Should video game localisations have significant changes?

[CM30]

Or keep most of the same feel and storyline as the original game?

Personally, I'm not sure. On the one hand, overt censorship (like everything Germany does with its game releases) is ridiculous. Having a FPS where you can't kill anyone is pretty pathetic, as is some of the stuff in 4kids style dubs where beer gets turned into milk or guns are censored into laser weapons.

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But on the other hand, quite a few localisations are just better and more interesting than the originals. Luigi's Mansion for Gamecube is genuinely a better game in PAL regions, with the Hidden Mansion actually having new content and changed boss battles.

And stuff like the Mario RPGs and Wario series are much, much better outside of Japan due to the sense of humour the localisation team put in them.

Or just anything said by Fawful or the Massif Bros. Or the treasures in Wario games, with descriptions like:

This magical box never runs out of tissue! It makes a perfect gift for allergy sufferers or wussy little crybabies who sob during films when puppies get lost and have to wander home.

These scones were baked with loving care for that special someone...who ended up being allergic to scones. How very tragic.

A blue bird that brings good luck and vast fortune to any who possess it. It can also escape from even the sturdiest of cages, as it knows how to pick locks and bribe guards.

This looks like a dull firework, but many feel it to be a true piece of avant-garde art that expresses the depth of the human search for existence in ways heretofore unseen. ...But it's still dull.

This remote allows you to summon a giant robot hidden deep within the bowels of the earth and unleash him on your unsuspecting enemies. But it's out of batteries.

Hypnotize your friends! Hypnotize your enemies! Basically, just hypnotize everybody!

Hotter than any normal hot sauce. No, hotter than that. Hotter. Keep going...

Looks like cough syrup. Tastes kind of like cough syrup, too. Wait a minute...

One sip and you'll turn into a ghost... Wait, isn't that just poison?

"Send help! I'm trapped in a bottle factory! Right next door to the fortune-cookie place!"

It's a delicate balance between 'crazy funny despite having nothing to do with the original script' and 'stupid as hell'. But but what do you think? Should game localisations be very different to the original versions, or much the same?

 

[Demon_Skeith]

Well if they have to change for local standards in what is acceptable for content, then sure and of course sometimes a local joke wouldn't come over well with a foreign audience.