Should Video Game Translations Be Regionalized?

Okay, I'm hitting a more touchy subject of the video gaming industry, as it deals with entertainment laws and all, but here goes anyway. First of all, why this subject in the first place? Well... It's a little something that's been bugging me recently. You see, I live in Quebec, a little province located on the East of Canada, a province that is mostly composed of French speakers. Our culture is different enough from the rest of Canada, we have our own view on the world, we have our own culture, our own icons (yay, lys flowers!). I'd go as far as to say that if we weren't linked to the rest of Canada by the province of Ontario, you'd swear we're our own country. (Not getting into nationalism versus separatism debates here, because this is a video game blog and, frankly, if you're living anywhere else in the world, chances are that you don't care much about that debate in particular.)

Now that this is said, let me make one thing clear. I'm proud of my province. No doubt there. However, there's a Quebec policy about video games and animated medias in general, and without quoting it entirely, it goes along the lines of "if thisDVD/Blu-Ray/video game doesn't have the option to be watched/played in French, it cannot be sold in stores". I might be wrong on the exact wording - actually, I'm sure I'm wrong on many places if we're looking for the exact wording - but the ideas is still there. If you can't watch this film in French, it cannot be sold here. If you cannot play this game in French, it cannot be sold here.

Super Contra

Good times.

And now, the first review of a game available on the Virtual Console! If there's one thing I love about the Virtual Console, it's that you can buy many games that we remember from our youth. I remember when I played on my Nintendo Entertainment System... Those were good times... Half the time! I had all the regular games: The first three Super Mario Bros. games, I had Duck Hunt, I had... well, I had a lot of games that were well-known NES titles. I also had a few major stinkers, such as one of the very first football games, which SUCKED. And there were also games that were surprisingly good. Others were so challenging that today's games feel easy in comparison.

The NES era is looked at with nostalgia. Those were the good times. Controllers had only the directional pad, Start, Select, A and B, for a total of only eight buttons. Most games were simple, back then, and especially platformers. The game today is among the most famous non-Nintendo NES games. Unlike, say, Metal Gear Solid, this franchise didn't develop itself through the years until it reached the HD perfection of the most recent consoles. As a result, this game series has become iconic to the 8-bit and 16-bit era, but it ended there.

Have you heard of Contra? If you know Konami's history, you do. If you don't, here's what it is: Contra is a game series in which you control little soldier who becomes trigger happy and shoots everything around. Oh, but don't be fooled: There's a good reason. Everything around him, from his soldier companions to the army's machines, is trying to kill him. Luckily, he can fight against those brainwashed opponents thanks to many different firearms.

If only he had more than one Hit Point per life...

Mario Paint Composer

If you've been around for a month or more, reading this blog, you know two of my passions: Music and Super Mario. Well, there's a way to combine both. No, not the game soundtracks (though they sound very nice too).

Anyway, back in the time of the Super Nintendo, a little game came out called Mario Paint. It was an innovative game that required a mouse to play with, as it was a software on which the player would draw pictures. And of course, it's not very easy to do that when all you have is a video game controller that lacks the precision of a computer mouse. To tell the truth, I never played it, but the concept alone is intriguing enough.

Mario Paint wasn't just a picture software, though. It had a few bonus modes, such as a game in which you're swatting flies and the famous Mario Paint Composer. This was a little revolutionary program that would let anyone with musical talent create their own song. Of course, it wouldn't be with real instruments, so the musician would have to do with regular musical sounds, sometimes Mario sounds (such as Yoshi hopping), and other animal sounds (such as cat, dog and pig).

That program was a lot of fun, so it is dearly remembered by many. So many, in fact, that someone re-created it and made it available on Internet, removing most of the original limitations. As a result, people decided they'd use that software to make their own songs... or quite simply, re-create songs that already exist. Here's a few of those. (I also tell the name of the original song so you can look it up on Youtube and compare the two).

Did the Raving Rabbids Ruin Rayman?

Ah, Rayman. What a wonderful video game series that is. It's downright crazy. It follows the limbless hero Rayman in his crazy adventures, collecting Lums and fighting enemies that were, somewhat, wackier than him, yet retaining all their dangerosity. The Rayman series is nowhere as famous as, say, Mario, The Legend of Zelda or Sonic the Hedgehog, yet it still holds a place dear in many gamers' hearts.

Then came in the Rabbids. Cute albeit psychotic creatures who could go from cuddly-adorable blue-eyed critters to deadly screaming red-eyed creatures. And they RUINED Rayman. They spread their long ears through the franchise, destroying all that Rayman used to be, and halting the franchise for a time far too long.

I'm making it sound way worse than it actually is. But it was the opinion a lot of fans had when the Rabbids started taking more and more space in Rayman's world. This leads to the fanbase-tearing question: Did the Raving Rabbids ruin Rayman?

How To Train Your Dragon (Wii)

I already mentioned that licensed games can be awful. The rush to release something just for an extra cash grab is quite lame, and it results in bad games more than once. It's a major problem, and it's one of the reasons why licensed games are thoroughly avoided by a lot of gamers. Yet, I also mentioned in the same article that some licensed games are surprises hidden among the cheap games.

I don't think I need to tell you that How to Train Your Dragon is a licensed game. Duh. The movie, which came out in 2010, was one of the best examples of 3D films done well, even better than Avatar, the HIGHEST-GROSSING FILM OF ALL TIME. And it's not just a technical success, it was also a success on the aspect of its simple story: Vikings hate dragons. A young viking injures, meet, helps and befriends a dragon. He keeps it secret due to the hatred between vikings and dragons. Then the young viking discovers that the dragons all steal food and stuff from their village because an ENORMOUS dragon will eat them if they don't. The vikings discover the teenager's dragon, force him to lead them to the dragons' island. The boy has to teach his dragon-taming knowledge to the other teens of the village so that they can save the villagers from the giant dragon. And that's the story in a nutshell. I'd explain it in more detail, but go watch it instead. You'll like it.

A problem arises quickly enough. All the teams behind licensed games have seen that problem: How do we turn this into a video game? I also mentioned in my article that you could keep true to the film's story, or you could go with something completely different. Or you could go with the movie's aftermath, which is an original story in its own right, but a story that still needs to keep true to everything that happened in the movie.

Does the Wii version of How to Train Your Dragon accomplish this? We'll see.