Does anyone know of a complete list or any games worth mentioning that were only available in japan or only outside of japan? Also any games that were modified when they were released for NES. I know of a couple games that don't seem to be available (officially) for Famicom that were out for NES. Wolverine and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1). Then for japan games that didn't come to NES I'm sure there are so many, but does anyone know of any particularly good ones? The few I can think of right now are The Goonies, Final Fantasy 2 and 3, and Gradius 2. For games that were downgraded/ported to lesser mappers, I know of Contra, Castlevania 3, and I believe both TMNT2 and TMNT3.
one of the japaneze series that are not known in the west is Captain Tsubasa. 2 were released for the NES (and 4 on the SNES, 1 for psx, 1 for GC,and i think some sega ports) but never appeared in the west. only the first game was released under a different-sprite-job where they replaced japaneze characters with blonde nazi looking ones (white men will buy this haha, thought tecmo probably - just kidding) and it was called something else (i think captain benjamin, or TECMO Cup Soccer - not to be confused with Tecmo Soccer), but since it was a turn-based soccer RPG with real time elements, it didnt sell well in the US. plus it didn't have the awesome anime to relate!
Here is a list, that I took from the Famicomplete book, of the NES games only released in the U.S.: 720 [degrees] A Nightmare on Elm Street Adventures of Dr. Franken (unreleased, actually) Adventures in the Magic Kingdom Adventures of Lolo [from "Eggerland", perhaps?] Alfred Chicken Alien 3 American Gladiators Anticipation Arch Rivals Archon Attack of the Killer Tomatoes Back to the Future Back to the Future 2&3 Bad Street Brawler Bandai Golf: Challenge Pebble Beach Barbie Barker Bill's Trick Shooting Baseball Stars 2 Base Wars Batman Returns Battle Chess Battleship Battletank Battletoads & Double Dragon Beetlejuice Best of the Best: Championship Karate Bigfoot Bill & Ted's Excellent Video Game Adventure Bill Elliot's NASCAR Challenge Bo Jackson Baseball Bram Stoker's Dracula Break Time: The National Pool Tour BreakThru Cabal Caesar's Palace California Games Captain America & the Avengers Captain Skyhawk Casino Kid 2 Caveman Games Championship Pool Classic Concentration Cliffhanger Cobra Triangle Color a Dinosaur Conan Contra Force Cool World Cyberball Cybernoid Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat Darkman Darkwing Duck Dash Galaxy in the Alien Asylum Day Dreamin' Davey Days of Thunder Defender of the Crown Defenders of Dynatron City Destination Earthstar Die Hard Digger T. Rock Dirty Harry Double Dare Dynowarz Eliminator Boat Duel F-117A Stealth Fighter F-15 Strike Eagle Family Feud Felix the Cat Fester's Quest Fisher Price: Firehouse Rescue Fisher Price: I Can Remember Fisher Price: Perfect Fit Flight of the Intruder Formula 1: BTW Fox's Peter Pan and the Pirates Frankenstein Freedom Force Friday the 13th Fun House G.I. Joe G.I. Joe: The Atlantis Factor Galaxy 5000 Gauntlet Gauntlet 2 George Foreman's KO Boxing Ghoul School Gilligan's Island Godzilla 2 Gotcha! Greg Norman's Golf Power Gumshoe Harlem Globetrotters Heavy Shreddin' High Speed Hollywood Squares Home Alone Home Alone 2 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Infiltrator Ironsword Ivan Stewart's Super Off-Road Jack Nicklaus' Greatest 18 Holes of Major Champ Golf James Bond Jr. Jaws Jeopardy! Jeopardy! 25th Anniversary Edition Jeopardy! Junior Edition Jimmy Connors Pro Tennis Tour Joe & Mac John Elway's Quarterback Jordan vs. Bird: One on One Jurassic Park Kick Master King's Quest 5 Kings of the Beach Kiwi Kraze Klashball Krusty's Fun House Last Action Hero Legendary Wings Legends of the DIamond Lemmings Lethal Weapon Little League Baseball Loopz Low-G-Man M.C. Kids M.U.L.E. Mad Max Magic Johnson's Fast Break Magician Major League Baseball Marble Madness Mario is Missing! Mario's Time Machine! Marvel's X-Men Mechanized Attack Michael Andrietti's World GP Micky's Adventures in Numberland Micky's Safari in Letterland Mission:Impossible Monster Party Monster Truck Rally Monster in my Pocket Motor City Patrol Ms. Pac-Man Muppet Adventure NARC NES Play Action Football NFL Football Nigel Mansell's World Championship Racing NightShade ...that's all I want to type for now. Let me know if this is useful.
