Good to know.
They weren't sold in any stores in Europe, really? I thought they were... because they weren't here (in the US), for sure.
What languages are on the back of those five? Because if they're for Europe specifically I'd expect the usual five languages. If they were for non-Japan Asia but were also released elsewhere in the same boxes, I don't know what would be on them.
Well, they certainly aren't American versions, even if they were sold here. They have "Europe" region product codes, the same style of packaging of other games in that region, etc. And they don't have ESRB ratings, the sure sign of a US release -- that the US Faselei! and The Last Blade carts have ESRB ratings is how we can be sure that those are indeed American-region carts that the they released in '03/04, for instance.
Right, they aren't the same game, just like how the two SamSho games aren't the same, etc.
I thought the story is that the B&W systems were actually sold there, along with those five games, but I'm not certain. I mean, the European boxes do mention on the back that games which are color only require a color system. US boxes don't mention that at all. Compare the Sonic Pocket Adventure European and American boxes, for instance. The only logo on the back of the US box is the "linkable" one, because the B&W system and games weren't sold here (I wouldn't count some import-focused online stores as games being sold here... a US-products site, yes, but an imports one? Not so much.), while the European box also warns that the game is color-only and won't work on a B&W system.
Maybe the answer is that Europe and Non-Japan Asia are the same region, and they just used English-only packaging for the whole area, and did release the B&W system somewhere there at some point so they put that note on the back of the color-only titles, while in the US where the B&W system was never released they don't. That could be the answer, I don't know. But I would guess that somewhere in the "Europe" region the B&W system was released at some point... if they really weren't, then that note is kind of odd. Unless they did some large-ish scale official importing or something?