Regional Bonus

aka: Regional Bonus Features

"Color me legitimately amazed that the American special edition of Xenoblade Chronicles X is superior to the one in Japan and Europe. I've become so used to so many Nintendo things lately either taking significantly longer to come out in North America, being better/bigger everywhere but NA, or just outright only being released everywhere but NA."

— Chuggaaconroy

Video games aren't released at the same time across the world, or in the exact same format. Instead, they are released in separate regions, and occasionally by country. Generally games are released in up to 3 main regions: Japan, North America, and Europe, Australia and much of Africa. Europe and Australia usually get games last, but they sometimes get bug fixes (for a Game-Breaking Bug and/or Good Bad Bug) and sometimes bonus features. However, it's not the only region that receives region specific content; for example, America is a fairly common target for such changes in Japanese games, and if an example of an American bonus is released in European countries at a later date, the changes typically make it over there as well.

A regional bonus is any extra feature inserted into a version of a video game during the region conversion process. This doesn't happen very often, but is marvelous when it does. There are two possible reasons it may be done:

1. The developers had content they wanted to include but could not due to time constraints. They decide to take advantage of the conversion time to allow at least some people to experience it.
2. The extra content is present as a consolation for players in other territories having delayed exposure to the game.

In recent years, the conversion speed has increased dramatically, and so bonuses are becoming even rarer than they once were. Plus, with video games now being able to patched in real time with updates, what once would be region-exclusive now can be given to all regions with a downloadable update. If the bonus features are particularly popular or extensive, the later version may have an Updated Re-release with a subtitle such as "European Edition" or "International Edition".

European bonuses specifically are usually justified as Europe being Vindicated by History in terms of gaming, as those countries suffered massive amounts of No Export for You, with Final Fantasy VI, Super Mario RPG and Chrono Trigger being the biggest offenders ^note Terranigma is one exception, being released in Europe but not North America, which finally got a European and Australian release in their original forms on the Wii's Virtual Console, albeit only in English since they're actually the American versions (although games such as a number of PSOne Classics and Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories keep the tradition even today).

Please don't add an example just because you think content that replaces what was in the original version is better (e.g. soundtrack, dubbing), unless the export content is included alongside what it replaces.

See also Import Gaming. Contrast No Export for You, though some examples of it are Remade for the Export. The inverse is Bad Export for You, when features are removed for the export. Compare Difficulty by Region and Better Export for You, the latter of which is the non-video game equivalent of this trope.

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America/Japanese to European Examples:

