It’s not news to say the Japanese get tons of stuff the rest of the world doesn’t, but at least they throw non-Asian gamers a bone every now and then. Usually this is in the form of a simple port, where all the text is translated and (hopefully) localized for the target market. This localization process often leads to things being dropped, changes for censorship purposes, and other minor details. While interesting as trivia, you’re not losing much of anything if there aren’t any crosses in the backgrounds of Castlevania or the Goddess sprite from Final Fantasy VI is a bit less naked. These changes don’t affect your ability to play the game in the slightest. Instead we’re looking at times exported versions left something substantial out of the mix–something integral to how much you can enjoy the final product. These are our favorite examples, but feel free to chime in with your own in the comments!

1) Michigan for the PS2

What is it?: A survival horror game from the twisted psyche of Goichi Suda, aka Suda51, Michigan casts you as a nameless and voiceless cameraman for ZaKa TV news. Your job, along with sound engineer Jean-Phillipe Brisco, is to follow a reporter from behind the camera, Blair Witch-style, as she investigates strange happenings on the foggy streets (and in the foggy buildings) of Chicago. ZaKa, being more concerned with ratings than with the safety of the on-air talent, wants to hit viewers with the footage other news programs shy away from. If it’s bizarre, provocative, and/or makes you question your own humanity, ZaKa wants to broadcast it; if someone dies along the way, well, there are six more reporters all waiting in the wings to take over. Just don’t run out of film or battery power before you get the story, or ZaKa will can your ass like creamed corn.

But it’s better in Japanese because…: Michigan received a full English translation and was released in Europe as Michigan: Report From Hell, but the job was rushed, botched, and incomplete (also it happened without Goichi Suda’s knowledge, which raises a whole slew of additional questions). In addition to suffering the worst voice acting since the days of the “Jill sandwich”, the European version of Michigan differs from its Japanese counterpart in two significant areas. First, Grasshopper Studios entered into a contract with Yinling, a Taiwanese fashion model, to use her as one of the reporters you could follow around in the game, and created bonus stages where this was exactly your job. Grasshopper’s contract was good only for the Asian release, so when the game was exported to other parts of the world, Yinling’s content got the ol’ chop-suey, as we say in the biz. [We never say this, ever. –ed] That sucks, but it’s hardly crippling and doesn’t affect the story. What does, however, is a bug in the game’s menu that prevents you from accessing the video replay feature. In Michigan, you can re-watch any cinematic sequence you’ve unlocked through play from the options menu. What’s more, while playing the game, you can collect four secret video tapes. Each details more of the back-story of how the events in the game all started and fit together. You can still pick these videos up while playing the European release, but there’s no way to view them once you’ve done so. The ‘replay’ option only takes you to a different bonus feature, an interactive mini-game of sorts where your job is to film the various ladies of ZaKa TV while they…erm…perform for you. On stage. In their underwear. To a throbbing, pulse-pounding techno club mix. Yeeeeeeeeah, it’s as creepy as you think it is. But honestly, what else would you expect from a game that rewards you for keeping the camera rolling on your reporter as she’s devoured by a grotesque mutated nightmare, class?

2) Power Shovel ni Norou! for PS1

What is it?: Has it been your dream since you were little to drive a backhoe? Well, thanks to Taito’s Power Shovel (or Power Diggerz as it’s known in gangsta Europe–shout outs and big ups to all our homies, yo!), you can scratch that life-long itch using nothing but your PlayStation! Dig holes, rescue wildlife, smash cars, and cause Hollywood-disaster-film levels of property damage as you go about your days as a construction worker. The foreman who castigates you for your every screw-up just adds to the immersive experience. By the time you’ve completed Power Shovel/Power Diggerz, you’ll practically have your own operator’s license for heavy machinery. Now who says video games never teach you anything worth learning?

But it’s better in Japanese because…: If you’re going to drive a virtual power shovel, you have two choices: you use the standard PS1 DualShock because you don’t know any better, or you buy the version that comes with a controller that lets you drive a virtual power shovel like you’re driving a goddamn virtual power shovel:

source: SuperGaijinUltraGamer.org

Yeah, sit that thing in your lap and try to convince yourself you’re not excavating for real. The best part is, Power Shovel ni Norou! came out two full years before Capcom released Steel Battalion and Taito still managed to one-up that game’s ungodly ridiculous control console. Steel Battalion‘s controller looks like it belongs welded into the dash of a concept car/jet fighter hybrid. Taito’s simply says, “I’m yellow and black, so bash the shit out of me and I will give precisely zero fucks, LOL!” Power Shovel ni Norou! doesn’t screw you by deleting your game save if you fail to hit the eject button in time either, making it more likely you’ll keep moving turtles from one pond to another instead of demolishing the television in a real-life fit of apoplectic rage (sorry, Steve).

3) Excitebike for Famicom Disk System (FDS)

What is it?: One of the most simplistic and entertaining racing experiences available for an 8-bit system. Excitebike is a game you can throw in and play when you’re not sure what you want to play, but you have twenty minutes to kill and want to drive something. With five different built-in courses, it doesn’t have very much replay value except to try and shave precious seconds off your track records…until you get into the track editor, that is. The Design Mode for Excitebike makes it possible for even the most neophyte would-be game developer to put together a racing course in a matter of minutes. The track is displayed in real-time, your obstacle choices are pulled from a list of options labeled A through S, and once you’ve built your be-all, end-all track of murderous doom you simply save it, return to the main menu, and challenge your friends to overcome the logistical nightmare you’ve just constructed (in Mode B so they’re facing the AI bikers, of course–nobody likes a wimp).

