Contra feels like one of the few retro series that is actually harder in the west then in Japan. The japanese version of Hard Corps has a three hit meter on top of the 3 lives but the U.S. version just says frick you. What other examples of retro games are there of this? I always got the impression that it was the reverse.
Ninja Gaiden III is the best example I can think of. Japanese version is a very easy game especially compared to other Ninja Gaiden games but American version is very brutal
Donpachi (Hong Kong version) is insanely harder than the jap version.
Streets of Rage 3 US iirc is harder than JP.
>What other examples of retro games are there of this?
Probably a ton. The whole business of being able to rent games really irritated the japs.
>really irritated the japs
So? Japanese were not allowed to rent games, so it`s only american version that were fricked and I'm pretty sure it was not japanese people that fricked that up.
>pretty sure it was not japanese people that fricked that up.
Are you implying that the ability to rent games shouldn't be allowed? If the game made was able to be beat in a weekend or not good enough for me to want to purchase then that's them for making a shit - meh product.
*on them
I'm implying those things where done by the american publishers and whatnot because of renting. It was not the japanese people who did that.
Actually, it usually was the Japs who did it. Not just because of the renting, but they believed Americans liked things harder.
>but they believed Americans liked things harder
Pretty sure Final Fantasy USA/Mystic Quest goes against that.
RPGs are the exceptions
RPGs: harder in Japan
action games: harder in the west
>RPGs: harder in Japan
That is false, too. JRPG for consoles maybe, but every JRPG made is easier than any RPG made in the west. You are deluded if you think any JRPG is harder than any of the Wizardry games.
>but they believed Americans liked things harder.
No, dummy
sm2 literally didnt reach usa because it was too difficult for amerikans.
It wasn't just the difficulty, they were concerned that it was too similar to the original, and with it being made specifically to challenge players who'd already mastered that game, general audiences wouldn't see a reason to buy it.
Konami america were a bunch of buttholes, the american version of their games had things like paid health bars, they were doing microtransactions before everyone else
anything localized by working designs
Dragon Force wasn't made any harder
The Japanese games are harder than western games seems to be a myth to me. Other than Mario 2 (which is a completely different game) I can't think of a single game that's easier in the west.
Final Fantasy 2 (SNES)
Last Resort (Neo Geo)
Phantasy Star 2
Most NA games had their difficulty ratcheted up for the rental market, not out of some sense of regional balance. CV 3 and SoR 3 are incredibly unplayable compared to their Japanese counterparts.
>CV 3 and SoR 3 are incredibly unplayable compared to their Japanese counterparts.
They are playable. Git gud
the vast majority of arcade games are harder in their original japanese versions
The US version of Devil May Cry gave enemies 20% more health and damage. For 3 it was 25% more damage and double health.
DMC3 fricked up all the difficulties. Easy was Normal, Normal became Hard, and Hard was an all-new level of difficulty. The Special Edition restored them to their Japanese standards and turned the new Hard into its own "Very Hard".
Japanese player need man up.
Is the game better for it?
In 1 it made getting critical hits on Shadows not a guaranteed kill like with every other enemy. In 3 it made the game feel slower becoming enemies had so much more health and took longer to go down. Not a huge deal in 1 but I think it made the original US release of 3 worse.
Castlevania III. The american version is way too hard compared to the japanese one, though it has a worse OST.
technically all remaining untranslated text-heavy japanese games are harder in the west
most games were intentionally made harder for the West in order to frick over people who rented games. the thought process was to make the game so difficult and so punishing that there would be no way anyone could actually become good enough to finish the game in a rental.
are you sure about that ?
Double Dragon 3
>The U.S. version also features item shops where players could use additional credits to purchase in-game items such as weapons, additional moves and new playable characters in one of the earliest forms of microtransactions in a video game, although this system would end up being removed in the later-released Japanese version of the game in favor of a conventional character select feature similar to Golden Axe or Final Fight.
Streets of Rage 3
Dynamite Headdy
Battletoads
Sonic 1, technically (JP version fixed spike bug)
>What other examples of retro games are there of this?
There are many actually. Everything Working Designs did for example.
>Contra feels like one of the few retro series that is actually harder in the west then in Japan.
It's all because it's one of those "Anti-Rental" games.
In USA games could be rented (rent? im not from usa so i forgot the word lol).
So kids could just beat a game over the weekend and return it.
So to make people actually "buy" games, some japanese companies were making special "anti-rental" games for american market - they would cut health bars and remove some continues and so on.
I personally had japanese version as a kid and so thankful for that. I have no idea how would you play that shitty cut-healthbar version as a small child that just wants to have fun.
I remember there are some other games like that from 16 bit era
Isn't Mega Man 2's normal mode in the west the Japanese version's hard mode?
There's an easier mode? How could MM2 get any easier?
JP Mega Man 2 didn't have a difficulty option.
US Mega Man 2's Difficult Mode was the original JP game while Normal Mode was exclusive to the US release.
>Contra feels like one of the few retro series that is actually harder in the west then in Japan.
This is true of a lot of series.
hey guys don't mind us, just pumping up the stats of everything besides the player to ridiculous levels, making the game nearly unwinnable in certain situations. on the other hand that's probably the only reason anybody remembers this game too. even the instruction manual trolls you by suggesting you play as the knight even though his stat gains got fricked over the hardest, making him the worst possible choice in the game.
get the patches to fix all that shit
I thought that was the norm actually. American versions are almost always harder if we are talking 4th and 5th gen
A lot of Konami arcade games were significantly harder in the US:
Turtles in Time (more enemy spam, strict invisible timer, fewer powerups, bosses have way more health)
Simpsons (similar to above)
X-Men (removed both mutant power and health pickups entirely, changed how mutant powers work in order to kill the player faster)
Metamorphic Force (removed normal life bar in favor of Gauntlet-style health that ticks down no matter what, tougher enemy configurations, less healing)
Crime Fighters (similar to above)
Mystic Warriors (bosses take way longer to die)
Sunset Riders (removed all extra 1ups, bosses take a million hits to die)
I remember getting caught by one of those little wheely frickers in the original TMNT arcade game and no matter how hard I mashed it wouldn't let go and drained my entire health bar. Fricking bullshit.