• The European Mega Drive version of Prince of Persia, which was handled by British video game developer Domark Software, has four levels not found in any other version.
• Resident Evil 4 had some extra gun upgrade options. It also changed the balance between enemies dropping ammo and cash. The latter becoming far more frequent, and the former much rarer.
• The European version of Luigi's Mansion gets a harder version of the New Game Plus with a reversed mansion and changes in Boss attacks. The Nintendo 3DS remake implements some of the changes from that Hidden Mansion (minus being flipped), but with new twists as well. It's also impossible to get an A rank in the European version of Luigi's Mansion without the extra money in The Hidden Mansion. You don't have to beat the game in The Hidden Mansion, just beat most of the Speedy Spirits and Golden Mice (money ghosts) in there.
• Metal Gear:
  • Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater both had an extra difficulty level called European Extreme. MGS3 also had some extra stages for the Snake vs. Monkey levels, which were included in all versions of MGS3: Subsistence.
  • Additionally, Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance came bundled with The Document of Metal Gear Solid 2, which was sold separately in Japan and North America. Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence on the other hand came with a bonus disc that was previously available in America only as a Pre-Order Bonus, which strung together all the game's cutscenes and codec sequences, with some gameplay mixed in, to create a full-length movie of the game.
  • Both versions also had Boss Rush modes in the original European releases (mind you, MGS2's boss rush mode wasn't as long as in Substance). MGS2 also had the Theater mode.
  • The UK version of Sons of Liberty also came with a making-of DVD.
  • The Japanese and European version of the Metal Gear Solid game for the Game Boy Color (aka Metal Gear: Ghost Babel) features the codec serial drama "Idea Spy 2.5". It was not featured in the initial American version.
  • The Japanese version of Metal Gear Solid allows Psycho Mantis to make some remarks on Tokimeki Memorial, Policenauts, and Snatcher, to name a few, if they are on your memory card. Having saved data from Policenauts and Snatcher makes Mantis say a message of thanks in the voice of Hideo Kojima.
• The European version of Zone of the Enders: The Second Runner features extra content that were later included in the Japan-exclusive Special Edition of the game.
• The German version of Left 4 Dead 2 included a few weapons from Counter-Strike: Source in exchange for the removed violent bits. These were later added to all versions of the game in an update.
• Metroid:
  • Metroid: The NES version has a New Game+ and a Debug cheat, which weren't in the Famicom Disk System version of the game.
  • The Japanese version of Metroid Fusion was released after other regions. It adds Easy and unlockable Hard difficulty levels, a gallery mode to view the ending images you've obtained, and eight additional ending images which reveal details about Samus's childhood that would be elaborated on in the Metroid manga.
  • In the European version of Metroid Prime, Samus' suit has a lot of additional dialog; in an inversion, since there were worries at the time about the series' reception the conversion was also forcibly de-canonised with references to Samus' previous life with the Chozo omitted.
  • The European version also removed all references to the Space Pirates having entered Metroid Prime's lair and built its armour. This was a gaping plot hole, since Prime's lair is in the Impact Crater—an area the pirates were still trying to find a way to enter throughout the whole game. Unfortunately, the new version just creates a different plot hole: Metroid Prime was supposed to have absorbed some weapons the Pirates were reverse-engineering from Samus's arsenal (explaining how the boss fight works), but that's impossible if Prime never encountered them.
  • The European version's largest change was a slower loader which solved issues with the American version locking up. Flaahgra's theme was glitched in the American version so the first part looped endlessly, which was corrected in the European version too. Alterations were also made to correct numerous issues with bosses, changing their vulnerabilities and in some cases removing glitchy behaviour like the Sheegoth attacking an invisible Samus during its introduction cutscene. The European version also has some sequence breaks prevented or at least made harder (for example they added many pieces of rubble that can only be destroyed by Power Bombs to prevent early access to some items). Plus, the European version added a narrator in the intro and ending cutscenes.
  • Some of the bug fixes and sequence break preventions were added to the North American Player's Choice version. You can see all of the version differences here.
  • All of these changes made it into all versions of Metroid Prime Trilogy, with the exception of the suit voice and narrator, which were still absent in the North American version.
• The first Tenchu game got two extra missions in the European version, reworked first mission, and multi-track audio. The game was later re-released in Japan as Tenchu: Shinobi Gaisen.
• Final Fantasy X gained an "Expert" mode for the Sphere Grid. Unlike the regular Sphere Grid, which pretty much locks every character (except for Kimahri) into a single character build until the mid/late game, the Expert Grid starts everyone at roughly the same point on the Sphere Grid and lets you customise their character builds from the very start.
  • The game also gained some extremely tough Superbosses, such as the Dark Aeons. This proved to be a double-edged sword for all but the most dedicated level grinders, as the Dark Aeons prevent the player from re-entering several important locations. For example, if you don't grab one of the keys to Tidus' Infinity +1 Sword on your first trip to Zanarkand, then you'll find Dark Bahamut blocking your path later on.
• We Love Katamari, the sequel to the wildly successful Katamari Damacy (which never came out in Europe, to many fans' dismay), had an expanded demo theatre mode where players could watch the first game's intro and some cutscenes, and the first game's theme song was added as a listenable song in-game.
• Due to rating differences, the European version of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is less censored, though this merely amounts to the camera not zooming in during the Joker and Deathstroke's gun fatalities.
• Shadow Hearts: Covenant almost got one of these: hacking into the European version of the game reveals some items that were only present in the Japan-only Director's Cut version, with descriptions fully translated into English. Unfortunately, for one reason or another they decided not to implement them in the final released version.
  • The item in question is a bodybuilder card featuring Meiyuan, which upon obtaining it and having the other bodybuilder cards, would allow the Magimel brothers to make an "invisible dress" for Gepetto's doll. Apparently, Midway didn't want to promote Lolicon and Shotacon, even though said young girl in question is a lifeless puppet with no primary sexual characteristics.
  • Veronica's and Lenny's equipment could only be used in Director's Cut during a subquest starring them as playable characters. There is also a warp point to Sea of Woods, but apparently it's been Dummied Out.
• The European version of Rock Band got nine additional songs by European artists that weren't on-disc in the American version. On the day of the European release, those same nine songs became available for download in the North American version, but the fact still stands that they're paid downloads for the North American version but included with the game in the European version. On the other hand, Tokio Hotel's Monsoon doesn't export (for whatever reason) to Rock Band 2. Since the bonus songs cannot be bought in Europe, that song is inaccessible for European users outside of the original game.
