PAL Exclusive Games - Why You Need Them - Adam Koralik

It's Adam Koralik here and today we're discussing PAL (European/Australian) exclusives. There's a ton of them out there, yet almost no one in the US or Canada ever gets them. First, I want to explore why that is, and second I want to recommend some for those interesting in perhaps going down that rabbit hole.
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[@Arbteron]

FINALLY! AN ACTUAL PERSON ACKNOWLEDGED THE FACT THAT EUROPE EXISTS!!! LET'S GOOOOOOO

[@junior1388666]

Stop. Europe is not a real thing. Just like middle earth, westeros and Narnia

[@Kain5th]

Europe? I thought that was a fairy tale where dwarves gnomes and fairies come from

[@BensyBens]

Wait until people acknowledge that’s asia is not only japan & china. The asian ps3 have a lot of physical releases from both america & japan some of them are Playstation store exclusives (the last guy & Tokyo jungle got physical English releases only in asian countries like hong kong, singapore, south korea, tailand and more)

[@thejjdm1126]

Nigeria is pal as well healthy amount exclusives there as well in the past 3 years especially since 2018

[@MegamanEXEv2]

Never heard of her

[@jadthemagnificent]

Adam Koralik, is the type of guy to open a glass door to see outside.

[@mr.g-sez]

because nothing is 100% transparent not even glass doors

[@Lando-kx6so]

In Jamaica we're really a NTSC country but we kind of have a mix between NTSC & PAL b/c most things are just imported or brought over from people who travel to the US, UK, or Canada

[@MrLeo34]

I think in general it's a combination of Japanese online sellers being cheaper and more willing to send stuff to the US vs European sellers, and people going for Japanese exclusives will gravitate to the kind of packaging Japan uses, especially for Japanese made games. Japanese goods have a kind of exotic feeling to many, even these days when we get original Japanese artwork on the cover most of the time for US releases.

[@AdamKoralik]

There is definitely truth to the "willingness" factor. The British in particular can be very unwilling to ship here.

[@MegaKoga]

I’m a GameCube collector, and the only PAL games that were “exclusive” were Doshin and Donkey Konga 1+2. Technically none are exclusives, however Donkey Konga has different songs in every region, and I wanted to play Doshin in English.

[@pastelshoal]

How did you get Doshin running on an NTSC console if you dont mind sharing? Really want to but would like to avoid one of those pricy boot discs.Preferably a plug and play solution. Does it have 60hz support?

[@KoenvdW88]

A good heads-up here is that PAL games can also come with an added obstacle though. I'm Dutch, so I grew up with PAL systems and PAL games around me, and still had to look very closely at the boxes because of the language the game is in. Many German and French games (so beware when you follow Adam's tip for Paris!) only have German or French on the cart/disc. I once bought Illusion of Time on SNES (called Illusion of Gaia in the US), it was advertised as English, but once I popped in the cart it greeted me with a message that said "Drücke Start", so it was German with no other language available. Super Metroid has a German/French release, but that only affects the introduction and the rest is still in English, so even if you know there's a language difference, a game can still be playable to you. But it can go even beyond those languages, for instance, Lufia 2 on Super Nintendo was released in several languages in PAL territories, and it's one of the few games that got a release in Dutch. That sadly means that about 90% of the copies you can find in the Netherlands are Dutch - which is something I despise (I simply refuse to play games in Dutch and have, in fact, returned games because of that and imported them from the UK - looking at you, Beyond Good and Evil on GameCube!) Luckily, most of that went away around the N64 era, but even then some games still had this language barrier. GameCube versions of multiplat games seem to suffer most, because the discs were smaller they simply cut some audio tracks to make it fit (again, Beyond Good and Evil is an example of this). I also ran into this recently with the Dreamcast versions of Tomb Raider: Chronicles (German with no language switch, even though all the box and disc art is in English) and Shadowman, so check before you buy. Another good thing to keep in mind when importing PAL games is that both Germany and Australia (used to) have a ridiculous censorship system, meaning any game with nazi references was forbidden in Germany for instance, and blood has to be green for some reason on some games.

[@theshadowman1398]

I am located in PAL territory. I only orders games from Japan where language barrier isn’t an issue, like fighting games, race games, etc. Everything story based and where reading is important I exclusively order from my own region and sometimes from US.

[@funkybuddhaInit]

MediEvil 1 & 2 were developed in Cambridge England. They made the game for Pal systems so the game runs at the appropriate speed on Pal. I've tried playing the NTSC version and found Dan's movement to be unwieldy due to the faster game speed.

[@va8157]

As an Indonesian, my country doesn't really have official release by xbox and nintendo. So my collection is a mish mash of asian release, us release, jp release and pal release. They're not necessarily exclusives either lol.

[@scordatura9259]

Same that's why our old consoles are usually modded so it can run all the regions. My ps2 which I thought wasn't modded turns out to be and can run japanese, pal and american games

[@Wubsy96]

Same, but in Pakistan.

[@marcrics]

Also, always worth mentioning The Last Story, Pandora's Tower and Xenoblade probably wouldn't exist in the US without Europe 🙊

[@SprunkCovers]

On a similar vein, Xenoblade 2 is out of print in the US but still available on Europe, so my copy of Xenoblade 2 is european because it was cheaper lol

[@turbinegraphics16]

I have sega rally n-gage all these years and this is the first I've heard about its value.

[@fentazen2677]

I can’t imagine collecting the Sega Master System and not getting European releases

[@Nin10Guy]

Not to mention a lot of the Sonic games that were released for the Sega Master System were exclusive to PAL regions.

[@daleriecke4360]

Plus the art work on the PAL Master system games are alot nicer than the US games.

[@souljastation5463]

Sure, but aren't those versions slower and squashed? The MD version of Sonic was.

[@Millenium-Mige]

@@souljastation5463 No region locks so the game works no problem on a US machine.

