Things that surprise you.

[2600Lives]

Well, I've been going through a bunch of my old games, finishing those I never had time for. Tonight, I pulled out Bionic Commando for the NES. Great game, difficult, but not incredibly so (not like Ikari, anyway). Three things about this game surprised the HELL out of me, though. Spoilers ahead, I guess.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

K, so at the end of the game, you face off against a dude named Master-D (I was expecting a really pissed off rapper or something). Not so. It's about the furthest thing from a rapper as you can get. In fact, he looks a LOT like Hitler, as in, he looks EXACTLY like Hitler. No shit. How did this get approved waaay back in '89, yet when Wolfenstein came out for the SNES, they took out all the Nazi references? Ok, so, that was surprise number one. Number two comes during the dialog between your character and "Master-D/Der Fuhrer", when he calls you a, and I quote, "damn fool." Wow, profanity, too? I about shat myself when the word "hell" was said in Rambo for the NES, but this was an honest to goodness swear! Now, after some fighting and such, you finally end up killing, ahem, Master-D. Now, normally in a NES game, you get the standard "he was defeated" crap, and they just fall over or disappear, but not here! You get a nice little close up scene of the Master's head EXPLODING! Not as in fire and stuff explosions, either, more as in "Resident Evil Zombie Head Asplode" type of explosion, with flyin' eyeballs and blood and everything! Holy crap, how did this one get past the Quality Control guys? We have Nazi symbolism, profanity, and graphic violence. All it would have needed was a girl with big jugs and just a bit of nipple showing at the end, and it would have been the ultimate "piss off your parents" game!

 

Seriously, though, anybody know any stories about how this one squeaked by the Nintendo censors? And any games ever surprised you in this way?

[Atari5200]

Legend of Zelda III will always hold a special place in my heart with the largest surprise to me of all time. At the time not being a fan of all of RPG's, I was surprised of how a game could actually make an emotional impact on a person. The part of the game with the flute boy on the stump, after completing that part of the game was the first time i realized that emotional connections can be made with gaming and has made me a fan of RPG's to this day.

[Ghost Soldier]

Legend of Zelda III will always hold a special place in my heart with the largest surprise to me of all time. At the time not being a fan of all of RPG's, I was surprised of how a game could actually make an emotional impact on a person. The part of the game with the flute boy on the stump, after completing that part of the game was the first time i realized that emotional connections can be made with gaming and has made me a fan of RPG's to this day.

That was a great part of the game. Another for me is Final Fantasy III where cyan's family was killed. I felt the anger and despair that he did. Not suprising he fight's like a son of a gun in that game too. That part and the haunted train will alway's be in my memory.

[SINGLE TOOTH]

I believe in the Japanese version, it really was Hitler. Yeah, I guess in Japan, it was called Top Secret: Hitler's Revival.

 

 

 

http://www.thealmightyguru.com/Reviews/Bio...-TopSecret.html

Edited September 27, 2007 by SINGLE TOOTH

[NE146]

It's about the furthest thing from a rapper as you can get. In fact, he looks a LOT like Hitler, as in, he looks EXACTLY like Hitler. No shit.

 

Yeah this suprised me...in the late 80's, as well as everyone else with an NES.

 

I remember discussions about it, but it's now decades later with the Interweb we all learned about 12 years ago that it is indeed Hitler in there. As to how it slipped by Nintendo censors, well that's the stuff of old Nintendo lore.. Anyway, as per the wikipedia entry

 

The original Japanese version of Bionic Commando placed the character in a battle against futuristic Nazis. The final boss was Adolf Hitler, who had been resurrected by evil scientists. All references to Nazism were removed from the American release: the swastikas were replaced by albatross figures, the enemies were renamed from "Nazis" to "Badds" and the overall difficulty of the game was reduced. The final boss's name was changed to "Master-D", but he still clearly resembles Adolf Hitler. There is a notably gory ending sequence in which his head explodes, which was kept intact in the American version; an unusual move, considering Nintendo of America's heavy censorship issues at the time. All these changes remained for the European version, but the game manual still mentions Nazis. The story featured in the English version of the game begins with a search for Super Joe, who was the main character of Commando.

[PressureCooker2600]

Well.....I didn't know Commando and Bionic Commando were linked.

 

That's weird. I know they're both Capcom, but still....

[2600Lives]

See, that particular piece of info I knew, I knew the games were linked (if only loosely), but I never owned Bionic Commando until a few years ago, so I never saw the ending or any of the other stuff in it till literally last night.

 

The wiki entry is interesting, but doesn't say as to exactly HOW this stuff slipped by the censors. Maybe the Capcom execs were giving out hummers to the Nintendo brass or something. The truth may never be known...

[SINGLE TOOTH]

Funny how Nintendo, a Japanese company would censor anything Nazi related, when Japan was actually allied with Nazis in war.

[MFoolsRun]

Funny how Nintendo, a Japanese company would censor anything Nazi related, when Japan was actually allied with Nazis in war.

 

Well it's not something they're exactly proud of these days.

[SINGLE TOOTH]

Kind of ironic how they go from bombing Pearl Harbor, to "protecting" us by censoring out Nazi references.

[Artlover]

I don't understand why anyone thinks it should be censored. It's not like it's a pro-hitler game. Your fighting a bad guy (Hitler) and his army. Isn't that what the good guys did? So what's the problem.

[PressureCooker2600]

I don't understand why anyone thinks it should be censored. It's not like it's a pro-hitler game. Your fighting a bad guy (Hitler) and his army. Isn't that what the good guys did? So what's the problem.

 

That's what I always thought from the beginning. We're annihilating the Nazis and a re-animated Hitler. Is that bad?????? Like killing Hitler was any different from killing 'Master-D'. And since I'm killing Hitler, it's definatly going to corrupt my maturing mind.

[gdement]

See, that particular piece of info I knew, I knew the games were linked (if only loosely), but I never owned Bionic Commando until a few years ago, so I never saw the ending or any of the other stuff in it till literally last night.

 

The wiki entry is interesting, but doesn't say as to exactly HOW this stuff slipped by the censors. Maybe the Capcom execs were giving out hummers to the Nintendo brass or something. The truth may never be known...

 

The head explosion happens late in the game, so I can see how Nintendo might have simply missed it. But in this case they should have already had a checklist of known "issues" from the Japanese version that needed to be changed, so for them not to explicitly check the explosion scene would have been pretty careless.

 

Maybe they just decided to let it go - violence in Nintendo games did gradually escalate over time. By 1989 they had a better feel for what they could do without generating a backlash. For example, I don't think River City Ransom would have been allowed in 1986. The public also just became more tolerant as the system's library grew. It's like anything else in entertainment - over time you can slowly push the envelope a little further, and people get used to it.

 

With the uniforms, hitler face, and overall ambience in that game, every kid knew what the "Badds" were. Capcom didn't directly call them Nazis but it doesn't really matter - the references in that game are so obvious it's easy to enjoy the story for what it really is.

 

The story featured in the English version of the game begins with a search for Super Joe, who was the main character of Commando.

I didn't know this wasn't in the Japanese version - too bad. The search for Joe adds a nice extra dimension to the game, it wouldn't be as interesting if we just went through the whole game only trying to kill Nazis.

[Atarifever]

I don't understand why anyone thinks it should be censored. It's not like it's a pro-hitler game. Your fighting a bad guy (Hitler) and his army. Isn't that what the good guys did? So what's the problem.

I believe every child should be made to kill a Nazi at least once a day. It'll help them develop morals.