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List games that were heavily altered in localization

belgurdo

Banned
Topic inspired by this

kamenoid.jpg


I'm curious because I know they used to do this practice a lot in the 80s (and they still do it to a limited degree today,) but I didn't have the means to research it when I was a kid
 

Kudie

Member
An obvious one would be Super Mario Bros. 2 for NES.

Also, although not a very significant change in localization, in Super Mario Sunshine, the Japanese ver. always showed "Shine Get" when you earned a shine and the U.S. ver. did not.
 

Tellaerin

Member
There was a Ranma 1/2 fighting game for the SNES that was released in the US as 'Street Combat'. For that version, Irem completely changed the characters and music to eliminate any connection to Ranma. (I'm assuming they didn't have the Ranma license.) The results were... strange.
 

belgurdo

Banned
Tellaerin said:
There was a Ranma 1/2 fighting game for the SNES that was released in the US as 'Street Combat'. For that version, Irem completely changed the characters and music to eliminate any connection to Ranma. (I'm assuming they didn't have the Ranma license.) The results were... strange.


I remember that one. Horrid.
 

bjork

Member
If it makes you feel any better, the Ranma game ended up being released here as well under its own name, and it too was a horrible game.
 
Dragon Power, I believe it was called, was originally a Dragon Ball game in Japan.

A bunch of the sprites were changed, but not all of them. You'd recognize half the characters if you played the US version.

Persona on the PSX had one of its main characters completely change race through localization. He's black in the US and white in Japan. I always thought that was interesting.
 
Street Fighter/Darkstalkers/Final Fight series (names changed around, genders changed, backgrounds edited, storyline changes, graphical censoring, etc etc etc)
 

Blackace

if you see me in a fight with a bear, don't help me fool, help the bear!
Semjaza Azazel said:
Dragon Power, I believe it was called, was originally a Dragon Ball game in Japan.

A bunch of the sprites were changed, but not all of them. You'd recognize half the characters if you played the US version.

Persona on the PSX had one of its main characters completely change race through localization. He's black in the US and white in Japan. I always thought that was interesting.

Yeah and the old guy... (turtle master or whatever his name is) Is such a perv... but instead of ladies underwear floating around him it was triangles... yay...
 
Obake no Q-Taro --> "Chubby Cherub"

Pop'n Pop (GBC) --> "Yogi Bear Great Balloon Blast"

Elevator Action (GBC) --> "Dexter's Laboratory Robot Rampage"

Solomon (GBC - rad Solomon's Key sequel) --> "Monster Rancher Explorer"

Panel de Pon --> "Tetris Attack" (and later the much more hideous "Pokemon Puzzle League")

And the list goes on and on... those were just some of the most offensive to me. Though I do love both versions of Panel de Pon.
 
And GeGeGe no Kitaro (Famicom) became Ninja Kid in the US. Bandai again.

You know, this addition of licensed characters to games of Japanese origin is interesting. I might add in a bit about this to my book. What do we have so far: the Noid, Yogi Bear, Dexter's Laboratory...

Do you have proof of all these? Comparison screens?
 

NotMSRP

Member
This would be a very worthwhile thread to me since I'm a big geek about changes. But the info here are a bit vague. More details please.
 

User 406

Banned
Blackace said:
Yeah and the old guy... (turtle master or whatever his name is) Is such a perv... but instead of ladies underwear floating around him it was triangles... yay...

Actually, they called them sandwiches, leading to the unforgettable lines:

I WANT THE SANDWICH

OH OH SO MACH

:p
 

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
Didn't the european version of Luigi's Mansion include a remixed version of the mansion?

Also, the European version of Metroid Prime was altered a bit - different cut scenes, and a bit harder apparently.
 

nathkenn

Borg Artiste
Last Battle aka Hokuto no Ken(Fist of the North Star) for the genesis. lol they changed kens name to aarzak among other things, especially head exploding
 

madara

Member
Sonic CD. So glad I imported that. Hey I still waiting for this to get added to some sonic collection edition too!

I think I read here that Y's 6 sadly is getting heavily altered :( Not in good way either.
 