[@HollowRick]

​​@@souljastation5463 no not when running on US machine it will just run the game at 60hz

[@sig4311]

As a French person that works in the industry it still blows my mind to know that everytime a NEW Astérix game gets released digitally the studios are always recording a solid 250 000 copies sold in North America where the sales aren't Canadian - so U.S and Mexico sold copies - and yet Limited Run never reached out to the studios to try and see what a FIRST EVER U.S collectors edition of an Astérix game would net them ... (I guarantee you that rabid Astérix Euro fans would also probably try to snatch a copy) All I am trying to say is the following "Over the years of retro gaming youtube Astérix has gotten U.S and Mexicans fans it didn't have before maybe it's time for game studios and publishers to try again at least games wise"

[@iliketurtles4869]

I like turtles

[@ctg8563]

I also like turtles

[@TheCrazyparrot8]

I had a pair of turtles in my aquarium back then. They kept jumping out and wandered around in the house.

[@iliketurtles4869]

@@TheCrazyparrot8 neat!

[@bricethompson1922]

We miss seeing your comments 😢

[@BlueEyedVibeChecker]

Brit here. When I was young, I had an orange swirl Dreamcast that somehow ran our entire PAL collection flawlessly, only hiccup was that it was composite AV only as the RF aerial connector was stuck in grayscale. But the only time I've seen anything from other regions not work personally is trying to use either an NTSC or PAL game on a french SECAM TV where it just wouldn't post after powering on. in terms of retro gaming at least. The only real issues I've found in terms of regional issues, which really shouldn't have been since we're both PAL regions, is that my Xbox 360 absolutely refused to acknowledge any disc, whether it was a game, CD or DVD if it was from Germany. Content from everywhere else in Europe worked fine, even a few NTSC games, while small in number, worked(I'm assuming it was a DRM, region lock slip up or something) but this only ever worked if I booted up the game without a connection to Xbox Live so I can't really say anything about that. Still, it's good to see a western youtuber who remembers that we exist lol.

[@BlueEyedVibeChecker]

To clarify, it was an NTSC 0 revision model, not a 1 or 2 Dreamcast, if that means anything.

[@Elshiem]

The PAL market is a Paradise for Collector's Editions. A lot of games with normal releases in US has Collector's Edition in Europe. Metroid 2 Remake is an example of that. In Europe they released a Collector with a keychain, ost, poster, digital code for gameboy game, steelbook and artbook.

[@CuCuz305]

True, I got it. But I kinda regret, because the game was definitely not worth €90.

[@unstoppableExodia]

It is a little annoying that even in Australia we don’t get all the cool collectors edition Europe gets. I don’t know why but Europe reigns supreme with collectors editions, both quality and quantity. It can be pricey trying to import them, especially once they hit the secondary market @@CuCuz305 the game on its own has become quite valuable and that euro collectors edition is well worth hanging onto give it time and Metroid fanatics will pay top dollar for it

[@souljastation5463]

Project Zero for the WiiU also costs too much, IMO not worthy.

[@CuCuz305]

@@souljastation5463 right. Immediately got this one on release, because survival horror games almost always increase in value and I wanted to actually play the game. Haven’t opened it yet though.

[@Flyingscotsman218]

I find in Australia you don't see much american stuff for sale, but then where I live there aren't a huge amount of retro game shops. But I'm so glad someone is talking about pal ! I feel like we miss out alot 😅

[@widdowson91]

KZbin is so heavily dominated by US creators that us in Europe get the impression that the US thinks what happened there is universal. Which is absolutely stupid. There are thousands upon thousands of games released in Europe that never made it to the States, mainly for computers. We also got a lot of computer ports for consoles that the US never got.

[@sdmxzer0]

Australia has an exclusive version of beetle adventure racing (called hsv Adventure racing) for N64.

[@mandarin6662]

Australia is pretty on par with having their own identity with gaming releases now, but I remember a time when the shelves were lined with European and Asian copies of games mixed with Australian versions. It wasn't fun hahaha

[@The-Fishkeeper]

Good PAL physical exclusives seem to be becoming more common too.

[@chrisfarm1]

Thankyou Adam, giving Pal the love it deserves

[@farmerfreakeasy9577]

My one tip for US collectors: If you can't get a PAL game to run at 60Hz then be wary of games(like RPG's) that contain an abundance of text. As the difference between reading lots of text at 60Hz, or instead at 50Hz can kill the experience of some RPG's. As you slowly wait for the text to unfold, and compensate by elongating your reading technique. Sometimes there's a get around if a developer was foresightful/generous enough to give multiple speed options for the text. Or maybe "quick unfolding" of text is possible by pressing the X button on every speech bubble. But sometimes this wasn't the case with older RPGs. Great vid, and wonderfully explained. 🤓

[@jeffyanderpson3397]

I was never sure if PAL games would work right on my TVs or thought that they ran slower.

[@hazy33]

It's that thing of the USA thinking they are the world. In Europe 99% of TVs would handle an NTSC signal in the states it wasn't even a consideration to make them PAL compatible.

[@souljastation5463]

@@hazy33 only TVs from the 90s though, 80s TV generally weren't multistandard.

[@raphaelcalado4335]

Great video. Here in Brazil I used to import games all over the place, but right now, with our troubled economic situation and undervalued currency, it is hard to import anything, because 1 brazilian reais is worth of 0,15 dollar and the euro is even more expensive at 0,18, so we have to wait for a increase in value of our currency to have a chance to import anything in a fair way.

[@ParkProductionsGames]

I’m in Scotland, this was a very interesting topic. Would like to see further videos on your PAL collection. I bought Deep Fear on launch mainly because that was billed as the final release game for the Saturn here. It was an ok & fun Resident Evil style game, let down only by the added “air supply” mechanic.

[@lordsofkoble]

I'm in the UK too and purchased the Japanese version a few years back bc £50 or so, sent over from Japan vs £300 for the PAL. Dialogue in English but menu & text in Japanese. I can read some but need a guide tbh.

[@BawhawhawYT]

I create a lot of pickups videos and am from the UK so I collect mainly PAL games. What I have found and what I have seen on fellow UK collectors channels is that the odd American who leaves a comment will often ask why we collect the PAL stuff and not just import the NTSC. They usually say something about how the NTSC is always superior and more valuable and its what real collectors want. To me it makes no sense. Thing is I import a lot of NTSC stuff but only the exclusives which a lot of people don't even realise didn't come out in Europe. Its always good to see someone who's willing to actually show PAL gaming in a positive light.

