speaking of hw limitations, the first time I played SMB Special on the pc8801 I remained speechless: it cannot handle scrolling, so what is the point to convert a game which bases most of his gameplay on the side scroll??
Something similar happenend years later in Europe with the SMB-clone Giana Sisters, the ST-version didn't scroll anymore. That was probably the exception though.
I wasn't under the impression that the Japanese gaming libraries were that much different from western ones in the beginning at least in terms of titles produced for various genres. From the mid 80s, it seemed even more tilted to "adventure" games (partly probably because of Hentai..), and then there was the rise of the JRPG , so original arcade-like titles were even less made as opposed to direct ports. Even the X68000 has a few though (e.g. Aquales, or Code-Zero by Enix).