• For Wii users in the UK, with a Wii Shop Channel account AND Club Nintendo UK membership on the Nintendo Europe official website, you get to convert Star points (gained by "registering" Wii, DS and GameCube games) into Wii Points to get Virtual Console stuff. Recently North America had a similar feature added (albeit not with much variety) in that every two weeks the site releases a game for the Wii and 3DS each (alternating systems between weeks) in exchange for typically 100 or 150 Club Nintendo coins, with the North American Club Nintendo having WiiWare and Virtual Console games for the former and download-only 3DS games, DSiWare, and Virtual Console games for the latter. Japan, shockingly enough, has no such pleasure.
• European gamers got all the extra stuff that was in the Updated Re-release of La Pucelle. The game was re-released in Japan some months after the NA release with a New Game Plus feature, new bosses, as well as an option to Soft Reset within the game itself (which truly can be useful at some points in the game). The game had not been released in Europe yet, so naturally it would make sense to include these features.
• Shadow of the Colossus came with nicer packaging for Europe, four artwork postcards, a making of documentary, Ico Trailer and a Concept Art Gallery.
  • Years earlier, ICO initially received a limited edition release, which also had postcards and nicer packaging (it also uses the Japanese version's better cover art, although this is also true of the standard edition). Depressingly, this trope became inverted soon afterwards - the game sold so badly in Europe that Sony stopped producing copies of it barely a month after it was released, meaning that it became scarce and regularly sold for crazy prices on Ebay until it was re-released years later. In fact, the initial print run was so short that there are less copies of the original standard edition in existence than the limited one...
• The European version of Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World has two extras: a gallery mode that allows you to view character skits and concept art, and special head-slot equipment that changes the appearances of Emil and Marta (ala the "attachments" in Tales of Vesperia).
• The European release of Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 has extra characters and stages. In this case, these were bonuses being added to the Japanese Wii version, but Europe came late enough to scoop those up for both of their versions of the game.
• Pokémon Yellow is a standard Game Boy game for its original Japanese release, with Super Game Boy support. The international releases, however, added Game Boy Color support which gave a colourised version of the game when played on a Game Boy Color.
  • Inverted for Pokémon Platinum (and likely all future Pokémon games too), the Slot Machine-esque mini-game was removed in order to comply with new EU laws, and still keep the age rating down. Coins are now just found randomly in the building, but respawn daily.
  • Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver removed the slot machines in all international versions, and actually added a new game which is based less on luck and does not gamble coins called Voltorb Flip, which is apparently quite fun in itself. On the other hand, there's also no way to buy coins (presumably even spending in-game money to advance the game was too much like gambling even without any bets), so the only way to get most of the really expensive TMs or Pokémon is to play the game over and over and over again.
• In North American versions of Pokémon Stadium, there's a Gallery feature where you can take pictures of your Pokémon, but neither the Japanese nor European versions got such a feature.
• The European version of Pokémon Channel contained a quest which allowed players to download Jirachi, which was not available outside of an event.
• Several of the Yakuza games from 3 onward have some of the paid DLC bundled in the western localized releases.
  • Yakuza: Like a Dragon has a substory that involves meeting an English speaking tourist, who the Japanese player character Ichiban doesn't understand. For the English dub, "English" is represented by just speaking really slowly, and an Aside Glance is added to acknowledge the inherent silliness of Ichiban saying, in English, that he doesn't understand English.
• The European version of BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger was released several months late, but came with additional colour schemes for characters, and more importantly, all characters had Unlimited versions instead of just Ragna, Rachel, Hakumen and Nu. This is paid DLC in America and Japan. All of this is slightly offset by the horrid boxart.
  • BlazBlue: Continuum Shift got a Limited Edition (which the North American version didn't) and an extremely limited (500 copies, all of which have were preordered) of a "Fan edition" with even more goodies (including a voucher to get some of the DLC for free).
• In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, there are no unbreakable windows for challenges in the European version, meaning gamers there can use a Golden Hammer to completely skip the hardest Boss Battles challenges like beating it on Intense. Which is incredibly useful, since the challenge is Nintendo Hard.
• The original (non-Player's Choice) European version of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker came with a second disc containing The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Master Quest as standard. This was only available in America with pre-ordered copies.
  • It was still advertised as a limited edition for preorders in a few countries such as France.
• The Japanese game Lolo no Daibouken for the Game Boy had only fifty levels. The European version, Adventures of Lolo, had one hundred forty-four... and it added Super Game Boy support, a tutorial, and a Variable Mix soundtrack.
• Rock Raiders gave the European edition not just three bonus missions, but eighteen completely different main levels.
• The European version of Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn removed several Game Breaking Bugs (most notably one that could prevent an Old Save Bonus) and fixed a couple of Blind Idiot Translations and name inconsistencies with the past game (except for the Tower of Guidance, due to it being mentioned in voiced dialogue).
• Tharja's swimsuit scene in the Summer Scramble DLC of Fire Emblem: Awakening was infamously censored in the North American version. The European version does not contain this censorship (The European version did censor one dialogue conversation that wasn't censored in the North American version, but most would agree having a full artwork uncensored is more than worth it).
• Professor Layton and the Last Specter is an inversion, as it completely cuts down the RPG Professor Layton's London Life. That amounts to over half the game. On the other hand, the North American version not only has it intact, but also has it available from the beginning—Japanese players had to unlock it.
• The European version of Rhythm Heaven Fever, known as Beat the Beat: Rhythm Paradise, contains both Japanese and English soundtracks, much to the chagrin of people who wanted such an option in the North American release.
• Not a bonus in a conventional way, but the European release of Way of the Samurai 4 sees the game as an actual physical copy instead of the PSN-only release that North America has.
• The North American release of Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus allows you to unlock the alternate opening cutscene from the Japanese version, but the European release also allows you to unlock the Japanese ending.
• WipEout 3 has a Special Edition re-release that was released exclusively in Europe which featured AI bugfixes, minor gameplay tweaks, different ship physics, balanced buffs for the Icarus unGod XVi and Assegai F7200 ships, added unlock messages when meeting the requirements for the game's unlockable contents, 8 additional circuits from the previous two WipEout games plus 2 prototype tracks featured from its Japanese release, bringing the grand total of 22 tracks compared to previous releases. The Special Edition also supports split-screen multiplayer up to four players whereas the North American and Japanese releases only supported two, but this done through using two sets of TVs and linking two PlayStation consoles.
• The European and Japanese versions of Airforce Delta Storm added several new planes (including two more Konami shmup guests, one based on AJAX and the other on Space Manbow), did some minor rebalancing, made small tweaks to some missions (most notably "Attack of the Tyrant", which had the titular weapon's firing timer made more obvious) and added a new Joke Level themed after Parodius.

