How The Simpsons Arcade Is Changed In Japan
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.พ. 2025
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This video takes a look at how Konami's The Simpsons Arcade game was changed in Japan.
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Credits
Video Editor: Tyler Burgett
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Writer, Researcher & Narrator: Dan
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Footage credit (World of Longplays):
• Arcade Longplay [117] ...
Footage credit (Nz0x):
• Video
The standard Japanese arcade games are always 100 yen, or about 3 US quarters in 1991 currency. So making it easier and giving you longer play time per credit would help equalize the value across different territories.
US version was probably made more difficult because they wanted us to dump more coins into the dang machine, Simpsons being popular over here no one batted an eye. But since the show wasn’t as popular in Japan maybe it was an incentive to get more people to play it. Maybe?
Yeah the show bombed in Japan
That how capitalism work
Yeah but jeez it’s ridiculous that USA wants to make this harder at least japan made it easier to save coins
Unfortunately I got the ms dos version but it would be interesting to see this on Nintendo switch
Neat video as always! Surprising that the Japanese version would be the one containing an atomic bomb, when I saw the thumbnail I thought for sure a lot of the "nuclear" symbols and imagery would have been removed.
Japan as far as i know don't have problems with referencing nuclear bombs, Bethesda removed the fatman just in case. It was not uncommon either that japanese devs also cut content without consulting the american branch if the change was necessary, leading sometimes to hilarious unnecessary changes
Somecooltoad Ah, thanks for the info.
Lukas Reimer i think it was because cero the japanese ratings board weren't around then but they were by the time fallout came out
Lukas Reimer
I thought the same thing, boy did I get schooled.
You just got clickbaited
*They added katanas and ninja stars from TMNT as equippable weapons, gave Homer bushy eyebrows and dubbed him "Mr. Sparkle", and swaped extra life donut textures for Senzu beans*
Thanks! You saved me the time having to watch the video.
Do you have link to play the Japanese version please
It just sounds like the Japanese version is the updated version with improvements and a more balanced difficulty
I find it odd that the Japanese version includes a nuclear bomb...
@Kagereneko
I guarantee you missed the entire point of this comment.
Ever watch anime. Shit is always going off in a nuclear explosion. It's like something happened in there past that made nuclear bombs part of their psyche
+Kagereneko
Have you seen the Japanese version of Fallout 3?
Kagereneko, clearly you aren't aware of how sensitive they are on the topic of nuclear weapons.
+pixel girl
For being so sensitive they sure do seem to love putting nuclear weaponry and powers into everything, as well mushroom cloud explosions being everywhere.
Japan has some weird edge cases, but for the majority of content they really don't give much of a shit. From my perspective at least, it's always seemed like the Japanese have a very strong sense of intent when it comes to offense. Which is frankly something the west could use right about now.
I never knew about the Japanese version. It just puts a smile on my face to know that this awesome game was made even better!
1991: Japanese version *adds* nuclear bombs to the game.
2008: Fat Man nuke launcher and option of blowing up Megaton in Fallout 3 removed entirely.
The last console The Simpsons game to be released in Japan is the Xbox version of The Simpsons: Hit & Run, in English language.
Nice work on this. some of the team that worked on Simpsons Arcade, left Konami and formed the game company "Treasure."
I like the additions the Japanese version has over the US version.
Damn...japan version sounds way more fun!
depends on if you think something being easier is more fun.
Yes, yes it is.
If something is too easy it just becomes a mindless slog. I'd side on the side of too difficult than too easy personally any day.
It is in terms Of being "enjoyable". The original versión is hard in terms Of being "frustrating".
Aaaah memories of when Konami actually cared about making video games.
I was actually really surprised when I played the Japanese version for the first time. I thought it would be much more difficult, but I couldn't be more wrong. It usually takes me anywhere between 15-20 lives to beat the American version and I usually beat the Japanese version in fewer than ten.
The Japanese version to me, is considered what I can call, the finalized version. It's more complete than the western release that we had earlier before they got the game.
The funny thing as mentioned in the video is arcade machines would get updates but they clearly intentionally never updated it with the Japanese changes because the arcade owners were greedy bastards who wanted to get as much money as possible, having a fair or polished game wasn't as important as having a true quarter muncher.
I wouldn't doubt if the US relesae was rushed simply to get it out here.
I definitely wouldn't call it "more complete". The additions had very little overall effect on the game other than making it easier, so, it's not like the game was incomplete before them.
