Nintendo Okie

The internet has been on fire lately about Xenoblade, Pandora’s Tower and The Last Story. It’s not hard to see why. Wii owners want to play these games and, as far as Nintendo can tell us, there is no plan to bring them to North America. This isn’t the first time something like this has happened and you can bet it won’t be the last. I know what you’re thinking; “another article complaining about Xenoblade huh?” Such is not the case. This is the third installment towards my OCDness of video game collecting.

The whole Xenoblade debacle (and cases like it) is really annoying for a crazed collector such as myself. My go to example for this is Mega Man: The Wily Wars. This game was only available in North America through the Sega Channel. History lesson time. The Wily Wars is a Genesis collection of remakes for Mega Man, Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 3. It also has an added mode with some extra robot masters to fight. The Sega Channel was a service that existed from 1994 to 1998. It was one of the first forms of digital distribution that allowed subscribers to play a number of games through a cable TV connection. As you can gather, being reserved for a digital distribution service, The Wily Wars never was put onto a NTSC cartridge. There is a PAL cart but the Genesis (a.k.a. Mega Drive) is region locked and thus inserting a Pal cart into my NTSC Genesis wouldn’t work. This presents a problem for my Mega Man collection. I have an emulated copy of this game and I count that as part of my collection. I know people don’t like emulators but I have no other way to buy this game instead of importing a PAL Mega Drive and cart. I don’t want to start importing foreign systems for my game collecting habit. Not yet anyway.

Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe is another oddity in the game collecting space. There were certain things edited in the North American release that were left alone in the PAL version. Whenever I buy this game I will most likely import the European version for PS3 since the PS3 isn’t region locked. I haven’t started a MK kollection yet but I probably will someday. Does this mean I will have to buy the American edited copy for PS3 as well? What about the 360 versions? Wow, I even felt crazy just typing that out.

Going back to my Resident Evil collection, there is a PAL/Japan only release of Resident Evil Survivor 2 Code: Veronica for PS2. It is a very weird offshoot RE game that I don’t think is canon since it takes place in a dream of Claire’s. Heck, Nemesis even shows up at one point. While the game may be even more bananas than RE usually is, do I need to import this game to complete my RE collection? PS2s are region locked thus I would not be able to play the game in either of my PS2s. I suppose I could mod one or import an alien PlayStaton 2. I have yet to order this game but I know someday I will simply because I think it will look good next to RE: Outbreak File #2.

Borderlands has presented me with yet another hitch in my collection obsession. The game is awesome and I have sunk over 300 hours into the 360 version alone. I have bought the game for PC and PS3 as well, but those version are the game of the year editions. These come with all four DLC packs and there is no other difference. So, what if I wanted to start a collection of Borderlands when it inevitably becomes a franchise? Will I have to purchase the none GOTY editions for PS3 and PC? Will I then have to buy the DLC for those versions? What about the 360 version? Currently I have the initial release copy and I have bought all the DLC through Xbox Live. If I do decide to buy a 360 GOTY copy to complete my collection, I will just be buy a different box since it is the same game disk packed in with download codes for the DLC packs. I don’t want to start buying games because of different covers do I?

Just yesterday I picked up a copy of Persona 3 for PS2. For some reason unknown to me, it has the European box art with the ESRB rating on it. I have check with Google thinking it must be a copy that came as part of a special edition bundle but I have yet to find conformation. Call me crazy but I kind of want another copy of Person 3 that has the normal US box art. Keep in mind I also have Persona 3 FES and Persona 3 Portable. Yikes, every time I right one of these articles I feel I take one step closer to being in a straight jacket. All because other countries do things differently.