WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.360 Imagine, for a moment, you go out and buy a highly 00:00:04.360 --> 00:00:06.280 anticipated piece of entertainment. Right. You're 00:00:06.280 --> 00:00:08.519 just incredibly excited to finally get your hands 00:00:08.519 --> 00:00:10.400 on it. Exactly. You take it home, you fire it 00:00:10.400 --> 00:00:12.779 up, and you just absolutely fall in love with 00:00:12.779 --> 00:00:15.240 the world. You know, the story, the characters. 00:00:15.359 --> 00:00:18.559 It's the best feeling. It really is. But now, 00:00:18.940 --> 00:00:21.399 imagine traveling to another country, talking 00:00:21.399 --> 00:00:23.920 to a friend who bought that exact same title, 00:00:24.320 --> 00:00:26.780 and realizing something completely bizarre. Like 00:00:26.780 --> 00:00:28.559 finding out they played a totally different game. 00:00:28.649 --> 00:00:31.449 Yes. Entire chunks of the world you explored 00:00:31.449 --> 00:00:34.189 are simply gone. Like features you loved have 00:00:34.189 --> 00:00:37.369 just been erased. Wow. Even the main character's 00:00:37.369 --> 00:00:39.570 physical appearance has been completely altered. 00:00:40.049 --> 00:00:42.649 And all of this is purely because of the geographic 00:00:42.649 --> 00:00:45.170 location where you bought it. It sounds like 00:00:45.170 --> 00:00:47.969 a modern day streaming rights issue, right? Where 00:00:47.969 --> 00:00:50.710 a movie is just arbitrarily blocked in your region. 00:00:50.810 --> 00:00:53.630 Right. Exactly. But to have the actual content 00:00:53.630 --> 00:00:56.890 of a singular product so heavily fractured and 00:00:56.890 --> 00:01:00.250 altered That is something we rarely see today. 00:01:00.450 --> 00:01:02.890 You just expect a global release to have a unified 00:01:02.890 --> 00:01:05.590 identity. That is the expectation now, definitely. 00:01:06.150 --> 00:01:07.890 But today we're looking at an era where that 00:01:07.890 --> 00:01:10.489 was absolutely not the case. Far from it. Yeah. 00:01:10.849 --> 00:01:13.790 We are diving into a Wikipedia article detailing 00:01:13.790 --> 00:01:17.150 a 1989 Nintendo Entertainment System video game 00:01:17.150 --> 00:01:20.370 called Casino Kid, which at first glance sounds 00:01:20.370 --> 00:01:22.269 like a pretty straightforward retro gambling 00:01:22.269 --> 00:01:24.969 simulator. It does, but beneath that basic premise 00:01:24.969 --> 00:01:29.250 is just a wild history. So our mission for this 00:01:29.250 --> 00:01:32.650 deep dive is to use this one specific game, Casino 00:01:32.650 --> 00:01:35.909 Kid, as a lens to explore the chaotic world of 00:01:35.909 --> 00:01:39.329 1980s media localization. It's a really fascinating 00:01:39.329 --> 00:01:41.629 era to look at. It is. We're gonna look at how 00:01:41.629 --> 00:01:44.390 a single product ended up with wildly different 00:01:44.390 --> 00:01:47.930 identities and what that reveals about how entertainment 00:01:47.930 --> 00:01:50.750 was aggressively repackaged to fit whatever a 00:01:50.750 --> 00:01:52.609 publisher assumed a culture wanted. They made 00:01:52.609 --> 00:01:54.629 a lot of assumptions back then. Oh, massive ones. 00:01:54.730 --> 00:01:57.390 Okay, let's unpack this. The core premise of 00:01:57.390 --> 00:01:59.549 Casino Kit. It was developed and published by 00:01:59.549 --> 00:02:01.909 a company called Soful, and the setting is placed 00:02:01.959 --> 00:02:05.060 two years into the future from its 1989 release 00:02:05.060 --> 00:02:08.960 so, a futuristic 1991, and