Top Ten: Games That Never Left Japan

They’re big in Japan! Here’s some of the best games that still haven’t gotten Western releases.

By Kyle England. Posted 03/05/2013 10:00 8 Comments     ShareThis

8. Card Hero

If you think of any style of video game, chances are that Nintendo has dabbled in that genre in some way. Trade & Battle: Card Hero was Nintendo’s foray into the world of battling card video games. Card Hero came out for Game Boy Color in 2000, and put gamers in the role of Hiro, an aspiring card duelist of the game Card Hero– which is similar to Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokémon TCG, and various other monster card games. Players in Card Hero have a master card that must be protected at all costs by using magic spells and summoning creatures.

A sequel to Card Hero, called Kousoku Card Battle came out in 2007 for Nintendo DS. Then, in 2009, a trimmed down, multiplayer focused version of the game was released as a DSiWare title. Players could battle it out with cards and stuff with all kinds of people using the marvel of the internet!

But you’ve probably never heard of Card Hero. Besides a tiny appearance of a character as a trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee, Nintendo hasn’t really made the series known outside of Japan. Why not? Besides the token games that are based on real card games, the battling card game market is pretty empty. Nintendo is in love with the collecting and battling business, as evidenced by successful games like Pokémon and Fossil Fighters. Card Hero just got left out, it seems. Well, the games do happen to be developed by Intelligent Systems. Those guys just might hate releasing all their games in the West.

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8 Responses to “Top Ten: Games That Never Left Japan”

  • 192 points
    Robin Wilde says...

    While the Satellaview would have been cool, I think placing it above Mother 3 might be giving it more praise than it perhaps deserves.

    GiFTPIA and Homeland have both intrigued me for years. There are fan translations available for at least GiFTPIA but they’re online only and you have to keep scrolling as you play. They’re perhaps overdue for an attempt at localisation.

    Mother 3 is my second favourite game ever. So that’s that.

  • 192 points
    Robin Wilde says...

    I just checked and it seems a translation for Captain Rainbow is available by rather grey-area means.

  • 15 points
    Crit Hit says...

    A VC release of Fire Emblem: Geneology of the Holy War would be most epic and appreciated. If they were to bring over the FE games, I’d rather they have fans translate the names. I was playing Awakening’s first Outrealm map and I still refer to “Deirdre” as “Diadora”. And it’s Celice, not Seliph.

    But I’m splitting hairs. The FE and Mother series need international release.

  • 784 points
    Marc Deschamps says...

    I’m not surprised about the lack of translation in regards to the earlier entries in the Wars and Fire Emblem series’. The amount of localization probably means that the older titles just aren’t worth the effort. The lack of a port for the 2010 Fire Emblem game is confounding, though. Wonder what happened there?

    As a teen, I was so mad at Nintendo for not bringing over the Game Boy sequel to Pokémon TCG. That’s another one I never understood. Seemed like printing money, to me.

  • 222 points
    PanurgeJr says...

    Couldn’t find a place for Tingle’s Freshly Cut Rupee Land? Poor guy never gets any love.

  • 1244 points
    lukas85 says...

    that stellaview thing sounds pretty amazing, also captain rainbow

  • 276 points
    Nicolas Vestre says...

    I like the honorable mention to the Legend of Starfy series! Some years ago I imported Starfy 2 and 3 (the original wasn’t available on Play-Asia) and have since completed them. I also have Starfy 4, but I haven’t even turned it on…

    The only complaint I have about importing Starfy games is the massive amount of text. Every level is overflowing with lengthy discussions; and even though it’s entirely possible to find your way through the games without knowing Japanese (even I did it :P), the sense of loss is still there.

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