What are examples of retcons in games that you liked and disliked?
For me, one that I liked was changing Kano in Mortal Kombat from an American to an Australian. I think his Australian accent suits his personality better and they only changed it because of the actor who played Kano in the first MK movie, even though he was actually British. That actor also portrayed Kano out to be a womanizer which he is in Mortal Kombat: X also.
A retcon I absolutely hate, and this one will be obvious, is Miyamoto changing the Koopalings from Bowser's children to just a bunch of kids who work for him in "our current storyline" as he states, in an attempt to put more importance to Bowser Jr. A lot of Nintendo fans don't even accept that so it seems like Nintendo is keeping the relationship between Bowser and the kids ambiguous on purpose in Super Smash Bros.
@Rexcalibr: I'm not 100% on this one, but as I recall, the Koopalings were never Bowser's children. That was just faulty translating, which was all over the place in the NES days.
@Rexcalibr: I'm not 100% on this one, but as I recall, the Koopalings were never Bowser's children. That was just faulty translating, which was all over the place in the NES days.
That is what a lot of people say, but it's actually not true. Even the original Super Mario Bros 3 manual in Japan had them portrayed as his children.
The translation based on what I researched says he is calling them" oresama no musuko-tachi" ("my sons") in SMB3.
On one of the pages, it translates to:
"Wahaha! My children are in this game now. Hear what they have to say! Good luck, kids! Wahaha!"
On the next page, they say "We REALLY like doing bad things!"
According to MarioWiki :
The children are introduced with the phrase 「そして、これがコクッパ7兄弟だ！！」 (pg. 3). Larry (pg. 4), Morton (pg. 8) and Lemmy (pg. 34) refer to King Koopa as 「オヤジ」 (oyaji), which is both a Japanese word for "father" as well as a term of endearment.
I don't think the Japanese version had given them names though and they were all just known as "Little Koopa" or "Kokuppa" in Japanese.
Some lines from Super Mario 3 translation in the U.S. version:
Toad: Oh, it's terrible! The King has been transformed! Please find the magic wand so we can change him back.
If you die in the castle and the Doom Ship moves to another location, you can re enter the castle and toad will say
"Hurry, hurry! Get the magic wand back from little koopa!"
There was another Zelda in that game? I don't remember it well but I know Zelda is in an eternal sleep when you start the game. I have it downloaded to my 3DS but it got so frustrating I kind of quit on it...
The Kooplings were not Bowser children to begin with. The were actually created from people who worked on Mario 3 sort of a Thank you from Miyamoto. When it was brought over to the states they translated it wrong and made the Bowser's kids along with changing there names (which is one reason the Kooplings had different names in the Super Mario 3 cartoon series as at the time the American names weren't revealed so the shows creators came up with the names). Anyway they were more like Bowser's Leutenants more then anything originally.
It's just at the time there was no Internet or anything of that sorts so NA just always accepted it that the Kooplings were his kids cause of faulty translation. So in all honest that wouldn't count as a retcon.
RetiredPush Square Moderator and all around retro gamer.
Is the original Mass Effect 3 ending changes too easy an answer? Because 3 1/2 years later, I still have no idea how that level of sudden failure was even possible.
There was no retcon in Zelda 2. The sleeping Princess Zelda in Zelda 2 was presented from the beginning (i.e., in the manual) as being a different Princess Zelda than the Zelda from the first game.
The Kooplings were not Bowser children to begin with. The were actually created from people who worked on Mario 3 sort of a Thank you from Miyamoto. Anyway they were more like Bowser's Leutenants more then anything originally.
It's just at the time there was no Internet or anything of that sorts so NA just always accepted it that the Kooplings were his kids cause of faulty translation. So in all honest that wouldn't count as a retcon.
So you are saying you can translate Japanese and the manual I posted above is incorrect? I got the information from Mario Wiki and two other websites. I actually researched this pretty thoroughly.
When it was brought over to the states they translated it wrong and made the Bowser's kids along with changing there names (which is one reason the Kooplings had different names in the Super Mario 3 cartoon series as at the time the American names weren't revealed so the shows creators came up with the names).