@brandon White ... T H E M.... you mean THE CREATORS .... hello there! a _e ? definetly the japanese is the FINAL version of the game ... it happens in a lot of games out there ... for example y SF2 Champion Edition ... the difference is inmense! although you must be a pro gamer to notice many of this differences
Pretty much the US version just takes all your money. The points are added for bonuses yet you don’t get that and the extra health to beat the game is not given. Hence why you spend so much money to beat it
Konami loved to really ramp up the difficulty for arcade games they sent to the west. For instance, one of their games, Majū no Ōkoku, was released in North America as Dark Adventure. They changes they made to that game made it so it was impossible to beat. You can't even money your way through the game, like most other games.
0:28 SNES Simpsons Arcade Cover in the middle is fake. There is no port of Simpsons Arcade "beat 'em up" for classic consoles.
I wondered, it got me good. I was fooled big time.
I never seen the arcade game anywhere in 15 years. That definitely takes me back.
We need the Japanese version
Any link to play the japanese version please
why would the rental market matter for an arcade machine game? i
I suppose because they are trying to attract gamers who do not want overly difficult games
They were just saying why was that the reason for most changes. By the way they didn't mention, but old japanese games (TMNT 1 for example) were insane hard because rental was legal until the early 90's where it was made illegal
What? You never rented an arcade machine from Blockbuster? ;)
still got my house of the dead 1 cabinet, *never returning that fker!*
I think the extra polish made is done because of cultural reasons. Simple: in Japan, if the game is literally impossible to be cleared with just 1 credit, it’s a sh*tty game not worth one’s time, only to be buried in history.
This is why arcade games in the west were made more difficult by default. The Americans didn’t have 1 credit clear culture. Making the arcade operators happy is the higher priority. Games that can make the player give out money in every 10 minutes are considered great. This is devastatingly true for Battle Garegga. This game had the Extend system completely disabled all the while the game was designed with intentional suicide in mind outside Japan, which makes Battle Garegga essentially an unredeemable sh*tty game in this form if it ever released in Japan like that.
Zazon Zenzy finally a similar mind
I love Battle Garegga
What's weird to me is that as a child we operated under the assumption games were usually harder in Japan, and they were way better more obsessed game players. It was odd growing up to find the opposite was the case with games being way harder in the West to make it harder to beat games in a rental or milk them of all their quarters.
Jav253 console games were harder, arcades easier, was the opposite here arcades harder console games easier
Very true. Japanese arcade games in general don't usually have a fail state (except for beat um ups and fighting games) but let you play for a set amount of time.
Extra health not a thing in the west cause quarters.
Oh my, i miss this era of games so much. Golden times :)
Luny & Milky When arcades were golden. You really did miss the golden era but even if you did miss it there is still a good collection of stories for that era.
I hate that the XBLA/PSN version is no longer available, times like this is when getting the ROM is literally our only choice.
@Tyson Muir while it's a shame emuparadise was shut down, trust me this isn't the end of ROM sites. There's always going to be another popping up after another.
Wow, awesome video man! This game is my all time favorite arcade game, and I was actually lucky enough to pick up a dedicated US cabinet last year. I never knew there were any differences between the US/Japan versions. I will say that this game is one of the greatest quarter eaters of all time! I've beaten it with friends multiple times, and it typically takes between 40-60 lives for each person to beat the game. Depending on how good you are at the double damage attack, and how good you are at staying away from the bosses attacks. Either way, that's between $10-$15 a person to complete this game, so I can see why they toned down the difficulty for overseas! lol
i agree with this, my brother and I beat this game in the 90's at the big arcade that is on the boardwalk of virginia beach. It took a full $20 worth of quarters/tokens between the 2 of us to beat it. It was a 4 player cabinet btw......good times!
0:28 You had me excited for a moment that I had somehow missed a SNES port of this game but sadly it was a fake :(
Oops gotta go remove comment now, thanks bro.
I think the japanese is more competent as a hard but fair game, while the original english release is closer to the typical quarter muncher.
I think there are people who 1 cc'd the english version but it's insanely hard. while in the japanese version it's just hard
Notice how Bart's t-shirt is blue in the game?... now it'll bother you for the rest of the day.
The game started development very early into the series. During the first episodes of the first season characters had different color patterns. wich leads me to think they didn't have definitive choices for any characters
In Bart case, i think it was made for 2 reasons, Lisa is already orange. Color separation is important in beat em ups. Also bart had that shirt in some promotional material of the era for some reason.