Non-European Examples:

• Soul Calibur II's overseas versions had three characters who were previously CPU-only as unlockables: Assassin, Berserker, and Lizardman.
• The American and European versions of the very first Metal Gear Solid added adjustable difficulty settings, a demo theater mode, and the Tuxedo easter egg for Solid Snake. The same extras were included in the Updated Re-release Metal Gear Solid: Integral in Japan (later released in the west as the PC port).
  • Despite being released in November 2011 for North America and Japan, Metal Gear Solid fans in Europe and Australia/Asia wanting to buy the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection had to wait until 2012 with no waiting bonuses on the grounds of a Hand Wave excuse involving the high number of winter releases forcing them to delay. Konami have also decided to insult said fans further by announcing Japan and North America can expect the bonus "Premium Package" and "Limited Edition" versions coming exclusively to their regions. When it was eventually released, there was a bug in the PS3 version which made MGS2 impossible to finish on some difficulty settings. Somewhat mercifully, this only affected those playing in standard definition, which one would expect to be a relative minority of purchasers of an HD remake.
• Working Designs frequently made gameplay adjustments to the titles they licensed. Often overlaps with Difficulty by Region—WD wanted their games to pose a challenge. For example:
  • Elemental Gearbolt has beefed-up sound effects and added secret items in support of a promotional contest Working Designs sponsored. It also added GunCon support when the JP version only supported Konami's Hyper Blaster gun.
  • Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete has added analog support, tweaks to EXP and money awards, and alterations to the final encounter so it requires Alex to play his harp to bring Luna to her senses.
  • Magic Knight Rayearth has expanded save slots and slowdown reduction. Incidental in-game voice throughout the game was cut in the interest of preserving game flow, and the character's diaries are voiced instead.
  • Silhouette Mirage got custom loading screens, increases to weapons prices and various other tweaks to increase difficulty. Unfortunately, this greatly increased the amount of grinding required to buy weapons.
  • Silpheed: The Lost Planet has less slowdown than the Japanese version, and also added analog control "to retain the 'arcade' feel of the shooter, rather than forcing gamers to bust their thumbs on the directional buttons" (to quote Vic Ireland's manual notes).
  • If nothing else, expect Hilarious Outtakes.
• The American Wii port of Ghost Squad (2004) adds a "Wii Remote and Nunchuk" control scheme (Z to fire and B for the contextual button, instead of the other way around in the "Wii Zapper" scheme), which is oddly missing in the Japanese version.
• The western release of Earthbound Beginnings has an actual epilogue compared to the original Japanese release. The Game Boy Advance port of Mother 1+2 adds in this epilogue.
• The Japanese version of Raiden Fighters Aces got an online update that corrected some bugs and added new features. The American version includes all of these updates with the disc, with no need to update.
  • Prior to that, the American release of the original Raiden Fighters 2 has all of the ships, including the hidden ones, available immediately, without the need to keep the machine on for a while, and the American release of the original Raiden Fighters Jet offers two loops instead of the Japanese version's single loop.
• The North American version of Ridge Racer on PSP (known as Ridge Racers in Japan) adds some bonus tours, called the MAX Tours. These tours are very, very hard (to the point where the game touts that Namco's testers were only able to clear the last tour twice in 60 days), and offer no reward other than the satisfaction of clearing them.
• In Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on the PlayStation, in the Western release, the Opening Scroll text is altered and lacks voice narration, the title "Castlevania" appears instead of "Dracula X", Richter's stage is titled "Final Stage: Chi no Rondo" instead of "Final Stage: Bloodlines", the visual effect when introducing area names is slightly different, and menu screens, menu selection effects and menu text are slightly different, the order of the enemy index has been changed, the eight voice actor interviews in the library have been replaced with a sound test, the voice overs of Death, Maria, Richter and Succubus on the game over screen when dying at certain points of the game are Dummied Out, the Nosedevil Card in the Colosseum is replaced with a Holy Sword, the Sprite Card in Olrox's Quarters is replaced with a Sword Card, and the Sword Card in Olrox's Quarters is replaced with a Garnet, making the two redundant familiars unavailable in the Western release. The European version keeps these changes and fixes a few misspellings. The Japanese "The Best" and "PSOne Books" re-releases change Richter's Holy Whip to the Flame Whip, and the ability of the Sprite to sing "Nocturne" is no longer dummied out.
• The North American and European versions of Jet Set Radio (originally called Jet Grind Radio in America) were given more songs^note The additional songs varied between regions: the North American version featured Rob Zombie, Murder Music, and Cold; while the European version had Featured Cast, O.B. One, and Semi Detached. Both versions shared new songs from Jurassic 5 and Mixmaster Mike., 2 new levels modeled after New York City, and internet connectivity via SegaNet to share and download user-created tags.
• Square Enix are somewhat (in)famous for this: Many of its games get loads of extra content when they're localized to western audiences, so much so that they're frequently re-released in Japan with all the extra content, and sometimes with even more extras that generally never saw the light of day overseas although remasters have included the extras. For example,
