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Western Gamers Can Officially Play Uncensored SNES Games for the First Time

  • by Alan Hobbs
  • 4 Years ago
  • Comments Off

For decades, many gamers in the United States have unknowingly been playing censored versions of their favorite Super Nintendo titles. It is not uncommon for games to undergo some changes when localizing for outside territories. Nintendo is a Japanese company, so it has been known to adjust its products accordingly to better match Western tastes when necessary. Heck, the entire design of the Super Nintendo itself was totally different in North America.

Still, it may come as a shock to some players to see their childhood favorites in a different form than what they may remember. With Nintendo’s online service, you can do just that. Simply sign up for the service from anywhere in the world with a Japanese account (you should be able to change your location to Japan in your profile settings) and you’ll be off to the races.

Admittedly, there’s not much of a difference. In fact, I don’t advise you jump through those minor hoops to unearth the uncut versions of the games in the first place, because you’re not missing much.

The most surprising moments come in the Japanese versions of Super Mario World and Super Mario Kart.

Let me just cut to the chase. In Super Mario World, Yoshi eats dolphins. There, I hope you are happy, your whole life has been a lie up until now. Yoshi eats dolphins. The concept, while innocent in execution, seemed like it could be offensive to delicate American tastes, so your dinosaur buddy had the ability removed in the North American versions of the game.

Now, you might need to brace yourself for the next shocker.

Are you sitting down?

Okay.

Princess Peach drinks a bit of champagne in the original Super Mario Kart. Oh, and your buddy Bowser? Dude gets totally hammered on the stuff. He chugs it down like there’s no tomorrow. You can see it in action on the congratulations screen if you win at the end of a tournament.

Bet you weren’t expecting any of that when Nintendo announced SNES games were coming to their online service.

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