Somecooltoad Bart didn't wear his bluse shirt in Season 1.
i believe his shirt was Always blue in other media except of the tv show. I remember he also had the blue shirt in the comic book (at least in the early years)
Yeah the blue shirt was common outside of the TV show so it never used to bother me.
I think it was mostly done to make him look different than Lisa myself.
I think it's interesting that they got Smithers corrected, and not like season one
media.giphy.com/media/dQf2G3I87D4C4/source.gif
Dan, I know that this is unrelated to the video and I don't know if you'll respond or not, you also don't have to explain why or make a video about it but anyway:
I noticed (a few weeks ago) that many, *many* Censored Gaming videos are now gone, the videos were either deleted or marked as private, videos such as the Mugen Souls one are gone, many videos where you talked about the censorship of certain games are gone, Dungeon Travelers, Blue Reflection, Criminal girls...the list goes on. As I said, you don't have to explain why or make a video about that, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who is at least wondering why a lot of the content is gone. If you respond and/or give an explanation, it would be appreciated.
With all that said, thanks.
Hero of the Wind
I wouldn't be surprised that TH-cam itself had large roll in that.
Those were controversial games to say the least, and the content filters on the site these days are becoming a bit overzealous to say the least.
John Doe
That's a possibility, yes, however, we shouldn't forget that this channel is Censored Gaming, we are talking about a channel that mainly covers censorship in video games, and as such, Censored Gaming often uploads videos about controversial/censored content in video games, when I said that many Censored Gaming videos are now gone, I'm telling the truth, even the video that Dan uploaded a long time ago where he mainly covered the fact that Hyperdimension Neptunia U had a censored cover in America is gone, and not only that video was tame compared to many other Censored Gaming videos, the game itself isn't very controversial with the game just having a T rating completely uncensored and, similarly, the game got a 12 rating in Europe (both USK and PEGI) and a standard M rating in Australia, so, the game isn't *that* bad. Anyway...who knows? The disappearance of many videos is definitely something, but...I don't know, I guess we'll see what happens with this channel, Censored Gaming will always be a controversial channel.
Hero of the Wind
I get it, I understand and wholeheartedly agree.
But TH-cam is a shitshow these days, what was once a bastion of freedom has been overrun with triggered SJW's and feminazi types and just annoying loud idiots.
Spewing stupidity, and misinformation and hatred ( the "good kind") against the perceived threats and enemies.
John Doe For once, I'll defend the SJW crap crew, and tell you that this kind of shit TH-cam is pulling on its users is not because of them, but rather about ad revenue, which means TH-cam is partially at fault, since they're being oppressed by the companies that put advertisements on the page, who try (and succeed) to get more power over what is released here, and only "advertiser-friendly" content creators actually earn some money.
In the end, TH-cam is a corporative company.
Once again Japan makes everything better.
Man, that aint true at all. Wanna see an example of Japan fucking up a Western game? Spyro the Dragon for PS1
@Some Dude
Just about sums up this generation.
"a mobile game by *EA* "
why am i not surprised~
There was a japanese version of this game in Caracas, Venezuela. Extremely easy to 1 coin it if you had experience with the US version. Thanks for your video!
Japan is something else... almost like it was isolated from everyone else...
Well a few centurys ago Japan had its borders closed to everyone exept the dutch so you are kind of right
Padacuw
I remember the first time I found that out it blew my mind.
Also Samurai Champloo is educational.
Padacuw that’s basically what I meant. Sorry if I sound rude you’re right
if Chop Chop can play on an island, you might see the crowd throwing tempura at him while he's jumping around stage
Not only is the game fondly remembered, the game is *STILL* fondly played today.
For example, 16-BIT BAR!
So Im actually really curious: what is the logic behind renting games being illegal in Japan?
The game companies strongarmed the government/legal system into doing so? Because they certainly tried to do this is the US too
google "Why You Can't Rent Games in Japan". There is an old Kotaku article that says computer stores were renting pirated copies of games and video game companies managed to change copyright laws in 1984. Rental seems to be legal if the studio gives permission.
I forget who did a video called Nintendo vs. Blockbuster, the end result was Nintendo lost so instead they made their games harder in the West so that people couldn't beat them in one rental. They literally invented Nintendo hard to counteract rentals.
Probably doesn't help Japan has a far larger arcade culture than the US does when it comes to certain titles.
@@ChristopherSobieniak
Also it still has a fairly thriving arcade scene.
Whereas in America it's all but dead.