  • Final Fantasy VII was their first game to be modified considerably for Western release; new scenes were added to the story, one formerly Dummied Out Materia was added to the game (the Underwater Materia), and the difficulty was rebalanced, with the random encounter rate decreased (to account for the lesser patience of Western gamers) and three extra bosses were added, one mandatory (Diamond WEAPON, fought near the end of disc 2), the last two optional (the now-legendary Ruby and Emerald WEAPONs).
  • The NA version of Chrono Cross contained additional dialogue to clarify background information and cover plot holes present in the Japanese version.
  • The North American and European releases of The World Ends with You got extra pins, changed around some effects, added several tracks to the soundtrack and doubled the experience from "mingle" mode to compensate for lower population density/less public transport/less DS per person. Fans also argue that they have a much more fitting title as opposed to the Japanese title; since "The World Ends With You" acts as a metaphor for Neku's self-centered attitude, which means his world will end with him with no friends.
  • Kingdom Hearts:
    • The international versions of the first game added a slew of bonus bosses, including Ice Titan, Kurt Zisa (named after an American man who won a contest Square Enix held a few months before release), and Sephiroth. It also set the Chernabog battle to the tune of "A Night on the Bare Mountain", whereas the original Japanese version used the generic Disney boss tune "Squirming Evil". Naturally, these were all packaged for Japan as part of the "Final Mix" rerelease, which added a crapload more content that never saw the Western light of the day until a decade later.
    • The international versions of Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days awards the player Mission Crowns for completing missions in either Solo or Multiplayer Mission Mode. In the Japanese version, it is only possible to earn Mission Crowns by playing Multiplayer Mission Mode.
    • Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep took time to be localized in the West, and attempted to make it up by adding Pete as a D-Link summon, extra stickers, and a new bonus boss. The European release added a few other perks like a small artbook showing characters renders and world artwork, as well as two postcards. And yes, there's a (for a while) Japan-exclusive Final Mix, which has all of these plus so much more. Woo-hoo.
    • The American and European/Australian versions of Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] include recipes for Dream Eaters that could only be obtained by AR Cards in Japanese.
• Dragon Quest:
  • The NA versions of the NES games had several changes made, such as replacing the original game's password system with a battery-backed save.
  • The NA version of Dragon Quest added border graphics when the land connected to water, and added sprites for all the overworld characters to indicate four directional movement. The Super Famicom version keeps the graphical updates, updates the menu to resemble Dragon Quest II, and adds the torch attack.
  • In the Famicom version of Dragon Quest II, after the title screen, the Prince can immediately walk outside the throne room, out of the castle, and into the overworld. The North American version adds an intro sequence of the three main characters walking forward, and a prologue showing what happened to the town of Moonbrooke and the Princess of Moonbrooke. The Super Famicom version includes the prologue followed by intro text.
  • For those who played Dragon Quest II on the Japanese MSX cart, they got an extra scene of the Princess of Moonbrooke in a "Dangerous Swimsuit".
  • The North American version of Dragon Quest III adds an intro showing a fight between Ortega and a dragon on top of a volcano, adapted in the Super Famicom and later versions.
  • The North American and European versions of Dragon Quest VIII replaced the MIDI soundtrack with symphonic renditions, has voice acting for story moments, and modified the menu system.
  • The international versions of Dragon Quest XI saw the addition of voice acting, less plain menus like in VIII, many quality of life improvements like being able to sprint when on-foot, and a PC port (though it came at the expense of the Nintendo 3DS version). In fine Square-Enix tradition, these changes were later brought back to Japan with the Definitive Edition on Nintendo Switch, which also included added story content, an orchestral soundtrack, Japanese voice acting, and many other QOL additions, and was also released elsewhere.
• When Ōkami was ported to Wii, the credits were cut out due to copyright issues (such as Clover Studios being defunct) and space constraints. The Japanese version had the credits put back in.
• The North American release of Record of Agarest War fixed the European version's "Blind Idiot" Translation and gave PS3 owners the extras from the Japanese Xbox 360 Updated Re-release.
• Normally, the overseas version of Street Fighter games during the arcade days usually had content cut compared to the Japanese originals (e.g., no ending for Akuma in Super Turbo, no endings for the characters in the Street Fighter EX games). However, an exception was made with Street Fighter Alpha 2, the overseas version of Street Fighter Zero 2, which added three extra characters: Evil Ryu and "classic"-style versions of Zangief and Dhalsim. These extra characters were exported back to the game's Updated Re-release in Asia, Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha, which added Classic versions of the remaining Street Fighter II characters and gave Evil Ryu his own ending (which unfortunately isn't included in any of the western releases of the game).
• The North American arcade version of Columns has an alternate gameplay track not found in the Japanese or international versions. It can be used by changing one of the DIP switches.
• The background animation for the DJMAX song "Xlasher", which is sung in Gratuitous English, has Korean subtitles in Korean releases of the games. The overseas releases remove them, clearing up some room at the bottom of the screen.