Japan never named them. I'm not sure if you just skipped over my post but they were originally all known as Kokuppa (Little Koopa). The Super Mario 3 cartoon was in development before Nintendo of America gave them official names. That's why they have different names in the cartoon; it was not developed by the people who made the games.
Japan carried over their names from Nintendo of America in Super Mario World and future Mario games in Japan. Other characters though have different names; Rosalina is known as Rosetta and Villager actually has a real name instead of being simply known as Villager.
There was no retcon in Zelda 2. The sleeping Princess Zelda in Zelda 2 was presented from the beginning (i.e., in the manual) as being a different Princess Zelda than the Zelda from the first game.
There was no retcon in Zelda 2. The sleeping Princess Zelda in Zelda 2 was presented from the beginning (i.e., in the manual) as being a different Princess Zelda than the Zelda from the first game.
There's a lot of "Zelda" in that last sentence.
So there are two princess Zeldas?
Well, if you count all the Zelda games, there's a whole bunch of them.
But my point was that the Zelda in Adventure of Link was never the Zelda from the first game. The first game's Zelda does not actually appear at all in AoL. The sleeping Princess Zelda is an ancestor who was put under a sleeping spell which could not be broken many many years earlier. Since then, all the royal family's princesses were named Zelda in remembrance of her.
I read that even if you spare the "Wild Hunter"'s Wraith at the end of The Witcher, Witcher 2 will behave as though you killed him. It didn't affect me because I killed him (most players did, I guess), but it's still irritating.
Starting with the release of Resident Evil Code: Veronica, Capcom modified the T-Virus' background story. I found this out while typing 'resident evil retcons' on Google.
There was no retcon in Zelda 2. The sleeping Princess Zelda in Zelda 2 was presented from the beginning (i.e., in the manual) as being a different Princess Zelda than the Zelda from the first game.
There's a lot of "Zelda" in that last sentence.
So there are two princess Zeldas?
Well, if you count all the Zelda games, there's a whole bunch of them.
But my point was that the Zelda in Adventure of Link was never the Zelda from the first game. The first game's Zelda does not actually appear at all in AoL. The sleeping Princess Zelda is an ancestor who was put under a sleeping spell which could not be broken many many years earlier. Since then, all the royal family's princesses were named Zelda in remembrance of her.
So Link ditches a girl his own age for some old great granny? EWW!
There was no retcon in Zelda 2. The sleeping Princess Zelda in Zelda 2 was presented from the beginning (i.e., in the manual) as being a different Princess Zelda than the Zelda from the first game.
There's a lot of "Zelda" in that last sentence.
So there are two princess Zeldas?
Well... a lot more than two, but just talking about the first two games, yes. There were two princess Zeldas. One from way before who'd been placed in eternal slumber (the one Link canonically gets with in that timeline) and one from the present that Link rescues in the first game (who Link only rescues and nothing else).
The Kooplings were not Bowser children to begin with. The were actually created from people who worked on Mario 3 sort of a Thank you from Miyamoto. When it was brought over to the states they translated it wrong and made the Bowser's kids along with changing there names (which is one reason the Kooplings had different names in the Super Mario 3 cartoon series as at the time the American names weren't revealed so the shows creators came up with the names). Anyway they were more like Bowser's Leutenants more then anything originally.
It's just at the time there was no Internet or anything of that sorts so NA just always accepted it that the Kooplings were his kids cause of faulty translation. So in all honest that wouldn't count as a retcon.
Also, the official New Super Mario Bros U website still describes them as siblings to each other, something that I doubt would be noted if they weren't originally depicted as Bowser's children. Further proof that it was a retcon.
Random list of retcons
Shadow in Sonic games after SA2 is a robot.
The two towers were blown up by terrorists in Deus Ex.
Sonic CD is a prequel to Sonic 4.
The Hero's Shade in Twilight Princess is the manifested regrets of the hero of time.
The entire Zelda timeline is a retcon.
"I'll take a potato chip... AND EAT IT!"
Light Yagami, Death Note
"Ah, the Breakfast Club soundtrack! I can't wait 'til I'm old enough to feel ways about stuff!"
Phillip J. Fry, Futurama
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