Well, we've still got Dave and Busters and things like that.
Small little arcades that linger on. But mostly the arcade in America died somewhere around the end of the 90s.
Everytime I'm in a movie theater or a pizza place and I see stand-up arcade machines I have to keep myself from crying, it's like seeing an old friend you haven't seen in so long.
Japanese cabinet cane out the same day Rugrats, Ren and Stimpy and Doug premiered on Nickelodeon in the US
I always wondered why it was so similar to turtles arcade
It seems the changes were made in the game to butter up the Japanese public for the upcoming arrival of the Simpsons TV show there. If they had a difficult or frustrating time playing the game, memories of that may have caused them to tune out to the series.
interesting. i like it how the simpsons did become a huge success in sales of toys, action figures, and videogames.
It sucks that this game got taken off the xbla store but you can still play it online if you still own the game.
Mr. Burns and Smithers were given the One Piece villain treatment: They got huge.
This was the first video game I ever beat. Granted to beat it all you really needed was enough time, patience, and most importantly quarters.
I honestly liked the original version a lot, but considering the Japanese version had extra content like the screen nukes, I kind of feel it's the superior version, even if it was easy.
Getting to weapon attack in the air made rushing bosses such as Big Krusty Balloon, Snoozing Drunk and the Boss Samurai easier
If I had to guess which regional version was the only one to feature the nuclear bomb weapon *I would not have said the Japanese one.*
I spent a lot of pesos on this arcade game when I was a kid... great game didn’t even know they released it on Ps3/Xbox 👍🏼
Played it with 3 other people one time at an arcade where I used to live. It was a fun experience.
I love the classic Simpsons episodes and own the first 8 seasons on DVD. Simpsons arcade game is nothing short of amazing and i have been meaning to buy the PS3 port of the game. The facts in this video about the game i had no idea about. Great video!
At least Marge's deadly ass attack that would break the enemies' wasn't censored.
The first time I saw that game it was the japanese version and I found it awesome, then they switched it to the western version and I thought that owners put it in hard mode, most people prefered the japanese version, having more weapons and hidden food items made it more interesting and being able to expand the health bar was a reward for playing good.
It is not mentioned but in the japanese version you can lift the police car in the first level if you play with friends
Gotta love the Pandora's box. I have the 4S+ and the simpsons arcade game is included. Why this wasn't released on the SNES and Mega Drive at the time I have no idea.
Son Goku Acclaim had exclusivity for the consoles, which sucks.
Just realized all the level end minigames are Mario party minigames
Lisa: "Ha-ha, made you look!". 😛
Kinda related to the video.... There was a EA Simpsons game that is a pseudo remake of this one but overall the story is the same. It was pretty cool for a cellphone game
So, the Japanese version in the PSN/Xbox Live version is like 'New game +" or something like that?
I guess JDM superiority applies to more in the nineties than just cars! This game ate so many of my quarters at pizza hut!
One reason why the Japanese game would be easier is that it cost 100 yen to play. Roughly 1 US dollar. While the US version cost 1/4 of that per credit.
Sheesh! Mr.Burns is taller than Homer
So Japanese game developers thought that we western gamers couldn’t handle RPGs, but yet they thought that their own population couldn’t handle beat-em-ups?
So aside from a few design for the character's, the Japanese version sounds like the authentic version.
This game needs to be on the switch.
I really wish they'd remake this game. This was made, I'm guessing, before the first season had finished so you see strange things like Sideshow Bob being a helpful character. This could be a really fun fighting game. I don't even necessarily want better graphics: what we got is fine but imagine the details that could be put into it now and sound clips
Japan's alterations add more to the USA original instead of subtracting. This basically memes it the advance version as it is filled with more content
There's a picture of all the Simpsons games, and in the centre is The Simpsons Arcade game...for SNES? Is this real?
Changed? You mean made better
Unrelated to the main topic but during the intro how many others rolled their eyes at the mention of a "mobile game from EA"?
It's funny that Japan has easy arcade games but hard console games back than.
So you have to beat the game to get easy mode? Isn't it usually a harder mode when you beat a game?
anyone noticed the Snes cover art for the Arcade game?????
Game de-listed like X-Men Arcade and many others. I would love to see the game re-listed.
I'm curious about why would Konami ADD nuclear bombs in the japanese version.
Tbh, I never played this, but it'd make more sense if nuclear bombs were only present in the english version. I mean, that'd be like adding falling towers in the english release of a japanese game.