But it’s better in Japanese because…: There’s one teeny tiny little problem with Excitebike‘s track editor on the NES: saving your track doesn’t actually save your track. Oh sure, it sticks it into RAM and lets you play it, but it’s toast as soon as, to pick one possibility totally at random, your sister comes along and mashes the reset button because she’s being a jerk and doesn’t care that you didn’t write down the obstacle order so you can recreate it later, so you’re totally justified in dumping Kool-Aid on her, but your mom doesn’t see things that way and grounds you.

In any case, the Famicom Disk System version of Excitebike suffers no such problem. Since, as the name implies, the game comes on a disk, Excitebike FDS can save your course of doom until the inevitable EMP triggered by Judgement Day wipes it out forever. By then losing your sweet custom track will be the least of your worries. The point is, while the NES version claims to save your track, only the FDS edition follows through on that promise. I don’t understand why you’re not importing a Famicom Disk System and the Japanese Excitebike right now. Unless…  Well, you could buy the NES Classics version for Game Boy Advance instead, I guess? Yeah, that’s probably the more fiscally responsible option.

4) Tomb Raider III: Adventures of Lara Croft for PlayStation

What is it?: Do we need to have this conversation? I mean, if you don’t know Tomb Raider, I’m not sure how you wound up here in the first place unless you’re an extra-terrestrial–in which case: Welcome to Retro Gaming Magazine, and also I seem to be fresh out of Reese’s Pieces. I’d offer you some Xxtra Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, but my editor thinks you might view that as a declaration of war. Since I have this entry and one more to write, I am to hold off antagonizing you until the feature’s finished. Anyway, about this Tomb Raider thing: Lara Croft is an athletic female archaeologist programmed as a male wish-fulfillment fantasy and played by millions of people world-wide, all of whom are obsessed with seeing her naked. She travels the globe, stealing priceless artifacts, savagely murder-gunning her way through everything on the endangered species list purely for our entertainment. I…I have no excuses. Please make our impending deaths at your hands short and painless, O powerful alien overlords.

But it’s better in Japanese because…: Tomb Raider III‘s an odd duck on this list, as it’s the only one that didn’t originate in Asia but managed to get a cooler release there anyway. For whatever reason, Virgin Interactive nerfed the difficulty of each Tomb Raider title before publishing it on their shores. In addition to your typical localization of text and voice-overs, enemies have reduced health, medkits heal more damage on Lara, and the manuals typically contain miniature walkthroughs to keep players from getting stuck on the more complex puzzles. For Tomb Raider, Tomb Raider II, Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation and Tomb Raider Chronicles, the Japanese had no choice: they got the easier version, just like North American gamers wound up with Final Fantasty IV EasyType for the Super NES. But with Tomb Raider III, Japanese gamers got a treat. The game comes on two discs: the first contains the Japanese version, complete with all the changes mentioned above. The second, however, contains the original, much harder, English edition so players could get a taste of what they’d been missing all these years. It’s safe to say the Japanese didn’t view the inclusion of the harder version as a plus, as subsequent releases dropped this extra. Still, nothing like buying one game and getting two versions of it for the same price, especially for Japanese Tomb Raider fans looking for a challenge, right?

5) BioHazard: Gun Survivor for PlayStation

What is it?: Resident Evil re-imagined as a first-person shooter, which sounds like it should be the coolest thing ever, except that it doesn’t follow the plot of any game in the series. Instead it drops you into the shoes of an amnesiac with infinite pistol ammo who is trying to escape from the Umbrella-bred undead infesting Raccoon City and figure out who the hell he is at the same time. The game tasks you with not only controlling your protagonist as he moves through 3D-rendered landscapes at a pace which would please only government bureaucracy, but also forces you to use the control pad to direct an on-screen gun sight around when you want to bust a cap in some zombie brains. All told it’s very much the red-headed stepchild in the Resident Evil/BioHazard franchise because it feels like something vital is missing from the experience.

But it’s better in Japanese because…: That vital missing component is light gun support which, I might point out, is the reason Capcom developed it in the first place. This was cut from the US release thanks to media condemnation of video game violence in the aftermath of the recent massacre at Columbine High School. The Japanese version of Gun Survivor isn’t otherwise different from the US release outside of the language barrier, but the whole point of the game was to let players shoot zombies by firing virtual guns at their televisions. Granted, Japanese gamers could elect to play the game with the controller crosshairs like the US version, but if you had a GunCon or similar peripheral, why on earth would you? It isn’t like the US suffered a dearth of light gun games either–titles like Area 51, Crypt Killer, and a whole slew of offerings from Namco were staples of the genre. This isn’t to say Resident Evil: Survivor would today be heralded as an A-list masterpiece with this simple change, because that’s some serious bullshit up with which we will not put. But this is like buying a breeding stallion only to learn he was neutered before delivery: on the one hand, you have a horse you can ride around on; on the other, you’ve got a pissed off mare in your stables. And while the first game in the series wasn’t much to write home about, its failure here meant North America never saw the superior Gun Survivor 2 BioHazard Code: Veronica on the PS2 and subsequent entries in the series like Resident Evil: Dead Aim dropped the ‘Survivor’ moniker from their titles all together.

Michael Crisman

In 1979, Michael Crisman was mauled by a radioactive Gorgar pinball machine. After the wounds healed, doctors discovered his DNA had been re-coded. No longer fully human, Michael requires regular infusions of video games in order to continue living among you. If you see him, he can see you. Make no sudden moves, but instead bribe him with old issues of computer and video game magazines or a mint-in-box copy of Dragon Warrior IV.


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