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[img align=right]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-044/ss/ts/U-044-S-01090-A.jpg&sizex=200[/img]Wow, Europe gets screwed with games. At least, they did in the past. Nintendo has been pretty hard towards them, but then, they still are. But wow, you readers in Europe (all 4 of you) got screwed. SCREWED! Need a refresher as to why you should think you've been screwed? Check out this article. This list makes me a sad panda. You've missed out on so much awesome, and when you do get awesome, it's often months later than the rest of us. What a cruel world it is. I can't believe that my top two SNES games never got released in Europe. It's also sad that nine of the ten things the article mentions are for Nintendo systems. Nintendo clearly has it out for you, except, you should celebrate that you guys never got the Virtual Boy, rather than mourn it. Some things are better off not released, and this headache machine is one of them. So, Europe, I feel you pain after seeing that list. Is this list spot on, or are there glaring omissions from the list? All I know is that after seeing that list, you have my sympathy. Import Tax: Best Games Never Released In Europe [British Gaming Blog, via GoNintendo]
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"Some things are better off not released, and this headache machine is one of them."
Psh. Who's better off without getting to try Red Alert? C'mon now. Hollow, transparent, polygonal spacecrafts that blend in with the hollow, transparent, polygonal environments? I consider myself to be better off for having played it!
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@BadEnoughDude: More power to you. I consider myself worse off for having played it.
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@TraderJake: I don't think that's possible 
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I've never even played Crono Trigger or Earthbound, and I live in the States!!
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I'd say we both end up getting screwed one way or another. They got Rez, Shenmue II, and a number of other games that we didnt get till the re-release. In a number of cases, we are still waiting to ever get them. Cant speak for you but I knew alot of people (myself included) who had Shenmue II pre-ordered for the DC and was rather mad when Sega decided to cancle the release with less then 2 months left till street date. Finaly getting it on the x-box was nice but not being able to continue from the save in the first game realy sucked alot. Not being able to play Rez in all it's glory on the DC felt like a crime.
Now I know why Cauterize was so happy to buy my loose copy of Super Mario RPG from me when I sold it to em for a couple years ago. I still say they didnt miss much in that game.
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Well, I hope that after reading this article, some American users here will realize how lucky they truly are. Especially in terms of high quality RPGs, Europe always seemed to get the short end of the stick, and this list reveals merely the tip of the iceberg - even though I have to say that Final Fantasy III aka Final Fantasy VI saw a release on our shores after all in 2002 as a stand-alone PSX port (including a Final Fantasy X demo), and the Final Fantasy VI Advance port also made it to Europe, complete with excellent translations into German, French and so on.
However, the situation has been steadily improving over the years, and by now, we are even getting some niche-RPGs like the Atelier series or other downright weird Japanese titles (mostly brought to PAL territories by smaller publishers like 505 Games - a company known for releasing their games only in selected countries, and the PAL version of Ar tonelico seems to be particularly rare - or ghostlight), but we are still missing out on quite some highlights. However, what is Hey you, Pikachu! doing on that list? I don't really think that game was much of a loss, since Seaman appears to be the much more advanced voice-operated game. And Mega Man Soccer? Gimme a break - I love soccer, and I also like Mega Man, but putting them together is just ridiculous.
Wario Ware Twisted, however, is another story...there were even reviews for the European version in German gaming magazines, and it was supposed to be released in early 2005, but somehow, no one ever heard anything of the EU version again. Oh well - it doesn't really matter, thanks to the lack of a regional lockout within the GBA.
And as you can imagine, the reason why Super Mario RPG never saw a European release is connected to the break-up between Nintendo and Square in 1996. Originally, a release here was planned, but then Square abandoned Nintendo, which resulted in Nintendo denying us a European version. We cannot even play this game on a European system with an action replay or any other adaptor, no-thanks to some lock-out chip. Well, it IS possible to play it with an adaptor, but only the first two or three hours - after that, some weird glitch prevents you from continuing, so the only way to play this in Europe is to either play it on a US system or an emulator...
And yes, there are some glaring omissions from that list, games that should have been in there instead of the likes of MMSoccer or HYPikachu. Here are some I can think of right now:
Dragon Warrior I - VII (various systems - yup, the first DQ we got was in fact part 8...)
