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.

Comments

What I don't understand....

[x311]

.....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...

Re:What I don't understand....

[analog_line]

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).

Phalanx

[Snowspinner]

See, I have trouble getting worked up over bad covers to shooters. Because, really, it'll never be as bad as Phalanx.

It's simple...

[Ransak]

An import game is only good if it winds up on engrish.com at some point.

All your base are belong to us, and stuff.

Why versus?

[analog_line]

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.

Don't forget MLF1

[Inoshiro]

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.