Manhunt - PAL - Australian Release - Rarity?

Hey everyone

I have a question about arguably one of the most controversial games of all time

The story goes that My brother and I went in together and bout a PS2 back in the day. During its life it had many games one of which was a copy of Manhunt classified MA15+ in Australia for the short time it was available for purchase.

Sometime circa 2007 My dork of a brother traded the whole thing in for a copy of Mass Effect. *facepalm*


Turns out tho that due to the fact that the game had been re-classified to 18+ it was therefore not legal to resell (due to Australian censors being dumb as poop) and not valid as a trade in at EB!!!

Today that copy of manhunt came out of a forgotten dusty box and sits in front of me!



Question is, is it rare? and if so how rare?

 

It sold quite a few copies before it was recalled although as jamespoo said hard to find. Best bet would be secondhand dealers and / or ebay / gumtree or even here if you wereplanning on selling it.

 

Ahhh that takes me back i remember when the ban came in because one of my friends imported it from New Zealand (those progressive Kiwis understood that ratings didnt mean banning it outright). And another friend pirated it (he pirated everything ever made). Always meant to play the game myself but never got round to it.

 

but, but the game was pure turd...

 

True I think the killing scenes are what sold the game at the time considering our watered down rating system then (in before close sorta thing).

 

It's actually a very fun stealth game, especially on hardcore.

I'd imagine an australian release would be difficult to find, but not expensive because the game is available in the exact same form in other regions. So rare, but not expensive.

 

Agreed that the game was a bit turdy, in fact Im pretty sure that its reputation as the most extreme hardcore game out there was the reason I bought it at all.

Im not planning to sell it anyway but it was nice to know that I have something much less than common on my shelf. If I went by Ebays standards anything made pre 2005 is now "RARE - WOW"

 

Rare does NOT mean valuable. Actually, rare DOES mean hard to find

Aren't Australian releases basically European releases? I don't see anyone wanting to pay more just because of an Australian rating printed on it, really.

 

Kizuna Encounter anyone? It's all about piece of paper and yet price is close to a second hand Boeing 757.

 

To me neogeo carts are like bitcoins, I don't know why anybody would want to value them so high but they do. I don't think there are as many crazy collectors for australian manhunt as there are for neogeo & that is what drives the price.

 

San Andreas got removed from stores months and months after release, so saying that the Blacklabel version is rare is an overstatement.

I've seen Manhunt around here and there, you will most likely find a copy at a Cash Converters.

 

But the difference with San Andreas was that it was released again minus the hot coffee mod files.

 

It wasn't really released again, it was just removed once it hit Platinum.

 

I didn't say a PAL version, I said an Australian version... referring to the fact that they're the same as European releases in a lot of cases. Kizuna Encounter is rare because it's a limited PAL release - and a European one, at that. If it had a widespread European PAL release but only 12 Australian copies were known with a different label, you'd probably get some Neo Geo nuts wanting them for completion, but most PAL collectors probably wouldn't care.

We get Australian rated games over here occasionally, for example on the Saturn. I wouldn't pay any more for a sticker/printed label variation, personally.

*EDIT*

Case in point:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/SHINING-..._Video_Games_Games&hash=item4178c94784&_uhb=1

Aussie rating sticker on the front. Look at the back - it's CLEARLY a European game with a sticker on the front. There's an ELSPA rating on the back, and several languages... and it says assembled in UK! I wouldn't pay more for that, because it IS a European game with a sticker on it.

 

A lot of games here are just UK copies with stickers.

 

This remember a funny thing, this game is not available here on steam along with Max Payne 2, and this was because someone put on the english wikipedia that both games were banned here in Brazil, but they were never, nor even Manhunt 2, as I recall there was no controversy about this game here even.

 

A better example is Sonic for the SMS. Only difference between hundreds of dollars is a barcode sticker on the back.

 

I've had a couple of copies of this come and go. About $20 AUD is what I asked for on the printed cover versions.

 

I've found some people over here riding their unicorns think that it saying AUS means it's worth more...

In my opinion, PAL is PAL - so long as it is in English, I see no benefit over buying the UK release (often cheaper).

Let alone the fact that most games pre N64 - so SNES, Saturn etc where imported UK titles with an Australian rating sticker, I don't see the justification in someone saying the AUS release is worth more.

Saying that, I have Manhunt (AU) and Manhunt 2 on PS2 that I bought out of the UK and had no issue posting in, the people trying to charge $80 for the game here when in the UK it's $5/$10 - muppets.

Condition trumps all IMO. Plus, Aussie stuff I've found struggles to be in good condition most of the time.

 

The Australian versions get a higher price tag because when new they are more than any other PAL release. Other than that they are all the as other PAL releases, it's really stupid. I'm also not fussy with regions for games either.
Australian games should only be rare when it was only released here like HSV Adventure Racing. Which finding that boxed is a bitch and a half, so glad I kept mine as a kid