All posts in category Cultural Anxiety

Wildcat examines how many localization efforts left behind Japanese cultural traits as they traveled overseas.

Cultural Anxiety – Kirby’s Adventure/Hoshi no Kirby: Yume no Izumi no Monogatari

Study 25 – Kirby’s Adventure/Hoshi no Kirby: Yume no Izumi no Monogatari (NES/Famicom, Nintendo/HAL Labs)

Kirby’s Adventure, or Hoshi no Kirby: Yume no Izumi no Monogatari in Japan, was a pivotal game in the budding Kirby franchise. Its predecessor, the Game Boy Kirby’s Dream Land/Hoshi no Kirby, was a cute platformer that featured a gray ball-shaped blob named Kirby. He could suck up enemies and spit them out as stars as his main form of attack. In Kirby’s Adventure, the blob became pink, and his inhaling capabilities gained an upgrade! He could now gain powers from his foes if he swallowed them over spitting them out, and developer HAL Labs came up with 20 fairly unique abilities for Kirby to balance throughout the game. The quest also was a much larger endeavor, and all of those new skills would come in handy!

Localization changes on Kirby’s Adventure were rather minimal. However, there are a few small changes that make it worth doing an article on this (and help get me back into the swing of doing these features more regularly). Let’s begin, like we usually do, with some box art.

fami-ka

The Famicom box is almost a dead ringer for the title screen, with it displaying several of Kirby’s new powers as a background. Quite representative of what awaited players!

nes-ka

The NES box is quite nice, too, although there’s a menacing aspect to the underlying darkness that is usually absent from Kirby games. Still pretty cute, though.

Onto the screens! The Famicom version will be on the top, NES on the bottom.

hnk-titleka-title

For the title screens, the logo is drastically different, and the North American background seems a little less colorful (and more purple).

The second major change is in the name of one of Kirby’s powers. We know his dashing burst of flame as “Fireball”, but in Japan it was titled “Burning”.

hnk-burningka-fireball

The remaining alterations are pretty minor.

hnk-stageendka-stageend

When Kirby beats a stage in Hoshi no Kirby, an exclamation in Japanese (as I don’t readily know Japanese, I’m not sure what exactly it means) is under the victory tape. In America, it reads GOAL.

hnk-icika-ici

Ice Cream Island was IceCream Island in Japan.

hok-fodka-fod

The Fountain of Dreams is also slightly different in Japan, lacking the “s” in Dreams. Sensible given the lack of plurals in Japan. You can also see here that the logo is different for the two cutscenes.

Nothing too drastic here, but I feel that looking even at the minute can lead to interesting things. For example, why was Kirby’s fireball move called “Burning” in Japan? It’s appropriate I suppose, given that he is literally “burning” when he uses it. It easily flows from the tongue when you refer to the power as “Burning Kirby”. However, I suppose Nintendo of America didn’t want to associate that power with that particular word; maybe they felt it would be a drug reference or something. :p Next time, I’ll pick something a little more elaborate. And egads, I need to stop taking three month hiatuses! XD

Sources:

The Cutting Room Floor page for Kirby’s Adventure – http://tcrf.net/Kirby%27s_Adventure

Vizzed page for Hoshi no Kirby: Yume no Izumi no Monogatari (note: emulation page!) – http://www.vizzed.com/playonlinegames/game.php?id=13228

GameFAQs page for Kirby’s Adventure – http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/563432-kirbys-adventure/images

SauseandPepper blog entry for Hoshi no Kirby – http://sauseandpepper.blog63.fc2.com/blog-entry-204.html

Box vs Box entry for Kirby’s Adventure – http://boxvsbox.tumblr.com/post/23545592566/kirbysadventure

by WildcatJF on December 15, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by WildcatJF on December 15, 2012

http://lvls.wordpress.com/2012/12/15/cultural-anxiety-kirbys-adventurehoshi-no-kirby-yume-no-izumi-no-monogatari/

Cultural Anxiety – River City Ransom/Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari (NES/Famicom)

Study 24: River City Ransom/Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari (NES/Famicom, Technos)

The Kunio-kun series, in Japan at least, rivals Mega Man and Mario’s Famicom exploits in terms of sheer quantity. Kunio began his career in Renegade, an early beat-em-up that led to both Double Dragon and later Kunio-kun adventures like the one I’m spotlighting today. Renegade will be covered down the road. Technos would revisit the Kunio-kun world in many spin-offs, including Nintendo World Cup, Super Dodgeball, Crash n’ the Boys: Street Challenge, and a myriad of other games we didn’t see on our shores. Hell, one of them became the American Double Dragon 2 for the Game Boy. XD

Anyway, Technos did do other games beyond Double Dragon and the Kunio-kun series. For example, Karate Champ was made by them, which helped launch the one-on-one fighter. They also did some WWF arcade games. The good times came to an end in 1996 when the company closed down. After their demise, Million acquired the rights to Technos’ properties and have done a fairly good job at keeping the Kunio-kun and Double Dragon franchises alive with new releases and re-releases on digital platforms like the Virtual Console.

Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari’s localization into River City Ransom saw some pretty severe shifts. We’ll get into those momentarily. Let’s examine the boxes first.

Here’s the Famicom box. A chibi approach, completely appropriate for the game’s spritework. The pink background with one of the girls looped in the background is a nice touch. America, meanwhile…

…got this. I’ll let my Artistic Discussion detail out what’s wrong:

The best thing this box has going for it is its logo.  That’s pretty decent.  The proportions and ability to draw decent human beings isn’t bad either compared to other NES boxes, but what made this such a sour box art for me is the poses. Our hero on the left is combining two styles of fisticuffs; the fist and the chop, which I believe don’t often go hand and hand (punny). The hero on the right doesn’t have the dashing good looks of our other protagonist, but he’s got a pipe! He’s scratching his head with it, but it’s at least a weapon! The punks in the background are sort of amusing, trying to look tough with minimal detail (only the frontrunner can pull it off…maybe it’s the knife). The dude behind him is channeling his inner geek or something…not quite sure what that pose signifies. But the key reason, even beyond the goofy poses, I picked this box is the sign toward the right that reads “River City High School”. HIGH SCHOOL. Do any of these guys even suggest that they are high schoolers? They all seem to be ripping off of Jimmy Dean’s wardrobe if you ask me style-wise, and not a single face or body teases the thought of youthful lads. So, we either have a mix-up on age or some of the oldest high schoolers ever pounding each other into BARF, and I don’t think that was Technos’ intention.

