entremet
Member
I didn't know about this when I first played these games, but it was common, around the NES/Famicom era and beyond for Japanese developed games to be made more difficult for western localizations.
Many theorize this happened to due to rentals being legal in the US. Higher difficulties would incentivize gamers buying the games. I don't know how true this is, but it is a common theory.
One of the most notorious games to suffer this fate was The Adventures of Bayou Billy for NES.
The original Famicom game was much more reasonable. The game was known as Mad City for the Famicom and it's much better for it. I enjoy games that are hard, but also fair, but the Adventures of Bayou Billy was crazy.
Another victim of ridiculous difficulty tuning was Ninja Gaiden 3 NES. The Japanese original had unlimited continues, much like its American sequels, but Tecmo decided to have only 3 continues for NG3. The decision was pretty baffling honestly.
What other games where this has happened? Are there examples where this has happened for the betterment of the game in question?
Many theorize this happened to due to rentals being legal in the US. Higher difficulties would incentivize gamers buying the games. I don't know how true this is, but it is a common theory.
One of the most notorious games to suffer this fate was The Adventures of Bayou Billy for NES.
The original Famicom game was much more reasonable. The game was known as Mad City for the Famicom and it's much better for it. I enjoy games that are hard, but also fair, but the Adventures of Bayou Billy was crazy.
Another victim of ridiculous difficulty tuning was Ninja Gaiden 3 NES. The Japanese original had unlimited continues, much like its American sequels, but Tecmo decided to have only 3 continues for NG3. The decision was pretty baffling honestly.
What other games where this has happened? Are there examples where this has happened for the betterment of the game in question?