The guys at Limited Run Games announced this morning that they will be selling a English package version of SEGA Toys’ Astro City Mini, Astro Mini Style Kit and the Astro City controller starting on March 26th! Above you can see the difference between the English and Japanese packaging.
You can also see the Limited Run Games product pages with more information here:
Astro City Mini – Astro City Mini Style Kit – Astro City Mini Gamepad
The Limited Run version of the SEGA Astro City Mini will only be limited to 3,500 units, which will probably make this version sought after in the collectors market compared to the regular Japanese version. As far as I know, the SEGA Astro City Mini unit included inside the English packaging is exactly the same as the Japanese retail unit. The Limited Run Games version will retail for $129.99, so get your F5 key fixed and get ready to refresh your browser!
UPDATE: Limited Run Games have clarified that some of the games are in English, some are in English and Japanese and some are completely in Japanese as denoted on their site. We compared to the Japanese unit and it lines up with the games on that model. So the unit itself is exactly the same as the Japanese unit, there are no new ROMs. The packaging is what has been updated.
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I pity those who are actually looking forward to preorder this when the Japanese version costs less with overseas shipping and customs included. You’re literally paying a premium for ink on cardboard. I pity even more those who will pay even more for this on the 2nd hand market once it’s sold out. It’s just a translated box.
They’re paying for the version that is limited to 3,500 units and has English roms. Sure, its 116 shipped, but is the extra 30 dollars to you worth getting a rarer, English limited version?
I admit I missed that part of the article where it said the roms are translated. To answer your question, not really. None of the games even require being translated to begin with unless you’re too stupid to understand giant pictograms being flashed in your face, so if the translation tweet is actually true and not the manager of the account being clueless, then all you’re getting is a bunch of 3rd party pointless romhacks which makes this a shoddy collectible since the historical value of the games is lost. Let’s not forget artificial scarcity for something you could order from multiple online sources RIGHT NOW and get it this week straight from Japan. You’re still paying 30 bucks extra for a bunch of text slapped on top of a readily available product to make it “limited edition”. Either way, I’m fairly sure the Japanese edition will be worth more in a few years once stock runs out and social media hype dies down than this repackaging, simply because it’s the official version which offers the authentic experience with roms not being tampered with.
No one said you couldn’t play them in Japanese, but let’s be real here that being able to play them in English is a nice luxury. I have the Japanese version and won’t be double dipping here but I’ll admit that I’d prefer if they included the English roms. If someone that didn’t get the Japanese version had to decide, I’d probably tell them to go for the limited, English version for the 30 dollars difference.
But thats me. Its OK to dislike it.
Tho, how many are being translated? I guess the guys at LRG don’t know which ones are English and which ones aren’t. They will be updating us tomorrow.
I have a feeling they are Japanese units and they saw the start up where it lets you play the menu in English and assumed they were English (some games are in English in Japan, like VF).
I’ve updated the article with clarification on the games and their language settings.