220: A Comedy of Errors

[D-Ship]

The Spoony bard line was a mistranslation, not censorship

Also did no one play Conker's Bad Fur Day?, pure art and hilarity

It's really not so much a mistranslation as it is a localization choice brought on by censorship.

http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=663760

The original Japanese would more literally be interpreted as "you son of a *****!" or something along those lines, but Nintendo circa 1991 - and even now - gets a little squeamish with risque language in its big games. Spoony is admittedly a HELLUVA stretch, but if you go by the dictionary definition it's actually pretty appropriate for Edward, however outdated/unknown.

And Conker's Bad Fur Day is one of those games that I've always wanted to play, but never managed to sneak it into my schedule. It's given a pretty epic status by my friends who have played it, but something tells me odds are slim it'll make the leap to the Virtual Console. Here's hoping!

 

[Aurora219]

I have to agree that it's almost a shame that bugs are a thing of the past, though you often still find a few that go so horribly wrong that the entire scene is hilariously unexpected. Take for example the 3D "falling into the void" glitch of falling through the floor - you often find that if this happens you end up splattering against something eventually, either because of a loop from floor to ceiling or a bottom of the game memory. Some games such as Saints Row 2 are innately buggy; likely due to a flawed or unreliable engine. This seems to add to the charm of the game though, and not many people seem to hold it against the game when their vehicle suddenly disappears and they're left hurtling around the city sitting on air and waggling their arms around in a freak contorted mime.

I do disagree that games are losing their humour though. I know a good number of fairly recent games that have made me laugh, from the subtle (Arkham Asylum, namely Joker, or Company of Heroes' one-liners from the units) to the downright obvious (Psychonauts, to name but one). Many of these games are not at all designed around humour, but they wouldn't be complete without it. It's the part that sticks in my mind when I recall them. Games such as Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl or ARMA, although fantastically realised games, cannot compete with the attention grabbing of the more light-hearted titles when it comes to fond memories.

 

[sramota]

I always thought this game deserved more attention:

http://blood-bowl.se/imagine/abnf.JPG

 

[TheFacelessOne]

What of Armed & Dangerous? That game was full of attempted funnies, and I laughed at most of the jokes. Infact, that game was more than 50% humor.