Curse region lock

[deathfisaro]

I've been playing Guitar Hero and Rock Band recently, and suddenly got the urge to play Beatmania and Taiko no Tatsujin games.
So I've called and visited dozen game/electronic shops in my city and both games are discontinued and out of stock everywhere.

Beatmania has two dozen installments in Japan (5key and IIDX), Taiko Drum Master also has over a dozen (including addon packs).
However, only each of ONE Beatmania and Taiko Drum Master has been released in North America and both failed miserably.

Now they're nearly impossible to find offline (shops - out of stock, craigslist - zero listings on both), and overpriced online (like eBay).


New Taiko game is coming out for Wii, I was like yay~. But very soon after I found out it's only getting released in Japan.

PS2 is region locked (including PS3's backward compatibility emulation/EE engine) so I missed out 30 Beatmania and Taiko games.
X360 is region locked I missed out two Idol Masters (I don't know what kind of game they are but I've played their music on Taiko DS and was good enough) and Guilty Gear 2.
Wii is region locked I missed out Taiko game that's coming out in like 3 months in Japan.

It's so lame that I'd need to mod/void warranty/use an exploit/buy third party tools to play out-of-region games.
I don't see any benefit of region locks in games. (In movies I totally understand)

P.S. The only arcade I know in Greater Vancouver area doesn't have Beatmania of any kind, IIDX or not.

 

[myuusmeow]

If you're REALLY desperate, the GameWorks in Ontario (California

) has a Beatmania game. I tried it, couldn't get it. No one ever played it.

 

[jalaneme]

live in europe, then you will know about importing and you won't have any choice but to import if you want the american games.

 

[deathfisaro]

If you're REALLY desperate, the GameWorks in Ontario (California

) has a Beatmania game. I tried it, couldn't get it. No one ever played it.
I found one on eBay, but it's kinda overpriced considering it's like a 4-year-old game now. I beat it when it first came out and suddenly want to re-play it.

QUOTE(jalaneme @ Jun 16 2008, 01:59 PM) live in europe, then you will know about importing and you won't have any choice but to import if you want the american games.

But don't US games eventually head to Europe? Handheld games take a bit before going there, but console games get localized pretty quickly.
There are a couple DS games that got released in Europe but not in the States, and games like Bladestorm and Civilization:Revolution got released in Europe before North America, just to name a couple.

So I think there are way fewer "games only available in America" compared to "games only available in Japan".

 

[nccom]

You...beat...beatmania ???

 

[jalaneme]

but console games get localized pretty quickly.

hah, don't make me laugh, does super smash brawl ring any bells?

 

[deathfisaro]

Woah didn't know about that. I think Nintendo is just so slow.

I was mainly thinking how an RPG that takes up 4 DL-DVDs with tons of scripts only take 2 months for translating Japanese to English, and only takes 2 extra weeks for translating 4 additional languages.

Pokemon on the other hand took 7 months for US version. I don't know who to blame but not Amercians

 

[gaboumafou]

Not so long ago, Taiko Drummaster was like 30$ in a local store. Picked it up. I think the american one is pretty fun, even more than the japanese ones that I "backed up" (but I don't really like japanese music, that might be why I prefer the american one...).

 

[deathfisaro]

Taiko Drum Master cost me $47ish including shipping. I managed to find a new copy on eBay but got ripped off shipping (well, better than roaming around the city spending gas - gas cost like 140+ now)

Ironically (a little bit) the US version Taiko Drum Master got reverse-localized in Japan, because people liked the US song list =P

My girlfriend said "I've never expected to play Britney's Toxic on Taiko..." sounds a lot like EBA to me, heh.