The next time we North American gamers tear into a beloved 16-bit RPG or a game that revolves around talking to an electric mouse, let us take a moment to remember our less fortunate European cousins, for they have missed out on a lot of great games over the years. It's true; some of the most popular (and, in all fairness, a few of the most reviled) games have yet to make an official appearance in the European region (and some of that goes for Australia, New Zealand, and other such areas too). They have never played Chrono Trigger! They are deficient in Earthbound! They've never known the joys of Mega Man Soccer!
The United Kingdom is the third largest market for video games in the world; us Brits guzzle down games like they’re tea and crumpets. Yet, being stuck with the rest of Europe means smaller games and less important projects rarely make it across the Atlantic – games have to be translated into no less than 50 billion languages before they’ll see light of day in this continent.
So, until British Gaming Blog can convince every agitated gamer to stand around the perimeter of England and pick up the country, move it next to Florida and call ourselves the 51st state, we’re bound to miss out.
This article is all about games that made their mark on American soil, but were obviously too good for us lowly Euros. The state of the industry is much better nowadays (Rock Band’s price and everything Nintendo of Europe does ever not included), but once upon a time, we never saw these ten important releases…
I had no idea things were so undeveloped over there. You guys have indoor plumbing and stuff, right? But seriously, sometimes Europe lucks out and gets some quality titles that we miss in North America. While we've been playing Super Mario RPG and Final Fantasy III, they've been playing stuff like Doshin the Giant and... um... Doshin the Giant, I guess. Don't worry though, my European friends. Super Mario RPG wasn't that great anyway*.
* Not a guarantee
