ones Tengen imported from Japan, Rolling Thunder, RBI Baseball Alien Syndrome, and Pacman.) Camerica games I'm pretty sure were not. And Color Dreams' games weren't either, but I would advise against giving any of those to your friend. He/She will probably cease trading with you afterwards. :P

And no THQ games in Japan. Or LJN for that matter. Obviously for Japan that's a good thing. Heh. Though there is one THQ nes game worth trying. James Bond Jr, which is suprisingly not too bad. The rest of their library though is crap.

Aussie2B: I'm pretty sure Rad Racer 2 didn't get released in Japan as well. I remember actively looking for "Highway Star 2" on various pages and even the rom of it, but didn't see any info anywhere. Guess Highway Star/Rad Racer was more popular in the US than Japan.

[fcfcfc]

I wonder if a prototype of the Famicom vers. of Monster Party was released. It would have been awesome. I would pay a crap load of money if one is ever sold. For those who haven't seen the pics, here is a link...

http://64.53.95.207/ujap/ujap.html

Obviously click on Monster Party.

[ArnoldRimmer83]

That's one of the protos I'd like to see most right now. Too bad Famicom protos don't pop up too often. At least protos of unreleased Famicom games.

[Bratwurst]

I have a feeling Solar Jetman wasn't released on Famicom format and possibly the first TMNT was skipped over considering our parts 2 and 3 are 1 and 2 over there.

[ArnoldRimmer83]

Actually the first TMNT game was released in Japan. For some reason though it had a different title from the other gamesm making things a little confusing. It was called "Gekikame Ninja Den". Doesn't seem to have much difference other than the text being Japanese.

[Dire 51]

If Dire51 reads this, what was your contact interested in when it came to NES games?

He's mostly interested in Konami games, even the ones that were released for the Famicom as well. He was really interested in getting boxed copies of all three Castlevanias, Life Force, Contra and Super C.

He was also very interested in several of the NES games that went unreleased on the Famicom - I sent him copies of Strider, Monster Party and I'm pretty sure Legendary Wings. and he was quite thrilled to have them.

[dreamcaster]

I seriously doubt International Cricket and Aussie Rules Footy saw a Famicom release.

[fcfcfc]

I find it hard to believe that StarTropics 1&2 were not released for Famicom. I mean they seem cut out to be Famicom Disk System games. So many crappy games were released for the Famicom, yet they don't release these two great games.

[fcfcfc]

I also don't think that Dynowarz (or however it is spelled) was released on the Famicom. If it was, let me know...