Drastic Localization overhauls from Japan to North America

[TonyTheTiger]

Panel de Pon = Tetris Attack. Lolicon fairies become the Yoshi's Island crew along with the completely arbitrary addition of the lucrative Tetris name. A pretty rational change, all things considered.

Trying to keep it to major changes since mentioning slight visual edits would make the list 10,000 entries long. Things like Vampire Killer to Castlevania: Bloodlines where Eric Lecarde was de-bishojoized are probably too minor to mention.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Ah yes! I forgot about that! It's not only a graphics hack, but the soundtrack is also completely different. Panel De Pon has a rather great soundtrack, and Tetris Attack remixes Yoshi's Island tracks.

Panel De Pon has infact never been released in the west under its real name. It became Tetris Attack and then Pokemon Puzzle League for the N64 (no Japanese counterpart!) and then Pokemon Puzzle Challenge for GBC with again no Japanese counterpart. It wasn't until 2003's Nintendo Puzzle Collection that Japanese gamers saw Panel De Pon return, and then westerners were robbed of it.

Then came the GBA and DS versions simply being called "Puzzle League" now.

For those who have played Smash Bros though, the item Lip's stick is the wand the main loli fairy from Panel De Pon carries around.

[Blitzwing256]

Zelda 2 is a big one, the experience system was simplified (you can't choose what stat you level up as in the us version each level of each stat has a set exp requirment where the jap version you can choose any of the 3 when you level up) the requirments for level ups were less in the jap version. the graphics were greatly overhaualed and the exp enemies gives you is tweakied. there is also a new boss (level 5) that isn't in the japanese version. palaces have more tilesets. overall the na version is much better presented than the original fds version.

[treismac]

Really? I would think there are more games that JUST have facelifts, than games that have actual gameplay changes.

And to be honest, I think the latter is more interesting.

I've heard that Working Designs sometimes tweaks the gameplay in their localizations (Thunder Force V and Silhouette Mirage being two known examples, though I can't remember the specifics right off hand).

What I meant, Dantes, is that the list of facelifts AND gameplay tweaks combined would be too much. It seems that the games with gameplay changes are making the list anyway, which is fine.

What puzzles me is that it seems half of Japanese game designers make the games easier for "weak" North American gamers, and the other half make them harder. Why? I suppose it shows that the Japanese are not as monolithic as they are often made out to be.

[TonyTheTiger]

The original Dragon Warrior had a pretty significant visual upgrade from it's Japanese counterpart. Not as substantial as other changes listed but enough to notice at first glance.

[Wraith Storm]

Wasn't Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine a re-skinned Puyo Puyo game?

[FoxNtd]

Wasn't Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine a re-skinned Puyo Puyo game?

Yep, it's Puyo Puyo 1 for Mega Drive. There's also the Game Gear port that underwent the same change.

[theclaw]

Puyo Puyo for Game Gear took that weirdness further with a distinct localization exclusive to the system, never released in the west, AND requires a western hardware model to access.
Three strikes against it! Look up "Puzlow Kids".

[TonyTheTiger]

Throw Kirby's Avalanche on the list, too.

[StealthLurker]

(SFC) Youkai Buster Ruka --> (SNES) Jetsons

Comparison:

YBR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OGFJ...eature=related

Jetsons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLiRiJdkCHI

.

[SparTonberry]

Exile III? I looked the series up and it calls Exile: Wicked Phenomenon the third game in the series but I'm failing to see how. It says the TG16 and Genesis versions are remakes of the MSX game, does that somehow make them sequels?

I think it was something like the original game was on MSX (called XZR), it's sequel XZR II got ported to Genesis and TG16 as the first Exile, and then Exile II was the last game in the trilogy (only on PCE/TG CD?).

One game I can think of that got changed was Spanky's Quest for the SNES. The first stage of the Japanese version was a tutorial level. It got removed from the western versions, but they kept the graphics. (so for example: stage 1 in the western version used the level data for stage 2 of the Japanese version, but with the graphics of the original Japanese stage 1)
Kickle Cubicle for the NES had a similar shift: the English version had easier levels at the beginning and harder levels were pushed further back in the game. I think the Japanese version might have also had faster enemies, too.

I noticed Superman for the NES lacks the Superman theme (which was included in the Famicom version) and was replaced with music from the Famicom-exclusive RPG Indora no Hikari.

