UK & US NGP games. Is there a big price difference?

[Oniudra]

I was noticing a lot of the same NGP games that had different labels. I later found out that the ones with the rainbow right hand corner were UK carts, and the ones with the ESRB were US.

I was just curious if there was a big difference on value between the two for collecting purposes? It would appear as if US carts were harder to come by and UK ones were produced in the bulk in comparison. Does anyone have any feedback?

[chaoticjelly]

UK NGPC games come in clam-shell cases, which makes them more desirable and therefore more pricey

[Mayhem]

On a loose level, there's very little difference in price between the two. Complete, the UK ones are more desirable because the clamshells protect better.

[PapaStu]

US carts are just harder to come across complete... thanks to their cardboard boxes. The UK got a few more games that we didn't get (12) and those for the most part are quite a bit more desirable. Not to mention that a bunch of those later releases were pretty hard to find there at all, were good games and that never helps things any.

[Oniudra]

I just found it odd that there seems to be an over abundance of UK metal slug 1st missions for example on ebay, but finding a US one seems to be a bit harder.

I just found someone who had a US Gals Fighters as opposed to the UK ones i see all the time on ebay.

But as a loose sense I guess the value isn't too much different.

[Cauterize]

Just a note for completists amongst us, the UK ones also (usually) come with about 3 manual variations for different languages...

...mind you if youre a completist, you most likely already know this!

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

Actually, only the games listed below come with the true European packaging with three manuals and the blurb on the box in three languages (English, Italian and German are what you usually see, though, there's also English, Spanish and French packaging for some or all of them):

Fatal Fury: 1st Contact
Neo Dragon's Wild
Neo Mystery Bonus
Puzzle Bobble Mini
Metal Slug: 1st Mission
King of Fighters: Round 2
Neo Cherry Master Color
Basball Stars Color
Pocket Tennis Color
Samurai Shodown! 2
Neo Turf Masters
Crush Roller
Neo Geo Cup '98 Plus Color

Later games (and also the earlier B&W games) only came with English packaging even though they were still sold all over Europe and Asia.

The same list of games were also originally available in the U.S. in plastic clamshell cases before SNK-USA switched to cardboard. It was around the same time that they switched from plastic to cardboard in Japan, too. SNK were obviously trying to cut down on costs right about then (September 1999) if they quit doing the Euro-specific packaging and also switched to cardboard boxes in the U.S. and Japan all at the same time.


...word is bondage...