1,300,000 people owned NES and Game Boys in the UK by 1991.

Courtesy of Total Magazine.

The NES did not sell that well in the UK when compared to the United States or even Germany but by no means was it a failure. It was a big success selling well over a million units before production was halted. Of course it could of done a lot better. One of the main reasons that held back sales in the UK was lack of advertising. Nintendo themselves have admitted this, there was very little advertising done for the NES until 1990/91.

The other main reason was the price, not so much of the system but the games. I remember when games such as Chip 'N Dale : Rescue Rangers, Maniac Mansion and Gremlins 2 were selling for £49.99 ($90) each. That is a lot of money when compared to the Sega Master System titles which were selling between £9.99 and £24.99.

I had to mention the Sega Master System sooner or later, the SMS is coincided the main reason for lower NES sales in the UK by most. I disagree although it was a popular system and more powerful I do not think it took away that many potential NES customers. After all Nintendo had signed all the best developers such as Capcom, Rare, Infogames, Taito, Sunsoft etc. While Sega were left developing conversions of their old arcade games.

Only two hundred and twenty odd licensed titles were released in the UK, a sign of poor system sales or poor support from Nintedo Europe? The later for sure.

Some games that were announced and planned for UK release but went unreleased are, Mr. Gimmick, The Immortal (Scan from 1992 Game Pak Catalogue here), Hammerin' Harry, Maxi 15 (unlicensed), Rodland and Addams Family Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt.

Luckily for UK gamers we had one unlicensed developer that was not scared of Nintendo. Codemasters started to support the NES around 1991. They released a couple of classics such as Micro Machines and The Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy. They also invented the fantastic cheating device known as the Game Genie.

Nintendo did not completely shun Europe we did get Club Nintendo which was like the american Nintendo Power but with fewer issues. In return for joining Club Nintendo which was free you would get a magazine every three months with cheats, walk throughs, reviews etc and the option of phoning their help line. The help line was for when you got stuck on a game they would look it up for you and give advice. By 1991 Club Nintendo had 350,000 members including myself. :)

While on the subject of magazines it is only fair that I mention Total Magazine. Total Magazine was a british magazine dedicated to Nintendo systems and games. First published in January 1992 by Steve Jarratt and Andy Dyer. It was by far the best Nintendo magazine, it had great in depth reviews and it could be as honest as it wanted to be as it was unofficial.

UK Release and Rarity guide - Written by yours truly.