Game: Rakugaki Showtime
Platform: Playstation
Reason: A large amount of hallucinogenic drugs involved in the development process? I don't know. Katamari Damacy seems to have done the same, and it was released outside of the Land of the Rising Sun, too. Seems that the West has only recently gained a similar affinity for the Weird Stuff. It's a fun, genre-mixing game, with a
unique art style, in true Treasure style.
I own one of the limted copies available out there (I actually owned 3 of them at one time, one opened that I still own, one I resold and one factory sealed!! and again resold)
4 years ago I managed to snag one copy in a trade for Suikoden 2 (approx value $125 at the time) and one off of Ebay for $75 from JPN, and a nice email from a young gentleman who I outbid at the last second, and when resold the same copy, almost got himseld banned from Ebay because of his comments to me after the fact, but that's another story entirely.
Anyway, the main reason it got pulled from the market in Japan is because of one of the fighters resembles a spiky blond haired protaganist with a massive sword that was in a little game called FF7.
Square came down with their swiftly with their legion of lawyers against Treasure and Enix (how's them for coincidences, considering they merged years later) and made them pull any exisiting non-sold copies off the shelves (similar to Kakuto Chojin was a few years ago)
Thereby ensuring it to be one of Treasures rarest games and commanding a price only rivaled by Radiant Silvergun. It's rumored / estimated that only 10-25k copies are out there in collectors hands worldwide.
Name: Policenauts
System: Playstation
Reason: Who knows, maybe Konami thought there was no audience for it, maybe SCEA said there weren't enough polygons.
Name: Samurai Spirits RPG
System: Neo Geo CD
Reason: I don't know, and I really don't care, I just want it.
Just in case you didn't know, a group is working on and almost done with translating it into English, (the nice guys over at policenauts.net) just lucky for me I happen to own a copy of it. (I got it in that Rakugaki trade, along with Tobal 2 as well, which was fan translated as well) (As I see someone kindly pointed this out, but for the sake of completeness, I'll leave my reply here)
Ditto for SS:RPG, I have the Neo CD version, just never have bothered to boot it up, shoulda got the PS1 version instead (think it made it on the Saturn as well, I think). If it wasn't for the animated cutscences it coulda been on the NGH.
Here's a few of mine:
Name:Berserk
System: PS2
Reason: Liscence issues, the fact the manga in the US is no where near where this game takes place, the "faux" Slan nude scene where she forms out of troll guts, and the fact Sammy (who published it in JPN) had no faith in the game and didn't have much faith in Yuke's either (who had to start self-publishing thier non-wrestling titles in the US. Shame they couldn't get it out on the PS2 in the last two years, now it's just dead in the water. Cool game though. Still irks me, as I was heavily involved in recruiting publishers to release it, and never had any luck.
Name: Jackie Chan Adventures
System: PS2
Reason: Hip Games went bankrupt, it was scheduled to be published then they went out of buisness, late last year Planet Moon Studios (the developer) was looking to still get it publshed in the US, since the cartoon was re-airing on ABC Family, but it's doubtful we'll ever see it, unless you import it from Europe like I did.
Name: Klonoa Beach Volleyball and Klonoa: Legend of the Seven Stars
System: PS1 & GBA
Reason: Namco sucks balls, I called them and asked them about this game and the Mr. Driller GC game, the reason I got, well those games don't sell well in the US. My reason, they're too cutesy...bull pucky, they are colorful and fun, what else do you need. Volleyball was released in Europe and 7 Stars stayed JPN only. Namco anytime for Klonoa 3 on PS3 if you will.
Name: Mr. Driller Drill Land
System: Gamecube
Reason: See above. Sad thing is, this is the best Mr. Driller game ever made, multiple gameplay types, a thin but intriguing story, things to buy and collect, basically a reason to play it over and over, unlike the PS1/DC/GBA versions. My first GC import, btw, since it was JPN only.
A little side note, the GBA titles Driller 2 and Klonoa 2 were released ONLY because Namco got paid by Nintendo to translate them and release them over here in the states, that's why we never saw Driller Ace and no connectivity to their big bro GC version.
Name: Dragon Drive
System: Gamecube
Reason: JPN only, based on the card game/anime by Bandai and developed by none other than Treasure, I've only played the first level, but other than some repetitive game play it looks quite fun, similar to a simplistic version of Lair (PS3) or Panzer Dragoon which is what it was likened too way back when. On the plus side it comes with an extra disc with a 30-min. animated eps. included, how many other games come with a TV show bundled in with it.
Name: Under Defeat / Border Down
System: Dreamcast
Reason: The system is dead outside of JPN, duh. But that doesn't lessen how utterly awesome these two shmups from G. Rev are, shame only Shmup fans and the DC hardcore are the only ones to be able to play them, well worth the money.
Name: Densetsu No Starfi (Legend of Starfi) 1-4
System: GBA (1-3) DS (4)
Reason: Hell if I know. Nintendo is second only to Square for not releasing games that would sell well outside of the US, if only given the chance. They don't believe anyone in the US would like "cutesy" games (see a connection forming here, between them and Namco) instead they continue to let kiddie drek like Strawberry Shortcake and other lame kiddie properties come out in droves and people just eat it up, heck they are planning on releasing the Tingle DS title from what I understand. So why no love for Starfi??? It's a neat little platformer (ala Kirby/SMB) but they ignore it's potential in other territories.
And lastly...
Name:Terranigma
System: Super NES
Reason: It was late into the SNES life, and then only released in JPN and Europe. I remember seeing it in Gamepro or some magazine and looking transfixed at how awesome it looked (they used to do that with cool looking Japanese games, that could come out over here) and then ultimately the 16-bit era passed, but I never forgot about this cool little game I never got to play till years later. If you like Zelda, then have I got a game for you.