[@azazeln]

Love the thumbnail Much love from your fans across the ocean!

[@FrancisYorkMorganFBI]

honestly, people always overlook how much cheaper certain games are in the EU. XC2 Torna (used): 80$ in the EU (brand new): 30€ That's a huge price difference

[@TailsGuy72]

Yup, some games are just way more affordable. All the Xenoblade games are easier to buy over there.

[@VideoGameJNPoop]

In fact, Europe (Australia sometimes too) even got different console versions of some games that were released in the US, like: Sonic Gems Collection (USA only has it on GameCube, but Japan and Europe also got it on PlayStation 2, which is also the one I have), Donald In Maui Mallard (other versions were released in the US as Maui Mallard In Cold Shadow, but Europe and Brazil also got a Genesis/Mega Drive version), and Shenmue 2 (although the Xbox version was released in the USA and even with English voice acting, Japan and Europe also have a DreamCast version but still with Japanese voices with subtitles), although I bet you might know this one anyway, since your mainly a DreamCast fan, I think.

[@VideoGameJNPoop]

And the character Yuan in Shenmue 2 even had his/her voice changed in the PAL DreamCast version from a male to a female, so what Sega did was they recasted a female voice actor in place for a male one. Because Yuan is actually a transgender/cross-gender male.

[@mepm]

Conan 2004 is a good example of a PAL exclusive

[@Moulin13]

There is a weird nationalism between some North American collectors where they are only willing to collect NA titles and refuse to get other region games because they aren't part of an American library...

[@ginovavienne7581]

I never new. But now I know. I'll look out for PAL games

[@Dagoth_Ur_1]

This is a good video, I'm from the uk and before PS1 (where we got treated to FF7, Suikiden, grandstream saga..everything) Japan didn't release JRPGs in Europe for some reason. We didn't get Earthbound, the original final fantasy's, lunar, lots of great stuff. I've been pretty tempted to get foreign game's as my collection grows, so far I've gotten suikoden 3? (NTSC, weren't PAL released), and on NES, the 3 ninja gaidens plus two Contra's. Because Germany thought the word 'ninja' was too violent, along with humans shooting each other. Europe panicked and Contra was changed to Roboprocter with robots or some nonsense, and ninja gaiden to shadow warriors. Also love foreign peripherals, got a white 3D saturn controller and virtual stick I think, from Japan. Oh and the reason I didn't get foreign region game's was, I need to build up my own region first haha plus would need to get around some locks which shouldn't be hard.

[@skull902]

When thinking about the whole 50/60hz situation, at least for like 6th gen on, I think (but could be and probably am wrong) that it was mostly an issue of loadtimes since developers knew how to compensate for the difference by that point. For example, years ago I watched two people livestream a race of Sonic Heroes. One of the players was doing legitimately _much_ better, but the second player was able to keep up and it was found that they were playing in different hertz (which probably should've prompted a restart of the race but that's aside from the point). In actual gameplay it wasn't noticeable, but the other guy was able to keep himself in the race because his levels were loading in ever so slightly quicker.

[@ricardog.s2505]

As a Sonic and speed run fan I curious about the race, what's the name of the livestream?

[@skull902]

@@ricardog.s2505 Oh, that was on Twitch back in like 2012/13 or so, I think. There might not be an archive It was hosted by NTom64 of HellfireComms and his opponent was whoever was running The Sonic Show at the time, if that helps EDIT: Found the exact moment it became apparent kzbin.info/www/bejne/aJzMeY17pa95h5I

[@adamwebber6634]

The PAL regions used to get games a lot later than the US back in the day. As a result PAL versions would sometimes have extra content/bug fixes not present in the NTSC versions.

[@mukepon.]

Thank you for your very good time.😊👍

[@tonyg5597]

Yes, I recall back in the day of the Sega Mega Drive that retailers would also sell Sega Genesis titles as the PAL territory did not always get a local PAL release. As part of the 'grey market' it was frowned upon as the local distributor did not get the profits, but retailers still sold them (usually cos they never came out or there was a significant delay between NTSC and PAL release dates)

[@The_RadicalOne]

Outstanding video Adam. Finally someone else talking about Chaos Break.

[@erikheijden9828]

Only thing i know is that PAL games often have better cover art.

[@CuCuz305]

Definitely. Famous examples are Ico and RE4.

[@Dagoth_Ur_1]

@@CuCuz305 suikoden lol, check out the PAL front cover, then the NTSC. Doesn't always work though, our PAL strider's on sega look stupid, some chubby middle aged captain kirk lookalike in purple spandex

[@CuCuz305]

@@Dagoth_Ur_1 yeah but I’m speaking in general.

[@rikustorm13]

Ok, Doshin the Giant is THE ONE exception to my previous comment

[@thepolygondon9198]

I had no idea there was such a stigma attached 😂 I’m all about them region exclusives. Love from London ❤️

[@RealMadTime]

When You Showed the PS2 game I was not expecting 7 Sins, I was expecting something like Resident Evil Survivor 2 or World War Zero

[@garycormack]

A lot of pal games from the 8-32 bit era run at 50hz as you mentioned, the problem is a lot of these pal games have optimised sound and music for 50hz, so while you can indeed play them at 60hz do bring the game up to full speed and without borders the music will play too fast (because it’s pal optimised) Another issue with a lot 32bit pal games is quite often they are either pal optimised or “part” optimised for 50hz. The Saturn is notorious for this , in fact there is a dedicated wag page showing showing you every Saturn games and if it’s either fully optimised , part optimised or not optimised at all, only games that are not optimised at all will run properly on a 60hz NTSC system . Running a pal optimised games such as Sega rally will result in a large chunk of the bottom of the screen being cut off for example Very interesting look at the list here So in my opinion i think US collectors avoid European games as it can be too much of a mixed bag. You can buy a JPN game and know for a fact that it’ll run properly, the only thing you have to worry about is any potential region locks www.google.co.uk/amp/s/randomisedgaming.tumblr.com/post/146372446412/the-complete-european-sega-saturn-60hz-guide-to/amp

[@socrates0603]

Once I collected most of the games I wanted, I got interested in PAL imports because they’re in English. I currently have 47 PAL games, mostly for PS2 and a few PS3 and PS4. I have 11 JP imports for multiple consoles. I first dabbled with imports on PS3 and PS4 since they’re region free. Once my PS2 was modded, that opened up a lot more opportunities. I initially found out about imports from Radical Reggie and bought PAL exclusives. I bought a few because PAL copies are much cheaper (eg., PS3 Painkiller) but tried to focus on PAL exclusives. I think the more exposure KZbin content creators that I follow give to imports, the more I get interested because that’s my main source of information. Great video, Adam!

