Release
Every Kataban Blog post about a game whose home version was sold on disc or cartridge only in Japan. All posts · All tags
Jaleco's Saiyuki World (Famicom, 11 November 1988, product code NMK-KW) is Wonder Boy in Monster Land retold with Journey to the West characters, and the cartridge never left Japan. How it relates to Wonder Boy, why a Jaleco game carries an NMK code, the MNK-KW misprint, and how to find the cartridge.
Rondo of Blood (KMCD3005) never left Japan, so the Japanese disc is the only copy there is. Two different Super Famicom games share a Japanese title with the Famicom original, and only the product code tells them apart.
Street Fighter Zero was a stock-clearance rush job, a leaked dip switch handed rivals Capcom's hit-detection secrets, a third of the team defected to SNK, and a variety-show gag character enraged Marvel.
Banpresto's 1995 Super Famicom sound novel is built on a Japanese schoolyard format, not a single legend: every school has its seven wonders. What the format is, how the game uses it, how the PlayStation remake differs, and how to find each version by its product code.
A complete English and Korean fan translation patch for Sega's long-unlocalized Mega Drive RPG Surging Aura launched July 28, 2026. Here's the game's story and where to find an original cartridge.
Chou Aniki (1992) is Japan's definitive "baka-ge" — a deliberately absurd cult classic. Here's its story, and three more cult classics cut from the same cloth, with product codes to find real copies.
Konami's Ganbare Goemon ran to roughly thirty games and barely half a dozen left Japan. What the name means, which entries stayed Japanese, and the product codes for finding the cartridges today.
City Connection has announced Jajamaru no Hyakki Yakouden, a new dungeon-crawling action game in the 40-year-old Ninja JaJaMaru-kun series. Here's what was revealed, and where to find the original 1985 Famicom game.
Five regional releases, one myth about censorship that keeps getting repeated — and the product codes for the versions that never left Japan.
The five Famicom & Super Famicom games that started Fire Emblem — none released in English, all still findable in Japan.
Type a Western title. Get the Japanese name, the cartridge code printed on the spine, and links to the shops that have it.
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