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PAL gamers traditionally have been seen as an oppressed group when it comes to missing out on video games that are released in other territories — cough North America cough. So often, they've looked longingly at the titles Americans and Canadians are happily playing across the ocean. They've got Astal! And Iron Storm! And, uh, Quarterback Attack with Mike Ditka, I suppose!
Well it's the Americans' turn to be jealous because today we're highlighting every — to the best of my knowledge! — game that released in PAL countries but never hit North American shores. There are 35 of them, complete with release dates pinched from Sega Retro or approximated based on magazine coverage, as well as a few fun facts about each one.
Special thanks to the Randomised Gaming blog, where I sourced whether each of these games has been optimized to run at the PAL resolution of 50 hz — for more details on their optimizations of these games and all others released in Europe, check out their Tumblr.
Enjoy!
3D Lemmings
PAL release date: 5th of July 1996
Optimized for 50 hz?: Yes
The beloved puzzle game from British developers DMA Design, although fellow Brit dev house Clockwork Games ported it to Saturn. It released in Japan about a month later with mouse support added, those lucky gits. Sure, that's probably because the Shuttle Mouse never officially released in a PAL country, but such technicalities didn't need to get in the way, as we'll see in a minute.
Actua Soccer Club Edition
PAL release date: June 1997
Optimized for 50 hz?: Yes
UK firm Gremlin Interactive made this football soccer game — what? It's got soccer in its own name, this isn't just me being an ignorant American. Kind of a PAL exclusive, as this is very similar to the Actua Soccer that released months prior in Japan and North America, but instead of teams from around the world, it only has English Premiership teams. We'll still count it, though.
Atlantis: The Lost Tales
PAL release date: 24th of March 1998 (Spain); June 1998 (elsewhere)
Optimized for 50 hz?: No
A Myst-style point-and-click adventure game that was a smash hit on PCs in Europe — not so much in North America, though, where it bombed. That success east of the Atlantic led Sega of Europe to publish a Saturn port. Works with the Shuttle Mouse, though, so what was 3D Lemmings' excuse?
Chaos Control
PAL release date: September 1996
Optimized for 50 hz?: No
An alien-blasting light gun shooter that didn't support the light gun in its original incarnation in Japan — Virtua Gun support was added for the European release, as well as faster load times and improved graphics.
Darius II
PAL release date: October 1996
Optimized for 50 hz?: No
This was the third time this game released on a Sega console — but the first as Darius II. It released under the name Segaia for the Master System in PAL territories as well as for the Mega Drive/Genesis North America and Brazil.
To read about the other 30 PAL games that never made it to North America, check out the full feature on Sega Saturn Shiro!