[@IanNewYashaTheFinalAct]

North America & Japan: NTSC territories Australia & Europe: PAL territories 🇮🇹 DENIED territory

[@willymeaux]

I remember I picked up Truxton for the Mega Drive/Genesis in Paris and was surprised it worked when I got back home. I also somehow got some review copies for PS4 games by accident.

[@ZeusWeus]

Strangely, the same situation but in reverse happens where I live, i've been to a lot of conventions and there's plenty of our PAL copies of games and usually a Japanese section, but never a section for American games, I always have to go out of my way online to track down American exclusives that i'd like.

[@chrisfarm1]

Yes this is soooo true.

[@mctapoutos7426]

Same with me man

[@h.ptenebre7739]

I feel that it is lack of knowledge. The sad part is, that many gamers don't even realize these PAL games exist. In recent years, some of these games have become more well known within the gaming community, thanks to the internet, but I do remember a time when people didn't have a clue. I remember playing Headhunter (Dreamcast) and Deep Fear thinking they were amazing back in the day. For me, I could care less about box art or the fact a game might run a bit slower. For me, it is about high quality games, that never had an official US release. The fact that some of these games exist, and I have a chance to experience them for myself, is what I care about the most.

[@ArcadianLegend]

Terranigma was not only one of my favourites growing up, it's also one of my most favourite games of all time. And I didn't learn until later that it never even released in North America! BTW The Wii/X360/PS3 was generally the point where games that didn't support 60hz became the exception rather than the rule. A super rare exception at that. Games in general started supporting 60hz around the Dreamcast's launch but only for 6th gen games onwards

[@strykah92]

Are there actually any PAL games from that gen that are proven not to support 60hz? I would’ve thought since the option was in the consoles themselves rather than a per-game-basis, everything would be good to go. But I’m all for seeing examples if not.

[@hellman9655]

I'm glad you made this video Adam! I hadn't considered what PAL games I missed until playing Pop'n twinbee on SNES virtual console via switch.

[@adultmoshifan87]

I’d also like to add: - if I heard correctly, New Ghostbusters 2 was released for the Famicom in Japan - We Dare was also released on the region free PS3 - Captain Planet was also released in Asia

[@AdamKoralik]

Yes, the point was simply that we didn't get them in the US.

[@youroneandonlyneighborhood8834]

Glad you shouted out Quest for Booty. :)

[@Masquarr]

The only consoles that I ever imported PAL games for are the Playstation 2 and Playstation 3. I did it so that I could play some of the Buzz games that never came out in North America. Fortunately, the European Buzz games are compatible with the American buzzers, so I didn't have to import any hardware to play them. I also imported some of the PAL-exclusive Singstar games, as well as Hardware: Online Arena. (Unfortunately, I didn't find out that the master server went offline until after I bought it, so I was never even able to play it online.) The Playstation 3 plays PAL PS3 games just fine in 60Hz, (at least as long as you are playing on an EDTV or HDTV,) but I have run into issues playing PAL PS2 games on some American TV sets. On my parents' LG flat panel HDTV set, the colors looked really washed out, and on a friends' LG flat panel HDTV, the bottom of the screen got chopped off. On both of the Panasonic flat panel HDTVs I tried, the screen went completely blank once the game launched. Neither of my CRT HDTVs work correctly with PAL games.

[@urmie]

Adam, at least all of us have that one PAL game in our collection because it was the only way to play in English, Shenmue 2. 👍🏻

[@marciopinho6100]

Another thing that people usually forget to mention is that 90% of pal Dreamcast games have the option, at the beginning of the game, to choose between 50 and 60hz. And our jewel cases are beautiful (incredible fragile though).

[@jlawless7272]

Also when using vga they do 480p 60hz aswell

[@madfinntech]

As someone who lives in PAL country, I just collect PAL versions of games mainly because they are nostalgic to me. For example, I want my PS1 games in those cases they were in my youth as I remember them, not regular jewel cases like NA and Japanese stuff. Of course, I import stuff we never got and there's a lot. That being said though when I actually want to play something I'll go all the ways to play them in the developer's intended way and YES in some cases the PAL 50Hz version is the one that runs correctly but yeah mostly with old console stuff the 60Hz stuff is the correct one. Also, surprisingly lots of stuff was actually PAL optimized against common consensus. Adding to that during the 6th generation lots of PAL stuff also offers the 60Hz mode.

[@SormonAusPol]

As a person living in PAL we frequently have to really on NTCS imports. Namco didn't seem to know Europe exsisted until 2005 with most PS1 and PS2 games being NTSC only. So I guess NTSC importing isn't super uncommon here.

[@WhiteJarrah]

3:35 If you use American hardware, Japanese stuff is generally easier to bypass because it often uses the same code as the US. You can play Super Famicom games in a US SNES simply by pulling out the security tabs. For something like a PlayStation or a Genesis, you may need some extra tools to get around region lockouts. Djclyve and I recently did a whole series on Ranma characters exclusive to the video games, and each profile had a dedicated tech segment on how to bypass the region lockouts.

[@AdamKoralik]

Those are more the exceptions than the rule.

