Topic: Have I Bought a Fake Game?

Hi all, I received an order from an online store today. I've used them in the past, with no problems, but this is the first time I've bought DS games from them. I've got a couple of problems though.

Firstly, my copy of "Bowser's Inside Story" has an obviously fake cover - it's just printed on normal printer paper and is very bad quality. (After a bit of googling, I found someone else with the exact same problem here:

http://www.xboxworld.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=69362

This has made me doubt my other games in the order, however.

In particular, I got a copy of Super Scribblenauts. According to the box, it is the UK version, but on the cartridge itself (at the bottom, where the last three letters indicate the country code) it has "SCN". I cannot find any reference to this country code anywhere else - can anyone please confirm that Super Scribblenauts should have this?

(The full code on the actual cartridge inside my copy is NTR-BH2X-SCN, while on the box it says NTR-BH2X-UKV)

Thanks for your help.

If the box and cartridge don't match, you have a problem. Nintendo has contact information listed on their anti-piracy site here; the contact info is for NA, but that's their only anti-piracy site (or at least i can't find one for AUS). you can at least fire off an e-mail and they can either help you themselves or get you in touch with someone who can answer your questions... i'm sure they'd be able to talk to you about any suspect NA game(s) you've purchased. You can also report the store that sold you the counterfeit/s (if they do indeed turn out to be counterfeit) when you contact them.

that said, i've purchased a counterfeit game on accident before (this was years ago by now, i hadn't even realized they were counterfeiting them at the time ), and for me, the biggest key was the errors in the booklet. the fonts for the warnings in the front and back of it were similar but not quite the same as all my other booklets (and Nintendo always puts the exact same stuff in those warnings, you can seriously hold two booklets up to each other and they should be identical), and there were spelling/grammar errors all throughout the warnings as well.

I live in Norway, and my copy of Super Scribblenauts also has the country code SCN. That means that you have the Scandinavian version!

I could tell my copy of Chrono Trigger was fake by looking at the booklet (same as TBD, bought it without knowing it was fake- jumped the gun when I saw it cheap online, and only got suspicious after I had paid for it).

Anyway, the booklet had a review of the game (taken off the net I'm guessing) instead of any other of the usual info. which was wierd because it was stating both good points and bad points- like a company would bag out their game in the booklet! Haha.

Thanks for the replies! I'll try and sort it out, but will let Nintendo know.

BlueC, could you please tell me what the code is on the back of the Super Scribblenauts box (just above the barcode on the right). Like I said, the country code on my box is different to on the cartridge itself.

Thanks again

I think you should first verify with Nintendo if the game is real or not. Next you will need to contact the seller if it is fake. You might be able to get your money back. I know some of these fake versions are pretty convincing and that is a problem with dealing with used games. One quick way to test is if the game works for the DS and DS lite and not the DSi or DSi XL.

I once bought a fake game off of amazon. It was one of the secondary sellers. I dealt with them directly after i contacted Nintendo.

http://ap.nintendo.com/index.jsp

I've tried all the games I bought from them on my DSi XL, and they load up. The only obviously dodgy one is Bowser's Inside Story, but only the cover there is fake - the rest (manual, inserts, cartridge itself) all look OK. Scribblenauts I'm unsure about, with the country code on the box being different to the one on the cartridge. I also bought Zelda:PH which was unsealed and missing the Club Nintendo card, and NSMB which seems OK.

Unfortunately, these were all supposed to be bought new. I try to avoid buying second hand where I can. I still think I'll try and get a refund, and try and get a PayPal dispute if that doesn't work.

I'd still like someone to confirm the country codes on Super Scribblenauts if that's at all possible.

The country code on my box is NTR-BH2X-SCN.

The best way to check if you have a fake DS game is by comparing the gold metal contacts. The pirates use cheaper metal so they will be duller in colour by a large amount compared to the real thing.

oh that's just messed up :/ good luck to you in getting your refund from them, and remember — you have 45 days from the date you paid to file a dispute with PayPal.

Also check on the back of the DS card. There should be a code starting with a match of the product code (the 4-digit code xxxx in "NTR-xxxx".
I think the Japanese product codes should end in J (NTR-xxxJ-JPN) and North American should end in an E. I think "EUR" region is supposed to end in P.

Thanks for all the concern and replies! I emailed the store, and they were aware of the issue - they claimed they 'got a bad batch' a while ago. I was issued with a refund immediately (they should probably have offered it up front, but never mind).

The weird thing is, the inside of Bowser's Inside Story looked fine (cartridge looked legit and worked in my DSi, instruction manual looked fine and came with a whole bunch of other inserts) and it was only the cover that seemed dodgy. It also came sealed, so I don't know what was going on with that lot.

Anyway, I've since bought another copy from Play-Asia, so it'll all work itself out! Again, I appreciate all the responses from people here!

(P.S. - I had to open my DSi XL to check these games, as I was saving it until I finish my PhD thesis. On the upside, that thing ROCKS! (I got the 25th Anniversary version) )

Glad your problem got sorted out! The Internet is not a very trustworthy place.

Cheers Odnetnin! I would, however, respectfully disagree about the internet not being trustworthy - there are a few bad apples out there, but I've done a lot of online purchasing over the years and have only encountered a couple of problems. Granted, you need to be careful, but for a switched on buyer there shouldn't be TOO many issues.

Living in Australia I do most of my game purchasing online, firstly to save money - often up to half of the retail price here - and also to find older games. Anything even slightly obscure seems to require you buying it straight away or it becomes impossible to find later on.