So, from the boxes alone we can see a shift in design. Japan sees school uniforms and schoolgirls, while Americans get middle-aged men pretending to be young Jimmy Dean types. XD Luckily, the chibi style was mostly left alone for the game itself. Let’s take a quick look at some screen comparisons. Japan is on the left, America in the right.

Pretty simple localization there. Kanji for Japan, a revisiting of the box logo for America. The background color in both isn’t that great, though. Black may have looked better.

Here’s some in-game comparisons. Japan has kanji text and the wall is sectioned differently, for one. The real noticeable change however is the sprites. Kunio’s morph into Alex transformed his clothes as well. It’s more appropriate for Alex to wear jeans and a t-shirt for America, but I admit that I prefer the original Japanese uniform look. Perhaps I’ve played EX too much?

As of press time, I’ve yet to discover more significant changes beyond remolding the sprites into more Americanized clothing and some text editing, but I’ll be on the lookout for more alterations. However, there is one bit of questionable content that escaped censorship at the hands of Nintendo’s conservative age:

Ah, naked butt. How in the world this slipped through Nintendo’s QA is astounding. Maybe they failed to visit the sauna. Definitely one of the more notable cases of nudity making its way into the hands of Americans.

River City Ransom kept the core gameplay of its Kunio-kun original, but shed its Japanese heritage in localization in order to do it. The sprites swapped their clothes to look more American, mainly, which is a pretty big change from the Japanese uniforms Kunio and Co. wore in Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari.

Sources:

Kunio-kun Wikia Page on Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari – http://kuniokun.wikia.com/wiki/Downtown_Nekketsu_Monogatari

HG101 Article on Kunio-Kun – http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/kunio/kunio.htm

Wikipedia Page on River City Ransom – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_City_Ransom

GameFAQs Image Page for River City Ransom – http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/563453-river-city-ransom/images

by WildcatJF on September 1, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by WildcatJF on September 1, 2012

http://lvls.wordpress.com/2012/09/01/cultural-anxiety-river-city-ransomdowntown-nekketsu-monogatari-nesfamicom/

Cultural Anxiety – Rygar/Argus no Senshi (NES/Famicom, Arcade)

Study 23: Rygar/Argus no Senshi (NES/Famicom, Arcade)

Has it really been three months since I last did one of these? Man. I’d like to do them more often. We’ll try to get back into the swing of things over the summer, okay?

Anyway, let’s get onto the topic at hand. Argus no Senshi was one of Tecmo’s earliest games, seeing release in 1986. The company had just recently changed its name, formerly doing business as Tehkan. The origins of Tehkan were pretty far from gaming, as they supplied cleaning equipment to Japanese businesses in 1967. Two years later, the company switched gears and got into amusement equipment, which was a bigger success. Their first game was 1981′s Pleiads.

Argus no Senshi was a fairly straightforward action arcade title, starring hero Senshi (aka “warrior” in Japanese, according to Video Game Den). His claim to fame was slinging around a rather cool weapon, the Diskarmor, which is a boomerang-esque shield. With this mighty weapon, Senshi must defeat the evil Raiga and save the kingdom of Arigoru from his tyranny. I have the flyers for the arcade original at the end of the post, mainly because the Japanese one is quite violent. XD In localization the hero became Rygar, the villain Ligar, and little else changed from what I can tell.

In 1987 Argus no Senshi was ported to the Famicom. The game saw a significant change in style and design during this process. The arcade style of gameplay was tossed aside for a more Metroid-like structure (the comparison isn’t as derivative as you may think, since Metroid came out around the same time). Senshi still wields the Diskarmor, but he can pad its abilities with further tools that boost his defense and mobility options. It’s a fairly solid game, although it’s been way too long since I played it.

When Tecmo brought it to the U.S., very little seemingly changed! Let’s start with the most drastic alteration, which, naturally, is the box art:

The Famicom box is rather adorable, despite Raiga’s malice. Senshi is chibi-ifed, and the enemies are fairly cute, too. It also utilizes the most memorable part of Rygar to me, the sunset. Rather nice work.

America as usual can’t handle the anime, so Tecmo commissioned this for us to experience the fantastic Rygar. A graceful manly man this Rygar is, with a Diskarmor MADE OF FIRE and the ability to bound over sinking muppet rejects that were cast into the stone pits of doom. Mullet power, too! Seems a bit inspired by He-Man. :p The randomly suspended tree behind him that just suddenly ceases existence before it reaches the ground is a blemish. I like how the logo uses the sunset, though. I’ve seen worse!

Some screen comparisons, with Japan on the left and America on the right:

Very little changed here. The logo for Argus no Sensei looks nicer, I think. I like the Diskarmor behind it quite a bit. A two year gap between releases is the other thing I notice.

Beyond some color differences and changes to the text, Sensei/Rygar and the Guru here look unaltered.

Surprisingly, the biggest change to Rygar was that some of its music was redone for the American release! Compare the two:

Argus no Sensei was minimally cut or transformed on its overseas travels to become Rygar, which is always nice to see. The box art and the music were the key alterations. So while Sensei’s original chibi look was lost for a more He-Man style of fighter, at least the visual look of Argus no Senshi’s gameplay was left alone.

