An often-referenced line from back in the NES days is from the side-scrolling beat-em-up, Bad Dudes:
The president has been kidnapped by ninjas. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue the president?
I thought I’d take a look at the Japanese version today and see what it originally said, and here we are:
 |  |
| Dragon Ninja (Famicom) | Bad Dudes (NES) |
And here’s a side-by-side comparison of the text for reference:
| Japanese text | Literal translation | Official translation |
| きんきゅうしれい！！ | Emergency order!! | |
| だいとうりょうが しょうたいふめいのてき ドラゴンＮＩＮＪＡにさらわれた。 | The president has been abducted by an enemy known only as Dragon Ninja. | The president has been kidnapped by ninjas. |
| しきゅうだいとうりょうをすくいだしてくれ。 | Rescue the president ASAP. | Are you a bad enough dude to rescue the president? |
| たのんだぞ！！ | We’re counting on you!! |
As you can see, there’s no talk of being “bad” or any mention of “dude” at all. I actually really like the localization though – it really adds to the cheesiness of the game! The original takes itself more seriously, which is okay, but if ninjas are kidnapping the president then it’s a pretty cheesy situation to begin with 😛
Incidentally, the Japanese version of the game is called Dragon Ninja as opposed to the English release of Bad Dudes:
 |  |
| Dragon Ninja (Famicom) | Bad Dudes (NES) |
Of course, these were actually arcade games originally, so I assume the original versions have similar localization changes. I don’t think I played the arcade version very much back in the day though, so it’s not as memorable to me. I do remember wanting to rent the NES game specifically because there was a cheat code that gave you a ton of lives and I had a hankering for a good action game that I could breeze through. Still, maybe I’ll look into the arcade version in a future update!
If you have any lines in games or whatever else that you’d like me to take a look at sometime, let me know in the comments or contact me!
Among the best localizations of all time.
I think the line in the Arcade version is “Ninjas have rescued President Ronnie. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue Ronnie?”, which totally dates such a timeless classic (eugh) as Bad Dudes. I’ll give it a look at some point and see if the text is different. D:
The NES version omits the references to “Ronnie” – not just his name, but the likeness was changed to that of then-current President George Bush! Both Presidents however offer the titular Bad Dudes to go out for a hamburger upon completing the game.
Something else about the title change – the arcade version was called Bad Dudes vs. Dragonninja.
I almost guarantee that if this game didn’t have a localization like this, it would have faded into obscurity as just another NES beat’em up. Major props to whoever wrote the script!
Honestly, I would not save President Ronnie no matter how Bad of a Dude I am.
Any idea why the word “NINJA” is written in romaji in the original? Seems especially weird considering it’s a Japanese word to begin with.