The GHZ Forum

I found out today that Super Mario Bros 3 was released in Japan in 1988, nearly 2 and a half years before the US version was released in 1990. I have a few responses to this. On one hand, it makes you realize how quick the turn-around is now, because there's no way a game would take that long to get to the US (at least now that Working Designs is gone), but also, why is it that, as a child, I didn't know this? The answer is because Nintendo Power was my sole source of information, but it's still amazing that the game was out in Japan for over two years and somehow I didn't know ANYTHING about it.

If anyone's older brother on the playground had imported it, you know! Wouldn't that have been a thing? He'd be that kid who swore that you could save Aeris somehow, except he'd be like "The new Mario game is out in Japan, and you can play as a raccoon, a frog, or a hammer brother!" "Bowser has like a million children, and they fly around in airships driven by moles!" And you'd be like what the fuck EVER, you lying attention whore! But it would have all been true! While I was standing in line waiting to see The Wizard and some of you guys were, I dunno, chilling in your dad's testicles, Mario 3 was already old news in Japan! WTF!

And then you guys in the UK (and the rest of europe), historically given the shaft by Nintendo don't see it for another year, and by that time we're all playing Mario World on the SNES, but of course the Japanese had it when we were playing Mario 3. What a different world it is! (of course, you still don't have Super Paper Mario so I guess maybe it hasn't changed after all).

This also makes me think about what a stranglehold Nintendo had on information with Nintendo Power magazine being so widespread at the time, if I had been reading EGM at the time or maybe even fucking GAMEPRO maybe I would have known this!

But here's the thing that I really don't get. In Mario 3, if you hit a block and a mushroom comes out, it moves in the direction opposite the side of the block that you hit, but in Mario World, it always goes to the right. In Nintendo's Official "Mario Mania" Super Mario World Guide (which had a ton of extras and cool bits of info) they explained that the reason is because Mario World actually started development BEFORE Mario 3, and they hadn't thought of the idea then. Looking at the US release dates, that made a kind of funny sense, as if the two games had been developed simultaneously. But when you look at the Japanese release dates, obviously this is not the case!

I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO THINK ANYMORE

Deep breaths, bro.

It's like, life is so hard. 'Cuz I heard this rumor that Mario 2 wasn't even, like, the Mario 2.

I swear to god, man, when I'm 18 I am so moving to Japan. Did you know over there they make video games?

On second thought, I don't know why I was so needlessly sarcastic above. G Silv's post made me smile.

G.Silver wrote:why is it that, as a child, I didn't know this?

'twas a severe lack of internet back then.
Also, there's a subtle difference between:

G.Silver wrote:you could save Aeris somehow

Lie

And:

G.Silver wrote:"The new Mario game is out in Japan, and you can play as a raccoon, a frog, or a hammer brother!"

Unstated truth.

Yes, but it sounds ridiculous and that kid had a reputation for making shit up. The fact that it is the truth is the whole point!

That'd have been awesome news if I wasn't, well, zero when <i>SMB3</i> came out in Japan and two when it came out in the US. And wasn't at least fifteen before I finally got around to trying out <i>SMB3</i> at <b>all</b>.

Also, <i>Super Mario World</i> was <i>Super Mario Bros. 4</i> in Japan (well, okay, that was its subtitle - the main title remained "<i>Super Mario World</i>"), but never was in the US. As of such, you still see several folk who vehemently insist <i>New Super Mario Bros.</i> should be called <i>Super Mario Bros. 4</i> when, if anything, it's more <i>Super Mario Bros. 5</i>. Is this relevant to the discussion at hand? Not really. I just felt like sharing.

I always thought it was strange that Sonic and Mario both stopped using numbers in their sequels after 3.

I remember back in 1989 or 1990 when Tec Toy started making the Sega games and systems around here, the Master System and the Mega Drive were launched. Prices were reasonable and we could actually buy plenty of games.

Then another company started to make Nintendo stuff here, and the NES was officially launched, along with a lot of games. By then, we had lots of videogames that accepted the cartridges from the NES, so it wasn't all that of a big deal, except for the SNES and the games' prices being significantly lower (but not that much, because even back there we had pirate NES carts). Nintendo games kept being released here until the N64, we even had a couple of games in portuguese, but then support stopped in the Gamecube, probably because of the Playstation. Everybody had a Playstation since it was so easy and cheap to buy pirate games. They costed a tenth of an original game, sometimes less. I guess Nintendo just thought that it wasn't worth it and pulled out.

We still had Sega though. Sega games and systems kept being released until its console demise. We still have Master System and Mega Drive consoles being released and sold in shops, even though there's no games to buy (the consoles come with lots of built-in games). But after the Dreamcast was gone, and then the N64, there was NO official console support here, which means every game and system has to be imported and sold with a humongous price. Even though everybody had a PSX, and now a PS2, and some people have Gamecubes and X-boxes, those are all imported.

All this means that now I'm fucked, because I'll be stranded with my PS2 until the price goes down enough (that would be... somewhere before they launch the next next-gen consoles) or until some nice soul go out to the US and buy me one. Of course, I'll still be fucked by the games.