the ultimate goal 00:02:08.960 --> 00:02:12.139 for you, the player, is to earn a massive amount 00:02:12.139 --> 00:02:14.639 of money and defeat the quote unquote evil king 00:02:14.639 --> 00:02:17.500 of the casino. It is, well it's a classic hero's 00:02:17.500 --> 00:02:19.919 journey just kind of transplanted from a fantasy 00:02:19.919 --> 00:02:22.419 dungeon onto a casino floor. Yeah, swapping dragons 00:02:22.419 --> 00:02:25.870 for blackjack dealers. Exactly. But to really 00:02:25.870 --> 00:02:28.650 grasp how this game's identity splintered so 00:02:28.650 --> 00:02:31.389 badly, we have to look at its origins. Because 00:02:31.389 --> 00:02:33.569 this didn't start in a North American development 00:02:33.569 --> 00:02:36.210 studio, it started in Japan. And it actually 00:02:36.210 --> 00:02:38.030 started in print, which is super interesting. 00:02:38.169 --> 00:02:39.949 The Japanese version of this game is based on 00:02:39.949 --> 00:02:43.849 a manga series by Yuki Ishigaki titled One Million 00:02:43.849 --> 00:02:45.789 Dollar Kid. So it already had an established 00:02:45.789 --> 00:02:48.090 fan base. Right. So when the game first launched 00:02:48.090 --> 00:02:51.069 in Japan in early 1989, it wasn't called Casino 00:02:51.069 --> 00:02:53.610 Kid at all. It was released under the title One 00:02:53.610 --> 00:02:57.129 Million Dollar Kid. It's a very dramatic title. 00:02:57.569 --> 00:03:00.370 But the divergence between that Japanese original 00:03:00.370 --> 00:03:05.009 and the eventual North American release, it starts 00:03:05.009 --> 00:03:08.189 the very second you turn the machine on. It is 00:03:08.189 --> 00:03:10.789 a fundamental shift in how the story is framed 00:03:10.789 --> 00:03:13.030 for the player. The introductions are just worlds 00:03:13.030 --> 00:03:14.729 apart. Reading through the source, I actually 00:03:14.729 --> 00:03:16.229 had to double check that they were talking about 00:03:16.229 --> 00:03:18.979 the same game. I don't blame you. In the Japanese 00:03:18.979 --> 00:03:21.939 version, the narrative is quite whimsical. It's 00:03:21.939 --> 00:03:24.520 framed around a kid who is simply imagining himself 00:03:24.520 --> 00:03:27.000 to be the casino champion. The whole thing is 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:29.080 literally a daydream. It's very light -hearted. 00:03:29.479 --> 00:03:32.080 Exactly. But when SoFell brought the game to 00:03:32.080 --> 00:03:34.580 North America, they completely scrapped that 00:03:34.580 --> 00:03:37.460 intro. The North American version explicitly 00:03:37.460 --> 00:03:40.539 drops you into a gritty, high -stakes tournament 00:03:40.539 --> 00:03:42.879 where you are competing against the world's toughest 00:03:42.879 --> 00:03:45.620 gamblers in reality. What's fascinating here 00:03:45.620 --> 00:03:49.150 is how clearly This highlights the differing 00:03:49.150 --> 00:03:51.870 cultural expectations for storytelling in games 00:03:51.870 --> 00:03:54.389 at the time. Well, in Japan, the home console 00:03:54.389 --> 00:03:56.590 market was already heavily invested in role -playing 00:03:56.590 --> 00:04:01.310 games, right? So a whimsical, aspirational premise, 00:04:01.629 --> 00:04:05.530 like a kid daydreaming, was a relatable, charming 00:04:05.530 --> 00:04:08.979 entry point. It really invited players to use 00:04:08.979 --> 00:04:10.960 their imagination. I have to push back on the 00:04:10.960 --> 00:04:13.240 decision to change it, though. I mean, why change 00:04:13.240 --> 00:04:16.639 a charming, daydreaming