Sources:

HG101 Article on Rygar: http://hardcoregaming101.net/rygar/rygar.htm

Box Vs. Box Spotlight on Rygar: http://boxvsbox.tumblr.com/post/23292003629/argus-no-senshi-vs-rygar-1986-this-was-my

Tiny Cartridge Article on Musical Differences between Rygar and Argus no Senshi: http://tinycartridge.com/post/947199653/argos-no-senshi-rygar-famicom-version-i-had-no

Video Game Den Article on Argus no Senshi: http://www.videogameden.com/fc.htm?arg

Join me after the jump for a bit more Argus no Sensei/Rygar comparisons! The Japanese arcade flyer art has some graphic violence, so if you’re not big on the decapitation of monsters, don’t march on! (more…)

by WildcatJF on June 3, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by WildcatJF on June 3, 2012

http://lvls.wordpress.com/2012/06/03/cultural-anxiety-rygarargus-no-senshi-nesfamicom-arcade/

Cultural Anxiety: Conquest of the Crystal Palace/Matendouji (NES/Famicom)

Study 22 – Conquest of the Crystal Palace/Matendouji (Asmik/Quest, NES/Famicom)

The studio that would eventually create Ogre Battle/Tactics Ogre began in 1998 under a different moniker of Bothtec. This company released one game, The Scheme, for NEC’s PC-8801. After a name change to Quest, the company began working with the NES hardware. Matendouji was the first to be localized for overseas audiences, transformed into Conquest of the Crystal Palace.  Later on, Quest focused on their aforementioned Ogre series, which would earn its rightful place as one of the finer strategy RPG franchises on the market. Their work would inspire the creation of Final Fantasy Tactics, thanks to three major members of Quest, Yasumi Matsuno, Hiroshi Minagawa, and Akihiko Yoshida, all joining Square and being a big part of FFT’s creation.  Quest themselves would also become a part of the Square-Enix behemoth following the release of the GBA Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis, and would lose their company identity entirely.

Asmik Corp, which is now known as Asmik Ace Entertainment, began in 1985 and produced their own games on top of localizing games from other companies.  Their best known titles are the Game Boy Catrap (available on the 3DS Virtual Console!) and Boomer’s Adventures in ASMIK World for the NES.  As of late they’ve been quiet on the gaming front, but the company still exists and continues to be a part of the Japanese entertainment industry.

Matendouji/Conquest stars a young man named Farron, who is actually a prince of the Crystal Palace. Along with his talking dog Zap, Farron marches off to reclaim his throne from the villain Zaras.

With that brief bit of exposition, let’s get into the meat of this post.

Matendouji’s Famicom box is a little busy, but full of excellent anime designs and motifs.  I wonder if Akihiko Yoshida was involved…this doesn’t resemble his present style.  At any rate, it’s a fine introduction to Farron’s world.

Asmik’s spin on the box loses a lot of its Japanese anime roots, despite the Samurai armor adorning the big bad (Zaras?) villain Farron and Zap are facing off against.  There’s not much resemblance of Farron’s Japanese design.  He looks much more European in style.  Zap is still decked out in some sort of armor, but it has a futuristic look to it over the more traditional Japanese armor he donned on the Famicom box.  The composition isn’t terrible, and the shattering of the edges of the scene are clever…but it doesn’t do much for me, personally.

Screenshots ahoy!  Japanese on the left, American on the right.

Quest’s title screen features chibi heads of the main cast, and some huge kanji representing the title.  However, there’s something really wonderful about the approach Asmik ran with for the American title screen.  I like the mood it creates.  Definitely one of the nicer ones of the era.

The key difference here is that the Japanese version uses “lives” while the American uses “rest” to signify extra lives.  Not sure why!

Asmik removed some of the more controversial elements of the game, including these skeletal babies that crawl around on the ground.  Slugs replace them for America.

And then there’s this.  This area is RADICALLY altered for America.  The foreground titles are disturbingly fat baby heads.  The background is full of freaky zombie faces.  And the enemies are ghastly fetuses.  In America, all of these were toned way down.  The foreground is now standard cavern fare.  The background are still creepy face-like things, but it’s not as drastic as before.  And the enemies are now spiders and some weird fairy-esque thing I can’t quite make out.  Massively different.

From here on in, I’ve only got American screens.  I salute Asmik for their mostly hands-off approach to localization here, leaving much of the Japanese cultural roots intact for Conquest.

For example, the heaven kanji under Zap.  Farron looks like a fairly typical anime hero, too, with a Japanese flair to him that wasn’t lost in translation.

The use of a scroll, with kanji, and Japanese imagery and artwork.  That’s great spritework, I must say.

Here’s the store.  Owner Kim has a nice anime look to her, doesn’t she?  I love how this game embraces so much of its Japanese heritage, and how Asmik left it alone!  It’s a wonderful thing.  Even the box art features minute elements, although it was completely reworked into a more American style.  On the whole, though, Conquest of the Crystal Palace managed to escape Japan relatively unscathed, and if Nintendo was not as strict with their NES censorship, it may have come with all of the freaky bits from the cave intact, too.

Sources:

Hardcore Gaming 101 Article on Conquest – http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/crystalpalace/crystalpalace.htm

Joystiq’s Virtually Overlooked on Conquest – http://www.joystiq.com/2008/05/22/virtually-overlooked-conquest-of-the-crystal-palace/

MobyGames Page for Conquest Images – http://www.mobygames.com/game/nes/conquest-of-the-crystal-palace/screenshots

Spil:Musset Museum page for Matendouji – http://www.spilmuseet.dk/infotitel.php?id=39640

by WildcatJF on March 22, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by WildcatJF on March 22, 2012

http://lvls.wordpress.com/2012/03/22/cultural-anxiety-conquest-of-the-crystal-palacematendouji-nesfamicom/

Cultural Anxiety – Trojan/Tatakai no Banka (NES/Famicom)

I had plans to get Conquest of the Crystal Palace up for December, but a Hardcore Gaming 101 writer has mentioned his interest in doing a report on the game there, and that would be quite handy, so I’m going to hold off a bit and see what he comes up with.  In the meantime, here’s a quickie on one of Capcom’s early NES/arcade efforts.

Study 21 – Trojan/Tatakai no Banka (Capcom, NES/Famicom)

Trojan/Tatakai no Banka is one of Capcom’s earlier games, originally released in 1986 in arcades.  It stars the titular Trojan, a warrior who is living in a dystopic Mad Max-esque future where demons have shaken up civilization into a chaotic mess, and their influence dictates the world’s people save a few strong fighters.  Trojan is one of these special humans immune to the demon’s corruption, and armed with a sword and shield he prepares to wipe out the threat and save the world.  Fairly straightforward storyline, really.

