|
|
Post by Koopaul on May 3, 2013 7:18:33 GMT -5
I've been looking at the differences in the US and UK version of recent Nintendo games. Most of them make sense but some of them are just confusing to me. So I hope I can get some answers.
For one in Luigi's Mansion 2 (Dark Moon) the ghost known as Poltergiest in the US is called Boffin in the PAL version... Wait what? Why did they rename him that?
Also the ScareScraper is called the Thrill Tower. That seems odd. ScareScraper is a much more imaginative name.
Another strange one is in Paper Mario: Sticker Star. The Soda sticker is called Fizzy Drink?
I can't seem to figure out why they would change these names. There are a few more if I think of them later.
|
|
|
|
Post by Dances in Undergarments on May 3, 2013 8:00:40 GMT -5
Another strange one is in Paper Mario: Sticker Star. The Soda sticker is called Fizzy Drink? Only you yanks call soft drinks 'soda', so it would make sense to change the name. Absolutely no idea on the other ones. |
|
|
|
Post by nocturnal YL on May 3, 2013 9:25:55 GMT -5
A poltergeist is a noisy ghost, and a boffin is someone who does science. Both makes sense, but I'd go for the latter. I like ScareScraper over Thrill Tower, though. |
|
|
|
Post by The Qu on May 3, 2013 10:02:20 GMT -5
Poltergeist is an actual German word too, so they may have wanted to have it be a slang-ish word in both, as opposed to just Noisy Ghost.
|
|
|
|
Post by Fryguy64 on May 3, 2013 10:47:34 GMT -5
Soda usually only refers to soda water or cream soda, rather than any fizzy drink. They could have called it "pop", but again that's highly regional.
Poltergeist - I think the fact it's a German word and we have actual Germans over here is the best explanation. It's also the opposite of the Thrill Tower... Boffin is more imaginative (and descriptive) than simply Poltergeist.
Companies who have to do this much translation are likely to have translation software that flags up certain words if there's any chance of them being misunderstood in various languages. As Nintendo Europe has to worry about lots of languages, it's entirely possible that some of the "made up" words aren't going to be universally understood. Who knows - maybe ScareScraper means something rude in French, or relates to a sensitive news story or it could even be copyrighted by someone.
I assume a lot of the English translations are handled in the US and then adapted to save time.
|
|
|
|
Post by Koopaul on May 3, 2013 18:01:39 GMT -5
Well I never heard the word Boffin before. I thought that was made up.
As for soda I could have sworn I saw a British show that said "candy soda" once.
|
|
|
|
Post by Fryguy64 on May 7, 2013 2:01:29 GMT -5
Seeing as we don't even say "candy" here, that would be weird  |
|
|
|
Post by Koopaul on May 7, 2013 23:46:08 GMT -5
I talked about the whole candy thing with another British person. She said that they are starting to adopt it. I'm sure its called "Rare Candy" and not "Rare Sweet".
|
|
|
|
Post by Fryguy64 on May 8, 2013 2:12:49 GMT -5
The word is originally a British word, it's just not a common word here though, and kids still eat sweets. Everyone will understand what you mean by candy, but it sounds American.
It's no different to Britishisms in American culture. They're understood, but it wouldn't make sense to choose them over a more commonly used word.
That's how translation works.
Back in the 90s, we just got the American translations directly. Now there's a more concerted effort to localise American English into British English. Hence why Pokemon still has Rare Candies.
|
|
