Take a look at 15 video games that were forced to change details in different countries:
1. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year
The character of Vivian in Paper Mario was actually a dude in the original Japanese version. However, since he kisses Mario in the game, the North American version had Vivian as a female.
2. Mega Man
Because the Japanese-to-English translation of his name doesn’t distinguish between an L or R sound, Dr. Thomas Light is alternately known as Dr. Right and Dr. Wright in various games and manuals.
3. Starfox
If you say “Starfox” in a German accent, you’ll sound like you’re calling out the German company ‘StarVox’. Instead of delaying the game’s launch by trying to get legal permission, they started calling Starfox and ‘The Lylat Wars’ in Europe.
4. Tomba
Tomba was a pretty fun game about a wild child battling the kingdom of pigs. However, the developers had to change the name when they released it in Italy as “tomba” means “tomb” in Italian means “tomb.” They decided to call it Tombi in Europe.
5. Indigo Prophecy
It’s not known to many but Indigo Prophecy is known as Fahrenheit in most countries except North America. The developer, Atari was worried Americans would get it confused with Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11.
6. Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
An animation sequence that showed Crash getting crushed into a wobbling head/feet abomination and dying was removed from the Japanese version of this game. An actual Japanese serial killer had left a severed head and a pair of shoes as kind of a gruesome calling card.
7. Contra
When Contra was released in Germany, the developers had to turn pretty much every human and alien into a robot in order to comply with Germany’s strict anti-violence laws. Germans call the game “Probotector” i.e. “Robot protector”
8. Mortal Kombat: Deception
This edition of Mortal Kombat couldn’t do wonders in France. “Déception” literally translates to “disappointment”. It got renamed Mortal Kombat: Mystification in France.
9. Pac-Man
That signature Wakka-Wakka onomatopoeia is pronounced paku-paku in Japan. They nearly translated that to Puck-Man, until someone noticed how easily arcade cabinets could be altered to something more… flattering, yet sinister.
10. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
Japanese censorship might be laxer when it comes to nudity and religion but they get pretty stern when it’s torture. The torture sequence where Snake is tormented with cattle prods was edited for the Japanese market and it was turned into a tickling sequence.
11. Punch Out!!
Soda Popinski was initially given a name that wasn’t taken well by a lot of people. He was called “Vodka Drunkenski.”
12. Final Fight
Capcom USA had a bunch of prudes who made a whole lot of changes in the game. Bosses “Damnd” and all drug and alcohol references were removed. The exclamation “Oh! My God” became “Oh! My car.”
13. The Combatribes
Although this game was launched in the ’90s, but when Nintendo re-released it for their Virtual Console post-9/11, they renamed the “Ground Zero” gang to “Guilty Zero.”
14. SimAnt
The console version of this game had animations of ants puking with disturbing, digitized visuals. Nintendo however didn’t allow it in the SNES version.
15. Crushin’ USA
Nintendo always prioritizes playing safe and prude. Making Crushin’ USA a ‘Family-Friendly’ was a task for them. In one of the updates, they renamed the “XL Power Shaft” to the less phallic “XL Power”
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