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US Shmup Ports - Ikaruga Vs. MLF2?
US conversions of Japanese games can either be beautifully done or amateurishly botched. And the 2D shoot-'em-up (aka shmup) genre has seen both over the past few weeks. First, there's been Atari's conversion of Treasure's vertical 2D shmup for Gamecube, Ikaruga, which has been generally hailed as 'a great thing', with the preservation of turn-to-vertical mode (play with your TV on its side to exactly replicate the arcade version!) and even an online score ranking system. On the other hand, the budget US release of vertical shooter Mobile Light Force 2 (actually Shikigami) from XS Games has prompted howls of derision from the hardcore fans, with a bizarre Charlie's Angels-aping cover that has nothing to do with the game, and vertical mode and cut-scenes removed. But then, the game is still fundamentally intact - so how much should these import changes matter if you can snag the game cheap? Opinions, as always, welcome.
.....is why they just don't do a direct port of the game and change the dialogue/speech from japanese to english? What the hell is the point of taking things out?? If anything leave whatever is in, translate it, and add more stuff if so inclined. I just don't understand axing stuff from already well-made games, but then again, that's probably why I'm not running a video game production company right now...
Give it a look
I saw this game at best buy the other day and it looked interesting. Maybe I'll rent it some time to see if its worth owning. I can remember many an afternoon, after school, playing Life Force. Anyone remember Mr. Brain with arms? Mr. Pharoh head. Crazy Skull with eyballs man? That was a fun game! Maybe this game will rekindle those feelings.
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See, I have trouble getting worked up over bad covers to shooters. Because, really, it'll never be as bad as Phalanx.
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On a recent spending spree at Best Buy, I picked up Ikaruga. Since the Penny Arcade kids had mentioned it favorably and I needed a good game I could pick up for only short game breaks. Ikaruga is really fun, but its not something I can play for extended period of times, which is good cause I still need to finish Wind Waker, and I have high hopes of playing through most of the Final Fantasy series again this summer.
The whole polarity thing really puts an interesting twist on the game. Basically you switch between black or white, and the enemies are one or the other color. If you are the opposite color you do twice as much damage, you absorb enemy bullets of the same color as you.
XS games puts out cheap conversions. I mean in price. Mobile Light Force 2 is between $10 and $15 NEW for Playstation 2. The loss in content is probably worth it.
Hmmmm, I can't imagine why someone would think babes would sell video games. It was probably a toss-up between that and a Domino's coupon for free pizza.
I don't care if the port of MLF2 was incredible and even featured MLF3 as a bonus. Ikaruga would still kick it's ass.
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I mean, yeah... Ikaruga is probably the best vertical shooter EVER. Its graphics, gameplay, and everything else just annihilate every other shooter I've ever seen. I almost got an import GameCube so I could play it, until I heard it was coming out here. It also isn't a hell of a lot different from the Dreamcast version. I don't think the localization was much more than the menus redone. The audio isn't changed.
Yeah, Mobile Light Force 2 is a stripped down version of Shikigami, but the actual part of the game you PLAY is still there, and it's still fun. And cheap as hell, which is a good thing. Getting some quality shooters in at low prices might actually revive the market for the whole genre over here. As long as they don't cut out any actual gameplay, I'll keep buying XS Games' ports. Maybe it'll get more of the Metal Slugs and such localized over here, if people are shown there's a real market for a quality localization.
Definitely, if you want the better game, there's no question it's Ikaruga hands down. But if price is a concern, or you just like playing shooters, there's no reason I can think of aside from being a purist that you shouldn't go get Mobile Light Force (Gunbird 2), Mobile Light Force 2 (Shikigami), and Sol Divide right now. They're good games.
While Shikigami no Shiro is sadly butchered, those of us who own Gunbird 2 on the Dreamcast and enjoyed its wonderful import cry when we play MLF, aka Gunbird. Gunbird was never translated over here properly.
The worst part about XS Games' shitty port is that you can look at the PSX disc and see that it has all the movies and text intact, they just delete all the lines of code in the program which display text or play a movie. Whenever you get up to those crazy pirates, the game pauses for it. Then moves on. Pathetic.
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I work at an EB, and we've sold a tremendous amount of copies of Ikaruga. Why? Because we've had it in the GC demo unit since the day it was released (minus the days we were out of stock). People play it, and love it. Just this weekend a five year old sat there and played it for no less than 20 minutes; his parents finally just bought it for him so they could take it home.
Nor is Ikaruga following traditional sales charts by selling immediately and then slowly declining. Sure, we had our presells and the people who knew about it picked it up within a few days of release. But otherwise, most of our sales (and we sell about one a day - good for a game like that!) are from people discovering it in the demo unit. Moreover, it's been a very constant sales rate.
I say all that to indicate that there is not only the obvious "hardcore" market that browses the fanboards and what have you, but also a large portion of people who either didn't know they loved shooters or forgot that they did. The success of Ikaruga, at least in our store, is a testament to the bullish nature of the industry to arrogantly assume that they lead the market. In so doing, they're neglecting very potential customers and have largely all but deserted what could be quite profitable.
For example, an older guy in the store a couple of days saw Ikaruga and wanted something similar for his kid's PSX (no gamecube). I sold him Mobile Light Force.
Actual name of MLF2 is Shikigami no Shiro, which means Castles of Shikigami.
I recently saw a preview movie of Shikigami no Shiro 2, which looks incredible.
Infogrames/Atari stripped out much of the storyline in Ikaruga for its North American release. During each level's opening (when it lists the name of the Chapter), there was in the Dreamcast and Arcade versions a relatively short transcript of part of a dialogue between Shinra (the main character) and a leader of the village Ikaruga. This is gone in the American release. The gallery mode in the Dreamcast version had descriptions of the characters - also removed.
These are minor changes compared to what occurred with the Mobile Light Force 'series'. But they are edits, and reduce the impact that Ikaruga originally had. The creators of the game, Treasure, obviously felt these parts were important, or they would not have included them to begin with.
I am happy that Atari chose not to edit the gameplay of Ikaruga. But that does not compensate, IMO, for their needless editing of Ikaruga's content.
The people wanted to buy a translated version of Treasure's Ikaruga, Atari, not some sliced-up version that your producers felt was better!
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. -- Francis Bacon