When it comes to releasing games in other regions, there are a lot of different things
that can change.
Some games may have changes to the box art, for example, with the publishers normally
feeling that a different marketing style may work better for that particular market.
Other games may have changes to the game itself, such as characters being redesigned or more.
However, sometimes there are even changes to games' names and this is also something
that can be seen in a wide range of other media.
The first Harry Potter book, for example, is known in its home country of England as
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
This was then changed in the US, for both the book and the movie, to Harry Potter and
the Sorcerer's Stone, with the publishers thinking a US child would not want to read
a book with the word "philosopher" in the title.
There can be a wide range of different reasons for these types of changes and today we'll
be taking a look at 10 examples from video games, and trying to work out why the name
changes were made.
To kick things off with number 10, Bully, which was changed in the UK to Canis Canem
Edit, which is Latin for "dog eat dog".
Bully is Rockstar's high school-based open world title, starring 15 year old Jimmy Hopkins.
Rockstar's notoriety for creating games like the controversial Grand Theft Auto series
led to the game being a big source of outrage in the media, with politicians and it was
also a target for attorney Jack Thompson and his infamous crusade against violent video
games.
The game was labelled as, amongst other monikers, a high school "bullying simulator" and the
controversy got so bad in the UK that Rockstar decided to change the name to try and reduce
the tension.
This was also all despite the fact that, when release day came around, the game was discovered
to be nothing like it was being described as.
But moving on to number 9, Pac-Man.
Whilst nowadays known all around the world as Pac-Man, it originally went by a different
name over in Japan, where the game was created.
The Japanese arcade machines instead went by the name Puck Man but this was altered
when it came to North America over fear of people vandalising the first letter and changing
the "P" to a "F".
Later versions then decided to keep the North American name, even in Japan.
Number 8, Contra.
For many years, people in most European countries received a very different version of Konami's
Contra series that those in Japan and the US.
Most likely due to stricter rules regarding video game violence over in Germany, Europe
had new versions created that replaced the characters with robots.
All human characters were removed, including both the heroes as well as the enemies.
Going along with the game changes, the series was renamed to "Probotector", with this most
likely being seen as more futuristic and appropriate for the robot cast.
These changes would then be made to all Contra games up until 1996's Contra: Legacy of War.
Number 7, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
The United Kingdom used to have a rather peculiar set of media restrictions, which set out to
target certain "ninja" and "martial arts" content.
The government had noticed an increase in Eastern styled weaponry being used by UK gangs
and feared that the rise in popularity of these types of movies and games were the cause.
Media caught up in cross fire include Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which had to be renamed
in the UK to Teenage Mutant "Hero" Turtles.
This saw all Turtles products, including the comics, video games and the toys, renamed
in the UK as well as some other European countries.
This lasted up until the Turtle's first feature film - which was finally allowed to be called
"Ninja Turtles" worldwide.
Number 6, Tomba!
Sticking with the European theme, the PlayStation's Tomba! series had to have changes made to
its name in Europe, due to some unseen translations issues.
When the Japanese developers settled on the name Tomba! for their side scrolling platformer
adventure, it's unlikely they realised that, over in Italy, Tomba is the word for "tomb"...
as in the tombs you find at graveyards.
This was definitely not the impression that they wanted to give in the Italian market,
with it being a cute and colourful game.
So, for all European countries, they changed the name to "Tombi", which presumably has
no big translation issues over in Europe.
This is far from the first time that something like this has happened either.
Mortal Kombat: Deception, for instance, was changed to Mortal Kombat: "Mystification"
over in France.
Why?
Because the word Deception is similar to the French word for "disappointment", which is
clearly not how they wanted people to perceive the game.
Number 5, Puzzle Bobble.
For this entry we'll be discussing 2 different video game series and highlighting an unfortunate
effect that can occur from changing the names of things.
Puzzle Bobble was a very popular puzzle game that spawned numerous sequels and ports for
various platforms.
Puzzle Bobble, however, is its Japanese name, with it being renamed in Western countries
to Bust-a-Move.
It's not known why the decision to rename the series was made but, only a few years
later, a different game would be released in Japan called, none other than, Bust a Move.
This was a completely different series and is a music-based rhythm game made by different
developers.