• Pokémon combines this, strangely enough, with No Export for You in the case of Generation I. Sure, the Green version never made it out of Japan (not counting its remake, LeafGreen)... but the internationally released Blue version was Japan's Green in the engine of the Japanese Blue (and Red was the Japanese Red with Japanese Blue's engine). Why is this a bonus? Well, for one, Japanese Red and Green had significantly more Off-Model sprites of the Pokémon, even more glitches, and couldn't support names with more than five characters, which isn't quite so bad in Japanese but would be completely damning in languages using the Latin alphabet.
• The European/Australian version of Meteos changes a lot of names from the direct (well, as direct as possible) translation from Japanese to ones that make more sense. Starrii becomes Stellis, Lastar becomes Candelor, Hotted becomes Pyros... the list goes on.
• The European version of the first Inazuma Eleven actually runs on the improved version of the engine used in the second game in Japan. Of course, this was because it was originally scheduled for a European release around the same time as the third game was released in Japan, and was delayed half a year on top of that.
• Subverted with DanceDanceRevolution Konamix - after a drought of DDR releases in North America, Konami promised the next North American release that would be up to date with the latest Japanese release. What they delivered was based on the DDR 4th Mix engine - a couple weeks before the console port of DDRMAX: DDR 6th Mix was released in Japan and half a year after DDRMAX was released in Japanese arcades. Not only that, its Edit Data creator had more bugs than the original 4th Mix console port.
  • And averted by Dancing Stage SuperNOVA 2, which was based off the North American version and released after the Japanese version (which is the most arcade-accurate in terms of on-disc content; since Konami released the North American versions early in the lifecycle of the corresponding arcade version, some of the later unlocks tended to get held over to the next release instead), it had fewer songs than the North American version (13 of the 28 licenses were removed), and only one new European license was added. ^note "Cara Mia", a song that finished 3rd in Sweden's national final for the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest, and was a number-one hit in Finland and Sweden. Adding insult to injury, the arcade version of SN2 was not released in Europe due to EU environmental regulations somehow preventing Konami from distributing the game's hardware (which was built around modifications to the original "fat" PlayStation 2).
  • In most countries where DanceDanceRevolution A is available, you have to pay a surcharge for Premium mode (which unlocks extra modifiers and guarantees a full set of stages even if you fail all of them). For the North American version, however, premium only needs an eAMUSEMENT card like in other regions, and usually costs the same as a normal credit.^note This is likely because the only arcades that carry DDR A use cards instead of coins for credits, and the only other options would either be to make Premium mode cost double of standard mode or make the player swipe multiple times even for Standard mode (which could confuse casual arcade customers who expect games to start after only one swipe); thus, this mandate can be see as an Anti-Frustration Feature for both operators and customers alike. Round1 actually did initially set up their cabinets to require 2 credits for premium, but this was quickly changed back.
• Donkey Kong Land III for the Game Boy was released as Donkey Kong GB: Dinky Kong & Dixie Kong for the Game Boy Color in Japanese, with color graphics and reduced lag. Unfortunately, animated world map tiles and the Bear shopkeeper became static sprites, and your most recent time was no longer displayed at the bottom of the screen during Time Trials (and the Game Boy version had Super Game Boy support, so you could get color anyway, albeit inferior color).
• Fire Emblem
  • The Japanese version of The Blazing Blade required you to beat Hector Hard Mode to see a secret epilogue linking the game to the previous one, of which this is a prequel. In the North American version, you just have to beat the game once on any difficulty. Inverted for Europeans, who got the Epilogue completely removed.
  • International versions of Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn added a few totally new base conversations to the game, which gave Edward, Leonardo and Nolan a new unique weapon each. They also modified a few of the skills to be less luck-based, added support for widescreen and added an option for permanent saves in-battle instead of the traditional Suspend Save (though they're disabled on Hard Mode).
  • The North American and European versions of Shadow Dragon featured bonus content not included in the Japanese version, such as five additional multiplayer maps, instead of just one, like in the other versions. These extra maps were later included in the Japan-only DS remake of Mystery of the Emblem.
  • Almost every FE released outside of Japan gets some small improvements, you can find a full list here.
• The North American release of Solatorobo got the bonus Soundtrack CD the Japanese got with pre-orders. Europe, of course, didn't get it, though at least the game came earlier there for once. US release also fixed some translation errors. The American release also had all of the DLC missions bundled into the base game to make up for the year-long delay in that region.
• The NES version of Jackal was originally released in Japan as a Famicom Disk System game titled Akai Yōsai ("The Red Fortress"). Unlike other disk-to-cartridge conversions such as Metroid and Castlevania, the change in format actually proved beneficial, as the shorter loading times of the cartridge media allowed for four-way scrolling (the disk version could only scroll vertically), resulting in wider stages than the Disk System version and a more accurate adaptation of the arcade original. The NES version even has an entire new stage not present in the Disk System version.
• No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle was launched with several exclusives in Japan (where it was made, came out last, and with the smallest sales).
• Flying Warriors, the NES sequel to Flying Dragon: The Secret Scrolls, rather than being a straight localization of the Famicom's Hiryū no Ken II, is instead a complete overhaul of Hiryu no Ken II developed on the Hiryu no Ken III engine, resulting in a complete different game than either of them.