[wingzrow]

Shatterhand and solbrain were developed SUPPOSEDLY at the same time, but I thought this should be mentioned

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9OvyVoj7I0

[Parodius Duh!]

Theres SOOOOOO many differences as far as Famicom to NES titles go, Off the top of my head these are all different, someone else can fill in exact details and Japanese titles....

XEXYZ
Bayou Billy
Bionic Commando
Ninja Cop Saizou
Raf World
Guerrilla War
Double Dragon
Double Dragon 3
Panic Restaurant
Shatterhand (@wingzrow, of course they were developed at the same time, its the same game just an altered Character Sprite and 1 different level to make it more Americanized)
Maniac Mansion
Monster Party (Unreleased in Japan, but the prototype HAS been found a few months back)
Whomp Em
Ninja Gaiden III
All Castlevania's
All FDS ports had to be heavily altered code-wise

Euro Exclusive alterations:
Doki Doki Yuuenchi (Trolls in crazyland)
Ufouria (Main character sprite is changed from Japanese version)
Probotector series (aka Contra)

[Edmond Dantes]

Rushing Beat (Super Famicom)/Rival Turf (SNES)

The jap original isn't exactly an amazing title (competent enough beat'em up) so I'd hate to see just how much worse the western version is (if that cover is anything to go by).

I used to have Rival Turf. Didn't exactly amaze me, but it wasn't bad. And the U.S. version still stars the two dudes from the Japanese cover. I always thought it was odd that one of them looked basically like M. Bison.

[wingzrow]

Monster Party (Unreleased in Japan, but the prototype HAS been found a few months back)

Oh wow, I hope there's a rom dump of this.

[Parodius Duh!]

Oh wow, I hope there's a rom dump of this.

SAME HERE. Not one, but 3 different protos of it have turned up the past 5 months, all are in Japanese collector hands so if/when its dumped it will most likely be on a Japanese ROM site before anything else....

[BlastProcessing402]

I've heard that Working Designs sometimes tweaks the gameplay in their localizations (Thunder Force V and Silhouette Mirage being two known examples, though I can't remember the specifics right off hand).

Yeah Working Designs was famous for doing this with all the games they ported to the Sega CD, TG-16, and Saturn. Popful Mail and Exile III come to mind immediately, but they always seemed to think that the original Japanese release was too easy and that American audiences enjoyed frustrating challenges for some reason. In fact when they tweaked Exile III they screwed up and made it too difficult so that you needed to cheat or be a gaming god to beat it.

One of the most infamous localization tweaks by WD had to be the change to Lunar 2 on the SegaCD, where you had to spend magic experience to save your game. Made it VERY hard to get started, as you didn't get much magic experience, and thus couldn't save your progress as much as you'd like in the starting stages of an old RPG when you are weak and easy to kill. Of course, later on, when you can kill anything in sight and nothing is a threat to you, you have all the magic XP you could ever want and then some, so saving is no problem. A very unbalancing change, probably the one thing WD ever did to a game that pissed me off.

Speaking of WD, before they got the rights for Popful Mail, Sega themselves had plans to port it at one point, in a manner that would've made it perfect for this thread. They planned to graphically overhaul it into Sister Sonic, a game about Sonic's sister (if the title wasn't enough of a giveaway, lol). Wow that would've been... interesting.

[Az]

What was changed for Double Dragon 1 & 3 for NES? I didn't know of anything beyond the cover censoring for part 2.

Speaking of Rival Turf, the 3rd part is a hell of a lot different for the US release, and pretty much every change is for the worse IMO. For the series as a whole I never understood why they felt the need to change the main character from white to black for the US releases.

[substantial_snake]

Persona's cast was pretty much white washed upon coming to the states, though back then that was not that uncommon.

[j_factor]

One of the most infamous localization tweaks by WD had to be the change to Lunar 2 on the SegaCD, where you had to spend magic experience to save your game. Made it VERY hard to get started, as you didn't get much magic experience, and thus couldn't save your progress as much as you'd like in the starting stages of an old RPG when you are weak and easy to kill. Of course, later on, when you can kill anything in sight and nothing is a threat to you, you have all the magic XP you could ever want and then some, so saving is no problem. A very unbalancing change, probably the one thing WD ever did to a game that pissed me off.

Ever play Silhouette Mirage? That's the one game that WD really butchered.