View Full Version : do Euro gamers miss out on alot of games?
Soviet Conscript
07-18-2006, 09:03 PM
being in the US sometimes i feel cheated on some of the games that don't get released here. for the most part console games flow from japan and what companies feel will sell well get ported here, and then to europe. in a way its good cause like a filter the bulk of real crap games (we know this isn't nessicarily true) get filtered out but us in the US also miss out on alot of real gems. translations, importing ect help but not being able to speak japanese i still feel a little dissapointed on missing some games in simple english. but besides a few special circumstances of games being released specialy for the US or EU does europe miss out on even more games then North America? i would assume less games get ported there then to the US. issues like PAL and multiple language translations i understand but i was just wondering how bad you guys get jipped on the games, if you do at all?
CosmicMonkey
07-18-2006, 10:38 PM
Please don't start me on the infamous 'Nintendo Xmas' we experience here in the UK. Suffice to say that we get the big Xmas game in March. Or indeed 1080 Snowboarding on the N64 in the middle of the summer. Even though Australia (a PAL region!) had it for the winter. Crazy.
Yeah there's a few notable games that we missed out on that pissed me off, namely Final Fantasy 3 (VI) and Mario RPG on the SNES.
But then again, we got Megaman: Wily Wars on the Megadrive. It was only available in the US via the Sega Channel. Again, we got Alien Homonid for the Xbox, the US didn't.
Emuaust
07-18-2006, 10:48 PM
and we got SVC Chaos on the PS2, also Valken along with many others.
and we yes we got 1080 snowboarding in winter that is
due to the fact our seasons are oppposing to yours,
we got it in the space of 2 days from th UK.
Mangar
07-18-2006, 11:41 PM
My guess is that everyone in every region or country feels that they miss out on some games. Which is true to an extent, but moreso if your region/country happens to not be a "Huge Market" for a certain genre. As an American who has loved Soccer Managers since the 1980's, and simulation/RPG/Strategy games. There are just tons i missed out on from Europe or Japan. (But at least i could import the British ones)
But being familiar with release schedules and such, Europe does tend to get the shaft much more then anywhere else.
dreamcaster
07-19-2006, 12:42 AM
Eh, we got Terranigma and the US didn't. I am happy with this arrangement. :P
The main thing I get annoyed with is that games (especially retro ones) seem a LOT cheaper in Japan.
In a word: YES
We don't get half of what the USA or Japan gets.
UK & France score a lot better, Germany gets a lot banned (and what they call 'indexed'...it's available, but you must not talk about it. Example: Goldeneye (N64). Weird but true.
McBacon
07-19-2006, 03:17 AM
Being in the UK, I'm bundled in with Spain, France, Italy, Germany etc etc, so if a company's game did not sell great in the US, they ask themselves "Is it going to be worth translating into 5 more languages?"
Nintendo finally bit the bullet with Animal Crossing's (GC) 10,000+ lines of text, and came out 2 years later.
Mostly nowadays, not as much goes under the radar, at least not Nintendo and Square titles that we just lost out back in the SNES days, Kirby 3, Super Mario RPG, Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, FF3 etc etc.
Cauterize
07-19-2006, 04:25 AM
:( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(
You only need to check my sale/wtb thread i have going now to see how many games we missed out on!
Too many if you ask me!
Hell there was no Katamari till a late release of We <3 Katamari (We had to import the first one)
As Bacon said, most of us imported Animal Crossing as it took too long to wait for...
No Megaman Soccer :(
No Virtual Boy :(
No TG16 (Well possibly considering there is a PAL unit from Spain which i own, but still that isnt the UK!!!!)
No Sega Nomad :(
No Final Fantasy for NES (And to make it worse, on a Modded PAL NES to play imports, the top of the screen is glitchy and text can be a bugger to read...) :(
No Final Fntasy on SNES either (Unless you include Mystic Quest, but thats a spin off)
No Parasite Eve 1 :(
No Final Fantasy Tactics :(
Need i go on really? :P
I mean sure you missed out on a tiyn fraction, Smurfs for NES (Whoooopppeee :P) and Rodland, but hell how many of us actually own Rodland despite being in the PAL area :P
I feel cheated :P
Half the VCS games never made it to Europe, but we had the better deal later with Salu, Palan, Atari UK and so on...
anagrama
07-19-2006, 07:28 AM
Theres about 250 Genesis games that weren't released in Europe (compared with about 30-40 that were released here but not in the US).
jajaja
07-19-2006, 08:03 AM
Yep, in many cases, especialy the NES. Europe and Australia got total of about 380 NES games. USA got nearly 800. But we got alot of great titles that was never released in the US, like Mr. Gimmick, Ufouria, Rodland, Trolls in Crazyland, Hammerin Harry, Devil World, New Ghostbusters 2 and Over Horizon.