[@sonicspeed6413]

Not too much to say about this video, but leaving this comment mostly for the algorithm as suggested. As far as PAL games for the Dreamcast, for some games they may have been the only ports of the games that had an English interface (until they got released on other systems). Shenmue II, for example, was only released to the West on the Dreamcast in Europe, ditto for Rez. Despite Rez being widely available as Rez Infinite on PC, the Dreamcast versions NTSC-J, and especially PAL, still go for very high prices on the used market.

[@triledink]

There are some games that were released in a physical copy only in pal regions, and for some reason they are also playable on US consoles aswell. The game Ratchet and Clank: Quest for booty was released in a physical disc in Pal regions and I have heard rumors that that disc is also playable on an US console, why? i don't know and have not tested it. Only heard about it.

[@Dragon969Reviews]

My first PAL game was Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven for the PS4, only released digitally in the US and the JP version didn't have english subtitles so EU version was the only choice for me.

[@alexgonzalez9053]

Spanish collector here and with a kinda reversed situation where people kind of prefer getting japanese stuff instead of US for the same nonsensical reasons. And I do share all the point you made in this video, I mainly get spanish distributed stuff to support the local distributors, then the other "PAL territories" stuff either to support regionwide distributors or for a financial reason (it's kinda ludicrous how much having the cover in one language or another might change the price), then I go for the US exclusives or titles we only got as a digital download but have a physical edition in the US region, then import Asia Pacific stuff since they often get games fully translated to english that ether are digital only in the West or don't even get any kind of release here and then, as a last option, japanese imports almost just for exxclusives. And my reasons for importing are quite similar as yours too, with exclusives being the main reason with getting digital only stuff in physical formats coming in a close second plus another one : censorship. The amount of censorship applied to games depending on the region can vary wildly, but like many 80s games were heavily censored because the UK laws forced them and they weren't going to make yet another version ,there's still a lot of stuff that suffered massive changes in Japan or the States after the mid 90s to nowadays that are fully uncut on PAL regions (and some cases were the US or the asia pacific/japanese versions were the "free" ones). This is even more of a game by game case and requires a bit of research beforehand but it still happens nowadays and might be a reason to want to get a different version of the game than the one they're selling you at your local retailer. And the funniest thing? All those people that give me weird looks when I explain this to them are exactly the ones the ask to borrow my "exclusive stuff" ALL THE TIME! xD

[@itwsntme]

A quick tip. Australia does get most of the European stuff, and we don't have to deal with the multiple classification labels. I own the Australian version of Project Zero and it has a single classification label, the Australian one.

[@nathannolk9764]

To be fair, most of my friends (I'm European as well) that collect retro games have PAL games and sometimes Japanese imports, so it kind of goes both ways in a sense. I think this is partly because a lot of people mistakenly believe that only Japan had exclusive games not coming out here.

[@munchmunchfr]

As you said, PEGI is used by a lot of European countries (not only E.U.). It's a system created by video game publishers to take the lead on child protection before countries worry too much and do it their way. They preferred to do their thing first to make sure it wasn't too offensive to their market. In Germany (USK rating), it's different because it's in the law and german laws rule out PEGI system : Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (Article 5) + Protection of Young Persons Act, Chapter 3: Protection of young people in the context of media (§ 12 Data media with films or games, § 14 Labelling of films as well as of film and play programmes, § 15 Date media harmful to young people). Unlike PEGI, USK is both run by a mix of video-game publishers, parents and government officials. I think it's healthier than our PEGI even though their warning logos are even bigger than ours X-D

[@brake_gamer90]

I import some games mostly a mix between PAL & Japanese Games but I don't focus on it more for financial reasons!

[@1966gt40]

Awesome info. Did not know how easy it can be. Thanx.

[@ZeniusFox]

I've imported PAL games. If it's pre 7th gen I usually do research to make sure the game runs at 60hz. My go to for imports are actually Asia/Hong Kong releases because they are practically English releases down to the boxart and title spine.

[@gardevoirtrainer4526]

The PAL version of Resident Evil 4 on GameCube has a really dope cover where it has a red and black forest with Dr. Salvadorian in the background.

[@souljastation5463]

The Wii version had the same cover but white, my sister had it.

[@hermes_job_observer144]

Yeah, i've discussed Doshin The Giant with you before and i haven't got the chance to use it on anything newer than a 2008 samsung and Sony Trinitron CRT (99/03). I was using action replay on Gamecube and Wii but getting either a black and white image or fuzzy lines, both with sound i believe. A few other interesting PAL only gems are: Last Window: The Secret of Cape West (DS). (It was the last game by one of my favorite developers, Cing (Trace Memories) and was the sequel to the excellent Hotel Dusk: Room 215. Speaking of Trace Memories (DS), it's sequel, Another Code: R- A Journey into Lost Memories (Wii), was PAL only as well as Cing's point and click/ horror game Glass Rose (PS2). Another was Exumed (SegaSaturn). The US version, entitled Powerslave was pretty expensive, so i got the PAL version. The only problem i've had was the opening sequence and the few voice overs (the pharoh) were glitchy and out of synch (i assumed because of the 50hz/60hz). Otherwise it seemed to play fine. I really love the Siren series (PS2/PS3) and Siren 2 only made it to PAL. It's definitely on my list. Oh, and last but not least, Overblood 2 (PS1), the sequel to a very interesting Hudsonsoft game, Overblood (PS1). i enjoyed this video and thanks for trying to wake North Americans up to the PAL scene. Peace.

[@TechRyze]

I can't believe you were in Blackpool! I'm based in the North of England and would have totally tried to meet you if I knew you were in the North. The trailer for We Dare was hilarious IIRC. The Xbox tank game probably had no issues with licensing in order to enable back compat, and I can imagine there were no issues when they recompiled it for x86 and tested it.

