gamecube Gamecube Japan: A list of games not released in the west

[drxandy | 3,225]

@Craigly1234 hey could you possibly take a picture of the disc for the Naruto collection special? I have tried to find one out there on the web with no success and would love to see what it looks like.

[Craigly1234 | 110]

On 8/16/2020 at 7:26 AM, drxandy said:

@Craigly1234 hey could you possibly take a picture of the disc for the Naruto collection special? I have tried to find one out there on the web with no success and would love to see what it looks like.

IMG_6953.HEICbam!

IMG_6954.HEIC IMG_6955.HEIC IMG_6956.HEIC

[drxandy | 3,225]

Ooof thank you so much dood!!  Never would have guessed the disc was blue screen printed I was thinking red or orange. 

[Craigly1234 | 110]

Right?? Kinda odd. I need to look into how to dump this disc online. I have. I idea how to and I don't thi k this has been preserved yet 

[drxandy | 3,225]

Hrmm redump.org would probably be the spot but idk. I have never dumped anything either, wish I could be more help.

[Nintendo4Life87 | 5]

Hi, awesome list. I have a few of those Gamecube trial/kiosk disc and I found this one recently that wasn't on the list yet.

Its the "Dream Mix TV World Fighters" Trial Disc.

Edited September 8, 2021 by Nintendo4Life87

[drxandy | 3,225]

@Nintendo4Life87heck yeah! Thank you so much for sharing!! Happily added to the list, glad to learn about another kiosk demo!!

[spacepup | 2,404]

I was going to mention the Dream Mix demo disc.  It just recently sold for over $600! eek!

[spacepup | 2,404]

Oh also, there are several more confirmed Gekkan discs:

D28J - 2002.4.4
D37J - 2002.8.1
D44J - 2002.12.1 (2 discs)
D52J - 2003.5.1
D54J - 2003.6.1
D63J - 2003.9.1
D64J - 2003.10.1
D65J - 2003.11.1 (2 discs)
2004.2.1 (not sure on serial)
D75J - 2004.3.1
D93J - 2005.1.1
D94J - 2005.3.1
D95J - 2005.3.1
D96J - 2005.4.1
2005.5.1 (not sure on serial)
D98J - 2005.6.1
2005.7.1 (not sure on serial)
E22J - 2005.8.1
E23J - 2005.9.1
2005.11.1 (not sure on serial) [2 variants, one orange disc, one green disc]
E26J - 2005.12.1
2006.2.1 (not sure on serial)
2006.3.1 (not sure on serial)
E33J - 2006.5.1 

Will work on other demos later and provide.

 

[MegaMan52 | 2,445]

@drxandy The list is missing Dōbutsu no Mori e+ (2003) and V-Rally 3 (Japan and Europe).

Edited September 10, 2021 by MegaMan52

[drxandy | 3,225]

@MegaMan52I didn't see v-rally on Wikipedia for a jpn release on cube just europe, but it sure did get a jpn release so thank you! Someone needs to fix the wiki haha

At the time I figured e+ was the same, but it really isn't so I will add that as well

And thank you @spacepup! Woo that's a lot! will add em

Edited September 10, 2021 by drxandy

[Tanooki | 4,933]

Hey I know this is a three year old post that hasn't seen much action in a year, but felt wrong to start over.

I lucked into a copy of Nintendo Puzzle Collection for just $9 which is great, and it got me wondering what other solid games would be worth a snap up that work with the Freeloader?

I've got 3/4 of those hudson selects, doshin the giant pal too.  Is V-Rally 3 worthy?  Kururin Squash looks doable.  I know Drill Land works, but is semi-hateful(won't save, but I don't think it ruins gc save card data either at least.)  I used to have castle of shikigami but it got boring fast, and didn't want to bother with radirgy didn't do it for me either.

[Brickman | 3,983]

Cool topic, didn’t know it existed. A quick glance and it looks like you have it all covered.

I’m making my way through the Japanese GC library right now so I’ll let you know any games that are English friendly and you can note it down.

But I don’t think anything outside of sports, racing, Hudson series and puzzle games will be accessible unfortunately.

[Tanooki | 4,933]

7 hours ago, Brickman said:

Cool topic, didn’t know it existed. A quick glance and it looks like you have it all covered.

I’m making my way through the Japanese GC library right now so I’ll let you know any games that are English friendly and you can note it down.

But I don’t think anything outside of sports, racing, Hudson series and puzzle games will be accessible unfortunately.

Sounds great.  I got lucky years ago and ended up picking off Doshin with an oem memory card setup for it at one store a couple minutes away, then half way across town another spot had that freeloader to fire it up which was just great timing and dumb luck.  Since then I try out random JP titles since I can't think of much EUR got we didn't, and what I like most I do keep.  It's why I have Hudson Select Bonk, Star Soldier, and Takahashi Meijin(Adv Island) too.  I also have Nintendo Puzzle Collection which is a crime that wasn't localized.

Maybe we should try and keep this thread alive a bit more, been sleeping too long and there are gems out there someone who isn't fluent could cozy up to.

[drxandy | 3,225]

Other than the games covered in the videos.. I think the donkey kongas... sports games are pretty straight forward, the board games like life and monopoly, Naruto 3 and 4 could be. With Google translate on the phone anything is possible, half of the time.

Edited October 23, 2022 by drxandy

[Tanooki | 4,933]

@drxandy I'll have to take a peek.  They do a PAL one?  I'm thinking V-Rally 3 maybe worthy.  I have Nintendo Puzzle Collection on the way as i said, also found a cheap deal on Dragon Drive which basically seems to be a well received panzer dragoon style game.  I'm considering Mr Driller despite the fact it can't save, keeping scores really isn't a priority to me on that even if it does suck it won't.

