With over 700 games released for the NES in the United States, there were definitely not a shortage of games to play. Some of the most iconic franchises in video game history got their start on the NES, such as Castlevania, The Legend of Zelda and Mega Man. For all of the classic and revered games the US did receive, however, a good number of them were left in Japan.
Generally, most Famicom exclusive games fall into a few categories: arcade ports (Pooyan and Mappy), animes that American audiences wouldn’t understand (Dragon Ball and Gundam, neither of which most American children had been exposed to yet), or licensed properties where the license holder in the US was different than in Japan (Star Wars and King Kong 2). In other cases, it could have been the large amount of translation work for a genre most American children didn’t care for at the time, such as RPGs. For a very select few, such as Devil World, it was due to subject matter.
With these categories in mind, there are four games that were only released for the Famicom that, in my opinion, could have thrived in the US: Parodius Da!, Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti, Wai Wai World and New Ghostbusters II. Two of these games, Parodius Da! and New Ghostbusters II, were released in PAL territories, much to the dismay of American audiences. Other than New Ghostbusters II, which has a clear reason for why the US did not receive it, the other three game’s reasons can only be guessed at. As you’re about to read, it is truly a shame that most gamers don’t know about four games when they could have been standing side-by-side with the greatest games of the era.