Due to Puzzle Bobble being renamed in the West, this forced the Bust a Move team to
rename their title overseas to "Bust a Groove" instead.
Number 4, Fahrenheit.
Fahrenheit was the 2nd title from developers Quantic Dream, who are now very well known
for their unique 'interactive movie' style of video games and titles such as Heavy Rain
and Beyond: Two Souls.
The French developers seem to have decided on the name "Fahrenheit" due to a theme within
the story involving the world's temperature continuing to drop colder and colder.
However, when the game was first released in the United States, there was some concern
that this could confuse people with Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 - a 2004 documentary
taking a look at George W. Bush and the War on Terror.
Not wanting to confuse anybody, the title was altered to Indigo Prophecy in the United
States, with this title also having ties to the game's storyline.
Interestingly, for the 2015 Remastered version, Quantic Dream decided to use both titles for
the game's name - calling it "Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy Remastered" worldwide.
Number 3, Resident Evil.
Capcom's bestselling video game franchise, Resident Evil, is not the title's original
name over in Japan.
Ever since the title's 1996 PlayStation debut, the franchise has instead been dubbed "Biohazard"
in its home country.
When bringing the original game over to the West, Capcom's marketing department realised
that there had already been a recent DOS game released under the name "Biohazard", not to
mention there being a rather popular New York rock band going by the same name.
The US team were tasked with finding a new name and the eventual winner would be "Resident
Evil"... with this being a pun on the first game being set in a mansion.
Comparable to Fahrenheit, the much later Resident Evil 7 decided to pay homage to both of its
titles, with it being dubbed Resident Evil 7: Biohazard in the West and Biohazard 7:
Resident Evil in Japan.
The game's producer, Masachika Kawata, explained this decision speaking to
Capcom-Unity, stating:
"We really want to have the big, impactful feeling of the series being in one place right
now, and having one future it's heading towards.
To do that, we brought the two titles together into one with Resident Evil 7 biohazard.
It's the opposite in Japan, it's BIOHAZARD 7 resident evil."
Number 2, Star Fox.
As we've already gone into now, copyright issues with already existing names can be
a big reason for things being changed.
The same is true for the classic Nintendo franchise Star Fox, which was given a new
name for the European release of the first two games.
The developers have explained that this was due to Nintendo higher ups being afraid of
a German company called "Star Vox" suing over similarities - adding that, with a thick German
accent, a F could possibly be heard as resembling the letter V.
This led to 1993's Star Fox being renamed in Europe to Starwing and 1997's Star Fox
64 being renamed to Lylat Wars.
Fortunately for the devs though, the issue seemed to eventually go away, with either
the Germany company going out of business or Nintendo's lawyers simply no longer worrying
about a possible law suit.
This saw 2002's Star Fox Adventures and all following games being released as "Star Fox"
for all regions.
Number 1, Fatal Frame.
And for our last game for today, we'll be taking a look at a series that has a different
name in Japan, Europe *and* the United States.
Fatal Frame is Koei Tecmo's popular and long running survival horror series that tasks
players with finding ghosts in various creepy locations through the use of a special camera.
The camera mechanic, which is also used for fighting the ghosts, is the reason why the
US localizers decided to rebrand it as "Fatal Frame"... with them likely feeling this would
be a more interesting name for US audiences.
Over in Japan, though, the franchise has a completely different name.
Here, the series is simply known as the kanji character for the number "Zero".
There is a deeper meaning behind it than that though.
The word for zero in Japanese can have a different meaning, depending on the Kanji used.
One of these kanji can also mean spirit or ghost and so the Japanese title, is sort of
like a pun on the word ghost.
Keeping this in mind, it's rather curious how the name was changed over in Europe.
You see, the European franchise keeps the "Zero" part of the name unlike the US.
However, the European series goes by the longer name "Project Zero" instead.
It's speculated amongst fans, that this may have been some sort of mistranslation or miscommunication,
as the development team that worked on the game are known as "Project Zero" too.
It's also interesting to point out that, over in Japan, all of the games are not numbered,
due to the creator feeling that they are standalone games, with minimal connections to previous
titles.
This was however changed when the games were released over in the US and Europe.
But, that's all we have time for today.
Let us know of any more examples that you can think of in the description below and,
if you've enjoyed this video, please consider hitting that like button and, until next time,
thank you for watching.
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