I keep forgetting that Minna No Rhythm Tengoku (the Japanese Rhythm Heaven game on the Wii) and Rhythm Heaven Fever are technically two different titles. When it comes to gameplay, they're the same game, but when it comes to sound and text, they both bring something slightly different to the table. That's true of any Japanese game translated to English, but with a music game such as this, those differences can really make or break the experience.
If this footage of Rhythm Heaven Fever is legit, then it's looking like fans of the original Japanese title may be in for something tolerable at worst, and actively great at best. The original Japanese voice acting is left in when possible and the new English voice work sounds sincere and right on beat. That's about as good as it could get, right? This localization wont likely replace the original soundtrack for me, but so far, it's shaping up to be a nice alternative for those moments I want to listen to people talk in a language that I am able to understand.
I'm not totally convinced this is real though. As we've seen with the My Little Pony, Team Fortress 2, Terry Crews, sexy man, and Jonathan Holmes remixes of the original wrestler level, it's not impossible for dedicated fans to make their own unique adaptations of this now well loved tune. Hopefully Nintendo will release something official on this soon. They better, as the game is coming out next month! I can't wait to play it again, and for the very first time.
Jonathan Holmes is the most lovable Associate Editor on Destructoid. Catch him on videos, original editorials, and on back episodes of the Destructoid Show and MTV's Road Rules. Jonathan is a retro gamer's gamer.
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Sounds pretty solid at this point. I want to hear more of the other songs that would benefit from an English dub before I make my final call...but I'm still happy that this game is making it over from Japan.
I hated it at first, then thought it was alright after a few listens, now that I've sat on this all-day I like it. I still prefer the original, but this ain't bad. I particularly like the "Pose for the fans part." It's just easier for me to buy the English version for $30, so that's why I'm okay with this. Maybe one day for I'll import the original, but for now I'll settle with this version.
This might work with some of the other mini games that don't have as much coherent talking, but I wasn't a fan. Maybe this is how it sounds to the Japanese audience?
"I hated it at first, then thought it was alright after a few listens, now that I've sat on this all-day I like it. I still prefer the original, but this ain't bad. I particularly like the "Pose for the fans part." It's just easier for me to buy the English version for $30, so that's why I'm okay with this. Maybe one day for I'll import the original, but for now I'll settle with this version."
This blows. It's pretty boring, so I hope this is just an early look that doesn't represent the final product. Hopely this crappy video prompts them to release real footage if this isn't it.
I bet native Japanese players are watching this clip and saying to themselves, "WOW! They sound so natural! Not forced and dull like the original version!"
That's pretty elaborate and well-done if it's fake.
I liked it well enough, but I've only seen two songs/minigames from the Japanese game, this and the one with the tennis/badminton flying cats or whatever. So I won't have anything to compare it to, and the English version will be great to me, just like with the DS game.
Also since I never played the JP version of the DS game, I thought all the music in the English DS game was incredible. I particularly liked the The Dazzles & Fan Club. Honestly I think it has more to do with whatever version you heard first.
This is what it sounds like to Japanese speakers except with a high pitched Mickey Mouse voice for the reporter. She's speaking gibberish, the wrestler grunts a response, and the reporters yell "look over here!"
Reading these comments makes me wonder, would people be complaining as much if they hadn't heard the Japanese version beforehand? I think this is pretty good and fits the tune well enough. Just because it's different doesn't mean it's bad.
With something like this that has lots of gibberish anyway it seems kind of unnecessary to to change it at all(barring menus of course). That said, sounded decent to me if it is official.
Gonna buy it either way. I didn't see anything terrible about it. I think some just like to default to the japanese version because it makes them feel cool.
If it's real, I find it good enough. Could've been better, but considering how some of the females sounded uninterested in the DS version, it would've been WAAAY worse.
"I bet native Japanese players are watching this clip and saying to themselves, 'WOW! They sound so natural! Not forced and dull like the original version!'"
Pretty fucking much. The complaints about this are hilarious.
There is nothing wrong with this at all. It just sounds like those that are mad are just angry cause they are used to the original. There is no way anyone could please those that like the original except to keep the original Japanese dub.
I personally loved Rhythm Heavens dubs for the songs and I can't wait for fever to come out so I can enjoy that as well.
"There is nothing wrong with this at all. It just sounds like those that are mad are just angry cause they are used to the original. There is no way anyone could please those that like the original except to keep the original Japanese dub."
Well what they ought to do is keep in both audio versions. Surely the Wii disc would have enough space for them (unlike the DS cart, allegedly). I too very much liked the English dub of Rhythm Heaven DS, but as Holmes said, the difference between the Japanese and English audio makes it feel like a completely different game. If we had access to both, it would provide a phenomenal amount of awesome content, and simultaneously please everyone.
