[Carnivol]

So, since these are kinda official releases, I didn't put the thread in the Unreleased section.

If anyone's been paying attention to recent SEGA stuff, this is probably old news, but figured it'd be thread worthy anyway!
You see, they recently rolled out the arcade version of Wonderboy in Monster Land and the MegaDrive/Genesis version of Monster World IV on WiiWare and today also on XBLA (think PSN is somewhere close too).


Now, nothing unusual about that, right?

Well, it kinda is, 'cause the version of Wonderboy in Monster Land is the Arcade version and its in full Engrish - an arcade game which was never released in English before! (Various home console versions were available in English, though.)


As for Monster World IV? Well... it's in English too! And it's not the DeJap translation being ninja'd or anything! Thus making it the final "official" SEGA Genesis release (despite not having a cartridge release.)


Anyway, pretty neat of SEGA, eh?

While Wonderboy in Monster Land reeks of 80s translations (Let's eat some SARAD!), Monster World IV I'm actually having a hard time telling whether or not might be a previously unreleased localization or a freshly made one... cool stuff either way, though!

I've already double-dipped and going tripple on the PSN versions soon. Just love the idea of seeing official/licensed translations for old previously untranslated stuff like this.

[Sardius]

It's a sweet collection! I like it a lot so far.

Is the new Monster Land translation based on an existing script, like from the Master System version, or something? It's definitely not based on the bootleg English version that's in Mame, anyway.

If it's a new translation, it's odd that it would be full of misspellings and grammar mistakes, especially since the Monster World IV translation seems solid. Maybe it was done intentionally?

[ICEknight]

[Kid Fenris]

I love Monster World IV so goddamn much. I want to make everyone play it, whether they like video games or not.

Also, the Vintage Collection's English version of Monster Land is an unreleased translation from 1987, according to that Ryuichi Nishizawa interview I keep posting all over the place.

[ICEknight]

I'm so glad they didn't attempt to retranslate what they had from back then, not only for authenticity but also because the Engrish in there is sometimes too funny.


This makes me wonder if they still have an unreleased English version of Tant-R lying around. Might be cool to see in a future SEGA Vintage Collection, along with Ichidant-R and Sand-R/Treasure Hunt.

[Vlcice]

You know, that reminds me of the Monster World II SMS version in the Sega Ages PS2 collection. The game never came out in Japan, and the SMS version in that collection has a "Monster World II" title screen but is 100% in English. I guess it's a title screen hack of the English version. I wonder if it was actually ever planned for release in Japan on the SMS, and whether they ever built a final ROM with Japanese text.

[Johnny Undaunted]

The actual Master System cartridge changes title too if you play it on a Japanese console. You can even add FM sounds if you have the FM Sound Unit. Monster World II was indeed planned for Japanese release, but it was made at a time the Mark III stopped being a viable platform. They made a Game Gear port later on that funnily enough came out after Monster World III.

[Vlcice]

Interesting - I didn't realize it would display the Monster World II title on a Japanese system. So that compilation just had the standard English version of the game then. I knew about the Game Gear port (which was also in that compilation).