Browsing through my photos from Korea I discovered a picture of Korea’s Nintendo Entertainment System. This might surprise some readers, but when Nintendo launched the NES in greater Asia (read: outside of Japan and not mainland China) they released the toaster box NES commonly found in North America. However, by this time plenty of people already imported Famicoms and “Asian” version games like this Korean version of Super Mario Brothers 3 sitting on top of the system were scarce. Right next to it is a Korean Nintendo 64.
Missing from the photo is the Super Comboy, the Korean version of the Super Famicom. Nintendo wasn’t established in Korea when the Comboy entered the marketplace, which led to some “creative” marketing decisions. In one TV advertisement Bowser, Mario, the hero from Secret of Mana, the hero from Dragon Quest V, Chun Li from Street Fighter II, Raphael from the Ninja Turtles, Buster Bunny and characters from Dragon Ball Z sing in a commercial. Strange, but true!
See the clip past the break.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA_8k2XEKE0[/youtube]
