US KOF: MI missing hats and other problems

This info can already be got in GD, but I'm listing a set of alerts for this game in News to make sure everyone interested in buying it sees them. The gameplay is still there, of course, but I want to make sure people know what they are getting.

1 - Gamestop is selling incomplete copies of KOF: MI, that is, without the Terry hat. All the EBs seem to have the hat. No info on other retailers. It is rumored that Gamestop may get the hats eventually, but even if that is so, they are falsely passing off their current copies as complete.

2 - The US copy of KOF: MI has English voices that in some cases have little or no resemblance to the traditional voice actors. Switching languages is not an option. Even characters like Terry that speak English were redone.

3 - The US copy of KOF: MI is censored. In the parking lot, one of the 2 music tracks has been removed. Edit (11/4): I retract my statement about the opening video... I got my PS2 back today and was not able to find a difference when comparing both versions side by side.

Edit: There is much better info on what is missing here.

This info can already be got in GD, but I'm listing a set of alerts for this game in News to make sure everyone interested in buying it sees them. The gameplay is still there, of course, but I want to make sure people know what they are getting.

1 - Gamestop is selling incomplete copies of KOF: MI, that is, without the Terry hat. All the EBs seem to have the hat. No info on other retailers. It is rumored that Gamestop may get the hats eventually, but even if that is so, they are falsely passing off their current copies as complete.

2 - The US copy of KOF: MI has English voices that in some cases have little or no resemblance to the traditional voice actors. Switching languages is not an option. Even characters like Terry that speak English were redone.

3 - The US copy of KOF: MI is censored. I've only found a couple examples, but I'm sure that there are more. In the opening movie, the shot of Lien unzipping her jacket is toned down to the point of making you wonder why it is there. In the parking lot, one of the 2 music tracks has been removed.

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Man, that's just astounding.

This should have been a no-brainer release for SNK-P. Yet again though, they manage to fuck up where no fuck-ups should have occurred. If they try to blame SCEA again, that's laughable, because everyone knows Soul Calibur II has both languages as an option.

Why do you guys keep supporting these clowns again? SSVS should have been the last straw for people. These guys continue to just ride the hell out of the SNK name/properties without any real regard for the fans or quality.

neojedi said:

3 - The US copy of KOF: MI is censored. I've only found a couple examples, but I'm sure that there are more. In the opening movie, the shot of Lien unzipping her jacket is toned down to the point of making you wonder why it is there.

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Even though this pisses me off to no end, it is not an SNK-specific problem. Namco has been doing the same thing since Tekken 1's US release on PS. Check out the differences between the US and JP end movies for Nina or Anna in Tekken 2, for example. Still disappointing, though.

And earlier it was stated that Max Impact had nothing to censor. Guess SNK of Japan's still against us seeing a little skin?

God.

I am going to need to buy the Import version.

I have the US release, and the voices is *really* bother me.

I wish I would have just gone with the import ever since it was released this summer.

I got the 50$ hat though...

WHAT! NO JAPANESE VOICES AND LESS BOOBAGE!!

Thank god EB messed up my order and I had to cancel it. Luckily I saw this thread before I bought the game elsewere, I'm definitely not buying the US version now.

Who is the fool responsible for this mess!, they better pray they have the casual gamers support. Because the fans want the real versions, not some dub and hack job. From now on SNKNeoGeoUSA can forget my money, I'm always importing Japanese versions from now on.

I just can't believe this is happening again, there is nothing that upsets me more than lousy dubs (just played Echo Night and Bloody Roar 4 a few days ago, seriously the games are better with the sound turned off). The anime and movie industry have learnt to include the original language, there is no technical barriers that prevent game developers from doing that too.

Seriously I will have to eventually learn Japanese because of crap like this, too bad it is not a easy language to master BAKA SNK!!

Actually, learning Japanese isn't as rosy as you think. The more you know, the more you can recognize Bad Japanese voice acting, and the more annoying the typical Japanese voiced game can be. But that's just a general aspect.

To tell the truth, the voice acting isn't all that bad. But I'm sure people will prefer to hear the voices that are more *exotic* and familiar to them. To tell the truth, the voice acting in this one sounds a lot like (for English) what the Japanese voice actors do for Japanese fighting games. It's a mixed bag, considering what kind of voices (in your language) you like better than others. People tend to generalize voices in a foreign tongue, so they don't have as much of a sticky opinion on exact voices.