I'm sure there's a ton either way. What's more interesting is those weird ones that are Japanese-developed, but only released outside of Japan. On the Famicom, Strider Hiryuu fits this description. A handful of others on the MegaDrive.
Although looking at the NES list, all I can say is that most Famicom owners are probably glad the 99% of that stuff didn't get released in Japan. ^_^; There was quite a lot of stuff on Genesis / Euro Megadrive that didn't get released in Japan. Viewpoint, Mega Bomberman and Sunset Riders being three titles I really wanted. Although these were allegedly released in Asia but I've never been able to track them down.
That list is excellent and helps quite a bit. However I just remembered another title, GhostBusters 2. If you play the Ghostbusters 2 on NES, then look at the famicom rom, its a completely different game.
Yes, I neglected to mention this list does have some errors. For example, they wrote that Kid Klown wasn't released in Japan, when KK was a conversion of Mickey Mouse III on the Famicom. And yes, Ghostbusters 2 wasn't released in Japan. New Ghostbusters 2 was released in Japan and Europe. This is also US-only releases too; no European, Asian, or Australian stuff.
Um, the first ninja turtles WAS release. I'm staring at a copy of it for the famicom right now. "Gekikame Ninja Den"
the list, continued... Orb 3-D Overlord Pac-Mania Paperboy 2 Pictionary Pinbot Pipe Dream Pirates! Platoon Power Blade [was actually a rejigging of "Power Blazer"] Power Punch 2 Prince of Persia Punch-Out!! [non-Mike Tyson version] Q*Bert QIX R.C. Pro-Am R.C. Pro-Am 2 Race America Rad Racer 2 Rampage Remote Control Ren & Stimpy Show Buckeroos Road Runner RoadBlasters Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves RoboCop 3 Rocket Ranger Roger Clemens MVP Baseball Rollerblade Racer Rollergames Roundball: 2-on-2 Challenge Sesame Street 123 Sesame Street: Big Bird's Hide and Speak Sesame Street ABC Sesame Street ABC/123 Sesame Street Countdown Shinobi Shooting Range Short Order/Eggsplode! Silent Service Silk Worm Silver Surfer Skate or Die! Skate or Die 2 Ski or Die Skull & Crossbones Sky Shark Slalom Smash T.V. Snake Rattle & Roll Snake's Revenge Solar Jetman Space Shuttle Project Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six Spy Hunter Stanley: The Search for Dr. Livingston Star Trek 25th Anniversary Star Trek: The Next Generation StarTropics Stealth ATF Strider Super Cars Super Glove Ball Super Jeopardy! Super Mario Bros. & Duck Hunt Super Mario Bros. & Duck Hunt & Track Meet Swamp Thing Swords & Serpents T&C Surf Designs T&C 2: Thrilla's Surfari Taboo: The Sixth Sense Tale Spin Target: Renegade Tecmo Baseball Tecmo NBA Basketball Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters Tetris [Nintendo version; Japan got a different version by BPS] Tetris [Tengen] The Addams Family The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt The Adventures of Rad Gravity The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle and Friends The Blues Brothers The Chessmaster The Flintstones: The Surprise at Dinosaur Peak The Great Waldo Search The Hunt for Red October The Immortal The Incredible Crash Dummies The Jungle Book The Karate Kid The Last Ninja The Last Starfighter The Lone Ranger The Miracle Piano Teaching System The Mutant Virus The Punisher The Rocketeer The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants The Simpsons: Bart vs. the World The Simpsons: Bartman Meets Radioactive Man The Terminator The Three Stooges The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles Thundercade Time Lord Tiny Toon Adventures Cartoon Workshop To the Earth Toobin' Total Recall Toxic Crusaders Treasure Master Trog! Ultima: Warriors of Destiny Ultimate Air Combat Vegas Dream Videomation Vindicators WWF King of the Ring WWF Wrestlemania: Bigger Better Badder WWF Wrestlemania 3: Steel Cage Challenge Wayne Gretzky Hockey Wayne's World Wheel of Fortune Wheel of Fortune: Family Edition Wheel of Fortune: Junior Edition Wheel of Fortune Featuring Vanna White Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego Where's Waldo Who Framed Roger Rabbit Widget Win, Lose or Draw Wizards & Warriors 3: Kuros: Visions of Power Wolverine World Champ: Super Boxing Great Fight World Games Xenophobe Zen: Intergalactic Ninja Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics 2
Sorry, but when I looked for TMNT, it wasn't there. I honestly wouldn't have a clue what Gekikame means so ya... Thanks for the tip though. Seems many games are like that, with some strange japanese title. Thanks for the list, I made sure to save it.
