
Back in June, the lovely Nintendo Life video team - comprised of Alex, Zion, and Felix - finally met up in person for the first time in like... ever. Not only that, but a few other friends and colleagues from Nintendo Life also joined in on the fun, making for one of the most memorable experiences since the world went a bit weird back in 2020.
As part of his trip over to the UK, Zion embarked on a couple of intensive video game hunts with the help of fellow Nintendo Life video producer Felix and ex-Nintendo Life alumni (now Good Vibes Gaming video host) Jon Cartwright. The hunts highlighted some key regional differences between EU and NA, including the general price of games, the existence of regional specific games (Cheggers Party Quiz, anyone?), and how items such as Wii Points were distributed.

It makes for an interesting glimpse into the world of Nintendo gaming in the UK, so make sure to check out the full video below for all the lowdown!
Comments 17
Ooh... I have that Dillon's Dead Heat Breakers 3DS PAL version in physical release.
Really enjoyed the video guys! It's always fun to see what weird and wonderful games are tucked away in a cex store. There's a cool little store not far from where I live which had all kinds of cool games I hadn't seen in-store much- boxed Xenoblade Chronicles on the Wii with the included red controller, Luminous Arc for 3DS, Klonoa on PS(I think 2?), an actually affordable copy of Pokémon Pearl....yep, there's nothing like game shopping 😊
Getting down with WHO'S Party Quiz?

I actually have some experience with this myself, albeit with a bit more recency to it: my local Smyths usually have new games at the standard €60 whenever they release. However, within at most a month, they're already slashed down to €50 or less. I was able to pick up Skyward Sword HD for about €40 a while back, it was that crazy.
In short: shop local; you never know what you might find (and yes I'm aware Smyths is a brand, let me have this philosophical quote).
@Kirbysonic I had no idea Pearl was expensive outside of Europe. That was the game I got with my DS!
Not yet watched the video (will pick up this evening), but one thing I've noticed in the discourse about retro game collecting is that games generally seem to be a lot more expensive in USA than Europe.
I find that quite strange considering a lot of the cult classics talked about online probably had a very limited print run in Europe. Some weren't even released here!
But then you have games like Futurama on the PS2 which are apparently rare enough to go for $150+ in the USA, but commonly sell for around £15 (< $20) here in the UK.
If I were to take a guess I'd say some of this is cultural. Maybe with everything generally being a bit smaller in Europe, people are less likely to hold on to bulky physical game collections?
@Buizel My theory is US and Japanese releases are more popular due to being NTSC rather than PAL. A lot of European releases ran slower and had large black borders at the top and bottom of the screen to account for the differences between NTSC and PAL. Some games did get some optimisation to fix this, but many, if not the majority, did not.
So because of that, most PAL releases are less desirable to collectors who would prefer to have games running at their intended speed and screen size. Plus I think a sizeable amount of collectors only have TVs compatible with an NTSC signal, making the PAL versions harder to play in any case.
@BulkSlash Very good point.
Although that shouldn't really affect handheld games. Nor should it really affect PAL games of the PS2/Gamecube/Xbox generation as 60hz support was becoming standard then (that said, I'm not in the know as to how well these games supported 60hz...it might still be more beneficial to have an NTSC copy in any case).
I'll also say that US copies have nicer boxes a lot of the time. The European DS cases in particular are chunky and ugly compared to the much sleeker grey cases of the US. Plus I quite like that the PS1 had the slimmer jewel cases in the US.
I've been trying to get a good deal on radiant historia perfect chronology on 3ds since 2020 but I never find it below 200€. In the meantime, the jp and usa versions are 100€
@Buizel Yeah that's a good point about handhelds and the later stuff like Xbox. I think the PAL aversion started with the 8, 16 and 32-bit consoles (it certainly factors into my decision making when buying a game from those eras), I think maybe that's left something of a stigma even when it's not an issue on more recent releases.
Another Code R is well worth buying, though it's not much of a game, it's a really nice experience. To me it will always be one of the highlights of the Wii, the visuals are also incredible.
Out of region Wii games are a bit friendlier than GameCube games, if you load the disc on a Wii set for NTSC-U, the game will not switch to a PAL video mode. In other words, you don't need to patch the game in any way, you just need to surpass the title ID check of the system menu.
My preferred method is using priiloader to remove the disc region check permanently. That gets the banner showing on the disc channel and starts right away. Riivolution and others would require stopping the disc and spinning it again, so it's slower.
@Buizel I think it's ebay and other similar sites like mercari that have ballooned up US prices. if all of those sites were shut down and you had to sell your stuff in person the prices would come way down. reselling culture would be killed overnight. I don't believe these type of sites are nearly as prevalent in Europe and its probably not as easy to just ship it anywhere like in the US which is one giant country.
That was an awesome video! Thanks.
To even see the manuals still in the boxes is something else. Keep up the good work Gang!
Sometimes, European versions of games can be the definitive versions, but that would usually be, say, handheld games (FFIV Advance), or console games, in very rare circumstances (Bust-A-Move 3000).
@Buizel I had gotten Izuna 2 for the DS when it was still available new.
But when it came time to adding the first to the DS collection?
That became the only European DS game in my collection. And thus my only experience with the oversized European DS cases, sitting among the smaller JP/NA cases.
That was one game where the EU version is/was apparently a more common/cheaper variant.
@ValZ Now I'm curious. Besides additional languages, what did FF6 Advance EU have that the other regions didn't?
@ValZ Dragon's Lair for the NES. Not sure if the European version is exactly a gem of a game either. But most of the rage against that game is towards the (deservedly) US version. The EU version I think bumped the game quality to at least a PLAYABLE level.
Fester's Quest is another game where the EU version benefited from a few modifications to make the game more enjoyable, but I don't think the US version was on the same level of broken as Dragon's Lair. I don't think?
@AlienX
Another nice thing for EU games is they are frequently multi-language.
Like Zion, I picked up Another Code R on a visit to Europe a few years back, but mine is certainly the German version.
Pop it into the Wii U, homebrew around the region lock, and boom, it is in English.
The most interesting one like that is Art Academy Atelier.
I also have a German (based on the cover) physical copy of that Wii U game. When I use homebrew to bypass the region check, not only does it not load in German, the title screen actually says 'Art Academy Home Studio', (rather than Art Academy Atelier' as it appears when played on a UK Wii U) meaning that the full US localized version is on the disk!
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