protagonist into this 00:04:16.639 --> 00:04:18.740 gritty tournament competitor? It's definitely 00:04:18.740 --> 00:04:21.079 a choice. It's like taking The Wizard of Oz and, 00:04:21.079 --> 00:04:23.879 I don't know, marketing it as an intense competitive 00:04:23.879 --> 00:04:26.720 hiking documentary. You're just stripping out 00:04:26.720 --> 00:04:29.300 the charm to make it sound aggressive. That is 00:04:29.300 --> 00:04:31.420 a great way to put it. It reveals a specific 00:04:31.420 --> 00:04:33.620 assumption the publishers had about the North 00:04:33.620 --> 00:04:36.889 American market in 1989. You have to remember, 00:04:37.310 --> 00:04:39.389 Western gaming culture at that time was heavily 00:04:39.389 --> 00:04:41.629 driven by the arcade scene. Oh right, and rental 00:04:41.629 --> 00:04:44.329 stores too. Exactly. Publishers believed that 00:04:44.329 --> 00:04:47.209 an American audience needed tangible, immediate 00:04:47.209 --> 00:04:49.370 action. They didn't think Western players wanted 00:04:49.370 --> 00:04:51.649 to explore a fun fantasy, they thought players 00:04:51.649 --> 00:04:54.170 needed a highly structured, competitive reality 00:04:54.170 --> 00:04:56.750 like you are here to beat the toughest gamblers 00:04:56.750 --> 00:04:59.529 in the world. It is a harsh pivot for the tone 00:04:59.529 --> 00:05:02.379 of the game. But the narrative framing was just 00:05:02.379 --> 00:05:06.560 the start, honestly. This shift in identity fundamentally 00:05:06.560 --> 00:05:09.339 altered the actual mechanics, the locations, 00:05:09.660 --> 00:05:12.199 and the very world you interact with. Yeah, they 00:05:12.199 --> 00:05:14.379 really took it apart. Here's where it gets really 00:05:14.379 --> 00:05:17.519 interesting. Because the amount of content they 00:05:17.519 --> 00:05:20.259 stripped out of the North American version is 00:05:20.259 --> 00:05:22.980 staggering. Usually you want to add value for 00:05:22.980 --> 00:05:24.779 an international release, right? I think so, 00:05:24.779 --> 00:05:28.120 yeah. But here, the publishers effectively gutted 00:05:28.120 --> 00:05:30.220 the world building. It was a massive feature 00:05:30.220 --> 00:05:33.560 purge. The Japanese version of the game was actually 00:05:33.560 --> 00:05:37.199 remarkably robust for an early NES title. First 00:05:37.199 --> 00:05:40.300 off, players had a free mode. Oh, nice. Yeah, 00:05:40.439 --> 00:05:42.420 this allowed you to simply experiment with different 00:05:42.420 --> 00:05:44.899 gambling strategies without the pressure of the 00:05:44.899 --> 00:05:47.180 main campaign. Right. And you could also customize 00:05:47.180 --> 00:05:49.759 the experience by entering your own name. Which, 00:05:49.800 --> 00:05:52.259 I mean, is standard now, but that was a huge 00:05:52.259 --> 00:05:54.040 feature for role -playing immersion back then. 00:05:54.240 --> 00:05:57.339 Absolutely. And it goes further. In Japan, the 00:05:57.339 --> 00:06:00.279 game was set in the actual real -world Golden 00:06:00.279 --> 00:06:03.259 Nugget Casino in Las Vegas. And you weren't even 00:06:03.259 --> 00:06:05.959 trapped in Vegas. Right, the travel aspect. Yeah. 00:06:06.639 --> 00:06:08.740 If you earned enough in -game money, you could 00:06:08.740 --> 00:06:11.819 pay a substantial airfare cost and travel to 00:06:11.819 --> 00:06:14.000 completely different casinos in New York City 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:16.879 and Japan. The ambition of that design is really 00:06:16.879 --> 00:06:20.339 impressive