[@Kuristofa99]

Hopefully this Comment is high enough for people to read. First, most European Video Games were either released here in America, or whatever European Exclusives they have, we don't really care for here in America. When it comes to Japanese Games, there were between hundreds to thousands of video games that were released in Japan, that were not released in America. Europe, not so much. I'm not saying there are no PAL Exclusives that I want to own, but it's literally a list of less than 10 games, and I own those 10 PAL games that I would want to own. Second, just ease of access; this one is weird, but I'll try to explain. Most people who love video games, when they travel, they go to Japan, pick up a bunch of random stuff, bring it back here to the US, and sell it here in the US. When I go to a video game swap meet, I only see Japanese Imports. I've bought PAL games, but very rarely. If I had more opportunities to buy PAL games, I would, but I do not have those opportunities. A lot of the reason (I think at least; these are not facts) is that Americans do not really travel to Europe in General, or if they do, they don't buy video games and bring them back to the US. When people travel to Japan, there's this mindset of (What came out in Japan and not in America), when people travel to Europe, there isn't that mindset. It's usually "Most games came out in America anyway," so they end up not bringing anything back to the states. So, if I want to buy the PAL version of Donkey Konga 1 and 2 (Which had way better soundtracks than the US), I have to pay the price of the game, plus another $20 for international shipping! So I just end up running the game off an Emulator to play it rather than owning it.

[@paspax]

The console the game is being played on is what determines what Hz mode the game will play at. A PAL console outputs a PAL50Hz signal, an NTSC console outputs an NTSC 60Hz signal, regardless of where the game came from.

[@AdamKoralik]

This!

[@tessc997]

Austria doesn't use USK, we also use PEGI, it's just that we get the Germany-German games here since it's easier to translate most games once, which is why we sadly get some censored games from Germany here like Wolfenstein, even tho it doesn't have to be censored here.

[@rabbidlobo]

You and I both ponder that. It seems like PAL imports get overlooked, I have a PAL SNES to go along with my US SNES and Super Famicom. Wanna get a PAL PS2 and Dreamcast too. Also bought the physical copy of INfamous First Light from France.

[@TheVlad489]

Adam, I would love to own a PAL copy of Deep Fear, but it costs like 300+ EUR compared to importing a JP version to Estonia.

[@hellogoodbye4906]

Dreamcast has different game case design for both regions yet somehow both are the most flimsy cases ever.

[@mariotaz]

and those PS1 europe cases. Mine always broke. So annoyed

[@adultmoshifan87]

I like to think that in an alternate reality, I was born in an earlier decade, lived in North America and ran my own game store. In addition to domestic games for all consoles, I would sell Game Boy and Game Gear games imported from Europe and Japan AND also sell some copies of the Sonic The Hedgehog books published in the UK which were written by Martin Adams!

[@ulyssestyler9685]

I have a few Japanese games, a few European and two from Hong Kong. It boils down to price and accessibility for me. Gravity Rush Remastered, for example, is crazy expensive if you want a hard copy in NA, but I got a French copy for a much more reasonable price. Plays in English. Edit: I am Canadian. I've also found that sometimes local gamestores have weird random imports which I almost always buy.

[@wyterabitt2149]

A lot of the AmigaCD 32 games are Amiga games already on the Amiga computers, the console did not go too well. Some are worth getting though. And the Amiga in general has a huge catalogue of games worth getting.

[@johnnash2815]

@20:08 I've been to the louvre and interestingly the Mona Lisa painting is the exact same size as that game case.

[@AdamKoralik]

I mean, funny, but not true at all. I've been there too.

[@SoundwaveMusic22]

I think the biggest hurdle for normal folks is the 50 to 60hz difference you mentioned though you could argue at that point you're already an enthusiast and have a workaround for that depending on the issue

[@AdamKoralik]

Yeah, most of the time it's not actually a problem.

[@FlyingV555]

I usually don’t import games, but I made an exception for Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty because it’s Ratchet & Clank, which is my favorite games series of all time.

[@VicViper]

Coming from France, the argument of a lot of people around here at least concerning the 50Hz issue, is that most European versions of NTSC developed games (and sometimes even our own PAL games shockingly enough like Tomb Raider 1) aren't optimised to run in 50Hz at the correct speed. It's not just a framerate issue, a lot of our games pre-HD era (and especially pre-Dreamcast era) run 20% slower than yours (or maybe it's 16%, I dunno which side), as in, if you finish a level in a NTSC version of a random platformer in exactly 1 minute, it would take 1 minute and 12 seconds on the unoptimised PAL version. This might seem like nothing, but it adds up, and it's definitely felt. But there are also a lot that are in an in-between state, and it's such a coin toss for which game is completely, partially, or not optimised that it's a headache. Most games in the 8-Bit/16-Bit era that were 50Hz "optimised" only concerned the music being played at the right speed, but the gameplay would still be 20% slower. Examples: - Duck Tales 1 is one rare case of a completely PAL optimised 8-bit game, but Duck Tales 2 isn't, so you could think that playing PAL Duck Tales 2 on a NTSC NES would make the game completely play at the correct speed, but it's actually partially optimised, so the music of the PAL version would play too fast on an NTSC system. - Some games would be partially optimised but it desyncs certain specific parts, like in Super Metroid if you force the PAL version on 60Hz, the credits & cutscenes will be completely out of sync with the audio. It also runs faster in gameplay, but not quite like the NTSC version, so there was some tweaking under the hood. - Similarly, I picked up Space Megaforce/Super Aleste (PAL copy) and forced it in 60Hz, and thought it played well. Little did I know, the soundtrack was actually too fast when forced in 60Hz, and it's literally the only (of a couple) PAL SNES game I own that has that quirk. (usually the music would be unaffected on SNES) Though now it has the side-effect of me thinking that the OST's original speed is too slow, the soundtrack is killer at +15% to +20% speed imo. - Even a game as contemporary as Tales of Symphonia on GameCube from 2003 runs at an unoptimised 50Hz (it certainly fooled me, because the speed of battles doesn't even feel slow without knowledge of the 60Hz version, and I couldn't tell 50 FPS from 60 FPS). Another Namco developed RPG game for GameCube, Baten Kaitos, runs at a completely optimised 50Hz with the only quirk of playing at 25 FPS as opposed to 30 FPS (like all PAL games). - Sometimes, the game is very optimised in 50Hz, but still partially so and in a way that messes up with the programming. PAL Daytona USA on Saturn is such a title (outside of the ridiculous borders), where the game was heavily modified: it runs faster (and the time display too), but the arcade timer runs seconds slower and was tweaked to give you less time on each checkpoint even on the same difficulty, the car AI is accidentally noticeably stronger, and the controls are way jerkier (even when forced in 60Hz). - Other times, it would be overcompensated. PAL Sonic Heroes on GameCube specifically (and I believe Xbox) has a 60Hz option, which is lacking on PS2. But choosing 60Hz on PAL Sonic Heroes makes it run faster than NTSC Sonic Heroes, it plays at 60 FPS, but the gameplay speed is like 70Hz. It's a rare case where the game was 50Hz optimised, but 60Hz unoptimised. It's such a gamble to pick a PAL game because you never know whether or not it's gonna run as intended or not, whether it's on a PAL system or an NTSC system. Chances are, if you've picked up PAL exclusives Master System games and ran it on an NTSC Master System, they might have input issues or the music/gameplay will run faster than intended. That's why I can't really recommend to import PAL games without prior documentation. PAL games on NTSC systems forced in 60Hz will only run "as intended" if they were originally NTSC developed games and were completely unoptimised to begin with. Otherwise certain parts will be messed up. To be fair, NTSC versions of European games can have the same issues, but they're way rarer. Rayman 3 for example is meant to be played in 50Hz, otherwise the audio/voices is desynced in cutscenes (and I believe it runs too fast, like Rayman 1). Shadow of The Beast on Genesis I heard ran too fast in its NTSC USA version, but was tweaked to run like on PAL versions for NTSC JAP region.