I dont see it as a big loss tho. From the NES USA games that ive played i only wish that Contra Force, Turtles 3 and Mega Man 6 were released in Europe, possibly Final Fantasy and Bubble Bobble Part 2 also (for collection purpose only). Other than these, i cant think of any games i would really like to see as PAL version.
Push Upstairs
07-19-2006, 08:11 AM
:( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(
You only need to check my sale/wtb thread i have going now to see how many games we missed out on!
Too many if you ask me!
No Megaman Soccer :(
Ok this really doesn't make any sense. Why was this released in a country where most people could give a rats ass about soccer and not in a country where its an extremely popular sport?
I understand its Mega Man and not a realistic soccer simulation, but still.
jajaja
07-19-2006, 08:17 AM
:( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(
You only need to check my sale/wtb thread i have going now to see how many games we missed out on!
Too many if you ask me!
No Megaman Soccer :(
Ok this really doesn't make any sense. Why was this released in a country where most people could give a rats ass about soccer and not in a country where its an extremely popular sport?
I understand its Mega Man and not a realistic soccer simulation, but still.
Ye thats true. Its kinda strange. We didnt get Mega Man Anniversary or Mega Man X collection here, but we got all Battle Network games for GBA and the other PS2/GC MM games.
Nebagram
07-19-2006, 09:34 AM
Three words: Wario Ware Twisted. It's coming out but oh dear god the delay.
That's why I'm kinda glad I was a Sega lad in the 8-16 bit era, less pain of non-imported titles, mainly from Squaresoddingsoft. That, and the PAL Mega Drive being able to play most (iirc) Genesis games.
But as said, it does flow both ways- Dreamcast Shenmue 2 is another example that springs to mind.
chaoticjelly
07-19-2006, 01:54 PM
I imported Ikaruga on the GC, it took ages to come out here.
Probably didnt release Megaman Soccer, because not many people give a rats ass about Megaman over here :roll:
No Virtual Boy :(
No real loss there, I bet Nintendo wishes they never released it anywhere.
No Parasite Eve 1 :(
Ok well that just sucks, since knowing the story from the first one makes PE2 much more meaningfull. Atleast you guys got Terranigma and Tales of Eternia, which I imported a couple of months ago because it's more than likely not coming here.
dreamcaster
07-19-2006, 02:42 PM
Three words: Wario Ware Twisted. It's coming out but oh dear god the delay.
Woah what?
That came out here in Australia about 18 months ago! Where are you located? :/
On the other hand, Europe got far better and more SMS releases than USA.
Zadoc
07-19-2006, 05:46 PM
Please don't start me on the infamous 'Nintendo Xmas' we experience here in the UK. Suffice to say that we get the big Xmas game in March. Or indeed 1080 Snowboarding on the N64 in the middle of the summer. Even though Australia (a PAL region!) had it for the winter. Crazy.
Winter for Australlia is the same time as Summer for the UK. ;)
Zadoc
07-19-2006, 05:49 PM
Europe got those two Taxi games for Dreamcast that we didn't get in the US.
They also got Super Blockbuster for the Microvision, while we in the US got shafted!
Haoie
07-19-2006, 06:28 PM
It's worst for text intensive titles, RPGs as in. So many good PS games I had to find other avenues to get. The Lunars, for example.
Other times when titles get released, they're picked up by other firms that don't do a thing to promote it. An example of this? Raycrisis, localised by Working Designs, got a EU release from JVC. I didn't know until I found it.
Beefy Hits
07-19-2006, 07:09 PM
About the only things the UK gets that we don't are soccer (futbol) games and pinball games. Although they did score heavy with DC and NGPC with games like Rez, 'Mue II, Headhunter, Evolution, Last Blade.
Vroomfunkel
07-19-2006, 07:28 PM
Europe got those two Taxi games for Dreamcast that we didn't get in the US.
They also got Super Blockbuster for the Microvision, while we in the US got shafted!