Like the others, I did wish they allowed a choice, but I kind of find the english voices somewhat endearing, in their own way. Just like certain dubs.

Still, I've never seen such a big undertaking and production-cost push, for a US release like this before. Even SNK never went this far. So I do see the good in what they did attempt to put out here. Souveniers, Bonus DVD, and big production values in the whole package (regardless of a faux paus or two). This isn't something I've seen in the past.

If there's one thing, about this release, that somehow irks me. "Clark......................STILL?!?!?!?!" Why the error in translation, all of a sudden, after 10 years of KOF?

I would've never noticed the less boobs unless you told me so. The game has them all over the place. I didn't notice.

neojedi said:

2 - The US copy of KOF: MI has English voices that in some cases have little or no resemblance to the traditional voice actors. Switching languages is not an option. Even characters like Terry that speak English were redone.

3 - The US copy of KOF: MI is censored. I've only found a couple examples, but I'm sure that there are more. In the opening movie, the shot of Lien unzipping her jacket is toned down to the point of making you wonder why it is there. In the parking lot, one of the 2 music tracks has been removed.

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But I'm sure the US release is uber-cool for some dogtag shit or something, isn't it?

~the lol

Oh, but don't worry. Game is freaked, but is still LEGIT!

Even if the dub was perfect, I still would have preferred to hear the original language. I'm basically a purist when it comes to these things and I easily spot timing and synch problems.

Anyway it is nice that these games get released outside Japan, but unfortunately as I want the Japanese voices and unaltered content I will still have to import.

Kirk Foiden said:

If there's one thing, about this release, that somehow irks me. "Clark......................STILL?!?!?!?!" Why the error in translation, all of a sudden, after 10 years of KOF?

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It's not an error in translation -- it's just that they've only recently (KOF:MI, KOF'03) started including the romanized version of Clark's surname (Still) in either the games, the Japanese guidebooks, or both. While Chinese guidebooks may have spelled his surname "Steel" or "Steele" in the past, I can find no examples prior to KOF:MI and KOF'03 of a Japanese guidebook providing Clark's surname in anything other than katakana. If anyone can show me something to the contrary, I'd be keen to see it.

Clark's surname is phonetically rendered as "sutiru." The English word "steel" is normally rendered as "suchiiru" -- although "sutiiru" is sometimes seen as an acceptable alternative (as in Steel Ball Run). "sutiiru" is also the phonetization of the English word "steal."

--Chris

I want my damn hat and book that I paid for!

At least you have the goddamn game !!!!!


Where's the bloody euro version?

I just bought MI from Gamespot and no hat. When I asked for it the guy had no idea what I was talking about. Has anyone watched the making of dvd. Is it any good. Thanks

Dash no Chris said:

It's not an error in translation -- it's just that they've only recently (KOF:MI, KOF'03) started including the romanized version of Clark's surname (Still) in either the games, the Japanese guidebooks, or both. While Chinese guidebooks may have spelled his surname "Steel" or "Steele" in the past, I can find no examples prior to KOF:MI and KOF'03 of a Japanese guidebook providing Clark's surname in anything other than katakana. If anyone can show me something to the contrary, I'd be keen to see it.

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IIRC the official striker pictures from the official KOF2000 site stated 'Clark Steel', 'Ralf Jones' and 'Leona Heidern'.

Shito said:

IIRC the official striker pictures from the official KOF2000 site stated 'Clark Steel', 'Ralf Jones' and 'Leona Heidern'.

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He's right. Click here to see the image from the KOF2000 official website.

Well, MY copy of MI had the hat with it....

I didn't see much difference in Lien's "unzipping" scene than I saw in the earlier movies... so I can't complain about that.

I like the english voices. But I wish there was the option of hearing the Japanese ones....

Other than that, my only complaint about the game is the fact that it's not online.

Well damn it, i was really worried about the english voice's and it seems i was right to worry about it. With games on dvd i don't see why they can't have dual
audio. But i can't bash SNKP for this, because i know this was sony's doing. They probably told them they couldn't publish it without them and it was probably much easier to replace them then to program in an option to allow me to change them.

