Games you're interested in but aren't available
Mar 31, 2024 1:12:38 GMT -5
Nester the Lark and Evie ❤✿ like this
Post by nocturnal YL on Mar 31, 2024 1:12:38 GMT -5
These are some of the games that I was interested in to some extent, but I couldn't get them without getting entire new consoles, either due to platform availability or region locking.
This is something that doesn't really bother me these days, but it was something to consider in the past. In the GameCube era, I stuck to Nintendo games, but when I started to try to branch out in the late Wii era, I ran into a problem: third -party publishers abandoned Nintendo home consoles for the most part. The idea of playing third-party games interested me, but I didn't have concrete ideas on what to play, and it certainly didn't interest me enough to buy a PS3, PS Vita or Xbox 360. That's when Nintendo home consoles and handhelds were two different lineups, meaning that Nintendo was competing with themselves.
Some of the games in question:
Otomedius Gorgeous! / Otomedius Excellent
Konami shooting games on Xbox 360. And that's pretty much the biggest reason why they failed. Who in their right mind would think it's a good idea to make something like this on Xbox 360 of all things!? It might be the height of the Xbox brand's popularity, but it's still a system no one cares about in Japan or the rest of east Asia.
To Konami's credit, Otomedius Excellent was actually released in North America, surprisingly. But as long as these game stay on Xbox, they'll also stay out of reach of most of its intended audience.
Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F 2nd
The most popular game in the original console-based Project DIVA series from SEGA CS3, not to be confused with the Project DIVA Arcade series from SEGA AM2, from which Future Tone and Mega Mix are derived from.
It gained popularity mostly for being an officially moddable game. It supports custom-made rhythm game charts, PVs and song files, essentially making it possible to make custom songs on it.
Naturally, this could only happen on PS3, back when the PlayStation team envisioned a more computer-like system. Security and privacy concerns eventually lead PlayStation to change their direction, and PS4 would not allow something like reading user-supplied files. The same can be said for Nintendo; Wii and 3DS allowed user-supplied contents but Wii U and Nintendo Switch did not.
Eventually, the ability to play custom contents stopped being a problem in 2022, when Mega Mix+ came out on PC. Hacks are possible on all games in the series (the internal file structure is very PC-like and easily moddable), but on a PC game this is much less of a hassle.
3D Dot Game Heroes
Another case of a game that I was somewhat interested. This one's also on PS3. More modern reviews seem to be less kind to it though, saying that it didn't have much more going on besides being a Zelda parody. I'm actually quite surprised to see this one not getting ported to modern systems, but it seems that its creator Silicon Studio is more of a middleware and game engine maker.
Metroid Prime Trilogy
Not a platform problem but a region one. Metroid Prime Trilogy was not available in Japan. I have Metroid Prime 3, which I did not finish because of the difficulty, but I'd be interested in the trilogy pack if I could get it.
Not really an example: Penny's Big Breakaway
I'm tangentially interested in Penny's Big Breakaway, but it's not really a game that I can't get. This is an interesting one; Nintendo Switch is region free, so I can just get it anyway; it's just that I've been getting nothing but Japanese retail games on Switch (that is, I'd get the Japanese version even for non-Japanese games). I'll see if some Japanese publisher will pick this one up.
Not an example at all: El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron
PS3 and Xbox 360 game. Doesn't matter now; it's coming to Switch in a month.
Back then, I expected this list would expand quite a bit, but this was eventually put to a stop when I decided to get Project DIVA Future Tone DX, which was compelling enough for me to get a PS4 for. It also helps that the home and handheld lines of Nintendo hardware merged, so getting a PS4 didn't seem as wasteful. The tendency of games getting ported to Nintendo Switch also helps a lot.
The only kind of modern software I can't get without buying new hardware would be those on modern Xbox, macOS or iOS, none of which have exclusive software I'm interested in. If the current trends of the gaming platforms continue, I should be fine just sticking to the ones I have now.
This is something that doesn't really bother me these days, but it was something to consider in the past. In the GameCube era, I stuck to Nintendo games, but when I started to try to branch out in the late Wii era, I ran into a problem: third -party publishers abandoned Nintendo home consoles for the most part. The idea of playing third-party games interested me, but I didn't have concrete ideas on what to play, and it certainly didn't interest me enough to buy a PS3, PS Vita or Xbox 360. That's when Nintendo home consoles and handhelds were two different lineups, meaning that Nintendo was competing with themselves.
Some of the games in question:
Otomedius Gorgeous! / Otomedius Excellent
Konami shooting games on Xbox 360. And that's pretty much the biggest reason why they failed. Who in their right mind would think it's a good idea to make something like this on Xbox 360 of all things!? It might be the height of the Xbox brand's popularity, but it's still a system no one cares about in Japan or the rest of east Asia.
To Konami's credit, Otomedius Excellent was actually released in North America, surprisingly. But as long as these game stay on Xbox, they'll also stay out of reach of most of its intended audience.
Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F 2nd
The most popular game in the original console-based Project DIVA series from SEGA CS3, not to be confused with the Project DIVA Arcade series from SEGA AM2, from which Future Tone and Mega Mix are derived from.
It gained popularity mostly for being an officially moddable game. It supports custom-made rhythm game charts, PVs and song files, essentially making it possible to make custom songs on it.
Naturally, this could only happen on PS3, back when the PlayStation team envisioned a more computer-like system. Security and privacy concerns eventually lead PlayStation to change their direction, and PS4 would not allow something like reading user-supplied files. The same can be said for Nintendo; Wii and 3DS allowed user-supplied contents but Wii U and Nintendo Switch did not.
Eventually, the ability to play custom contents stopped being a problem in 2022, when Mega Mix+ came out on PC. Hacks are possible on all games in the series (the internal file structure is very PC-like and easily moddable), but on a PC game this is much less of a hassle.
3D Dot Game Heroes
Another case of a game that I was somewhat interested. This one's also on PS3. More modern reviews seem to be less kind to it though, saying that it didn't have much more going on besides being a Zelda parody. I'm actually quite surprised to see this one not getting ported to modern systems, but it seems that its creator Silicon Studio is more of a middleware and game engine maker.
Metroid Prime Trilogy
Not a platform problem but a region one. Metroid Prime Trilogy was not available in Japan. I have Metroid Prime 3, which I did not finish because of the difficulty, but I'd be interested in the trilogy pack if I could get it.
Not really an example: Penny's Big Breakaway
I'm tangentially interested in Penny's Big Breakaway, but it's not really a game that I can't get. This is an interesting one; Nintendo Switch is region free, so I can just get it anyway; it's just that I've been getting nothing but Japanese retail games on Switch (that is, I'd get the Japanese version even for non-Japanese games). I'll see if some Japanese publisher will pick this one up.
Not an example at all: El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron
PS3 and Xbox 360 game. Doesn't matter now; it's coming to Switch in a month.
Back then, I expected this list would expand quite a bit, but this was eventually put to a stop when I decided to get Project DIVA Future Tone DX, which was compelling enough for me to get a PS4 for. It also helps that the home and handheld lines of Nintendo hardware merged, so getting a PS4 didn't seem as wasteful. The tendency of games getting ported to Nintendo Switch also helps a lot.
The only kind of modern software I can't get without buying new hardware would be those on modern Xbox, macOS or iOS, none of which have exclusive software I'm interested in. If the current trends of the gaming platforms continue, I should be fine just sticking to the ones I have now.