• The Japanese Sega Saturn version of Data East's Fighting Game Suiko Enbu was an anomalous Porting Disaster, but the American release, titled Dark Legend, had most of the bugs fixed.
• Pokémon Colosseum had this with the pre-order discs, and the legendary Pokémon you get depends on the region. If it's the Japan bonus disc, you get a Japanese Celebi, whereas if you have the North America bonus disc, you get Jirachi. The two can be obtained via the Nintendo GameCube/Game Boy Advance Link Cable. Note that it can also be used on a Wii, and you can still get them if you load up the bonus disc on the Wii.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker:
    • The Japanese version of the game featured a sidequest required to receive an important item. This sidequest consisted of finding a map to find a map to find a map... leading to the item. Anyway, Nintendo made this sidequest much easier in the international versions, making the last parts of the game (which are still tedious) just a bit less so for Westerners.
    • In the Japanese version, the bottom floor of the Savage Labyrinth (which is part of an optional series of floors past the ones required to complete the Triforce quest) rewarded players with a chest containing... a yellow Rupee. Due to how underwhelming this is, the localizations replaced the yellow Rupee with a Piece of Heart that was originally located under Link's house. The HD remaster lacks this problem; the chest contains the Hero's Charm in all versions of the game, with the Piece of Heart once again being relocated (this time requiring a Treasure Chart added to the HD remaster).
  • Zelda II: The Adventure of Link: The game received quite a few changes in the localization process; the dungeons are all colored differently, the overworld battle music was changed, Volvagia is drawn and animated better, the boss Gooma is added to replace what was originally a rematch with Helmethead, etc.
• For each region after the original European release, Roll Away was given more features and level alterations until the Japanese version featured custom balls, alternate endings, a birds-eye view option and the previously Dummied Out tutorial level, but apparently was buggier than the European and American versions.
• When Lollipop Chainsaw was released in Japan, Juliet's anime cosplays were only obtainable through DLC. The American and European releases of the game included them right on the disc instead. Then on Valentine's Day 2013, the game got a Special Edition in Japan only, which included several bonuses, such as a DVD containing all of the game's cutscenes.
• The Japanese version of Wario World adds a second phase to the Final Boss with different attacks and music.
• China and Taiwan received a unique version of DoDonPachi dai ou jou, called DoDonPachi dai ou jou Tamashii, which adds an Easy mode.
• Pump It Up's success in Central and South America has led to Andamiro producing special versions of their mainline games for those regions that feature songs not found in the Korean and worldwide versions.
• The original Japanese release of Armored Core: Formula Front did not allow players to directly control their ACs in battle. This feature was added in the Western version, Armored Core Formula Front: Extreme Battle.
• When Game & Watch Gallery 2 was originally released in Japan, it was, like its predecessor, a monochrome Game Boy game that could receive some limited color if played on a Super Game Boy. International versions converted it into a Game Boy Color game, allowing for a much more vivid picture.
• The Password Save feature in River City Ransom was updated for the international version to account for defeated boss characters.
• The English localized release of the PC version of Soni Comi has many of the improvements from the Japan-exclusive PS3 remake, such as improved graphics and models, an enhanced interface, extra outfits and a few new features. In Japan, that content was never made available for PC.
• Sonic Adventure had a number of special events and challenges as free DLC. While most of the seasonal events were available for all three regions, all of the challenges were region-specific, with each region getting 1-3 exclusive ones. In addition, Japan got two exclusive holiday events, as these were released before the game came out overseas and as such didn't get localized.
• Most H Games released outside Japan remove the legally mandated censorship present in their original releases (assuming the sexual content isn't just removed entirely), along with sometimes adding a few extra bonuses such as higher-resolution graphics. Unfortunately this can lead to recursive importing and as a result an untouched export.
• The English release of CLANNAD came with an in-game encyclopedia called "Dangopedia" that provides useful information about the more obscure references the characters make and Japanese culture in general.
• Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 5's two non-Japan versions, in spite of losing some content — the biggest removals being two entire courses — does get the Dodge and Audi car makes to make up for it; those two would not appear in the Japanese version until Maximum Tune 5DX.
• The American version of Tales of the Abyss was an upgrade from the original Japanese version, featuring several new Mystic Artes and tweaks to gameplay. The 3DS version is actually based on the American release.
• The TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine port of R-Type was originally released as two separate HuCards in Japan, each containing four out of the original eight stages. The 1989 US release included all eight stages on a single Turbochip.
• In Japan, Yo Kai Watch 3 was released in two versions, Sushi and Tempura, plus an Updated Re-release named Sukiyaki. Each version had its own Version-Exclusive Content, and some content was doled out via cross-promotions with things like the toy branch of the franchise, the internationally-defunct mobile spinoff Yo Kai Watch Wibble Wobble, and several prefectural tourism campaigns. Since that formula bombed outside of Japan, the international version is what Level-5 called "Sukiyaki+"; it was possible to get all Yo-kai that were version-exclusive on one cartridge without trading. In addition, finding the QR codes needed to unlock some content is as simple as checking the official Twitter account. Fitting for a game where the main gimmick is that Nate moves to America (or the fictional state of BBQ in the American version).