for 1989. I mean, the concept of earning 00:06:20.339 --> 00:06:22.300 enough currency to physically fly to another 00:06:22.300 --> 00:06:25.019 continent creates a massive sense of scale for 00:06:25.019 --> 00:06:27.639 the player. Huge scale. So I'm reading this, 00:06:27.740 --> 00:06:29.500 and assuming they just translated the text and 00:06:29.500 --> 00:06:31.899 shipped it to America, but they basically took 00:06:31.899 --> 00:06:34.199 a machete to the code. They really did. They 00:06:34.199 --> 00:06:36.500 stripped out the travel mechanics entirely. No 00:06:36.500 --> 00:06:39.639 New York City, no Japan. They completely removed 00:06:39.639 --> 00:06:42.000 slot machines and roulette from the game. Just 00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:45.100 gone. Gone. Even the real world golden nugget 00:06:45.100 --> 00:06:48.160 was replaced with a parody name. And perhaps 00:06:48.160 --> 00:06:50.879 the strangest arbitrary change, they took the 00:06:50.879 --> 00:06:53.040 casino kid who had blue hair in the Japanese 00:06:53.040 --> 00:06:55.300 version and changed his hair to blonde. If we 00:06:55.300 --> 00:06:57.500 connect this to the bigger picture, this shows 00:06:57.500 --> 00:07:00.439 how localization in early gaming was often a 00:07:00.439 --> 00:07:02.819 reductive process rather than a translative one. 00:07:02.899 --> 00:07:05.220 It was just about cutting things down. Exactly. 00:07:05.839 --> 00:07:07.639 But we also have to think about the physical 00:07:07.639 --> 00:07:11.439 reality of 1980s technology. Translating a game 00:07:11.439 --> 00:07:14.240 from Japanese to English is not a simple one 00:07:14.240 --> 00:07:17.540 -to -one swap. English text takes up significantly 00:07:17.540 --> 00:07:20.899 more data space on a tiny microchip than Japanese 00:07:20.899 --> 00:07:23.600 kanji and kana. Oh wait, so it wasn't just spite, 00:07:23.660 --> 00:07:26.800 it was a brutal math problem. Yes, exactly. To 00:07:26.800 --> 00:07:28.759 fit the English dialogue onto the cartridge, 00:07:29.500 --> 00:07:31.600 publishers often had to delete actual game code. 00:07:31.939 --> 00:07:34.399 They literally had to delete cities and minigames 00:07:34.399 --> 00:07:36.500 just to make room for the English words. Wow, 00:07:36.579 --> 00:07:39.290 just to fit the alphabet in there. Right. And 00:07:39.290 --> 00:07:41.689 beyond the technical constraints, the blue to 00:07:41.689 --> 00:07:44.470 blonde hair change is a deliberate cultural erasure. 00:07:44.709 --> 00:07:46.829 Because of the anime connection? Yes. Blue hair 00:07:46.829 --> 00:07:49.370 is a staple of anime and manga character design. 00:07:50.009 --> 00:07:52.170 By changing it to blonde, Sofil was actively 00:07:52.170 --> 00:07:54.110 trying to hide the game's Japanese roots from 00:07:54.110 --> 00:07:56.370 the warm player, making it look like an all -American 00:07:56.370 --> 00:07:58.829 casino tournament. Think about how jarring that 00:07:58.829 --> 00:08:01.149 would be for you today. Like, you buy a highly 00:08:01.149 --> 00:08:03.790 anticipated open -world game, and you find out 00:08:03.790 --> 00:08:06.430 that purely because of your geographic location... 