The game was a moderate hit worthy of receiving a NES/Famicom port, which Capcom performed in the last half of 1986, releasing it in time for the holidays in Japan in December, and in February 1987 in the US.  The game mixes up the gameplay a tad, as Wikipedia details:

The NES version of Trojan features several significant changes to the game, such as the addition of new power-ups and hidden rooms, as well as an alternative Versus Mode, where two players compete against each other in a best-two-out-of-three duel, making it Capcom’s first attempt in the fighting game genre.

So, this game does mean something to the greater Capcom sphere.  Unfortunately, the gameplay is a trainwreck.  It’s clunky, your hero’s animation is slower than his foes, and the shield/sword dynamic the game wants to utilize isn’t too effective or fun to control.  Capcom revisited the concept with Tiger Road in 1987, but moved on to better action gameplay engines and concepts following that.

Ignoring the arcade version (which used the same promo materials), let’s focus on the boxes and title screens.

I love Japanese auction sites sometimes – you find better boxes there.  Anyway, this was special art done for the Famicom box, and it’s definitely in the anime vein.  Trojan doesn’t look too shabby – he’s doing exactly what he’s capable of in the game itself.  Iron Fist or whatever his name is looks wonky, that he does – sort of like Guts Man, actually. XD

The NES box reuses that lovely holographic grid Capcom adored in their early days (as well as their audacious “High Resolution Graphics” claim).  The art is plucked right from the arcade flyer, which at least shows some artistic credence (compared to, say, Mega Man).  Despite this being the official art for the arcade in both regions, I think Capcom’s choice for the more dystopic sci-fi styled poster over the Famicom’s Tezuka-esque piece was regionally considered.  Trojan looks decently bad ass in a He-Man sort of way, and that villainous scum behind him looks pretty menacing and an adequate super hero antagonist…in short, it attempts to appeal to an American comic/sci-fi crowd.  Does it work?  Well, that’s up to the viewer, I suppose.

A quick title screen comparison:

Not much to comment on.  Different logos and more text in the copyright for the US game (which is on the right).  From what I could tell, the innards of the game were untouched in localization.

It’s fascinating to me how a game with a dystopic post-apocalyptic scenario can be interpreted in such distinct cultural ways.  Even a game whose guts are minimally altered can see drastic changes in its box art, and it’s one reason I enjoy composing these posts and am thrilled about doing this kind of thing for a career (wish me luck!).

Sources:

Joystiq piece on Trojan – http://www.joystiq.com/2007/07/12/virtually-overlooked-trojan/

StrategyWiki guide for Trojan – http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Trojan

GameFAQs Image page for Trojan – http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/587732-trojan/images

Spidershinya’s Yahoo blog – http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/spidershinya/60766453.html

Wikipedia page for Trojan – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_(video_game)

by WildcatJF on December 31, 2011  •  Permalink
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Posted by WildcatJF on December 31, 2011

http://lvls.wordpress.com/2011/12/31/cultural-anxiety-trojantatakai-no-banka-nesfamicom/

Cultural Anxiety: Amagon/Totsuzen! Macho Man (NES/Famicom)

Study 20 – Amagon/Totsuzen! Macho Man (NES/Famicom)

Aicom was by no means the biggest name in the NES archives – their best titles for the console were Vice: Project Doom and Golgo 13: The Mafat Conspiracy, and they were behind the Game Boy Blaster Master Boy/Jr. (which originally was a Bomberman spin-off), among other less notable titles.  In 1998 or so morphed into Yumekobo, a SNK-backed developer who produced Blazing Star, SNK Gals Fighters and other Neo Geo Pocket Color games until they seemingly shut down in 2000 (likely due to SNK’s financial hardships).  Aicom’s second game, and the first to see release overseas, was Totsuzen! Macho Man for the Famicom.  Published by Vic Tokai, it features Amagon, a stranded marine who finds himself on a “crazy island” (that’s what the game itself says!) and has to fight his way through to escape.  His rifle has limited ammo, but luckily he has the secret power of transformation, in this case becoming the muscle-bound Megagon.  Megagon has an actual HP meter based on Amagon’s score (Amagon himself suffers from Shinobi syndrome and can only take one hit – poor training if you ask me), and his punches and “macho energy” chest blasts that serve him much better than his puny original body.  American Sammy decided to localize it as Amagon and brought it to America in 1988.

There’s not a lot of documentation on Amagon in English, so I’m going to do what I can in terms of comparison with what I observed in my research.  We’ll begin with the Famicom box.

This was the best I could find (and I unsharp masked it!).  It’s colorful and full of anime masculinity.  I can see Megagon popping up in Dragon Ball Z or something.  It’s colorful, too.  But…I think the American reimagining is a little better:

Here you see Amagon’s original form and his Megagon form, which sells the concept a little bit better.  It’s still a fairly unimpressive box, and the goofy face Megagon has doesn’t inspire macho confidence, but I’ll run with it.  Amagon’s Japanese box definitely went for the manly anime crowd, while its American cousin saw a more or less action movie/cartoonish overhaul that attempts to inspire Hulk connotations.  It doesn’t pull it off, but I think that’s the vibe it’s after.

As I mentioned above, the game hasn’t really been delved into as deeply as some of my other choices for this topic, but I do have a couple screen shot comparisons to share.

Japan’s is on the left.  The premise is about the same – Amagon crashed his …toy plane that he somehow stuffed his entire body into, and is stuck out on some crazy island.  The American version’s logo is cuter, in my opinion – I like the muppet-esque O there.  Slight color differentiations abound, too.  The sign post Japan’s title is plastered on seems highly out of place.  Another win for America!