• Samurai Warriors 3 had a Story Mode specifically for custom characters released in three parts as DLC for the Japanese release. The international releases made this story available out of the box as Historical Mode.
• The Japanese release of Tale of Food introduces two food spirits of Chinese-Japanese dishes, Chili Shrimp and Fucha Ryōri.
• The Japanese version of Crash Bash included Fake Crash as an extra character that could be played on either team.
• Phantasy Star Online 2:
  • The original Japanese release has two different types of weapons: the originals, which have an RNG upgrade system that is almost universally disliked, and "New Type" weapons, which have weapon EXP bars that upgrade the weapon when you feed it other weapons. When the game was brought over to the West, the Western versions of the game decided to remove all weapons belonging to the former category. In exchange, several weapons that only came in "original" format in the Japanese version had New Type versions made specifically for the Western version.
  • The Western version also adds equipment from Phantasy Star Online 2es to shops and some drop tables. In the Japanese version, this equipment is only obtainable in said game and cannot be acquired otherwise unless you buy it from the player-run market.
  • The discontinued Southeast Asian version of the game that ran from 2014 through 2017 had some exclusive cosmetics and equipment that were not in the original Japanese release. They were eventually released to other servers much later, long after the SEA version had shut down.
• The North American release of Darius Twin features a stereo soundtrack vs the original Japanese release's monaural sound mix. The game's description in the Darius Cozmic Collection even specifically notes the NA release as the definitive version of the game.
• The Global version of SINoALICE had mechanics that are exclusive to Global, and only Global:
  • Skip Tickets - These allow players to skip playing the stage and simply getting the rewards that come with it. Handy for playing events and grinding for medals, shooting gallery tickets and the like, but they cannot be used with drop potions (with the exception of Royal Skip Medals for those who purchased the Royal User Service and certain Twilight Crystal packs).
  • Country flags - Due to the number of countries available for the Global server, each guild gets to display their home country's flag (or a simple SINoALICE flag) on top of their guild achievements.
  • Colosseum Ticket Grimoire: When playing the Colosseum, players get to earn 1 Gladiator's Medal for every 3 weapons used. These Gladiator's Medals can then be exchanged for Colosseum Tickets which is then used in the Grimoire (150 tickets per pull). On top of that, this Grimoire contains 8 weapons that are Version-Exclusive Content.
• The Chinese and South Korean versions of Final Fantasy XIV are generally several patches behind everyone else due to the game needing to be modified to fit the standards and laws of the countries. To make up for the slower patch releases, players in the affected regions get region exclusive cosmetic items to buy and play around with. Said exclusive items are eventually released to the rest of the world.
• Pikmin (2001): While most editions of the Wii port feature audio bugs that result in certain sound effects being sped-up (to the point where they sound more like harsh squeaks), the European and South Korean releases caught onto the issue and fixed it. These repairs would be carried over to the Nintendo Switch port, an enhanced version of the Wii release, worldwide.
• The American release of Hellfire (1989) on Sega Genesis features a hidden "Yea Right" difficulty that's not available in the orignal Japanese version.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Reskinning aside, Super Mario Bros. 2 has a substantial number of improvements over the game it's a localization of, Doki Doki Panic. A run button was added, the sprites are far more polished and detailed, load times were eliminated due to the move to a cartridge, and the requirement to beat the game with every character to unlock the ending was mercifully nixed. The only major downside is that the ability to save the game was removed, replaced with a limited amount of continues.
  • Relatively minor, but Super Mario Bros. 3 added a New Game Plus mode where, after beating the game, starting another game would have the player's inventory filled with P-Wings. This was cut for Super Mario All-Stars.
• The international release of Monster Hunter (2004) added the Dual Blades weapon class, which would become standard in all future releases.
• Japanese editions of PlayStation games released after their NA/EU editions also include PocketStation support, which means games like Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped and Street Fighter Alpha 3 would get minigames you can download to the PocketStation for play while off the console, with some of them actually giving you a play advantage when you have it connected back to your PlayStation with the game you used it on. ^note  One of the few games that used it outside Japan was Final Fantasy VIII, if you imported a PocketStation from Japan that time. US copies of Alpha 3 can also use it, but it's dummied out, and requires a GameShark to make it usable, but it's not known if it works back and forth from a PocketStation and a North American copy of the game.

In-Universe Examples

• In the Angry Video Game Nerd fanfic A Saga of Parallel Worlds, the localized North American and European versions of Final Fantasy VI reworks the 64 remaining Rages to be more useful, and adds a vocalized opera scene.
• In Dear Pesky Partners, the international (North American and European) NES release of Earthbound Beginnings features enhanced graphics, actual battle backgrounds and a rebalanced difficulty.

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