In which Man-Frog plays Japan-only Nintendo games

[Manspeed]

The discussion in my Murasame appreciation thread made me think about the other Japan-only games I've recently played, so here's what I have to say about them:

Mario & Wario:
Very good. Addictive to boot. This coulda been a contenda had it been released in the west, as it's a perfectly good game with nice graphics and no Japanese text at all. Were they just trying to abolish the SNES mouse entirely? I say it needs a WiiWare sequel at least.

Doki Doki Panic:
It stinks. SMB2 USA is easily the better game. Run button, waterfalls that don't cause seizures, run button, better music, run button. Besides, Nintendo's deal with Fuji TV has long since run out, so this may as well stay a Mario game. Gotta wonder why people are so gung-ho on writing it off.

Devil's World:
Yeah, I know it came out it Europe, but I'm still in the USA. It's definitely a funky little game, and I know plenty of people could've enjoyed it had it been released here. Couldn't they have just changed the title and altered the crosses in the game to some other object?

Joy Mecha Fight:
One word- AWESOME. I specifically played a fanmade English translation. There is no real reason the NES couldn't have gone out with a bang like this. Skapon rocks, this game rocks, and anyone who hasn't played needs to before they say anything further about Nintendo's history. It's that good. (PS: Skapon for SSB4!)

Card Hero:
Somebody needs to get on making an English patch for this game pronto. It's pretty fuggin' good for what it is, so actually being able to read the text would be a real treat. Sucks that Nintendo never managed to follow up on that plan to market it in the west though. I'd go so far to barrack for a Nintendo All-Star themed version of this game, a la SNK vs. Capcom Card Fighters Clash.

For the Frog the Bell Tolls:
This game seems fun, but I had the same problem as I did with Card Hero. The fight cloud thing wasn't as dumb as I thought it would be. Didn't understand a lick of what was going on though. This game needs an English patch too.

Legend of Stafy:
My method of playing this caused it to run slightly slow, but it didn't seem too bad. Just a tad underwhelming. Kirby is simplistic, but this seems like an unnecessarily simplified version of Mario, with a lot of underwater stuff. Then again, I rightfully should've been playing it with a controller instead of a keyboard. Gotta get on that one. Oh, and one other problem: English text. Make it happen.

Mole Mania:
Alright, alright. It's not a foreign game, but it may as well be considering how underrated it is. Now I now why Fry loves it so much. It's nicely crafted game with a unique hook. A DS sequel is a definite must for this one.

[Manspeed]

Double posting to say I changed my mind about Stafy. It got better since I played it more. Thematically it's like Kirby meets The Little Mermaid, mechanically it's like Wario Land 3 meets Metroid meets Kirby meets Ecco the Dolphin. Not a bad combination there.

[Koopaul]

Oooh, you picked a good lot there!

[kame64]

You're playing Densetsu no Stafy? Lucky you. I'd kill to play a Stafy game.

[Manspeed]

Slip me a PM and I might be able to hook you up with the means to play it, ol' pal.

*hint hint*

EDIT: For the record, I'm still looking to play Tomato Adventure and Kurukuru Kururin. Once I find my way to them I'll give my thoughts on those too.

[nocturnal YL]

Of the games you mentioned, I've only tried Mario & Wario and Devil's World. And they are, put it simply, HARD.

And usually the reason behind a game not to be released would be, besides the cultural nonsense, that the game is considered too hard for non-Japanese players. Funny how Super Mario Bros Deluxe is tuned to be a tad more difficult for the US version.

[Fryguy64]

All great games there! These are the reasons I created this site

[Arcadenik]

I've played Devil World once. It was pretty interesting and fun.

I also played Mole Mania (I own an used copy to play on my Game Boy Player) and I absolutely love it! This is the reason why I want Muddy Mole for SSB4!

[Manspeed]

For the record, I've played both the Famicom Folktales and all the old Fire Emblems and Wars games. They're impossible to play without English text. Supposedly the Fire Emblem 3 and Famicom Wars I got came pre-patched, but it must be a work in progress because the English text barely works. Only a few letters actually show up.

I also got a wireless PC adapter for my Xbox 360 controller, so now the games are easier to play that before. It definitely made Joy Mecha Fight even more of a blast. ;D

[nocturnal YL]

I recall there are translation patches FE2~6, all almost complete. FE6 is shown on YouTube to mess up at times though. And for FE4... well, the outcome looks kinda strange with English letters taking up one kana space each.

And I don't suppose I'll use these patches, as translators often add their own stuff. Although official translations do this often too. And that's why Ike is the father of Sothe's children.

I have tried the Famicom Folktale thing a bit, but it's hard to beat. Famicom Tantei Club is better though, as that game ensures no game over and you're guaranteed to beat the game - it's just that non-optimised play will end up with a lower ranking.

[parrothead]

What I really dislike about fan translations is that translators like to add profanity. Why? Are the characters actually saying it? Doesn't sound obvious, but it sounds like several children of the '80s love hearing people like Ozzy Osbourne, Christian Bale and some other celebrities shouting profanity, especially without being censored. I smell evil in them. When I saw someone upload the Super Mario Amada episodes with English subtitles, I saw some profanity in them, so I PMed the translator and upload, and told them to replace profanity with euphemism, since the Amada series was made to be child-friendly, not just for children of the '80s, which most of them often talk very dirty nowadays.

I have seen some other problems with the FE6 translation patch. In the chapter after you beat the first Bishop boss, the speech balloon moves rapidly from reply to reply automatically, making it very difficult for me to read what exactly they are saying.

[kirbychu]

Feb 9, 2009 18:04:22 GMT -5 parrothead said:

What I really dislike about fan translations is that translators like to add profanity. Why? Are the characters actually saying it? Doesn't sound obvious, but it sounds like several children of the '80s love hearing people like Ozzy Osbourne, Christian Bale and some other celebrities shouting profanity, especially without being censored. I smell evil in them. When I saw someone upload the Super Mario Amada episodes with English subtitles, I saw some profanity in them, so I PMed the translator and upload, and told them to replace profanity with euphemism, since the Amada series was made to be child-friendly, not just for children of the '80s, which most of them often talk very dirty nowadays.

Actually, a lot of the time that stuff actually is in the Japanese version. They're not as offended by words as we are. In the Japanese version of Sonic Adventure, Sonic says the word "shit" (in English!) several times throughout the game. He said it in the second Japanese episode of Sonic X, too. And that's definitely a kids' series.

[parrothead]

Feb 9, 2009 18:18:11 GMT -5 kirbychu said:

Feb 9, 2009 18:04:22 GMT -5 parrothead said:

What I really dislike about fan translations is that translators like to add profanity. Why? Are the characters actually saying it? Doesn't sound obvious, but it sounds like several children of the '80s love hearing people like Ozzy Osbourne, Christian Bale and some other celebrities shouting profanity, especially without being censored. I smell evil in them. When I saw someone upload the Super Mario Amada episodes with English subtitles, I saw some profanity in them, so I PMed the translator and upload, and told them to replace profanity with euphemism, since the Amada series was made to be child-friendly, not just for children of the '80s, which most of them often talk very dirty nowadays.

Actually, a lot of the time that stuff actually is in the Japanese version. They're not as offended by words as we are. In the Japanese version of Sonic Adventure, Sonic says the word "shit" (in English!) several times throughout the game. He said it in the second Japanese episode of Sonic X, too. And that's definitely a kids' series.

I remember seeing that in the second episode of Sonic X, and when I downloaded the episode with English subtitles, there was a note during the beginning of the episode saying the word "shit" in Japanese stands for "darn", which is the euphemism of "damn".