Feature: Stranded! The Top 25 Games that Won't Come to America Subscribe to this RSS feed

Numbers 10 to 6!

10- Guitar Freaks & Drummania (PS2)

Before Rock Band was even a glint in the eye of gamers, Japanese rhythm game fans had this gem to rock out on. While US gamers got to play the game in the arcade, Konami brought the fun home with guitar and drum peripherals years before Guitar Hero had its first showing. In the home versions, players could compete co-op style or head-to-head on the drums and guitar. Ah, the originality of American gaming.

Like so many Japanese music titles that didn't catch on in the states (read: every non DDR title), the lack of US-friendly tunes made the series a tough sell outside of the arcades.

9- Dragon Quest V (SNES, PS2)

This is one of those twice-bitten import nightmares that especially haunt US gamers. Released during a lean period for RPGs in the US (even a few Final Fantasies didn't get a release during the era), Dragon Quest V introduced a lot of key concepts that would shape RPGs for years to come, including random creature reqruitement, a la Pokemon.

You would have thought that the game's PS2 update would have warranted a release, since the RPG landscape had grown by leaps and bounds during the time between iterations. Unfortunately, Square-Enix decided not to roll the dice and give the game a proper tranlation. Word is that yet another remake is in the works, this time for the DS. Third times a charm, right?

8- Segagaga (Dreamcast)

Published near the end of the Dreamcast's lifecycle, Segagaga has the distinction of having one of the most bizarre premises for an RPG, ever. Set in the future, where Sega's marketshare has reached critically low levels, Segagaga tasks you with saving the company. Featuring plenty of Sega in-jokes and game-culture humor, Segagaga could be the Webster's dictionary definition of "Japanese niche title".

7- Jump Superstars (DS)

Everyone loves Super Smash Bros., but seriously, where's the portable version? As if the US DS audience isn't already bereft of good fighting games, they will probably never get to see this insane brawler that is as close to a DS version of Nintendo's popular fighter as we've ever seen. With a roster that includes characters from Dragon Ball, Naruto, and Yu-Gi-Oh, Jump Superstars would likely be a licensing mess in the US.

6- Vib-Ribbon (PS1)

The world's first, last, and best rhythm-platformer, Vib-Ribbon had you controlling a rabbit whose stages are determined by your music collection. Once the game had loaded to the PS1's RAM, you could drop in any of your CDs and the stages would use the songs to generate unique stages.

Translated for European release, Vib-Ribbon didn't come to the US because we're not allowed to have anything unique or interesting. With plenty of PS1 games gaining new life thanks to PSP remakes and PS3 downloads, we wouldn't cut Vib-Ribbon just yet.