That Time the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Seized Hundreds of Fake Super Mario Bros Games

Can you believe there were fake Super Mario Bros games printed back in January 1987? Well, it is true, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department was responsible for seizing hundreds upon hundreds of these fake Super Mario Bros games.

Well, I am back for one more That Time in 2022, and this is that time the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department seized hundreds of fake Super Mario Bros games.

Full disclosure, this is unfortunately a story that lacks a lot of details, but from what we know the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department went on a full investigation in 1986 about the claim that certain popular video games were being illegally sold, as they were fake copies of the games. The most prominent of those titles? Well, that had to be Super Mario Bros, which was hot off the press in Japan and selling like hot cakes alongside the Family Computer (AKA the Famicom, otherwise known as the Nintendo Entertainment System in the west).

From the little information that we know, the investigation took part a year prior to the bust. In January of 1987, the Atago Police Station, which is located in Minato City, solved the investigation, found hundreds and hundreds of fake Super Mario Bros games, and seized them.

For those unfamiliar, Tokyo is not only a city, it is a prefecture, and one of the most populated ones in the entire world. Minato City is located just north of Shinagawa, a major port city, and it is only a couple train stations south of the famous Tokyo Station.

Since the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department initiated the investigation, this put all police stations across Tokyo Prefecture on high alert, and since Japan is a regimented country, the investigation was thorough, intense, and relatively quick.

Since there are very few details regarding this event, it does seem like a simple case of police doing their job and doing it efficiently. Illegal selling of goods in Japan is a serious crime, and although most countries have laws against the illegal distribution of protected goods, Japan takes things to the extra level and busts criminals for this behavior on a regular basis.

While I lived in Tokyo, Japan, something that I viewed on a regular basis what the “No More Movie Thieves” campaign, which is a proper campaign to stop illegal recording and distributing of films. Japan is serious about protecting their media, and since anime and video games are the most popular entertainment medium for their country, you better believe they will do whatever it takes to stop criminals from illegally copying, cloning, faking, and/or distributing, especially when it is their greatest asset to the world: Super Mario.

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Thank you for stopping by Nintendo Link and enjoying this “That Time” article. What do you think about the Tokyo Police seizing these fake Super Mario Bros games? Are you surprised? Let us know what you think in the comments below! Happy gaming, everyone.