Why do video game companies adjust the difficulty for certain countries?
Example: Levels in Crash Bandicoot are adjusted for difficulty for the Japanese market to make them easier than their western counterparts and the SMB2 thing.
Why do video game companies assume that living in a different country means games will be harder/easier for you?
DID YOU KNOW
Go on
SMB2 JP
>crappy cash-in with increased difficulty and that's it
>not even 10 new assets, everything was reused from previous game, including bosses and enemies
>never-seen-before: poisonous mushroom. AMAZING!!!1ONE!
>wow, you can 1-player as Luigi now, totally worth it, instant buy
SMB2 USA
>whole new gameplay
>four playable characters
>new areas, new enemies, new bosses, new music
>shitty but still different plot
>fresh, new stuff such as holding and throwing items, each character's individual abilities and play style, enemies like Birdo, bob-ombs became part of main series
>b-but I prefer JP version because it's harder and I'm a skilled player I don't play casual shit
Don't forget
>Based on prototypes for actual SMB2 that were meant to combine Donkey Kong with SMB
>Many of the original SMB and DK staff worked on it
>Shiggy's favourite
Only idiots think SMB2 USA isn't the real SMB2.
Good work. Several people will take it.
They probably don't assume. I'm guessing the local divisions of the company have their own play-testers who are given the game and see what feedback they get in terms of difficulty.
To be fair JP got both Marios.
>Based on prototypes for actual SMB2 that were meant to combine Donkey Kong with SMB
Wrong.
>skilled
>SMB2JP
There were three categories of difficult things in that game:
1. The Podoboo Pit
2. The Long-Bomb Trampolines
3. A series of absolute troll game design choices
Only 1. was legitimate and clever.
2. and 3. were trash design.
SMB2USA / Doki was legitimately difficult. And was lengthy about it.
SMB2 is because the JP version would have looked like ass in 1988.
>le difficulty
difficulty was only one part of the equation. Americans wouldn't accept a sequel that was just a bad romhack made by some interns as an official game.
So they went back to the original game that was being toyed with to be the sequel but was reskinned to another game to meet the demand of a big client and mostly fixed it up for american relaese. Later shiggy adopted several design choices into Mario bros 3
SMB2 USA is the true sequel
beat me to it
>not even 10 new assets, everything was reused from previous game, including bosses and enemies
Some of the graphics were updated though, such as the ground and Peach's sprite.
SMB2 was the blueprint for the kaizo romhack bullshit to come in the future.
>JP got both marios
US also had like 30 versions for each of the same game before 1983 Crash, I'm pretty sure they had a good reason to not release a sequel that was way too similar to its predecessor
>SMB2 USA is the true sequel
No, Super Mario 3 is the true sequel. It actually came out at the same time as SMB2 USA. SMB2 USA was only made so they wouldn't fuck up the numbering in the U.S.
SMB2 was one of the first games I beat as a kid, back in a time where we were full of unbeatable crap like Mega Man 1 and Double Dragon. It was fairly easy at the time, much, much easier than beating SMB1. I think it's perfect for casuals due to the life meter and the slot machine minigame at the end of each stage.
>>never-seen-before: poisonous mushroom. AMAZING!!!1ONE!
u forgot the wind u faggot
>Levels in Crash Bandicoot are adjusted for difficulty for the Japanese market to make them easier than their western counterparts
I work making shitty html5 games, some months ago we ported a few of them for a japanese website, I upped the difficulty because I thought nips were good at vidya. A couple of days later they asked me to tune it down because it was too hard.
Are Japanese shit at playing games?
>changing a few pixels means it's new stuff
I get your point, but it just looks the same to anybody you ask this question
>SMB2 USA was only made so they wouldn't fuck up the numbering in the U.S.
I'm pretty sure it was made to make money.
I'm pretty sure this hasn't been a thing in literal decades. As for why they did it back in the 80's, presumptuousness and the lack of an in game difficulty toggle I guess. Even by the time of the 4th generation of video games built in difficulty toggles had already started becoming a standard feature so you're about 25 years too late on this topic user which is far more than the average age of the typical board user in 2017.
