NES and Other Classic Video Games Censored in Japan

[ColecoFan1981]

Although video games usually have certain references removed from the U.S. and/or European versions of games originally released in Japan, some JDM games also have censored content.

For example: DuckTales for the NES. In Japan this game was titled Wanpaku Dakku Yume Boken (lit. "Naughty Ducks' Dream Adventures"), and in the Transylvania stage the crosses seen on the coffins in the prototype version were removed in favor of "R.I.P." (as we already know in the U.S. and Euro versions). In addition, the item Mrs. Beakley drops in the African Mines stage is changed from a hamburger to a soft serve. Why didn't even the JDM DuckTales get spared this?

JDM = Japanese domestic market

~Ben

[SparTonberry]

Because the Japanese version was released later?

Maybe Disney changed it, who knows. (we do know Disney evaluated the content before it was released, because other wise it would've had "Robo Duck" and more typical bad NES Engrish)

[Aussie2B]

Japanese developers, at least in those days, usually only kept the most recent build of a game (besides holding on to the script in multiple languages, of course). Their belief was that the most updated version is superior (even if the reality was that sometimes an update was just a matter of censorship). So when a US branch requested edits, the edits often remained in the Japanese version, if there was a Japanese version released after that. Like when Mother (the Famicom game) was to be released in English as Earthbound (not to be confused with the SNES Earthbound), they made a number of edits, like removing references to smoking. When a compilation of Mother and Mother 2 was released in Japan on GBA, even though the NES Earthbound had never come out at the time, that version of Mother still had those edits. Or with Super Mario 64, a handful of changes/additions were made for the US release, and when the game was re-released with rumble support in Japan, after the US release, the rumble version contained the edits made to the US version. In fact, they even had to add an entirely new voice clip to the rumble version to replace the added US voice clip in which Mario says "Bowser" because the character is known as Koopa over there.

[ColecoFan1981]

Because the Japanese version was released later?

Maybe Disney changed it, who knows. (we do know Disney evaluated the content before it was released, because other wise it would've had "Robo Duck" and more typical bad NES Engrish)

You are right about the JDM version of the NES DuckTales being released later; Wikipedia gives its release date as 1-26-90 (ours was 9-14-89 and Europeans got theirs 12-14-90).

~Ben

[Retronick]

The U.S. adaptation of Kato Chan Ken Chan from PCE to TG-16 is probably one of the more famous domestic censorship jobs. Farts are turned to spray paint cans, pooping the woods is turned into just sitting there, no more public urination, etc... There's also the satanic symbolism in Devil's Crush and Splatterhouse where pentagrams and upside down crosses were altered or replaced. Not to mention the change in the terror mask from white to red to avoid a lawsuit from Paramount.

There's also the bloody porno section in Blue Stinger that was changed to a grocery store for the U.S. port and the tentacle rape scene in D2 that was removed if you're talking as new as Dreamcast era.

*edited for a typo

[Az]

I always found the censorship to the SFC version of Mortal Kombat II to be very strange. There's a ton of other 8 and 16 bit games that had the gore or violence toned down when they reached Western markets, yet this was one of the few instances where the situation was reversed. Couple that with the fact that NoA was much more strict with content policies than NoJ, the one time NoA ok's something that NoJ didn't it just happened to be the most violent game available (yes, I realize that money talks). Being that all other versions of MKII released there weren't censored and they even got the PSX release Westerners didn't it's strange they picked that one instance to backpedal.

[Aussie2B]

The U.S. adaptation of Kato Chan Ken Chan from PCE to TG-16 is probably one of the more famous domestic censorship jobs. Farts are turned to spray paint cans, pooping the woods is turned into just sitting there, no more public urination, etc... There's also the satanic symbolism in Devil's Crush and Splatterhouse where pentagrams and upside down crosses were altered or replaced. Not to mention the change in the terror mask from white to red to avoid a lawsuit from Paramount.

There's also the bloody porno section in Blue Stinger that was changed to a grocery store for the U.S. port and the tentacle rape scene in D2 that was removed if you're talking as new as Dreamcast era.

*edited for a typo

Other way around, buddy. This topic is about Japanese releases being censored, not censored US versions of games developed in Japan, of which there are just about a million examples.

[Tanooki]

Az good point. I think the NOA office would have done it had they not caught such severe embarrassing hell from both gamers but also Sega trolling them through suck up media outlets (rightly so) after what they did to sweaty Immortal Kombat 1 on the SNES. That was an unforgivable atrocity that forced Nintendo to grow up in the US or they'd lose people, back when they cared about losing business to doing stupid junk with their hardware and games.

This is an interesting thread for one coleco came up with, it's harder to find information on games we got that the Japanese mutilated as it's well known it goes the other way sadly all too often back in those days.

[Retronick]

Other way around, buddy. This topic is about Japanese releases being censored, not censored US versions of games developed in Japan, of which there are just about a million examples.

HA! Reading comprehension. I has it.

[SparTonberry]

Final Fantasy VI Advance had a very awkwardly censored scene that it makes one wonder if it was meant to be only censored in Japan (where apparently the censorship was done to maintain a CERO A rating).
When Celes first appears in the game, she was originally punched in the face a few times while being chained to a wall. In the GBA version she is just standing there. Basically all the animation removed. Yet the dialogue is effectively the same as the SNES version (I know the GBA version had a new translation, but there was nothing notably different about the text in this scene).
Here's the Japanese cutscene if anyone can read it and say if anything was changed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXo5_3iQtsE

[Edmond Dantes]

I recall reading that the deal with Celes' first appearance was that the re-release happened soon after a highly publicized kidnapping/torture case and they didn't want the game to be reminding people of it or it would seem in bad taste or something so they removed it.

[SparTonberry]

It was in an RPGamer interview that Tom Slattery, translator of the GBA version, revealed the murder was a myth and the CERO rating was their concern.
(although I recall he didn't say anything about whether or not the censorship was intended for all regions)