Americans are denied a Star Wars epic adventure game on December 4, 1987


Star Wars fans got their first taste of a dastardly phenomenon that would only accelerate over time on December 4, 1987. It's the phenomenon of new products based on the most quintessential American franchises and cultural touchstones being made available exclusively in foreign countries. One of the earliest and best examples was the Japanese-only release of Star Wars, a side-scrolling epic adventure title published by Namco for the Nintendo Famicom. A Star Wars game not available in the country where the franchise was born? Much cursing ensued among the few Americans who were even aware of this corporate cultural appropriation.

The most criminal aspect of the denial is that the game was awesome for its time. It appears to have been the first side-scrolling platform Star Wars game for any system. Who needs Mario, when you can control Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars universe? The Force is strong with this one, with John Williams' iconic Star Wars theme providing players with an adrenaline boost as Luke cuts down enemies with his lightsaber. And the box cover even boasts seriously-cool 1977-era poster art.

Sure, the game takes some serious liberties with the story. None of us remember Luke stopping off on mystery planets for side quests between Tatooine and the Death Star in the Episode IV movie. Luke's landspeeder never got air that serious in the film, either. He wouldn't have had to hire the Millennium Falcon if it had! Was there an Egyptian planet complete with King Tutankhamen's tomb - and Darth Vader waiting for Luke inside of it? Mmm...pretty sure there wasn't. But hell yeah, any true Star Wars fan would want to play that.

Japanese players also got to blast TIE fighters out of the sky over planets with a first-person perspective from Luke's point of view in the Falcon's gun chair. And defeat Lord Vader aboard the first Death Star. Whaaaaat? There's still time to visit Hoth to fight a Wampa, and rescue Princess Leia (still a romantic prospect for Luke in 1987, thank God!) from a modernist pyramid on a forest world before the game restores continuity and sanity with the Death Star trench run. 

Such denial would only intensify in the good old U.S.A. in the years to follow. NEC would delight Japanese PC Engine owners with exclusive Batman and Castlevania games that would never be ported over to the American version of the console, the TurboGrafx 16. Today, we see all the special, limited-time-only burgers being sold at McDonald's restaurants overseas, instead of in the birthplace of the Golden Arches.

Ostensibly, exclusive licenses for Star Wars games in each country scuppered a U.S. version of Namco's Star Wars masterpiece. I'm not buying it. Forgoing the money a Star Wars game on the NES could have raked in? George Lucas would never! To add insult to injury, when NES players in America finally got a Star Wars game four long years later, publisher Victor Musical Industries released versions in Japan and Europe. Would you like fries with that 1955 Burger, President Macron?

Location: Japan

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