As best as I was able to find, the map screen has different text per region.  I think Japan’s is better here (again on the left) – escaping an island by traversing it isn’t so much a mission as it is a requirement. :p  And, as the screenshot below attests, it is crazy:

Amagon did not get a great sprite.  It appears he’s about to shoot himself in the head to make these weird hallucinations go away. XD  Gameplay-wise not much seemed to change as it was localized by American Sammy – the game’s menus appear the same, as does Amagon’s lanky sprite.

Finally, we’ll discuss the final boss, which my sources all mention is based on the “Flatwoods monster” that supposedly was a space alien spotted in Flatwoods, West Virginia in the 1950′s.  So, we have an American extraterrestrial rumor sparking Japanese designers into making it a final boss in a “marine must cross the island he crashed on to find his rescue boat…and he morphs into Conan with chest RAZERS for kicks” game.  Fascinating.  And with that, I think we’re done here.

Sources:

Wikipedia Page for Amagon – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amagon

MobyGames Page for Amagon – http://www.mobygames.com/game/nes/amagon

GameFAQs Image Page for Amagon – http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/587089-amagon/images

by WildcatJF on November 21, 2011  •  Permalink
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Posted by WildcatJF on November 21, 2011

http://lvls.wordpress.com/2011/11/21/cultural-anxiety-amagontotsuzen-macho-man-nesfamicom/

Cultural Anxiety – Ultima: Exodus/Ultima: Kyoufu no Exodus (NES/Famicom)

NES/Famicom

Study 19 - Ultima: Exodus/Ultima: Kyoufu no Exodus (Origin Systems/Pony Canyon/FCI)

Before I begin, I’d like to say that I’m only going to focus on the localization differences of the NES and Famicom versions, not so much comparing them to the original PC game.  There will be occasional references, but you’d be better served looking at the two source links below for information on the PC game itself.

Richard Garriott’s Ultima series is one of the progenitors of the computer RPG as we know it today.  Beginning in 1981 (officially), the series had nine main installments, a wealth of offshoots, and helped inspire key RPG franchises that we see everywhere now, like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.  In 1983 the third title, Exodus, was released for Apple II’s, and four years later, Origin was approached to make a Famicom version by FCI which that company published in both Japan and North America.

There’s not a ton on the Japanese game that I could find, so I’ll primarily be focusing on what caught my attention on doing a piece on this game in the first place – the box art.  It would seem that FCI had the same idea for how they wanted their box to look.  They wanted the four party members in the front, with the fighter and cleric in center surrounded by the thief and wizard.  Around them would be particular monsters pulled from the game, with a castle looming in the background.  And then, for each region, they hired an artist they felt would best represent this concept for their respective country and let them go to town.

As you could probably fathom just by looking at it, this is Japan’s box.  The characters look sort of cool and have solid placement (the cleric looks best in my book with that pose – not so much for the near upskirt she’s about to offer), and the black border is great, too.  Definitely a decent effort.

…Okay.  So this…is what appeals to Americans, I guess.

What impresses me most about this (and there’s very little, let me assure you) is how the clothes of the main cast are nigh-identical to the Japanese box.  The poses are also similar, but are much poorer than the other.  The cleric is clearly the worst executed here compared to before (that pose apparently was out of this poor artist’s grasp), while the fighter at least looks heroic-esque or something, coming out on top in terms of the humans (unless this is a cast of dwarves or bobbits – they’re in this game, and the anatomy of all of these heroes are really squashed, making that a feasible, albeit unlikely scenario).  The monsters are by far the best part – this artist should stick to those and those alone.

Beyond that, I know of one other change the game received between these versions.  First, a new character based on the singer of the specifically created theme song for the Famicom port, Noriko Hidaka, had her name changed from Noriko to Sherry.  That’s all I can expand upon as of right now.

Curiously, the famed Ankh the series is known for was altered in-game into a cross for Lord British’s pre-game speech, somehow slipping past Nintendo’s censors.

Anyway, I thought that this particular example exemplified the purpose of Cultural Anxiety by seeing the same concept filtered through different artists targeting their specific region.  I’m sure there will be others, but this is a fine beginning to what I hope becomes a commonality for me to report on.

Sources:

Hardcore Gaming 101 page on Ultima Exodus – http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/ultima/ultima4.htm
Ultima Wikia entry on the NES/Famicom port of Ultima Exodus – http://ultima.wikia.com/wiki/NES-Port_of_Ultima_III

by WildcatJF on October 24, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Anime, Cultural Anxiety, Features, Games
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Posted by WildcatJF on October 24, 2011

http://lvls.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/cultural-anxiety-ultima-exodusultima-kyoufu-no-exodus-nesfamicom/

Cultural Anxiety: Clash at Demonhead/Dengeki Big Bang! (NES/Famicom)

NES/Famicom

Study 18 - Clash at Demonhead/Dengeki Big Bang! (Vic Tokai)

Vic Tokai was not one of the more notable developers to come out of Japan – they are probably best regarded for the game we’re covering today, Clash at Demonhead, or as it was known in Japan, Dengeki Big Bang!, alongside their two Golgo 13 NES games.  The company began in 1950 as a natural gas utility, and now specialize primarily in telecommunications.  Like other companies in the ’80′s, they got into programming video games to test the waters, and this period was from approximately 1985 to 1998.  They even opened up their own localization branch to bring their titles overseas, and amazingly, Clash at Demonhead can proudly stand as one of the most honest-to-goodness Japanese games to ever hit the NES.  Its reliance on seinen show tropes from the 1970′s remains obvious to those in the know, the character portraits are distinctly anime in style (and feature several exaggerated emotions for Billy/Bang, the protagonist), and its overall design smacks of Japanese culture and traditions.  The translation is also surprisingly readable and pleasant, although it is quite daffy, and the craft put into its creation was not lost in its transition.

That being said, Vic Tokai still made the choice to strip out any trace of its Japanese adoration for the Western box art.  Let’s examine the Famicom original first.

Pretty standard stuff – chibi style characters, crazy monsters, a huge starship base in the background, and oddly colored hair…yeah, I think I can designate this an anime influenced box.

