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US Shmup Ports - Ikaruga Vs. MLF2?

Posted by simoniker on from the a-study-in-opposites dept.

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.

2 of 25 comments (clear)

  1. What I don't understand.... by x311 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    .....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...

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    1. Re:What I don't understand.... by analog_line · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Because it costs money for people to do the translations and do high quality audio recordings. It's much cheaper to rip those parts of the code out and replace them with throw away sound bites and cheap "art".

      American International used to do this all the time with foreign movies. Just write a new script that sorta fit the mouth movements, rename people as needed, get a few people to read the voiceovers, profit at drive-ins.

      XS Games is just cheaply getting these games over to the US market. There isn't a huge untapped market for shooters in the US. Those that play them generally import the buggers anyways, so most companies don't see a lot of financial advantage in doing a full US release. Frankly, if it wasn't for XS, a lot of people would never have played Shikigami or Gunbird 2 (which XS released as Mobile Light Force for PSX).