[Brickman | 3,983]

On 10/23/2022 at 11:18 AM, drxandy said:

With Google translate on the phone anything is possible, half of the time.

Not so sure about that. Google translate isn’t that great of a translator for Japanese. Sometimes it translates completely wrong.

If it’s just to get through the start menu and some options then yeah definitely, but games like Giftpia would be a nightmare. All the fun would be sucked out of the game if you had to hold a phone up to the screen half the time.

3 hours ago, Tanooki said:

I'm considering Mr Driller despite the fact it can't save, keeping scores really isn't a priority to me on that even if it does suck it won't.

It is worth picking up if you find it for a good price. I’ve only briefly played it but I enjoyed it.

I’ve also heard great things about GT Cube if you’re into racers. That took me ages to find at a good price though. It is semi rare to find, at least it was for me. Took me about half a year for one to pop up. 

[Tanooki | 4,933]

@Brickman I usually see it around $30 shipped on ebay, haven't seen lower elsewhere yet I've come across.  I know there's that switch release, but it's digital unless you import it.  The english one I think is an asian region english release but seems to average around $45.  Not like I'm against the Switch, but unless there's some big advantage other than reading the story, which for a puzzle, I don't care, I think $25-30 range seems more reasonable.

[Brickman | 3,983]

2 hours ago, Tanooki said:

@Brickman I usually see it around $30 shipped on ebay, haven't seen lower elsewhere yet I've come across.  I know there's that switch release, but it's digital unless you import it.  The english one I think is an asian region english release but seems to average around $45.  Not like I'm against the Switch, but unless there's some big advantage other than reading the story, which for a puzzle, I don't care, I think $25-30 range seems more reasonable.

Yep I think I paid $30 from memory. 

I don't have the Switch version but I believe it is just a remaster with some extra clip scenes and updated graphics. There is a Japanese version of that which has English included as an option.

[Tanooki | 4,933]

2 hours ago, Brickman said:

Yep I think I paid $30 from memory. 

I don't have the Switch version but I believe it is just a remaster with some extra clip scenes and updated graphics. There is a Japanese version of that which has English included as an option.

Yeah you're right and I guess it hasn't moved the needle being re-released, probably speaks to the quality of the GC version that it hasn't dropped.  I hate to say it I prefer solid media, but something about the increasing flimsy nature of technology I'd rather have the import that doesn't save than the Switch one that would and is readable.  I should just order it before it vanishes as it's cheap/fair, compared to some.

Dragon Drive D-Masters Shot showed up fast, NPC is out, way out, the twit got paid days ago and still wont take it to the post office as it's still waiting scan (unless USPS bungled) so that's annoying.  I'm keeping my eyes peeled for V-Rally 3 PAL popping up domestic and not troll priced too, same with Kururin Squash.

[Brickman | 3,983]

49 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

Yeah you're right and I guess it hasn't moved the needle being re-released, probably speaks to the quality of the GC version that it hasn't dropped.  I hate to say it I prefer solid media, but something about the increasing flimsy nature of technology I'd rather have the import that doesn't save than the Switch one that would and is readable.  I should just order it before it vanishes as it's cheap/fair, compared to some.

Dragon Drive D-Masters Shot showed up fast, NPC is out, way out, the twit got paid days ago and still wont take it to the post office as it's still waiting scan (unless USPS bungled) so that's annoying.  I'm keeping my eyes peeled for V-Rally 3 PAL popping up domestic and not troll priced too, same with Kururin Squash.

Yeah I'd say go for it for $30. I don't see the price dropping on it because it's a title that always appears in recommendations for Japanese GC games so the demand will probably always be there.

Not sure how much V Rally 3 goes for these days or how much it is for the PAL version, but I paid $30 shipped for the Japanese version if that helps in your search.

[Tanooki | 4,933]

@Brickman That's about what the PAL one is shipped too ($25-30USD), kind of was just hoping to get lucky as I'm not looking for instant gratification to find an US account with it.  The Japanese version which is the same, just not in english stupidly seem to go for twice that which I don't get but, whatever.  The PAL one runs 100% fine, just like my Doshin game I've had for years now, so I see no reason to pay double and read little to none of it.

[MegaMan52 | 2,445]

@drxandy Have you thought about expanding this to include console bundles, accessories, soundtracks, and promo items (not just demo discs)? Japan got a ton of other things that the U.S. and Canada didn't.

Edited October 27, 2022 by MegaMan52

[drxandy | 3,225]

@MegaMan52I do like the exclusive accessories, there's so many cool things North America didn't get. When I originally compiled the list, it was a lot harder to find information about software and took a lot of individual wikipediaing of each title from archive.org to see where it had been released and on what based on what I knew to have come out here but the hardware side was fairly well documented through wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameCube_accessories) and other sites (https://www.lucklessheaven.com/nintendo-gamecube-hardware) I swear I had a link to a list of product codes for each system but I seem to have lost it.

Anyways if you wanna compile a list of the info, I would be happy to add it to the main list

[Tanooki | 4,933]

That SD card and Kirby card oddly fascinate me, need to know more.

I got since I last posted Nintendo Puzzle Collection in the mail too, such a nice bundle that will always escape me why the hell that did not get localized.  Sure it would have added weeks/month cute-ing it up with tetris attack with yoshi vs leaving the already sicky sweet fairies of panel de pon, but seriously not cool leaving us without.