Author Topic: Did game companies underestimated us that much? (Read 6367 times)

DJ Omnimaga · « **on:** September 29, 2007, 07:39:00 pm »

I know there was talk about this in #unitedti channel but in case anyone didn't knew I found this interesting, but kinda sad at the same time ;.;

http://www.sydlexia.com/smb2j.htm

This isn't the only time where video game producers messed up with our mind (in north america) when releasing games.

In fact Square Enix (formerly Squaresoft, before they merged with Enix) did it with Final Fantasy series. They decided to not release Final Fantasy II (1988) and III (1990) on the NES outside japan. However, the worst thing is that they released Final Fantasy IV in USA as Final Fantasy II, and Final Fantasy VI as Final Fantasy III. Then in 1997 they skip directly to FFVII. Many people where i live were like "WTF? Where is FFIV, FFV and FFVI? I want to play those too! I only have FFI NES and FFII-III SNES". It is only in 1999 and 2002 that they decided to reveal the truth and re-release those games under their real titles over here finally. Now that I say this, if u didn't noticed in the article about SMB2 they say Nintendo didn't wanted to release SMB2 here because it would be too hard for american players and europeans. Then Square Enix decide to release not only FFIV as FFII here, but they only released the easy version here! (there was two version of FFIV in japan: easy and hard). Did video games really understimated our gaming skills THAT much back then??? o.o

This is just weird...

I guess now it is the opposite though, because in 2002 they only released the hard version of FFIV on the playstation lol.

For those who are two lazy to read the article from the link, Super Mario Bros 2 in USA is actually Doki Doki Panic in japan and Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels in USA is Super Mario Bros 2 in japan

EDIT: After further reads, it also seems that they decided to release Doki Doki Panic as SMB2 over here because they wanted to increase their sales, since Doki Doki Panic was still unknown

spengo · « **Reply #1 on:** September 29, 2007, 08:13:00 pm »

Yaya, that's really old news though... O_O

hehe. I also like when they screw up translations. How does "stubborn monkey" translate to "donkey kong?" All my base are belong to what now? Japan is weird...

Radical Pi · « **Reply #2 on:** September 30, 2007, 07:19:00 am »

SMB2J was amazingly hard. As far as I knew, that's why it wasn't released outside Japan until earlier this month. And it is hard, as far as the GBC SMBDX version goes.

DJ Omnimaga · « **Reply #3 on:** September 30, 2007, 07:33:00 am »

SMB2j was released outside japan in 1993 with Super Mario All Star

Radical Pi · « **Reply #4 on:** September 30, 2007, 09:41:00 am »

I completely forgot about that, but it was released in its original version in Australia and Europe recently on the Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console.

simplethinker · « **Reply #5 on:** September 30, 2007, 11:18:00 am »

I think that in some cases, game companies have to dumb down games for Americans, but only because we're used to it. Squaresoft did screw us over in the Final Fantasy series, and because of those complaints (I think) they released Hoshigami. It's an RPG board game that actually requires skill and strategy, so people used to playing the easy-a** games started going 'WTF it's impossible!' after playing through the first two levels (read through almost all of the reviews). Most Americans are lazy when it comes to games now, look at all the strategy/cheat guides there are for most games. Whenever I get a newly released game (which happens rarely), after about two days my friends asked me how long it took me to finish, and then laugh at me and tell me that gamefaqs is there for a reason. Starcraft now comes with the cheat codes in the instruction booklet, because people are too lazy to play the game.
People want to feel good about beating a game, so the companies happily oblige by dumbing them down for us.

DJ Omnimaga · « **Reply #6 on:** September 30, 2007, 11:58:00 am »

starcraft multiplayer doesnt allow cheats. But some people hack (and get banned) in multiplayer games to either get more minerals/vespene/see all map or make other people starcraft crash to make them disconnect, thus, winning the game

lordofthegeeks · « **Reply #7 on:** October 01, 2007, 03:24:00 am »

ahh! cheat books tick me off. all the other people I know use em to beat the game then get ticked off when i can wup thier butts in the game

also cheats are fun after you vbeat the game and well my dad says no cheats. he wants us to feel the good feeling of beating the game ourselves. A fun game to play was the 95/98 version of axis and allies anybody still play that?

DJ Omnimaga · « **Reply #8 on:** October 01, 2007, 06:28:00 am »

nah i don't play this. But I found something else, altough Final Fantasy Fans may know alerady:

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest was released in USA first by the american division of Square-Enix in 1992, and it was meant for american RPG players who were kinda new or found the other FF games too hard. The game was released one year later in europe as Mystic Quest Legend and Japan as Final Fantasy U.S.A

The game sucked very bad compared to the others, altough you could still find enjoyment from it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_Mystic_Quest

Aside from the world map, which worked like Super Mario World, the dungeons/town graphics were a mix from Final Fantasy II for the NES and Final Fantasy IV for the SNES, even though the game was released one year after Final Fantasy IV

I used to have the original cartridge for a while. It must be researched now because it's still sold at $24.99, while Final Fantasy X sells at the same price

Radical Pi · « **Reply #9 on:** October 01, 2007, 09:55:00 am »

Thanks for making me a liar Nintendo!
SMB: The Lost Levels was released today at noon on North American Wii VC.

DJ Omnimaga · « **Reply #10 on:** October 01, 2007, 10:17:00 am »

aaah I see, Does wii absolutely require wi-fi? If not, I could hook a network cable to it to my router aqnd download some stuff from it.

Radical Pi · « **Reply #11 on:** October 01, 2007, 11:51:00 am »

I think as long as you have a router sending out a wireless signal, you can connect with it. But I honestly don't know; I'm not much of a technical person.

Also, congrats on your (soon to be) 10000 posts!

DJ Omnimaga · « **Reply #12 on:** October 01, 2007, 12:02:00 pm »

Well I dont have a wireless router so if it doesnt have a port to connect a cable to I'm screwed

spengo · « **Reply #13 on:** October 01, 2007, 01:45:00 pm »

You could get that little $30 wifi usb adapter thingamajigger I guess.

JonimusPrime · « **Reply #14 on:** October 01, 2007, 02:09:00 pm »

Yeah it only has USB ports no Ethernet ports. But some of the games have the system updates on them.

Author Topic: Did game companies underestimated us that much? (Read 6367 times)

spengo

spengo