00:08:06.519 --> 00:08:09.639 the developers deleted two entire cities. It 00:08:09.639 --> 00:08:12.540 would be unacceptable. Right. They deleted cities, 00:08:12.839 --> 00:08:15.800 removed three minigames, and dyed the main character's 00:08:15.800 --> 00:08:17.959 hair just to make him look more standard. You 00:08:17.959 --> 00:08:20.920 would feel entirely cheated. But before the internet 00:08:20.920 --> 00:08:23.800 allowed players to easily compare regional differences, 00:08:24.339 --> 00:08:26.759 publishers operated in these silos. They viewed 00:08:26.759 --> 00:08:30.439 foreign games as basically raw material to be 00:08:30.439 --> 00:08:33.679 molded, cut, and sanded down to fit local hardware 00:08:33.679 --> 00:08:36.490 limits and cultural assumptions. So with half 00:08:36.490 --> 00:08:38.490 the game left behind on the cutting room floor, 00:08:38.669 --> 00:08:40.809 I started wondering what actually survived the 00:08:40.809 --> 00:08:43.269 journey across the Pacific. Amazingly, a few 00:08:43.269 --> 00:08:45.899 things did make it. Yeah, despite this massive 00:08:45.899 --> 00:08:48.899 geographic divide in the game's code, some truly 00:08:48.899 --> 00:08:51.580 quirky elements managed to survive the localization 00:08:51.580 --> 00:08:54.539 process intact, giving the game its distinct 00:08:54.539 --> 00:08:57.000 flavor. Well, the core gameplay loop remained 00:08:57.000 --> 00:08:59.200 mostly untouched. Whether you were the blue -haired 00:08:59.200 --> 00:09:01.299 daydreamer or the blonde tournament fighter, 00:09:01.779 --> 00:09:04.659 your primary path to victory was playing blackjack 00:09:04.659 --> 00:09:07.860 and five -card draw poker. against computer opponents. 00:09:08.240 --> 00:09:10.360 And we cannot overlook the most important shared 00:09:10.360 --> 00:09:13.059 visual quirk of both versions, the waitresses. 00:09:13.279 --> 00:09:16.679 Oh right, the bunny costumes. Yes, in both releases 00:09:16.679 --> 00:09:19.440 there are waitresses walking around the casino 00:09:19.440 --> 00:09:22.360 floor in full bunny costumes and they're the 00:09:22.360 --> 00:09:25.019 ones who actually provide hints to you as you 00:09:25.019 --> 00:09:28.220 play. It is a slightly surreal touch that kind 00:09:28.220 --> 00:09:31.820 of grounds the game in that classic exaggerated 00:09:31.820 --> 00:09:34.350 Las Vegas aesthetic. And it's interesting that 00:09:34.350 --> 00:09:37.590 it survived that whole cultural sanding down 00:09:37.590 --> 00:09:39.649 process we talked about. It really is. But there's 00:09:39.649 --> 00:09:42.149 another shared mechanic that survived. And it's 00:09:42.149 --> 00:09:44.870 arguably the most bizarre design choice in the 00:09:44.870 --> 00:09:47.330 entire game. It revolves around player etiquette. 00:09:47.509 --> 00:09:50.409 Oh, man. This is my absolute favorite detail 00:09:50.409 --> 00:09:52.690 from the source material. So you're navigating 00:09:52.690 --> 00:09:54.889 the casino floor looking for opponents, right? 00:09:55.269 --> 00:09:57.870 And the game gives you a mechanic to skip an 00:09:57.870 --> 00:10:00.190 opponent. Which seems normal enough. Sure. If 00:10:00.190 --> 00:10:02.929 you attempt to skip one opponent, the game rewards 00:10:02.929 --> 00:10:04.830 you by allowing you to find the exact location 00:10:04.830 --> 00:10:06.730 of the previous person you skipped. That makes 00:10:06.730 --> 00:10:09.389 total sense. But if you attempt to skip two or 00:10:09.389 --> 00:10:11.950 more opponents, the game notes that this is, 00:10:11.950 --> 00:10:13.889 quoting directly from the text here, frowned 00:10:13.889 --> 00:10:16.629 upon. It introduces a literal social faux pas 00:10:16.629 --> 00:10:19.970 into an 8 -bit casino simulator. I just cannot 00:10:19.970 --> 00:10:22.210 get over this. Why on earth would you program 00:10:22.210 --> 00:10:25.730 a social etiquette rule into a video