Oh well, i'll still go to eb tonight and pick mine up (it's out today - seems eb has no love for canadians) as long as i get my freaken hat, which was all i really wanted to begin with.

Contemporary mainstream gaming is driving me freaken loopy, if this keeps up i'm gonna have to walk away from gaming altogether (or just bitch about it).

man, what is it with SNK and constantly wanting to censor stuff,
from SSVS to whatever, thank god there's blood in the games we got.
that's pretty sad though.

here we go yet AGAIN. non-stop bitch and moan over a videogame.

you bitch because it's in Japanese and you can't understand a fucking word that's written or being said.

you bitch because it's in English, but the voices are shitty.

it never ends.

rarehero said:

man, what is it with SNK and constantly wanting to censor stuff,
from SSVS to whatever, thank god there's blood in the games we got.
that's pretty sad though.

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It's a shame indeed. But, I guess SNKP, being a considerably smaller company than say Nintendo needs to avoid any potential lawsuits. There's always a percentage of people who look for an excuse to sue & profit. SNKP knows that someone might claim that they were influence by an SNKP fighting game to do violent behavior or a parent might claim that the boobage is offensive. SNKP is just being cautious to protect itself & is reacting like an intelligent business to to potential marketing problems in western culture.

KRONOS said:

It's a shame indeed. But, I guess SNKP, being a considerably smaller company than say Nintendo needs to avoid any potential lawsuits. There's always a percentage of people who look for an excuse to sue & profit. SNKP knows that someone might claim that they were influence by an SNKP fighting game to do violent behavior or a parent might claim that the boobage is offensive. SNKP is just being cautious to protect itself & is reacting like an intelligent business to to potential marketing problems in western culture.

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If this were 1995 I would totally agree. Rating systems are supposed to prevent this, but SNK is overly cautious, we find it irritating.

Spike23 said:

here we go yet AGAIN. non-stop bitch and moan over a videogame.

you bitch because it's in Japanese and you can't understand a fucking word that's written or being said.

you bitch because it's in English, but the voices are shitty.

it never ends.

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You're just not 'getting it'. And if you're tired of everyone's bitching and moaning you could just pack up and retire yourself from these forums.

Dash no Chris said:

Clark's surname is phonetically rendered as "sutiru." The English word "steel" is normally rendered as "suchiiru" -- although "sutiiru" is sometimes seen as an acceptable alternative (as in Steel Ball Run). "sutiiru" is also the phonetization of the English word "steal."

--Chris

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From what I've learned in my Japanese class, at least in the hiragana characters, there is no ti, it's chi, so suchiiru would be correct phonetically.

KRONOS said:

It's a shame indeed. But, I guess SNKP, being a considerably smaller company than say Nintendo needs to avoid any potential lawsuits. There's always a percentage of people who look for an excuse to sue & profit. SNKP knows that someone might claim that they were influence by an SNKP fighting game to do violent behavior or a parent might claim that the boobage is offensive. SNKP is just being cautious to protect itself & is reacting like an intelligent business to to potential marketing problems in western culture.

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Here is another reason why SNKP should not worry about this stuff in their game (sex and violence). Getting sued in the video game industry does nothing but boost sales and make you super successful. Controversy == Buyers Just look at games like MK, GTA, etc. The more press saying that they are bad and cause kids do do bad things the more FREE promotion, sales and profit the company that produces the game sells. Creating a truly controversial game would be the best think that SNKP could do for themselves...

OmegaSaber said:

From what I've learned in my Japanese class, at least in the hiragana characters, there is no ti, it's chi, so suchiiru would be correct phonetically.

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Actually, there is a "ti". It's created by using a "TE" followed by a little "i". It's a simulated "Ti". And in fact, that's how it's written in the Arcadia KOF '02 mook: "KU RA- KU SU TEi RU". And of course, being a foreign name, it's written in katakana.

Also, for all the ranters, I didn't notice any censorship. Maybe they did render 2 verrsions of the opening movie; I'll have to watch the original again to be sure...I didn't notice any difference. Certainly, nothing is censored from within the game. Mai looks about ready to fall out of her shirt at any moment. Maybe they are missing a track of music, but I wouldn't be sure until after you unlock everything.

Also, I got a hat, and I didn't even pre-order at the EB where I got it.