Favouritism

For various reasons, there are some Dreamcast titles that were never released in foreign territories. In some cases, it is fairly obvious that the subject matter of the game in question probably wouldn't go down too well in a country other than that it originated it - a perfect case in point would be the massive market in Japan for dating games. For some reason, I just can't see Sentimental Graffiti 2 getting too high in the games chart in the UK - a game in which you must (apparently) dash across the city in an attempt not to be late for a big date.

However, Sega have made some really wierd choices when choosing
which American games not to release in Europe and vice versa. First up is this: Who Wants To Beat Up a Millionaire? - a game I'd never actually heard of until today. It appears to be a parody of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? (a game that was pretty cack), but from the reviews I've read online seems to be actually rather good.

Likewise, there are some UK games that were never given a US launch, but - and this is a big BUT - these games were some of the best ever made for the Dreamcast. Headhunter, for example - was the DC's pseudo-answer to Metal Gear...a simply awesome game in which you played a bounty hunter called Jack Wade and had to get around a huge fictional city on a motorbike, before breaking into warehouses and the like and having gun battles with terrorists. Got about three quarters through it and got rid off it a few years ago. Now I'll probably have to pay through the nose to buy it back again.

Similarly, and even stranger, Shenmue 2 was never given an official US release. Why? Who knows.

6 comments:

Ross said...

EGM gave 'Who Wants to Beat Up A Millionare' a 1 out of 10. Ouch!

Ross said...

As for Shenmue II, it was released for Xbox because they figured it would have higher sales than on the DC, and with all the money on the line they figured they would just push it to a next-gen console. It still sold poorly.

As for Headhunter, that game was released for the Playstation 2 in the U.S. and got lukeworm reviews here. It didnt sell too well either, and the sequel for PS2 and Xbox, 'Headhunter Redemption' sold even worse than the original (most people didnt even know it came out!).

Anonymous said...

Ah ah know what mate I think you will get lucky because headhunter I managed to geti it for £4 with another dreamcast game called alone in the dark with postage too!
I really like it but the part where you have to go round with the motorcycle ranking up points is really hard ! I crash all the time .

Shenmue 2 is one ellusive game but i managed to track it down for £15 on ebay Im on the 1st disk at the moment .

Then again there's lots of games that didnt come to europe like a lot of online one ( ooga booga , alien front and a few more I cant think of). Oh and quake 3 only the USA version is online too , which i got :).there's a pool game only out in the USA still online too called maximum pool , nice game t chill out to.
Cool entries mate and look forward to reading what's next in Tom's dreamcasting world ;).

Tom Charnock said...

Hey guys, thanks for the comments... it's good to share information!

Animated AF said...

We got Rez over the Americans too. Mind you, they got Seaman, Alien Front and Bomberman Online over us.

Tom Charnock said...

Yeah, goog points there Gagaman - Alien Front was a missed opportunity methinks.