game? It's 00:10:25.730 --> 00:10:27.809 pretty funny. It's like playing chess against 00:10:27.809 --> 00:10:30.980 a computer. But the computer gets genuinely offended 00:10:30.980 --> 00:10:33.120 and passive aggressive if you look away from 00:10:33.120 --> 00:10:35.980 the screen for too long. I mean, I am playing 00:10:35.980 --> 00:10:38.259 against a machine. Why does it care about my 00:10:38.259 --> 00:10:40.840 manners? It sounds totally absurd to have an 00:10:40.840 --> 00:10:43.659 NES cartridge judge your social graces, for sure. 00:10:44.279 --> 00:10:46.700 But, from a game design perspective, there is 00:10:46.700 --> 00:10:48.980 actually a very deliberate logic here. Really? 00:10:49.179 --> 00:10:52.179 Like what? Well, by punishing players for skipping 00:10:52.179 --> 00:10:54.870 too many opponents, The developers were forcing 00:10:54.870 --> 00:10:58.129 a specific pacing onto the experience. They wanted 00:10:58.129 --> 00:11:00.309 to create a sequential challenge. Oh, I see. 00:11:00.330 --> 00:11:02.210 Because they didn't want you to just sprint past 00:11:02.210 --> 00:11:04.850 everyone straight to the evil king of the casino. 00:11:05.090 --> 00:11:06.990 Right. If you could skip anyone, you would just 00:11:06.990 --> 00:11:09.710 bypass the escalating difficulty curve the designers 00:11:09.710 --> 00:11:12.169 carefully built. The whole etiquette framing 00:11:12.169 --> 00:11:15.309 is just a diegetic way of disguising a progression 00:11:15.309 --> 00:11:18.169 gate. Wait, diegetic meaning? Like, it fits within 00:11:18.169 --> 00:11:21.779 the fiction of the world. Yes, exactly. It is 00:11:21.779 --> 00:11:25.000 diegetic, meaning the rule exists inside the 00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:27.919 reality of the game world itself. Instead of 00:11:27.919 --> 00:11:30.539 a sterile menu screen popping up to, say, level 00:11:30.539 --> 00:11:34.000 locked or throwing up an invisible wall, the 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:36.840 game uses the fiction of the casino to stop you. 00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:38.879 That's actually kind of clever. It essentially 00:11:38.879 --> 00:11:41.799 tells you, hey. That is rude. Go back and play 00:11:41.799 --> 00:11:44.120 the people in order. It's a guilt trip used as 00:11:44.120 --> 00:11:47.960 a game mechanic. So we have this heavily modified 00:11:47.960 --> 00:11:51.220 culturally altered memory constrained casino 00:11:51.220 --> 00:11:54.340 game that judges your manners. You would assume 00:11:54.340 --> 00:11:56.740 the story ends there. Of course it doesn't. No, 00:11:56.919 --> 00:11:59.559 the saga of Casino Kid gets exponentially stranger 00:11:59.559 --> 00:12:01.960 when you look at its sequel because Casino Kid 00:12:01.960 --> 00:12:04.279 this second completely flips the script on the 00:12:04.279 --> 00:12:06.440 franchise's release strategy and its geographic 00:12:06.440 --> 00:12:08.879 origins. The sequel is where we move from just 00:12:08.879 --> 00:12:11.620 localizing a game to something closer to, like, 00:12:11.840 --> 00:12:13.639 corporate taxidermy. Corporate taxidermy? Yeah, 00:12:13.799 --> 00:12:15.740 literally stuffing a completely different game 00:12:15.740 --> 00:12:17.919 inside the Casino Kid skin. That is perfectly 00:12:17.919 --> 00:12:21.039 put. So Casino Kid II was released in North America 00:12:21.039 --> 00:12:24.220 in April 1993, once again by SoFo. But before 00:12:24.220 --> 00:12:26.720 it was Casino Kid II, it had a completely different 