O_O

This…is not.  This plays up a plethora of American ’80′s ideals of science fiction that it’s difficult to know where to start.  The logo, for one.  I LOVE the “At” rendered in a flashy lightning bolt font, but that’s about the extent of my love.  Bang is a car-fender armor decked Rambo stereotype, Mary is wearing some neon-infused frock that has coney breasts and odd shoulder straps, Tom Guynot could be any necromancer plucked from a fantasy cover, and the alien raptor/dragon/thing looks horrifically out of place (and its arm is atrocious).  The speeder bikes make no sense, too, beyond a boss using one, but he certainly didn’t look like that!  And what’s up with all the mirrors on the canyon floor?  As Grace suggests, maybe all these governors needed was a little upskirt action!  Poor Mary. :(   The last thing I notice a little after posting this is the…phallic purple reflection by Guynot – what kind of game is this?  I guess it’s supposed to be his leg or a mountain, but it looks much more like a penis if you ask me. *shrugs*

That disaster behind us, Vic Tokai did minimal edits to the game itself.  NationMaster’s page for the game details the minute alterations:

A sequence of the intro that briefed Bang about his upcoming mission was removed in the US version. The briefing regarded such details as Professor Plum’s building of a bomb and a MIA recon named Joe.

The Title screen in the Japanese version shows Bang looking at Demonhead with dramatic music. In addition, a sound effect would play and a UFO would streak across the sky when an option was selected. All of this was removed in the US version and replaced with a bland solid blue screen with a flashing title and no sound whatsoever, possibly to streamline gameplay.

The shop keeper in the Japanese version has no nose, a thin mustache and goes cross-eyed when he talks. His US counterpart has a nose, a full mustache, and smiles when he talks.

Sally, the daughter of the shop keeper, smirks and looked at her father, while her US counterpart smiles and looked at the player.

Yen become dollars and Guts become Force in the US version.

Icons instead of text were used next to suit meters: HYP for Power Boots, JET for Jet Pak, AIR for Aqua Lung and SUT for Super Suit.

If the “Doomsday bomb” was ignited in the Japanese version a text message was displayed over a solid red background. This was removed in the US version.

The password system in the US version is much lighter than its Japanese counterpart. The US version uses 32 different characters with a password length of 30, while the Japanese version uses 65 characters with a password length of 32. As a result, the Japanese system holds more information such as current funds, force and gold, whereas the US system has to reset its values back to when the game is first started.

The end credits are removed in the US version.

The UFO that streaked across the sky in the intro also streaks in the end screen. This is removed in the US version.

I’ll be able to cover a little bit of that in our screenshot comparisons below.  Dengeki is on the left, Clash on the right.

American gamers were stuck with a rather unexciting blue screen with only a flashing logo and the bold option to “Attack!” the game, but Japan got a much more dynamic view of Bang staring out at Demonhead in anger…albeit a bit awkwardly (his legs look a little off).  Still, I think that would have made a better screen than boring blue.

The key thing to note here is the Yen symbol in the bottom-left corner – this would be replaced by a $ for Americans.  Also, Bang’s status screen on the bottom reads “Gun” for Japan and “Ammo” for America.

It would seem a very slight color tweak needed to be made in the game’s conversion – the sky is a lighter shade of purple in America, and the rocks on the right are lighter, too.  Interesting how the two hardwares seemingly had different palettes.

The shopkeeper, as noted above, looks quite different for America gamers, although I can’t tell any difference in Sally (the young lass).  The “Super Shop” text is white in Japan but blue for America, too.  Lastly, “Guts” was renamed “Forces” for Westerners.

The hermit had some significant work done to his section of the game, with a lot of sprite edits for Romanized letters and numbers.

The dialogue screens are frequent in this game – Japan called these “Talk Time” while America had “Talking Time”.  Fans of Gamespite may recognize that as the name of their forums, and with good reason!  Bang’s crazy emotional sprites were left alone, which is awesome.

Despite the attempt to appeal to Western gamers with the apeshit “80′s homage of radicalness” box art, Vic Tokai took a chance on their localization approach and left all of the cultural nods to anime alone, and it makes Clash at Demonhead a delightfully refreshing spin in a censor-filled era.


Sources:

GameFAQs page on Clash at Demonhead: http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/587190-clash-at-demonhead/images

KidFenris’ Page on Clash at Demonhead: http://www.kidfenris.com/clashcover.html

Nationmaster Page on Dengeki Big Bang!: http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Dengeki-Big-Bang!

Giantbomb Images on Clash at Demonhead: http://www.giantbomb.com/clash-at-demonhead/61-16188/images/

VG Abyss page on Dengeki Big Bang!: http://ftp.animanga.com/bluehell/vgabyss/reviews/clashbang/index.html

Scrollboss page on Clash at Demonhead: http://scrollboss.illmosis.net/game.php?g=clashatdemonhead-nes

Talking Time Let’s Play post of Clash at Demonhead: http://www.gamespite.net/talkingtime/showthread.php?t=10308

by WildcatJF on September 19, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Anime, Cultural Anxiety, Features, Games
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Posted by WildcatJF on September 19, 2011

http://lvls.wordpress.com/2011/09/19/cultural-anxiety-clash-at-demonheaddengeki-big-bang-nesfamicom/

Cultural Anxiety – Mega Man/Rockman (NES/Famicom) Part 2

NES/Famicom

Study 17.5 – Mega Man/Rockman 4 – 6 (Capcom)

Continuing from where we left off last time, let’s compare Mega Man/Rockman’s last three adventures on the NES and Famicom to each other.  Like before, we’ll start with the Japanese, then go to the American and (if I have it) European covers.

Mega Man 4/Rockman 4: Arata Naru Yabō!!

Keiji Inafune is stepping up his artistic prowess here, and will continue to do so over these next two boxes.  Mega Man is becoming much more heroic looking (compared to the chubby chibi man he was in the first game’s Japanese box), and the background is ominous scenery well backed by the Robot Masters.  Eddie even gets in on the action.  A nice box.

