Samurai is to Tengu as Mario is to turban...
Over the years, many crazy games have been made, and depending on the region, have had some slight changes made to them. Robots replaced Marines in Half-Life and Contra is called Probotector in Europe, Wolfenstein is banned in Germany (way to hide from your past) and let’s face it, many things are butchered when coming to America. For example in Final Fantasy 3 (Final Fantasy 6j) Many sprites were changed for a North American release to censor nudity or scantily clad women. It is a fairly common practice to change some aspects of a game for a region it is being ported to, however sometimes it’s not a brilliant move.
Thus is the case with the NES game Samurai Zombie Nation or Abarenbō Tengu as it’s called in japan.
Now to begin with, this game is bizarre, in Japan you are the disembodied head of a Tengu, a Japanese spirit of the mountains and forest. In America, you are the severed head of a samurai named Namakubi (which means “sliced off heads” in Japanese)
On the left is the American version, on the right is the Japanese
. Gameplay stays exactly the same and the only major differences are superficial. However this one was changed due to Americans not knowing what a Tengu was. A floating severed head of a Samurai is much more common in America.
Go Figure…
I guess the next example, to me anyway, makes sense, but at the same time doesn’t… Bionic Commando on the NES. Wait, what? Yeah, Bionic Commando or Top Secret: The Resurrection of Hitler in Japan. If Disney made Hitler cartoons, then this game makes perfect sense. Allegedly.
Well look at that…
swastikas… Fun fact: before Hitler and his Aryan assholes, the swastika comes from Sanskrit svastika, which means “good fortune” or “well-being.” Then a bunch of douchebag Nazi’s fucked it up like American English and the word fag or gay.
I don’t see the problem with having Nazi stuff in a game as long as you blow Hitler’s head up in the end. Just saying…
I guess the last example would be one of the most infamous. Super Mario Brothers 2. Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic… I mean SMB2 is an American localization, as a kid, you’re telling me you never found Mario’s blue outline strange? They didn’t even change the final boss or anything, just plugged Mario and company right in there.
Well
, while that might not be a huge deal, Japan got the true sequel, which was later released on the SNES Super Mario All-Stars as The Lost Levels. They weren’t lost, we just never got them. While SMB2 was fun, it does pale in comparison to the insanely difficult jumps and level design of SMB2j.
Although we got Birdo as a regular Mario character out of the trade, (Twice in less than a week I’ve mentioned Birdo now) I feel that we did miss out the first time around with some excellent NES goodness.
Oh well…
Localization doesn’t happen quite as much now, yes, some things are still censored from country to country, some games still get banned however more of the world is getting to play games the way they were originally released. Some of the crazier games, like Michigan: Report From Hell and Super Galdelic Hour will never see American shores (and believe me some of them shouldn’t be imported either…) we are getting a more diverse view of gaming around the world now.
As a final word, starting next month these will become videos. Still images suck and videos convey more than words can in some cases…
Josh Flaherty
Josh Flaherty is an independent game designer from Minneapolis, MN and owner of Queuethulu Games LLC. He has worked on independent video games since 2003 and is passionate about the art of games, unique stories, and long walks down dark alleys. Visit Josh at his personal blog, http://vonshmoot.blogspot.com/ and also at Queuethulu Games Blog (personal game design blog) http://queuethulu.blogspot.com/. You can follow him on Twitter as well @SWTZMBEJESUS. To contact Josh, email him at joshflaherty@secretlaboratory.org.
