I was interested in this game, after seeing that video, I'll be avoiding this like the plague.

I was excited about this game but now hearing the dubbed version, I think I am going to import it.

Would another option be buying the English version then getting an undub? That's what I did with TWEWY.

I sadly still haven't played the game, so I was just going to wait for the North American version to be released right before I go to Japan. Now I think I'm just going to pick up the Japanese version along with the original Rhythm Tengoku for GBA.

Great discussion, guys. I had no idea the English dubs were going to be so bad! :'(

Nintendo, I thought you were doing something really awesome for the North American crowd giving us Rhythm Heaven, but I see you've just fucked it up like usual.

@Xhumation: You can totally play the Japanese version and not need to understand a word of it to love it.

That dub sounds like a waitress obligatorily singing happy birthday to a customer at TGIFriday's.

so i'm in japan on vacation now, and i keep passing this up in the stores, thinking 'well, i have the gba version, so maybe i'll get the ds edition in english so i know more what's going on when i'm playing'...but now i'm thinking i should just pick it up while i'm here and get a refund on my reserve i put down at gamestop. i think the street date is still while i'm over here, so dtoid, please do a follow-up piece about whether or not the dub is complete shit, or just some parts (like in the clip above). i've got a couple weeks still to make a decision.

Is that the only video that you two have watched or are there more videos?

I also think that everyone is overreacting a bit. I enjoy cheesy vocals for cheesy lyrics and frog section was very good. Besides if this does not sell, NOA will think that their rhythm games are not bringing Stateside which would be a great loss for those who don't import.

That video was pretty terrible, thank god I am renting it from Gamefly and not buying it.

I thought Tsunku signed off on the dub?

I think you guys are blowing this way out of proportion. Yeah, it doesn't sound as wacky and Japanesey as Rhythm Tengoku Gold. That is the point of localization. Otherwise, the music is all the same, and the games look to be all the same. This is the same game we all played last year, with arguably worse lyrics and probably worse vocals. It will not make it any less fun.

What I really disagree with, though, is the notion that Americans would totally have preferred a game with a more Japanese feel to it. This is another case of the vocal minority making you think something that isn't true. I know how this is, being a long time Earthbound fan. You hear the Internet cry out and bitch and moan about how Earthbound isn't coming to the VC, and how Nintendo of America still has no plans to bring Mother 3 over here, but the actual majority of gamers don't give a damn about the series, and I'm pretty convinced that while Mother 3 would sell better than Earthbound did, it would still not be a commercial success like the vocal minority would have you believe.

And so, back on topic, you think that people would really like the original Japanesey feel of RTG, but I can say from experience that this is not the case. Back in college, I had several roommates, and they hated games that were too much like this, including gems like Magic Pengel and Katamari friggin' Damacy. I will concede that some people are into stuff like this (e.g. you and me), but if Nintendo really wanted to appeal to the mainstream, and especially to the new casual market that dominates the DS ownership, then they are almost required to make things easier to swallow for the American audience.

Your sushi analogy is especially bad, because while I have personally gotten a few people into eating chunks of raw fish with me, you know that most Americans who say they like sushi go out and order California rolls and they are totally happy with it. There isn't anything inherently wrong with this, but there's a huge difference between fake crab meat in rice and raw tuna. The fact is, many Americans are not into it, and they never will be.

So in summary, this is not nearly as bad as you're making it out to be. We're all in the vocal minority, and while we can dig this wacky Japanese stuff, the majority of American gamers cannot.

Also, you're a bunch of weeaboos.

*not worth

that was hilarious :D
it was really bad but i couldn't stop watching it
maybe if I'd played the original i would feel your pain but its not that bad

I HATE THE DUB... I SUPPOSE. YA YA YA!


As a super fan of Rhythm Tengoku, even though I'm real bad at it, this is extremely disappointing.

@Dexter345:
You should write a book about how the Kansai regional dialect will never ever be properly localized into English. I will pay double the asking price to get a copy to my brother overnight.

I guess Jon and Topher didn't notice this:

http://www.destructoid.com/gdc-09-the-lowdown-on-rhythm-heaven-s-english-song-lyrics-126469.phtml

Not sure wtf I did to you Dexter, but it must've been pretty awful given your comments on my posts lately.

It's all because it isn't "~Kawaii desu ne ~d(^_^)b~ ** Supaa Nihongo XD :3 right?

Shitty voicework is shitty voicework, and it's even worse now that I've listened to the other songs in the US version and they've got it in there to replace stuff that wasn't even Japanese in the first place. There's stuff that was gibbersih or animal sounds that's now been replaced with this kind of public access children's programming quality voiceover. There's no need for it.

So, yes, it's every bit as bad as I'm making it out to be. People who don't like this sort of thing are going to skip it either way. Other people who might be interested to see what it's about are going to miss out on the great music that made it awesome to begin with, and get a low-quality substitute from people who didn't care enough to hire a few decent singers.

~聴いてありがとう, off to go pretend my bathrobe is a kimono and watch Lucky Star while I chow on some pocky desu desu desu. :3 *^__^*

At least the translation of the lyrics is fairly straightforward. Undubbing it is easy if you have the right equipment.

Oh hell.

What did they do; Bring in the kids of developers to sing this?

The music is alright, but the dub is SHIT.

@garison, add me to that Mother3 list. The singing in the game doesn't sound horrible, awkward and out of place rather. It sounds like more of a distraction from enjoyment, rather. All in all, I guess that doesn't help. NoA has always bothered me as to why they seem to make these kinds of game impairment in their decisions.

Wow, I disagree.

That is all.

I didn't mind the English vocals too much overal, except for the part where the girl sings "yeah, yeah, yeah!". Seriously how less enthusiastic can you possibly get? Anyway, strange that they didn't include the Japanese vocals as well; Rhythm Heaven isn't excactly a game that fills the DS cart to its limit?

@Projectexodus:
The interview stated that doing so would have pushed the game's size past a reasonable limit. The game is big enough as it is and I think that the cost of such large cartridges for an admittedly niche game like this wouldn't have been justified.

Then again, this is Nintendo we're talking bout, so...

This shocks me a bit, since Treehouse is usually good at nailing this kind of thing down. What happened?

@ Niero- I agree that it's a different animal, and that on the whole, the game is still great. There is no way to mess up awesome stuff like the Moah heads singing, the samurai mini-game, the positive/negative game, etc.

That said, having off-key singing is a turn off to EVERYBODY. That's my only real complaint about Rhythm Heaven. The lyrics are fine, the frogs are fine, but off-key girl singing is really not OK in a music game.

Unless of course, the game in question is Um Jammer Lammy, and the off-key singing is by Katy Kat.

Then it's OK.