It's kinda wild to think about how mostly seamless video game are now with their concurrent worldwide releases and multiple localization teams working in tandem with each other because it certainly wasn't always that way.
Matt McMuscles recently took a look back through SNK's crazy history with localizing its games with funny mistakes and gaffs that went on much longer than most of its contemporaries like Capcom and Namco at the time.
After a brief introduction, Matt's new video doesn't start with SNK's wealth of fighting games but instead Ikari Warriors where scoring a victory with the iconic line "Congraturations! You have Resured Colonel Cook..."
Those types of mishaps would carry over to Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting with their own set of goofs with more classic quips like Geese Howard's "Holy Cow! You disturbed my plan again" and King's awkward "I am woman, feel my kick and moan!"
And though Terry Bogard's first adventure is supposed to take place in the '80s, the text says Geese dies in 1919 for some reason.
Much of this can probably be chalked up to only having Japanese staff members who at most took some English classes in school years ago, but from around 1993 onwards, it seems SNK had their North American branch take over localizations — though that introduced its own memorable quirks.
They went all unhinged with Fatal Fury Special especially including many lines that definitely weren't in the original script like "Wubba Wubba. I'm in the pink today" and many, many more that Matt goes over.
That carries over to many more titles like The Last Blade 2, The King of Fighters, Samurai Shodown, SNK vs. Capcom and even Garou: Mark of the Wolves — and less surprisingly, SVC: Chaos.
We recommend checking out Matt McMuscles' full video below to see just how far and deep these translation goofs go and the likely reasons for them because it's certainly worth the ride.