[@VicViper]

@Paul Bell My bad. Although I never got why entering the equivalent of a debug code to get the same performance as NTSC versions should've ever been a thing. I'm shocked Unleashed PS2 has that too, as a freaking 2008 game. Moreover to get more information, I've read that PAL PS2 games with a 60Hz option don't really constitute as "PAL60", but rather it makes you play the game in an NTSC mode. Apparently internally, the PAL PS2 doesn't really have support for PAL60, which is baffling to me considering the PS1 made like 33% of its sales in Europe alone. Sega cared with the Dreamcast while Sonydidn't.

[@NiGHTS1980]

Cool vid. I'm an Aussie and Id like to see a video of US (NTSC) only games us PAL guys should be importing.

[@AdamKoralik]

That, ironically, would be harder since I don't pay much attention to which games you guys don't get.

[@NiGHTS1980]

@@AdamKoralik Yeah, I dont think there are too many videos on KZbin about it but there are so many great games that you guys got that for whatever reason never made it to PAL territories. Its annoyed me as a gamer for decades.

[@teh_supar_hackr]

There's a few consoles that I want to get every game that was exclusive to the PAL region such as Wii and GameCube which only had around 5 or 8 PAL exclusives.

[@AdamKoralik]

Yeah, GameCube didn't get much love in Europe, and like half the exclusives were JUST France.

[@teh_supar_hackr]

@@AdamKoralik That I never knew. For some reason people like to say that Ratatouie, Teen Titans, and some TMNT game were France exclusives, but know that there not since I remember playing those games as a kid at a friend's house. Well except for Ratatouie, that I saw advertised when the movie was coming out. I made a list of PAL exclusives for Wii if you want to look at that. old.reddit.com/r/wii/comments/hd28q5/list_of_pal_region_only_games/

[@ADayOOO]

The Ratchet and Clank collection for the Vita only has a physical edition in PAL (I believe). At least if you want an accessible physical version in English, the European version is the way to go. It's one of a handful of PAL Vita games I have.

[@jcchaconjr]

Man, the only experience I had with a PAL game early on was Shinobido: Way of the Ninja for PS2. The 576i resolution was a major barrier - even after copying and applying an NTSC patch to a copy I burned and used with Swap Magic, you lost like a third of the screen and much of the interface. :( Now that you mention the problem goes away on modern HDTV's, it might be worth re-visiting with OPL on my fat PS2.

[@TheodoroDML]

The PAL version of Super Smash Bros Melee is a bit different, some characters got nerfed. I hope to get that version one day too

[@TheodoroDML]

Update, I got my copy of PAL Melee lol

[@MonkeyChip]

The pal version of futurama on xbox is also insanely cheaper the the us counterpart. Huge savings for just a small label

[@cidhighwind7268]

Check Neng,a spanish game released for the PS2 based in a sketch comedian from early 2000's.

[@MrSolidtiger]

Deep Fear was a PAL/European game I was curious about, but at the online asking prices I just saw, I’m gonna steer the ship back towards Japan. I do have a PAL copy of Shenmue II and it was easy to boot up with my cheat disc.

[@BigHilm]

Great video topic! I'm from the UK & import alot from Japan. I also hv alot of US Nes/Snes games. Its an interesting point about France being cheaper. I recently took a punt on a brand new copy of Hexen on the Saturn, its not an expensive game but I think I paid about £16!

[@BENVAFabri]

The financial part is also true the other way around, I live in Belgium, besides LRG and Amazon US I have only imported a few games from other places because shipping and taxes are in many cases more than the game. I used to work for a US company a few years back and my colleague had to travel alot to the US so I ordered games and had the seller ship them to his hotel or to our office in Florida. So I totally agree with your take on this.

[@AdamKoralik]

Yeah, I can't speak to the European perspective exactly. Though one thing I should have mentioned is, Americans don't have to pay import taxes or tariffs or anything. Canadians do, but we don't.

[@BENVAFabri]

@@AdamKoralikImport tax is a major hold back for me I´m happy you don´t have to put up with that. I don´t know how exactly it works but games from Limited Run I have never paid import on but from places like ebay there´s a chance if the value is above a certain amount and you´re package is checked by customs you pay import an customs which really sucks.