The Japanese version should let you play as Mr. Sparkle instead of Homer.
The Japanese are a bunch of casuals. Lol
David Hoyos The easier difficulty was likely from the Simpsons being a lesser-known property in Japan at the time. In the U.S., we'd want to continue to see the familiar set pieces from the show. Japan probably wouldn't care as much and wouldn't bother to keep pumping quarters into it.
David Hoyos Not all Japanese are casuals,you know. There are at least some hardcore ones. We wouldn't have Dark Souls and Japanese gamers completing in fighting game tournaments like EVO if that weren't the case.
Well I was making a joke. Of course not all Japanese gamers are casuals. Have you seen them play fighting game!!! Goechi is amazing!!!
Just like Shiva of the deceased
Japan arcade games are designed to be fair enough that a player could beat the game with one credit. Some games are harder than others, but enemy patterns and other obstacles in arcade games tend to be less cheap. The gameplay tweaks in this game may have been used to offset the cheap as hell enemies
That’s probably why you still see arcades in Japan. This to me sounds like the US, UK Europe etc were more money hungry for players to put more money in their machines, which I think was one of the reasons arcades have died out. Obviously home consoles was the main factor, but I am pretty sure this didn’t help either. I remember hardly seeing anyone beat a game in the arcade as a kid. The only time was watching someone in Spain beat Hammering Harry and another was back home in the U.K. watching someone beat House of the Dead. Not complaining about difficulty, but I think Japan did the right thing.
Japanese version is my preferred version :D
There's no 4-players mode in the Japan as well :)... Until PS3 or Xbox360 ports were released
I loved this game. I remember buying those shitty nes games, just based off of my experience with the arcade game.
All the suprised comments about the nukes in the japanese version are kinda weird. Japan made a lot of movies, anime, manga and games where nuculear disaster is part of the plot (saw a lot of anime where it even happens again in the future) Japan is not sticking their heads in the sand what happened in the past like what the germans doing
It was harder in the west because arcade machines have one function-to make money. So they make the game more difficult (sometimes unfairly so) to suck more quarters from players
In Japan, they probably want the player to have a good time as well.
Simpsons made easier in Japan similar to Double Dragon 3 Arcade having all weapons and movesets avail. Interesting is the ending why are Barts classmate and peincipal there? Bunch of nosy people, Snowball and Santa’s Little Helper I can understand because they are pets
0:31 dang.
They really should have fixed Bart so his top is red like in the show! :-)
Japan adds mini nukes to their version... ::Edna Krabopple voice:: *_Hah!_*
3:30 thats.. yoshikage Kira? XD.
Does the japanese version exist for 4 players or just for 2 players? Anyone knows?
Na minha cidade tinha essa máquina com a versão japonesa para 4 jogadores, só que na época a gente achava que era uma versão "hack" por ser fácil demais.
Procurei em vários sites, mas não achei essa versão japonesa para 4 jogadores, só para 2 jogadores.
Me and my dad played this on the atgames legends ultimate on CoinOpsX
Japanese version of X-Men was easier as well with a power up pill. Something the English version lacked.
The Simpsons is dubbed to Arabic? I'm Arabian, I never heard of an Arabic dibbed version, I only saw it subbed.
You're not wrong fam. It was dubbed in Arabic, and its called Al-Shamshoon. I reccommend watching the video from the same channel:
th-cam.com/video/OnEkFCzcKOI/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=CensoredGaming
I Freakin love this game
Donkey Kong Country did the same thing.
But Donkey Kong Country it is a easy game, or u talking about some other thing?
I prefer the Japanese version of this game. The additions just make it more fun for me.
We all know the arcade and virtual springfield is the best
I can't find The Simpsons arcade on PSN ??
Because it's been delist 4 years ago.
Marge's vacuume is the dumbest idea ever to be put in this game.
Greetings from Argentina! Excelent video... I must add that there are also a lot of differences in other konami games like x-men, sunset riders and tmnt! but is i n Simpsons where we can find the most differenciable stuff. I prefer japanese version (not because it is easier) because there is more drop secret hidden weapons, foods and easter eggs everywhere! and it is a lot more fun and interactuable .... the US version is boring! (and harder yes, but in the wrong way), nowadays I wonder if there is a 4 player version of the japanese rom, because I could only find the 2 player version... any body knows? Thanks retro gamers =)
quite interesting, thanks for sharing.
Looks like a great game to be honest
God damn it, Japan! Stop being so awesome!
japan hates bart while they love lisa