The whining is grating, but is it wrong for some of us to simply prefer the Japanese version of the game?
@Zaheer
"Surely the Wii disc would have enough space for them (unlike the DS cart, allegedly)."
You know, for the record, the PAL version of the DS Rhythm Heaven I own has three different audio versions on it; english, spanish and italian, each one with his own translated voices and songs, all in the same cartridge. To switch them, all you have to do is change the language of your DS.
So I'd say space was not an issue and the japanese version could have been included anyways. Specially since the NTSC versions only need to have one language: english.
Woah, for some reason it never even occurred to me that it would have to be translated. I'm not sure how I feel about this. Part of the appeal to me was that it was just crazy nonsense. Now it's still nonsense but some of the heights of nonsensicality it reached before have been unnecessarily alleviated - unnecessary because it's goal remains to be nonsense. Does that make sense? Anyways, it'd be awesome if they gave you the choice between both versions.
Of course I'm sure it'll probably only be this song that I take issue with, because this is the only one where I've heard the original first.
Hopefully there will be a Riivolution patch that replaces all the US music with that of the JP version, being that while this music isn't bad, it seems cheesy and forced compared to the Japanese version.
Honestly i dont notice what´s so terrible about it, it´s no way as huge of a difference as the "idol/fanclub" stage from the original game, where the english version was really really lame compared to the japanesse one
Shut up you sissies.
When i played Rythm Heaven, i fallen in love with fan club the first time i got to it, then i saw in a site ppl saying the idol version was way better than the fan club.
So i went in search of a video with the original dub, and what i saw i couldn't expect...
IT WAS THE SAME DARN THING THAN THE AMERICAN VERSION, i just couldn't understand what she was talking and it was a real child singing.
The truth is that you are a bunch of otakus that don't have time for anything else in life, because you waste it all trying to make Japan look like better than the rest of the world.
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Contest:
11:00 PM on 01.16.2012 | 
whoa you go big guy does not sound bad
wubadubaduba that's true? sounds pretty bad (not even complaining about the choice of words, just the voice acting)
This is me, to the very last word.
I liked it well enough, but I've only seen two songs/minigames from the Japanese game, this and the one with the tennis/badminton flying cats or whatever. So I won't have anything to compare it to, and the English version will be great to me, just like with the DS game.
Digidigidigi, 's dat true?
It it's official I think it's very nice.
"Pose for the fans!" sounds great.
“wubadubadub is that paedophilia?”
Pretty fucking much. The complaints about this are hilarious.
There is nothing wrong with this at all. It just sounds like those that are mad are just angry cause they are used to the original. There is no way anyone could please those that like the original except to keep the original Japanese dub.
I personally loved Rhythm Heavens dubs for the songs and I can't wait for fever to come out so I can enjoy that as well.
Well what they ought to do is keep in both audio versions. Surely the Wii disc would have enough space for them (unlike the DS cart, allegedly). I too very much liked the English dub of Rhythm Heaven DS, but as Holmes said, the difference between the Japanese and English audio makes it feel like a completely different game. If we had access to both, it would provide a phenomenal amount of awesome content, and simultaneously please everyone.
The whining is grating, but is it wrong for some of us to simply prefer the Japanese version of the game?
"Surely the Wii disc would have enough space for them (unlike the DS cart, allegedly)."
You know, for the record, the PAL version of the DS Rhythm Heaven I own has three different audio versions on it; english, spanish and italian, each one with his own translated voices and songs, all in the same cartridge. To switch them, all you have to do is change the language of your DS.
So I'd say space was not an issue and the japanese version could have been included anyways. Specially since the NTSC versions only need to have one language: english.
Of course I'm sure it'll probably only be this song that I take issue with, because this is the only one where I've heard the original first.
"RUBADUBADUBSAT'TRUE?" though. Wut.
Or you buy the Japanese version.
for those who want to compare this to the JPN version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FoH9U_7n0Q
hopefully there's an option for dual audio for added value :)
When i played Rythm Heaven, i fallen in love with fan club the first time i got to it, then i saw in a site ppl saying the idol version was way better than the fan club.
So i went in search of a video with the original dub, and what i saw i couldn't expect...
IT WAS THE SAME DARN THING THAN THE AMERICAN VERSION, i just couldn't understand what she was talking and it was a real child singing.
The truth is that you are a bunch of otakus that don't have time for anything else in life, because you waste it all trying to make Japan look like better than the rest of the world.