Oooor you could just find a way to get to Foz do Iguaçu; Cidad del Leste (Paraguay) is less than 30 minutes from there, and knowing where to go, it's pretty easy to find a decent import shop.
Sure, it's easy for me to say this, living here and stuff... but it's definetly better (and cheaper) than going to the States or dealing with the brazilian tax system.

That also stands true for Argentina... though here the only officially released systems I know about were the Nintendo 64 and, just for a little, the GameCube. It's worth mentioning that the Dreamcast did quite a good job down here, even as an import system it was succesful until both the economical crisis and the PS2 hype took it all away from us... what a disappointment.

G.Silver wrote:I always thought it was strange that Sonic and Mario both stopped using numbers in their sequels after 3.

4s often don't exist in games. I think game franchises tend to get a bit embarrassed if they start existing beyond number three, and start trying to disguise it by using elaborate subtitles instead, like with Splinter Cell and Tomb Raider etc. The exception seems to be in the case of games that use Roman numerals, most obviously the FF franchise. Roman numerals are just classy and can get away with whatever they like.

I want to propose that <i>Mega Man</i> fits in Popcorn's niche, there, but then, in Japan, they didn't use roman numerals - they used Arabic the whole time. The US didn't do that until <i>MM8</i>.

And of course, <i>Mega Man X</i> didn't even bother with Roman numerals - mostly because people would assume that the series jumped from what would effectively be <i>Mega Man 10</i> to <i>Mega Man 12</i>...

Funny how Capcom had to grow some balls until they finally made Resident Evil 4, or Street Fighter III. I guess the same thing is happening to Megaman 9.

Hmm... but few games get to the fourth installment, and a lot of them use 4. Phantasy Star 4, Tekken 4 (or was it Tekken Tag?), SoulCalibur 4, Quake 4, all of the Quest games from Sierra, Metal Gear Sold 4...

Speaking of Nintendo Power, Angry Video Game Nerd's last video was about it.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/24502.html

I never got why people were always so down on Capcom with the SF3 thing. How was Street Fighter Alpha not a third Street Fighter game? And then there's always something funny, like "can't count to 3" or "doesn't have any balls."

Actually now I'm remembering it was because we thought lowly of them for the continual milking SF2 by updating it with CE, Turbo, and Super. Guess they should have just put the 3 on there in the first place. (I remember reading that some shady arcades made their own marquis for Darkstalkers, calling it SF3 instead!)

G.Silver wrote:How was Street Fighter Alpha not a third Street Fighter game?

Because the original Japanese name, Street Fighter Zero, as well as its storylines, imply that all of the events that happen in the Alpha/Zero games take place before even the original Street Fighter.

Speaking of which, has anyone played the original Street Fighter?

Tsuyoshi-kun wrote:

G.Silver wrote:How was Street Fighter Alpha not a third Street Fighter game?

Because the original Japanese name, Street Fighter Zero, as well as its storylines, imply that all of the events that happen in the Alpha/Zero games take place before even the original Street Fighter.

Nobody cares about Street Fighter's story

Brazillian Cara wrote:Speaking of which, has anyone played the original Street Fighter?

I tried to. I don't think I'll try to again. <i>SF2</i> betters it in music, sound, graphics, control, physics... I can't think of a single thing <i>Street Fighter</i> does that <i>Street Fighter 2</i> doesn't do a million times better, to the extent that playing <i>Street Fighter [1]</i> is utterly painful.

Also, the <i>Alpha</i>/<i>Zero</i> series take place between <i>SF1</i> and <i>SF2</i>. The main supporting reason for this is Sagat's story - he got the scar in a fight with Ryu at the end of the first World Warrior Tournament - i.e., the end of <i>Street Fighter [1]</i>, in which he was indeed the final opponent - and it is from that point onward that he vows his revenge on Ryu.

This is assuming, of course, that you even care about <i>Street Fighter</i>'s story. Unlike Double-S- there.

Shadow Hog wrote:Also, the <i>Alpha</i>/<i>Zero</i> series take place between <i>SF1</i> and <i>SF2</i>.

That confused the hell out of me.

I played it too, it was like most standard (read seriously mediocre) versus fighting games that came after it, with particularly bad controls and physics. The story bit is interesting, though I always believed ZERO 3 fucked up much of it, what with having all the characters of Super Street Fighter II in it, then the four of them dissapearing in the original SFII.

Tag Tournament was almost like Tekken 3.5 or Tekken 4 Prologue or something like that (and fucking UGLY).

The closest I can relate to this was seeing a book cover somebody had in school with the Sonic & Knuckles logo on it and I was like "What is that?" and they said it was a new Sonic game coming out in a couple months.

I was like "Whaaaaat? First I've heard of this!"

Crazy Penguin wrote:

Shadow Hog wrote:Also, the <i>Alpha</i>/<i>Zero</i> series take place between <i>SF1</i> and <i>SF2</i>.

That confused the hell out of me.

I didn't know that myself! The only one I've ever played is Alpha 2, which has no real storyline to speak of.

Isuka wrote:Tag Tournament was almost like Tekken 3.5 or Tekken 4 Prologue or something like that (and fucking UGLY).

Tekken Tag Tournament is a "dream match" and thus never happened.

It was ugly though. And slow.