Mega Man 4 also shows improvement over the last three boxes, although Mega Man himself looks a little awkward.  I think it’s the smirk and the poor coloring job on him that makes him look all one color.  The backdrop is nice, though, and that snail enemy is damn impressive.  Pharaoh Man isn’t shabby, either, although he’s not as big as a castle. :p

The European box takes the template of the NES box, but makes Mega Man look a little more like Inafune’s take on the character, with a more anime-styled face and hey, he’s the right colors!  This one is ultimately better, I think.

Mega Man 5/Rockman 5: Blues no Wana!!

This one is probably the weakest in the Japanese box set here.  There’s no background to speak of, and the Robot Masters are intermingling with Rockman’s allies – a little odd, don’t you think?  While the character art is solid, I just don’t care for the layout.

Mega Man 5 is probably my favorite box of the six Mega Man games – it’s among the more dynamic of the era, and I like the smug “yeah, you think you’re attackin’ me, Gravity Man, but my MEGA ARM IS STRONGER THAN YOU!” look on his face.  Mega Man’s running pose is a little awkward, but the overall excellence makes up for it.  And, of course, I dig Protoman back there, although he’s wearing a cape for some inexplicable reason – the art designer must have mistaken his shield for a cape, I guess.  I do wonder who or what’s Mega Man is shooting at, though.

Europe once again takes the American box and remolds it into some bizarre compromise between Japan and American Mega Man – his Inafune-styled face is a little awkward here, though.  Gravity Man looks shinier, too.  The best box to modify, I suppose.

Mega Man 6/Rockman 6: Shijou Saidai no Tatakai!!

Rockman’s allies surround him properly this time, and I like the Earth in the background – ties into the title screen quite well (see below).  A world of improvement can be seen from Rockman to Rockman VI, and I may prefer this one the most out of the three Japanese boxes we have this time.

Nintendo released Mega Man 6 in North America, but they must have consulted Capcom about the box in advance, as it ties pretty closely to the last two on display here.  Fun fact – Knight Man and Wind Man are both designed by North Americans – perhaps they’re on show here because of that?  I like this box a fair amount, too – Wind Man and Knight Man aren’t as cool as they could be, which puts it down a peg from the action-fueled MM5 box, but Mega Man’s never looked better on the NES.  It also shows off one of the new Rush suits, which is a plus.

Ready for some title screen differences?  Japanese on the left, American on the right.

Mega Man and Rock Man’s helmets are slightly different colors, for some reason.  Also, Capcom’s copyright is MIA on the American version.  Weird.  You’ll also notice Press Start replaces Game Start on all three titles in America.

Again, slight color variation on Protoman’s scarf, plus the menu is lower to accommodate the larger Mega Man V logo.

The logo and color differences carry over one last time to Six.

Lastly, one last change – for Mega Man 6 at least, the Robot Master Selection screen switches out Push Start in Japan to Press Start for Americans.  Why the difference?  Who knows?

And with that, our focus on Capcom’s seminal NES series is concluded.  Keiji Inafune’s anime styling for Rockman and company never quite made it over to America via box art (until Mega Man 8), but the games do move more towards a comparable counterpart to Inafune’s art by MM6.  Europe took its own unique approach at first, but by the end they were merging the two into an interesting blend.  Curiously, Capcom had no reservations about using Inafune’s work in the manuals here.  I suppose with that Japanimation art locked away in the box, Americans may not run away in fear of it. :p

Sources:

Jap-Sai Page for Rockman 4 – http://www.jap-sai.com/Games/Rockman_4/Rockman_4.htm
Jap-Sai Page for Rockman 5 – http://www.jap-sai.com/Games/Rockman_5/Rockman_5.htm
Jap-Sai Page for Rockman 6 – http://www.jap-sai.com/Games/Rockman_6/Rockman_6.htm
Mega Man Knowledge Base page for Mega Man 4 – http://megaman.wikia.com/wiki/Mega_Man_4
Mega Man Knowledge Base page for Mega Man 5 – http://megaman.wikia.com/wiki/Mega_Man_5
Mega Man Knowledge Base page for Mega Man 6 – http://megaman.wikia.com/wiki/Mega_Man_6
GameFAQs page for Mega Man 4 – http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/563444-mega-man-4/images
GameFAQs page for Mega Man 5 – http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/587444-mega-man-5/images
GameFAQs page for Mega Man 6 – http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/563445-mega-man-6/images
The Cutting Room Floor page for Mega Man 5 – http://tcrf.net/Mega_Man_5
The Cutting Room Floor page for Mega Man 6 – http://tcrf.net/Mega_Man_6

by WildcatJF on August 22, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Anime, Cultural Anxiety, Features, Games
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Posted by WildcatJF on August 22, 2011

http://lvls.wordpress.com/2011/08/22/cultural-anxiety-mega-manrockman-nesfamicom-part-2/

Cultural Anxiety – Mega Man/Rockman (NES/Famicom)

NES/Famicom

Study 17 –Mega Man/Rockman 1 -3 (Capcom)

Capcom’s premiere NES franchise had the most entries of any NES hero or heroine (barring Mario, whose menagerie of appearances is impossible to beat) with six in total.  The games all revolved around Mega Man/Rockman’s (American/Japanese) talent for stealing his adversary’s powers for his own use, a clever mechanic.  For this article, we’ll focus on the first three games, as they show the most significant localization changes.

In Japan, the first game wasn’t viewed as a success, but Capcom allowed its staff to work on a sequel during their spare time, as Capcom had plenty of other projects for that team to work on.  However, upon completion Rockman 2 became a smash hit all over the world, standing as the best-selling title for the franchise to date, with 1.5 million copies sold.  The third title was created under extreme pressure due to time constraints and a new supervisor overseeing the project, yet somehow came together incredibly well despite these difficulties.

Rockman’s box arts were all done by Keiji Inafune, a recent hire during the early stages of Rockman’s first game.  He was tasked with designing some of the enemies and Robot Masters.  While he is not the creator of the franchise (as some have mistakenly surmised), he had probably done more for it than anyone else at Capcom during his tenure there.  Fantastic insights can be found in Mega Man Official Complete Works, available from UDON.  The North American and European boxes were designed and executed quite differently from Inafune’s attempts, as we shall see.  We’ll go in this order for the boxes – Japan, North America, and Europe.