Final Fantasy (NES; yet we got FF Origins, Dawn of Souls and the PSP remake)
Final Fantasy II (SNES; even though we got the PSX and GBA ports, which are superior to this easy-type version)
Lufia & the Fortress of Doom (SNES)
Lunar: The Silver Star (Sega CD)
Lunar II: Eternal Blue (Sega CD)
Vay (Sega CD)
Popful Mail (Sega CD)
Breath of Fire (SNES; again, we got the GBA version instead, complete with a German translation, but admittedly, I don't like that game, anyway)
Final Fantasy Tactics (PSOne; yet we got the PSP port)
SaGa Frontier (PSOne)
Parasite Eve (PSOne)
Brave Fencer Musashi (PSOne)
Xenogears (PSOne)
Tales of Destiny (PSOne)
Tales of Eternia (PSOne)
Thousand Arms (PSOne)
Wild Arms: 2nd Ignition (PSOne)
Chrono Cross (PSOne)
Legend of Mana (PSOne)
Valkyrie Profile (PSOne; yet we got the PSP port, again)
Lunar - The Silver Star Story Complete (PSOne)
Lunar II - Eternal Blue Complete (PSOne)
Arc the Lad Collection (PSOne)
Growlanser Generations (PS2, neither the Deluxe set nor the normal edition)
Tales of Legendia (PS2)
Tales of the Abyss (PS2)
Xenosaga Episode I - Der Wille zur Macht (PS2)
Xenosaga Episode III - Also sprach Zarathustra (PS2; that's right: we got Episode II, but neither part 1 nor 3...)
Grandia Xtreme (PS2)
Grandia III (PS2)
Wild Arms Alter Code: F (PS2)
Radiata Stories (PS2)
Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song (PS2)
Final Fantasy Legend I - III (Game Boy)
Jeanne d'Arc (PSP)
Brave Story: The New Traveler (PSP)
Tales of Rebirth (PS2 and PSP), Tales of Destiny 2 (PS2 and PSO), Tales of Destiny remake (PS2)
then of course nearly the entire TurboGrafx library, even though there was a rare European version, but I don't know how many games even exist as a European version, but I doubt that any TurboDuo game made it here
then we also have countless NeoGeo titles that either did not come here or are so rare and expensive that only the most daring collectors might want to try and find certain games (ever heard of Kizuna Encounter? There are 4 known copies of the European cartridge, and an Italian collector actually paid 12 000 $ for the complete package)
Sky Gunner (PS2)
R.A.D. - Robot Alchemic Drive (PS2)
Lifeline (PS2)
Ogre Battle (SNES, PSX)
Tactics Ogre (PSX)
Ogre Battle 64 (N64)
Kirby's Dream Land 3 (SNES)
Warsong/Langrisser (Mega Drive; and all of its sequels)
Ys III - Wanderers from Ys (all versions)
Valis I - IV (all versions and titles, as far as I know)
several parts of the King of Fighters series (at least we got every single one after the 2000 version)
Mega Man & Bass (GBA)
Lufia: The Ruins of Lore (GBA)
Lunar Legend (GBA)
Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 1 & 2 (GBA)
Super Robot Taisen Original Generation (GBA)
Suikoden III (PS2)
Okage: Shadow King (PS2)
Harvest Moon 64 (N64)
Mega Man 64 (N64)
Arc the Lad: End of Darkness (PS2)
Shining Tears (PS2)
Shining Force EXA (PS2)
Shining Force Neo (PS2)
There are probably several more, so if you want to, I can look up some of the other high-profile games that were denied a release here. It already is a shameful list, seeing how we are being treated by publishers (even the PAL conversions often suck, especially those of earlier Square games, with huge black PAL borders, slower game speed and bad translations).
However, at least I am able to import most of the games I want, even though it is expensive at times. At least on handheld consoles, the lack of a regional lock-out helps a little, and thankfully, I am able to play my treasured US/jp games on my PS2...but it's not that easy to get these games.
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No Chrono Trigger or Earthbound...? That's a crime.
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Yep, we didn't even know what Square soft was until Final Fantasy VII.
Genesis exclusive games like Warsong were widely available this way though due to a lack of region lock for the majority of Genesis games.
You can see why Sega did so well out this way looking at that. But of course we all miss out compared to Japan the head of the food chain when it comes to console games. However as mentioned above we also get our own little exclusives out here every once in a blue moon.
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This is TraderJake's Blog.
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This is where my thoughts go and are never heard from again.
Well, maybe not, but this is the repository for all of my published thoughts and rantings. It'll make my day if you find at least 10% of it amusing and enjoyable to read.
Sorry for the other 90%.
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