Shiggy's favorite is Super Mario World
oh yeah, totally forgot about that one, sorry
>poisonous mushroom
>wind
what else?
>like Mega Man 1
The only bad part about that is the spikes on the roof during the drops on Wily Stage 2 (or is it 3).
SMB2USA isn't easy if you constantly try to run it like a Mario game. SMB1 was almost designed to be run through.
Also Peach is cheating. As is the warp.
Well, he's got taste.
Warp pipes that take you worlds back and red piranha plants
>senile old man's irrelevant opinions
Did SMB2J invent the rehash?
I never understood why they adjusted all of the difficulty settings on this one between the Japanese and US releases
Japanese difficulties:
Easy
Normal
Hard
Mania
US difficulties:
Easy (equivalent to Japanese Normal)
Normal (equivalent to Japanese Hard)
Hard (equivalent to Japanese Mania)
the asshole warp parts was the only other thing i could think of
You sure that this isn't switched around? I have a feeling that it's switched around
Completely sure. It's especially galling because you can't play past Stage 5 on what's labeled as Easy mode in either version, so if you want to actually complete the US version you have to do it on the original Hard mode.
I see this a lot and I disagree so hard. Lost Levels has most of the same graphics, but so what? It's level design is completely different, innovative and masterful. While SMB1 was focused on clean platforming, Lost Levels has far more rough obstacle courses that require lateral thinking and nearly perfect precision.
I don't understand why people think it's a rehash just because it uses the same graphical assets, shouldn't it be about the level design? And the level design is an entirely different beast from SMB1.
Does "new" necessarily mean better? I'll take better designed levels or 'newness" any day. I always thought that variety was an overrated concept in games: SMB1 had perfect and fun platforming controls, it didn't need to be changed much.
Super Mario Bros. 3 was released in Japan on the same month as the U.S. version of Super Mario Bros. 2. Modding Doki Doki Panic for a U.S. release meant waiting two more years for Super Mario 3 to be localized in the U.S. when it was probably easier to just skip Mario 2 entirely and just make Mario 3 into the U.S. version of Mario 2. Think about that.
It has to do with arcade culture. Japanese people, when they lost in an arcade game, never put in more coins to "continue". It was simply something they did not do. So they are used to replaying things over a lot and having to get really good.
>never put in more coins to "continue"
>So they are used to replaying things over a lot and having to get really good
If they never continued, then how did they get good?
Might want to revise that post
That's a common misconception spread by Icycalm. The common practice back in the day was for players to credit-feed a new arcade game when it came out and then aim for the 1CC after they memorized everything.
Why do you care so much? You weren't even born when that happened.
Why does it offend you that I made such an observation about Nintendo's weird localization practices?
At any case, it's not as bad as when they intentionally underproduced new copies of Zelda II and Mario 2 when they came out to create artificial scarcity.
I wouldn't say the game is that hard, but
>Peach is cheating
Is 100% true. The only parts that could be hard for her at all can be bypassed so easily it's not even funny.
The realest motherfuckers play Toad.
>I always thought that variety was an overrated concept in games
t. Miyamoto
>it's not as bad as when they intentionally underproduced new copies of Zelda II and Mario 2 when they came out to create artificial scarcity.
Yeah mate, thank God they don't do that anymore.
SMB2 USA was a game based off a show then retooled with new sprites.
That is it.
If anything SMB3 beats any 2D mario game for me.
>I always thought that variety was an overrated concept in games
People like you are literally the reason games get rehashed over and over again. God forbid you have to go back and revisit an old classic, you just want more of the same shit with a fresh coat of paint.
Fuck you.
Super Mario Bros. 3 was the height of the entire franchise - just the perfect balance of platforming and exploration with fresh new mechanics, brilliantly crafted level design and a flawless difficulty curve. Nothing was as good before that and nothing has been quite as good ever since.