Mega Man/Rockman

Rockman’s first cover isn’t bad – definitely not Inafune’s finest work, but the game showcases the six Robot Masters and Rockman pretty well, and even teases Dr. Wily’s Castle back there, too.  It’s leagues ahead of what American audiences had to suffer:

Arguably the ugliest box art ever made, I’ve ripped it plenty in an Artistic Discussion bit a while back, and I don’t think I can top that…so I’ll quote it here:

There’s so many things wrong here that it’s hard even to begin.  Mega Man’s pose is awkward in multiple ways – his legs jut out at odd angles, his shoulders are too far forward, his left arm is holding the gun unrealistically, his helmet is off-center, his right arm is not drawn to scale, his boots look like they were merely colored over his original legs…etc.  The background fails perspective 101 practically everywhere, with only the explosives resembling anything that looks like…what it should be, I suppose.  The random palm trees that abruptly cut off, the bizarre domes that are in the foreground that seem to serve no purpose other than adding some buttcrack peaches into the mix, and god, I could keep going.  When the best part of your box is the nifty 80′s grid BEHIND your composition, there’s a problem!

The European box somehow straddles the line between Japan and America’s boxes, with generally better artwork more in line with Capcom’s designs, yet making it more Western in execution…and having the artist be somewhat more competent than whoever Capcom USA hired to do their box.  They even got Mega Man’s jumping face pretty accurate.

Mega Man 2/Rockman 2 Dr. Wily no Nazo

Inafune shows much improvement with the Rockman 2 box, although Rock does look like he’s about to punch out Woodman’s eye, there.  I like the enemy selection surrounding the central boss/Rock grouping a lot.  Nice layout.

Mega Man 2 looks better than the first box, but there’s still a lot of problems.  Dr. Light shouldn’t be giving Crash Man orders, for one.  Crash Man and Quick Man’s colors are all wrong…and Crash Man looks like he’s got an eye patch, making him a pirate well before Pirate Man was invented for Mega Man & Bass.  That stage is a mishmash of concepts, yet none of them are all that good (and why do you need a ladder to crawl out of the LAVA?), and then there’s Mega Man himself, who A) has a gun when he should have a Mega Buster), B) Doesn’t have a visor, C) and if he did have a visor, wouldn’t he have it DOWN in a firefight?, and D) My god, his right ankle’s broken!

Europe’s box takes its own unique path, and while it takes more liberties than its predecessor did, it’s not a bad effort by any means.  Although Mega Man is left handed, not right. :p

Mega Man 3/Rockman 3 Dr. Wily no Saigo!?

Rockman 3′s puts Rush front and center with Rock, and isn’t quite as nicely designed as the last – Inafune’s increased workload probably had a lot to do with that.

FINALLY, a box that isn’t atrocious.  It’s not ideal or great, but it’s at least somewhat representative of the franchise at last.  Spark Man and Top Man are the wrong colors, and Rush looks more like Top Man’s pet than Rock’s, but on the whole this is a vast improvement.

The European equivalent is probably the worst of its three, although it tries to mimic Inafune’s style but with more metallic paint and the menacing Wily in the back, obviously the best part of the whole thing.  Protoman also looks…wonky.  Not all that good.

While Inafune’s artwork has a certain cutesy anime flair to it, American and European gamers wouldn’t be able to tell that these games were Japanese save for the game itself, which did little to the sprites or code to hide things.  Still, Japanese title screens did feature some differences that Capcom USA altered for unknown reasons – let’s take a look.

Japan’s Rockman on the left, America’s Mega Man on the right (which will be the standard the rest of the way down).  Rockman’s is a vibrant blue, with a nice enlarged Rockman dead center bordered by a striking line and a classy logo.  Mega Man strips out all of the blue and Rockman for a more subdued, bold title, with its imposing logo and little else to distinguish it.

These two are almost identical, but Mega Man 2 had its building lowered to make room for the larger logo.  Capcom’s copyright is also missing, and the NA version has difficulty options.

In localization fun, Clash Man was Crash Man in Japan, due to the L/R confusion.

Rockman 3 has Rockman to the right of the options, a little more grown up than he was in Rockman, but Mega Man 3 axes him out completely for more black.  He’s in the game for the “You Got ‘Weapon’” screens, but the American title seems much more barren without him.

Also, the game’s menus read the game’s appropriate title – Rockman III for Japan, Mega Man III for America.

Next time, we’ll take a look at Mega Man 4 – 6.

Sources:

Jap-sai Page for Rockman – http://www.jap-sai.com/Games/Rockman/Rockman.htm
Jap-sai Page for Rockman 2 – http://www.jap-sai.com/Games/Rockman_2/Rockman_2.htm
Jap-sai Page for Rockman 3 – http://www.jap-sai.com/Games/Rockman_3/Rockman_3.htm
Time Warp Gamer NES Box Art Master Page – http://timewarpgamer.com/features/box_art_master_nes.html
Technomaly Page for Mega Man II title screen – http://www.technomaly.com/2010/01/17/fan-made-mega-man-film-coming-very-soon/megaman2/
Examiner Page for Rockman 2 – http://www.examiner.com/la-classic-game-in-national/chiptune-jukebox-rock-mega-man-2
Giantbomb Page for Mega Man 3 – http://www.giantbomb.com/mega-man-3/61-4518/
Just another little blog world page on Rockman 3 – http://blog.naver.com/PostView.nhn?blogId=yeongjoon890&logNo=70103510057
Mega Man Wikia entry on Mega Man (NES) – http://megaman.wikia.com/wiki/Mega_Man_%28video_game%29
The Cutting Room Floor on Mega Man 2 – http://tcrf.net/Mega_Man_2
GameFAQs Image Page for Mega Man 3 Box (NA) – http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/563443-mega-man-3/images

by WildcatJF on August 1, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Anime, Cultural Anxiety, Features, Games
Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by WildcatJF on August 1, 2011

http://lvls.wordpress.com/2011/08/01/cultural-anxiety-mega-manrockman-nesfamicom/

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