It's no secret that America used to suck at 'translating' Japanese box art, especially when the art was usually perfectly fine in the first place. Things are a bit better these days, particularly with games developed in America, but even recent and upcoming titles like the highly anticipated
Mass Effect (for Xbox 360) have laughably bad cover/title art. Even though there has been some fairly good art recently, it's going to take a thousand more
Okamis and
Shadow of the Colossuses to make up for the horrific accident that we call the
'Mega Man I box art debacle of the 1980s'.
Never has the issue of bad American box art been more apparent than in this video (above). It starts off as a simple slide show, first showing the Japanese game art and then following with the American version (as well as some European art). It's all set to an operatic score for maximum impact, and you'll squirm in your chairs as you see the disastrous translations of what were once good game covers.
The second section of the video focuses solely on the
Mega Man universe. Of course, the previously mentioned
Mega Man I art kicks things off, but the video does not let up. Be warned that as an American citizen and resident, you may blush in embarrassment for your country when viewing this section.
The last two minutes or so of the video are dedicated to American animated versions of popular Capcom properties like
Street Fighter, Mega Man, and
Darkstalkers. Morrigan calling Demitri a "bat-faced fool" and then blasting him with a fireball has to be one of the worst moments in animation history.
Lastly, no collection of bad American translation would be complete without a little Link (
The Legend of Zelda) action. The video maker put just enough in to really sum things up towards the end. Really, it speaks for itself.
Was there ever good American box art? Should America make a response video?
Contest:
9:58 AM on 06.26.2007
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Succubus..
Mass Effect is technically a Canadian game though. I know it's being published by Microsoft, so maybe that's why you mentioned it, but I don't think that means they're the ones who produced the cover. Not that I'm defending it, though I don't see anything wrong with it. Maybe I'm just really bad at judging the crappiness of covers. My Fine Arts degree probably shot that part of my brain.
Although I have no specific examples to cite, the American hacking of Japanese culture for marketing is no worse than the opposite situation. If I remember correctly, Transformers got pretty mutilated in translation to Japan. Not to mention all the kana you see on American clothing that says something vulgar (yet most of us are oblivious), the same happens in Japan. A friend of mine visited and saw people wearing shirts that literally said things like "Fuck God in the face. He can't do this to me." and the wearer had no clue. They thought these were popular American catch-phrases.
Rest assured, the culture hacking works both ways.
I honestly think that even though The Legend of Zelda had some terrible dialogue, it looks like a lot of thought was put into the animation. There are so many subtle good moments that could've just been half-assed that weren't.
Of cours the Mega Man 2 cover is heresy :)
Seriously, why does Athena Asamiya all of a sudden look like Deanna Troi?
The matter of preference was already stated, but I think I should just point out how terribly games would have sold here if they retained their original anime style box art. As gamers now in our 20s and 30s, we are mature enough to know that that style can be cool, and that it doesn't equal a "kid game." But would we have wanted a Mega Man game if it looked like something our mom would be glad to buy us?
I'd also like to point out that most of the Japanese "box art" didn't appear to be box art at all, so the whole comparison was pretty much crap.
One more thing. At the time, was there even enough US fan base for Ranma 1/2 to even have a US release of the Super NES game? Or was that one of those games apparently just imported for weirdness' sake?
I'm no America pedophile guy,
But I think the cultural denial thing with Japan stemmed from US-Japan trade embargoes back in the 80's. I don't remember the specifics of it, but we weren't doing much trade with Japan through most of the 80's.
So, I'd reason that these companies pulled all the stops to hide their Japanese origins.
Ranma 1/2 was released as a game in the US. It came out here in the states about the same time Viz started releasing the OAV's the first series, and the movies.
Apparently. You heard it here first!
But yeah, all the covers for mega man was just horrible. Half the robots looked constipaded and the others looked like they didn't even know what gender they were supposed to be. I love the Breath of Fire series, and that cover was just as bad. And what was up with the blue bomberman... really?
As for the animated stuff... I actually remember some of the American Street Fighter stuff. Horrible... really... seeing Guile trow a sonic boom... through a helmet... into space. Whoever thought that up needed to get shot... in the nuts... with a rocket launcher.
...twice...
Also, when did that darkstalker cartoon air and on what channel? This is the first time I've ever heard of it.
Though I did watch a lot of that Zelda cartoon... being all apart of the Super Mario Super Show...
(Damnit... is a 28-year-old supposed to feel like 50!?!)
Good times... good times...
[img][http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/MG/189216~Big-Trouble-in-Little-China-Posters.jpg/img]
Thats just how it was. I actually like that classic action packed box art. When I get enough money I'm going to have someone paint a portrait of me doing something like this.
Thanks, I know how America is spelled, and I didn't know putting a "k" in America meant you hated it. I will remember that for future posts. However, I put a "k" in there because I was trying to post a comment, and when I hit "add comment" it didn't post the comment. Now it appears everything is back to normal. So I will return to my regular, non-American-hating posts.
For good measure... let's start here: http://hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/japanboxes/japanboxes.htm
calm down. No one hates america. The posts were acting weird and was filtering america for some people.
Personally as an American, I hate America as it is now. I wish our country wasn't run by a bullying jerk and his band of ultra-rich hooligans, but I live in a red state so my hands are tied when I line up to vote.
Um, sir? I hate America. Don't forget me.