Amneziak

aka The Hound
Bionic Commando was originally known as Top Secret: Hitler's Revival. All of the swastikas and other Nazi references were removed for localization (for obvious reasons).

TS-title.gif


TS-swastika.gif


TS-cover.jpg


TS-backcov.jpg


For some reason, they didn't change the end boss (Hitler). I didn't know about the localization process when I was a kid, and it was a strange surprise to fight Hitler (aka Master-D) at the end.

TS-Hitler
 

fennec fox

ferrets ferrets ferrets ferrets FERRETS!!!
People get turned into robots a lot in Germany.
Obake no Q-Taro --> "Chubby Cherub"
Pop'n Pop (GBC) --> "Yogi Bear Great Balloon Blast"
Elevator Action (GBC) --> "Dexter's Laboratory Robot Rampage"
Solomon (GBC - rad Solomon's Key sequel) --> "Monster Rancher Explorer"
Panel de Pon --> "Tetris Attack" (and later the much more hideous "Pokemon Puzzle League")
I don't find anything offensive about any of these, actually. Nobody knew who Q-Taro was in the US, the three GBC games probably sold better than they would have without the character names, and Tetris Attack took out the silly-looking witch girls and put Yoshi in their place, which is a fine improvement.
 

belgurdo

Banned
madara said:
Sonic CD. So glad I imported that. Hey I still waiting for this to get added to some sonic collection edition too!

I think I read here that Y's 6 sadly is getting heavily altered :( Not in good way either.


Yeah, the ugly little "chibi" prerendered sprites the original game used are being replaced with more proportionate 3D models. (I think the music is changing too in some parts but I'm not sure.) When I read about this at GameFAQs the anime purists were going nuts but I kinda like the change (since over-powerfully "cute" things in a serious game are somewhat off-putting for me.)
 

drohne

hyperbolically metafictive
Kobun Heat said:
And GeGeGe no Kitaro (Famicom) became Ninja Kid in the US. Bandai again.

that's actually one of my favorite early nes games, and i've never been able to find much information on it. seems there are a bunch of gegege no kitaro games, including a bandai sfc sidescroller that could conceivably be a sequel. neat.
 

WarPig

Member
belgurdo said:
Yeah, the ugly little "chibi" prerendered sprites the original game used are being replaced with more proportionate 3D models. (I think the music is changing too in some parts but I'm not sure.) When I read about this at GameFAQs the anime purists were going nuts but I kinda like the change (since over-powerfully "cute" things in a serious game are somewhat off-putting for me.)

Interesting. Five years ago I would have said this was the right idea, but now I'm beginning to wonder whether companies are underestimating the power of the OMGWAIWAI^_^;XD Japanophilic shithead market.

DFS.
 
WarPig said:
Interesting. Five years ago I would have said this was the right idea, but now I'm beginning to wonder whether companies are underestimating the power of the OMGWAIWAI^_^;XD Japanophilic shithead market.

DFS.

I agree - this used to be a good idea but I don't think it is anymore. The OJSM is growing in power.
 

WarPig

Member
MoxManiac said:
That market is a pox on humanity!

See, I take a sort of realpolitik attitude towards the situation. On the one hand, they're fucking disgusting wastes of flesh. On the other hand, they give Tokyopop the money to release Cyborg 009 and Bandai the money to release Zeta Gundam, so they can sit and whack off in their Livejournals all they want so long as I don't ever have to look at them or talk to them or anything.

DFS.
 

SFA_AOK

Member
I think I preffered the robots in Probotector compared to the guys in Contra 3.

Surprised no one mentioned Magical Flying Hat / De-cap-attack
 

NotMSRP

Member
Tokyopop's major demographic is teenage girls, both pretty and ugly girls.


Can someone make a master list of this? I a real sticker for this kind of thing.
 

NotMSRP

Member
Is there another link to the changed Ys game? The link on Gamefaqs doesn't work.