I think it's only one game, "Taxi 2 - Le Jeu", based on the film. The film was great. The game sucks decomposing yak's ass. Seriously, it is one of the worst, glitchiest games I've ever had the misfortune to attempt to play on any console. I'm very glad it's worth about £30 - £40, because the profit I made from selling it almost - note almost - made up for the permanent mental scars I have from the attempt to squeeze something resembling enjoyment out of it.
I hear Taxi 3 on the PS2 is about as good.
Anyways .. yeah, we got royally shafted on pretty much every platform apart from the SMS.
Let's see :
Megadrive - no Shadowrun, Genghis Khan I & II, Chase HQ, + many more
Sega CD - no Monkey Island, Dark Wizard, Lunar, Popful Mail, Vay .. + plenty more
32X - no Star Trek, Blackthorne, Spiderman: Web of Fire ..
Saturn - no Magic Knight Rayearth, Astal, PTO + loads more
Of course, what we did get that you didn't sometimes made up - Micro Machines Military, Alien Soldier, Mega Man: Wily Wars, Keio Flying Squadron 2, Deep Fear, Darxide ..
Nebagram
07-20-2006, 10:32 AM
Three words: Wario Ware Twisted. It's coming out but oh dear god the delay.
Woah what?
That came out here in Australia about 18 months ago! Where are you located? :/
Merry ol' Engerland. Latest release estimate from play.com is November. I think Nintendo have just forgotten about the game.
...And as a proud worshipper at the alter of Codemasters, I now feel eternal shame for forgetting about the later Micro Machines games on the Mega Drive with the wonder of the J-cart- 4 people on "the sponge" is an experience no one will ever forget, mainly due to the friendships that absolutely evaporated like the dinky cars did on said sponge. :p Psycho Pinball for the Mega Drive is another Codies loss.
Julio III
07-20-2006, 02:34 PM
...And as a proud worshipper at the alter of Codemasters, I now feel eternal shame for forgetting about the later Micro Machines games on the Mega Drive with the wonder of the J-cart- 4 people on "the sponge" is an experience no one will ever forget, mainly due to the friendships that absolutely evaporated like the dinky cars did on said sponge. :p Psycho Pinball for the Mega Drive is another Codies loss.
Yes! We seem to get by OK with Sega consoles - Rez and Shenmue II for the Dreamcast and Micro Machines 2 for the MegaDrive, thats 3 of my favourite games right there.
Europe does get the back end of the releases though - especially Nintendo Europe who i hate with a passion, though I prefer buying UK titles so I suffer - though I may finally get round to importing Twisted since i have a GB Micro on the way :)
idrougge
07-24-2006, 07:27 PM
If you can stand the wait, it's OK, until you see that the publishers and developers spent those 18 months twirling their thumbs. Console games are a pitiful experience on PAL; not because of PAL itself, but because the makers are too lazy to fix their games for the world's most popular TV standard. So all games run with big black borders in the top and bottom, with a squashed look, and yet they run slower!
neiisnotdead
07-26-2006, 11:40 AM
In my opinion the problem happens only if you are a rpg addict.
It's not difficult , at least where I live, to find imported cds or cartridges.
The trouble is : what if you don't know japanese ?
For example I own some rpgs for the pc-engine and mega cd but I had to wait that someone released the pathced version with the english translation on emule to fully enjoy them.
I think the ratio beetween official European and Japan game is 1:60.
Every 60 games released in Japan , 1 of them appeares in an official release in Europe.
I still have some Japan Super Famicom magazines with
tons of review about games never released in EUrope.
The situation is mostly frustrating with some developer who have choose to give up the western side of the world,
one of my favourite for example is Falcom, developer of amazing rpgs for Nec and Nintendo systems which have never been released in Europe (except for a couple of titles)
Soviet Conscript
07-26-2006, 12:42 PM
I think the ratio beetween official European and Japan game is 1:60.
Every 60 games released in Japan , 1 of them appeares in an official release in Europe
what do the rest of you think of this ratio? pretty accurate? does anyone have idea what this ratio would be if compaired to North American official releases? or a jp - na release ratio
anagrama
07-26-2006, 04:37 PM
I think the ratio beetween official European and Japan game is 1:60.
Every 60 games released in Japan , 1 of them appeares in an official release in Europe
what do the rest of you think of this ratio? pretty accurate?
No.