There’s usually any number of reasons why a game remained strictly Japan-only and never got a wider release. Sometimes it’s a matter of timing, with the game debuting in Japan on a platform that is already near-dead as the system’s manufacturer gears up to release a next-gen console (or go out of business). The publisher has to weigh the cost of localizing a title against a rapidly-diminishing audience who has already or will become enthralled with the next big system. This is why North America never saw a release of Mother on the NES (Mother 2 was released as Earthbound on the SNES, for the two people reading this who’ve never heard of the Mother series). Other times, the game in question just isn’t very good (though this hasn’t stopped publishers often enough). Another reason might be that the game is too “Japanese” or contains puns and jokes that would be impossible to translate. This is likely why the first Sakura Wars game wasn’t released here: there’s a pun near the beginning of the game that relies on the way that Japanese is read for its effect. The protagonist could have either joined a military operation or a theatre troupe. Other possible reasons for any sane publisher to steer clear of bringing out a game in the US: It contains a caricature of black people (a la Square’s Adventures of Tom Sawyer) or it features a comical cartoonish Klansman as the first boss. (To be fair, Dracula-Kun did eventually get released as Kid Dracula for the Game Boy, hopefully with modified graphics.) But one of the biggest reasons why even very popular games in Japan never make it off the island is that the game is in a genre that game publishers think won’t appeal to North Americans. For instance, Sakura Wars is, in large part, a dating-sim. We have yet to see a single Sakura Wars title in the U.S. even though the series is wildly popular in Japan. (We’ll apparently be getting one, finally, later this year… Apparently it’s a translation of the only one set in America.)

What’s that? You want to know when I’m going to stop rambling and get to the review? I will, I will… in a minute. First, though, did I ever tell you how, when I was your age, Coca Cola came in glass bottles and cost a nickel? And it was made with real cocaine? Man, you kids have it rough. Now, where was I… Oh yeah, the review.

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TRHOnline.com and Rising Stuff present yet another episode of 3DO To Go. In this entry into the ongoing depths of the strange world of gaming that is the 3DO, I look at Paddock Note ‘95, a Horse Racing Simulation. It was released in 1995 by Fuji Television and was a Japanese only release. Because of that though, the entire game is in Japanese… a language I neither speak nor read.

TRHOnline.com and Rising Stuff present yet another episode of 3DO To Go! In this installment I pull out FIFA International Soccer which was released by Electronic Arts in 1994. It’s the first game in their long running FIFA series of video games. Really, this is a game for people who want to play a game… about soccer.

TRHOnline.com and Rising Stuff present yet another episode of 3DO To Go! In this episode I review Pyramid Intruder, a 1995 Japanese only release by Taito. Pyramid Intruder is a partial remake/adaptation of Sega’s LaserActive title Pyramid Patrol from 1993. A simple shoot-em-up, Pyramid Intruder is a flawed but fun import game.