Duck King
Still the best. 1993.
Manual
Fighter title
| My translation | Arcade translation | SNES translation |
|---|---|---|
| The Fighting Street Dancer | The Brutal Break Dancer | Street Dancing Fighter |
Arcade translation sourced from The Arcade Flyer Archive, SNES translation from the manual on the Internet Archive.
Good alliteration!
...no seriously the arcade translation is good, it sounds just like something you'd announce a fighter with in English. No complaints.
The SNES, on the other hand...man, were you even trying? No one has good titles in SNES Special.
Quote
| My translation (FFS) | SNES FFS | Sega CD FFS |
|---|---|---|
| Hey! I trained in dance - can you keep up with my footwork? Bring it on, baby! | Time to hit the streets and party! And I like to party tough -- so be careful you don't get wasted by the funkiest fighter around! | So you wanna dance, huh? |
SNES manual from the Internet Archive, Sega CD from Sega Retro.
None of these have anything to do with each other. Sometimes SNES FFS feels like a real translation that's been touched by the editor, sometimes it feels completely off. And no, it's not like the editor wasn't above just making stuff up for manuals, and "the funkiest fighter around" has a real SNK feel...but something's off.
The Sega CD version isn't a translation and is boring to boot. JVC Musical Industries!
Fatal Fury Special
Normal intro
| My translation | Official translation | SNES |
|---|---|---|
| Heh, heh. Can you keep up with my speed? | Heh, heh. Too fast for you huh. I said, too fast for you, huh? | Heh, heh. Tofastforyou-huh. I said, too fast for you, huh? |
Translation help kindly provided by estragon! Thank you!
This is also just good. Missing a comma, but I'm all about forgiving copy-editing errors in Special. (Mostly because I know FF3 is coming) The basic idea is kept, but the repetition adds the idea that Duck is moving and even talking so fast his opponent can't keep up with anything he does. I dig it!
The SNES version adds to this by taking out the spaces in the first line. It might be a way to cut down on characters, but I really dig it.
Normal win
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| There's no way I'm gonna lose a fight! | Me lose? Impossible. |
I think you need a comma between "me" and "lose", but like I just said...
Anyway, this is also good. It's cute, it sounds natural, and it's even got a bit of character voice to it. I really wonder what caused the gap between the straight translations, the stuff like this, and...well, the SNKglish.
Intro vs Terry
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Heh heh...it's been awhile, Terry. I won't lose to you again. | Heh, heh. Quite a while, Terry. This time I won't lose, I hope. |
There are some differences here, but they're hard to see from my crummy translation, so please bear with me for a bit.
The first is pretty obvious: English Duck only hopes he can beat Terry this time, Japanese Duck is a lot more confident. In fact, Japanese Duck's way of speaking is pretty rude and punk-ish, so something more aggressive would be appropriate here. Maybe not full "clean your guts off the pavement", but this is actually a good time to throw in a "weenie"...and it got toned down. Much like how Terry is noticeably nicer to Geese than his own brother.
I don't get it.
I originally thought "quite a while" sounded really weird, but then I said the line out loud and I like it. Hm.
Win vs Terry
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| That's payback. | My debt is repaid. |
Yep.
This is another case where you could pretty reasonably make Duck sound more aggressive here, but the official translators didn't go for it. "My debt is repaid" sounds kind of formal, really, which isn't quite the right image.
You can understand what the hell he's getting at without looking at the Japanese so it's still a win, but you know. This is clearly one of the straight translations I mentioned above.
Intro vs Duck King
| My translation | Official translation | SNES |
|---|---|---|
| You've even imitated my signature moves. | Hey, I never scratch myself there. Stop it! Imitating melonhead. | Hey, I don't do that. Stop it! Imitating melon head. |
Wildly different, yet funnier and actually makes sense as something a person might say in this situation. Kind of torn on if this counts as good localization or madness, because those two things don't usually coincide in this project. I will say that I am completely charmed by the imagery in Duck's quotes.
Melonhead shows up in FF3 later, because SNK never let a good insult go to waste. Apparently it comes from urban legends about small people with outsized heads in the Midwest, and from there took off as slang for a stupid person? It seems to have gone about as mainstream as it ever did after the 1980s.
Scratching yourself: too saucy for Nintendo.
Ending
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Now I'll shoot for being the best dancer in the world. | Now, to pursue my true calling -- dance. |
There's a slight difference in nuance where Japanese Duck wants to be the very best, like no one ever was, and English Duck just wants to dance. I fought hard to try and figure out a way to pun on "strongest fighter in the world" somehow, but it didn't work out without sounding really goofy. Please imagine it.
The really interesting part is the voice acting. For the other English-speakers (Geese and Krauser), when the voices are in English, it's a straight line read of the English text. SNK could do that because they translated while they developed so they could make one single master copy that would work all over the world. Anyway, is that Duck's line is slightly different. It's: "Now to pursue my true callin': dance dance dance!"
Were the extra 'dance's added by the VA? Were they in the script? How much control did VAs have over their lines? Geese and Krauser's endings are pretty darn goofy but got straight line reads. Why change Duck's? It doesn't necessarily sound better, but it does give Duck a bit more personal character voice. Who decided this? When? Why?
God I wish SNK credited their translators.