According to a FAQ, there's extra zombies in the USA version of the RE games compared to the JPN version. Also, according to FAQs, PN 03 and Chaos Legion have some requirements to get items adjusted. Capcom made the US versions harder. I don't know if there are any other changes. CVXFREAK should be able to tell.
 
fenekku-gitsune said:
People get turned into robots a lot in Germany. I don't find anything offensive about any of these, actually. Nobody knew who Q-Taro was in the US, the three GBC games probably sold better than they would have without the character names, and Tetris Attack took out the silly-looking witch girls and put Yoshi in their place, which is a fine improvement.

I agree that they were probably wise business decisions, but that doesn't mean I have to like it as a fan of the original games. Well, except Q-Taro, but was the completely unknown (and downright creepy) Chubby Cherub really more appealing than the completely unknown but actually cute and charming Q-Taro? Many Americans know Bub, Bob, and all the other Taito characters from Pop'n Pop from Bubble Bobble and Bust-a-Move also, not to mention that Elevator Action has quite a bit of 'retro' appeal.

As for Panel de Pon, I pretty much agree that the Yoshi changes were a good idea, but I still curse them for slapping the Tetris name on it. Say what you want about using the name to sell more copies - to me, at the time, the last thing I wanted to play was yet another bad Tetris sequel, and so I ignored it for years until finally being turned on to it by a friend. I think a lot of other people felt the same way. Even today, when I try to sell people on the game, I can hardly get past the name without them cutting me off and trying to tell me they're not interested in another lame sequel to Tetris.

"Nonono, it's really not like Tetris at all!!"

"Yeah yeahhh, whatever... what'd they add this time, BOMBS or something? Or is it the one where it's in 3D or some crap like that.."

So it's hard to say, but the brilliant business move of using the Tetris name for a non-Tetris game actually might've backfired in a big way. It definitely killed my interest in it.

Oh, and Chris - the Yogi Bear and Dexter's Lab games actually say right on their respective boxes that they're ports/hacks of those games. It says something like "Powered by Pop'n Pop" in small text on each box.
 

WarPig

Member
Well, except Q-Taro, but was the completely unknown (and downright creepy) Chubby Cherub really more appealing than the completely unknown but actually cute and charming Q-Taro?

I dunno. Q-Taro always looked like a condom with a smiley-face on it to me. The theme song kicks ass, though.

DFS.
 

belgurdo

Banned
That's...disturbing. I'm shocked there hasn't been any porno photoshoots involving that thing (at least none that I know of.)

Anyway, here's another one: Whomp 'em. Apparently this used to be a saiyuki (that is, you played as Son Goku) game
 

shuri

Banned
Tellaerin said:
There was a Ranma 1/2 fighting game for the SNES that was released in the US as 'Street Combat'. For that version, Irem completely changed the characters and music to eliminate any connection to Ranma. (I'm assuming they didn't have the Ranma license.) The results were... strange.

Me and my friend rented that game.. twice. When we were in that classic early-to-mid 90 fighting game lust. I really miss that time. We would go the rental shop and rent out two fighting games, and we would play non stop for two days. All I remember is that we liked the super special move effect. The game was awful
 

Belfast

Member
I don't remember the URL, but I remember there was some website out there that detailed a lot of changes between an original JP side-scroller that eventually became known as Totally Rad over here.
 

BenT

Member
Belfast said:
I don't remember the URL, but I remember there was some website out there that detailed a lot of changes between an original JP side-scroller that eventually became known as Totally Rad over here.
http://www.flammie.net/vse/things/rad/

Magic John is a lovely name.
 

Lyte Edge

All I got for the Vernal Equinox was this stupid tag
bjork said:
If it makes you feel any better, the Ranma game ended up being released here as well under its own name, and it too was a horrible game.

That was the sequel. :) Incidentally, the third (and much better) Ranma fighting game was advertised, but never saw release in the States.
 

madara

Member
Well I all I remember with Ys 6, which I could have swore I read here, was some pictures of some really hot anime elfs and next to them new americanized ones(bah).

And yes alterations in Sonic CD were all pretty much sound based but made such huge difference to me and so many people to be quite memorable.
 
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