[@mr.selfimprovement3241]

My Samsung 4K HDR TV from several years back (KS8000) actually doesn't support 580i PAL games. I also have a brand new 3440x1440p LG IPS PC gaming monitor... ALSO doesn't support 576i PAL. In my extensive experience, even in 2021, most North American displays do not fully support PAL resolutions out of the box (with the confirmed exception of the newer LG 4K OLEDs). You would be surprised how many screens do not support some PAL resolutions, seemingly for no reason. I had a 4K ASUS monitor that DID support all PAL resolutions several years back, but that's the only TV or monitor I own that fully supports PAL resolutions. I have a lot of PAL games, and my favorite example of a game to prove this point is Alone in the Dark New Nightmare on PS2. It's a PAL exclusive for PS2, and it actually boots in 480i for some reason - then switches to 576i at the first screen. One that first screen, you can choose to play the game in either 480i/60hz or 576i/50hz! The only game on PS2 I've seen do that. So If this game launches and boots fine on you're console, but then black screens a bout a minute later after memory card check, and you're TV/monitor then fails to support it (throws up a warning, or shuts off) then you know that the screen doesn't support PS2 PAL games. Currently the only screen I have that natively supports 576i is my 20L2MD PVM CRT - and I'm a enthusiast with a lot of monitors and CRTs. So I understand why a lot of (non PAL) gamers don't buy PAL titles for certain platforms. There are a few caveats though and work arounds. I find that you are COMPLETELY right Adam though when it comes to PAL compatibility of modern screen when dealing with PAL resolutions PRE- Dreamcast/GC/PS2 era. Basically most PAL games before 2000, run fine on nearly all my LCD monitors and TVs (even most PS1 games). That is because these lower resolutions are often interpreted by most NTSC televisions as 480i or 480p. So either the TV's just accept the resolutions natively, or the console adapt the signal. But once you get into the higher end of the PAL SD analogue signals that's when I think most north American screens have capability issues. The way I work around it myself is TWO main ways (and I think others could try this): I use converters and upscalers like the Retro Tink 2X Pro and OSSC, and often a Mcable Classic to change the signal to something my TV WILL handle. Sometimes I even chain them in different ways in certain situations (especially since the M Classic will take certain signals from the scalers and upscale to a more modern TV friendly resolution). The other thing I do for my consoles like my Gamecube, Dreamcast and XBox - is that I have them modded and thru things like the DCHDMI or Swiss I can force different NTSC resolutions. For me the console I still have the most issues with PAL wise though is the PS2 - which has ALOT of PAL exclusives, and not a lot of great reliable ways to natively manipulate the signal - so I have to use different hardware work arounds to get them working on my LCDs with my PAL modded PS2 and region free CFW BC PS3.

[@Renan_de_Souza]

About the N64, there are only 3 European exclusives, actually. That's because F1 Racing Championship was released in Brazil, and can be played just fine on a North American N64 console with no mod whatsoever (and it's in English).

[@AdamKoralik]

Yeah, I JUST heard about that. I'd get the Brazilian version, if I could.

[@Renan_de_Souza]

@@AdamKoralik Years ago I bought and shipped a copy to an American collector, but I just finished looking it up on Mercado Livre (Brazilian eBay) and I couldn't find a single copy! :( I'd be good if I could send you alongside a Brazilian copy of Shenmue III (it's literally the same content as the NA version, but the cover and the disc are in Brazilian Portuguese), 'cause I bet you don't have it in your collection yet.

[@AdamKoralik]

@@Renan_de_Souza Yeah, I want that too. But finding ways to import Brazilian stuff is...not easy. Even Amazon Brazil won't ship here.

[@Renan_de_Souza]

@@AdamKoralik Yeah, I've never seen a seller on Mercado Livre that ships internationally either. And I get why. The bureaucracy here is just ridiculous. It's way too expensive and it's an even bigger pain to do it. I remember when he sent money to my Paypal account so I could buy him some games, and the amount of taxes was out of this world. We had to find another alternative, cause he was basically losing money everytime he did a transaction. At that time, 1 US Dollar = 2 BR Real. At least now it's "easier", cause our economy is so f***ed up that 1 US Dollar = almost 6 BR Real. A copy of Shenmue III is R$ 200 (a fifth of Brazil's monthly minimum wage), which is just a little bit over 35 dollars, and I have no idea how much it would cost to ship it to the US. Years ago it was R$ 50 (almost 9 dollars in today's currency), but I think it depends. The other guy lives in Louisiana, so I don't know if it would be more or less than R$ 50 to ship it to Illinois.

[@danielneumayr5167]

Hi, great Video. But i have one Correction: I am from Austria and we also use the PEGI Rating System. If you go into a random Store here you will only see PEGI Stuff. USK is Germany Only. However if you buy something from Amazon Germany you might end up with the USK Version. I dont like the USK Logo either so i stick with the PEGI Stuff.

[@Namek_pd]

Being and European, it's very interesting to see the USA/Canadas perceptive of our video game market. I never thought much about our exclusives, but after this video I'm more interested in knowing more about our games. About the exclusive games per country, we have some physical games that where released exclusively in some European countries, for example: Strickers Edge(Portugal), El Toro(Spain), and more that I'm not remembering. There are some odd balls that like "Alarm for cobra 11" for PS2 or "Fimbul" for PS4.

[@AdamKoralik]

I actually managed to get Fimbul over there.

[@pastelshoal]

I import a bunch of games from Europe because I like to play my games in French :) Québec here. French language stuff has only recently become a standard in NTSC copies of games. So for a lot of older games such as Nintendo DS, Dreamcast, it's a real crapshoot on if things were translated in North America (it's almost never marked on boxes too! Super frustrating). Therefore I tend to import from France, or when a game advertises multilingual support. EDIT: To add, there is some genuine issues with frequency stuff still. For instance, I'm still not at all sure how to import Doshin the Giant and play because I am 60% sure it does not have a 60hz mode. Sometimes it's easy (Shenmue II and Rez play perfect for instance) but sometimes it's not. In addition, region blocking can be harder on some consoles. Gamecube's only legit option is a disc that costs 100 plus dollars. I would use some modding software, but haven't gone down that rabbit hole.

[@AdamKoralik]

Check out my video about the GCLoader. That may help with your GameCube issues, or at the very least just be interesting