00:12:26.720 --> 00:12:29.179 identity. A whole different life. Right. This 00:12:29.179 --> 00:12:31.200 sequel was originally going to be titled The 00:12:31.200 --> 00:12:34.480 Prince of Othello, and it was slated for a 1990 00:12:34.480 --> 00:12:37.559 release before SoFo decided to temporarily cancel 00:12:37.559 --> 00:12:40.559 the project entirely. So we are dealing with 00:12:40.559 --> 00:12:43.100 a resurrected phantom project. Yeah. A game that 00:12:43.100 --> 00:12:45.980 was killed off, kept in storage, brought back 00:12:45.980 --> 00:12:49.429 to life, and then just slapped with the branding 00:12:49.429 --> 00:12:52.409 of a moderate casino hit. So what does this all 00:12:52.409 --> 00:12:55.350 mean? Here is the ultimate irony of this whole 00:12:55.350 --> 00:12:58.490 deep dive. The original game Casino Kid was born 00:12:58.490 --> 00:13:01.679 in Japan. It was based directly on a Japanese 00:13:01.679 --> 00:13:05.240 manga. But Casino Kid II, it was never released 00:13:05.240 --> 00:13:08.299 in Japan. It was a North American exclusive. 00:13:08.519 --> 00:13:11.100 This raises an important question about the fluidity 00:13:11.100 --> 00:13:13.740 of intellectual property. I mean, how does a 00:13:13.740 --> 00:13:16.419 series that was literally birthed from a Japanese 00:13:16.419 --> 00:13:19.820 comic book evolve into an international globetrotting 00:13:19.820 --> 00:13:22.480 sequel that isn't even legally playable in its 00:13:22.480 --> 00:13:24.480 country of origin? It's so weird to think about. 00:13:24.559 --> 00:13:26.879 It completely severs the property from its roots. 00:13:27.080 --> 00:13:29.470 It is mind boggling. It's like making a sequel 00:13:29.470 --> 00:13:32.090 to a beloved British book series, but deciding 00:13:32.090 --> 00:13:34.649 it will only be released in South America. But 00:13:34.649 --> 00:13:36.789 Soful didn't just change the release strategy, 00:13:37.250 --> 00:13:40.549 they radically evolved the gameplay. Because 00:13:40.549 --> 00:13:42.590 it was originally a completely different game, 00:13:42.789 --> 00:13:45.169 you are no longer just wandering around a single 00:13:45.169 --> 00:13:48.590 casino looking for gamblers. Now, the titular 00:13:48.590 --> 00:13:51.110 protagonist has already defeated the top players 00:13:51.110 --> 00:13:53.870 in Vegas, and he is challenged by top gamblers 00:13:53.870 --> 00:13:57.419 globally. They finally brought back the globetrotting 00:13:57.419 --> 00:13:59.480 scale that they were forced to cut from the first 00:13:59.480 --> 00:14:01.940 game. They really did. These new matches are 00:14:01.940 --> 00:14:04.259 organized by a mysterious leader, and to unveil 00:14:04.259 --> 00:14:06.679 this leader, you have to defeat nine opponents 00:14:06.679 --> 00:14:09.320 from around the world. The gameplay loops of 00:14:09.320 --> 00:14:11.620 roulette, poker, and blackjack are there, but 00:14:11.620 --> 00:14:13.679 the way you interact with the world is completely 00:14:13.679 --> 00:14:15.580 different. Right. You're not walking around anymore. 00:14:15.840 --> 00:14:18.399 Exactly. You don't wander a floor. You travel 00:14:18.399 --> 00:14:21.440 by plane to each destination. And there's an 00:14:21.440 --> 00:14:24.720 important atmospheric detail here, too. The game 00:14:24.720 --> 00:14:28.159 dynamically reflects whether it is daytime or 00:14:28.159 --> 00:14:29.940 nighttime, depending on the specific country 00:14:29.940 --> 00:14:32.179 you are flying into. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, that 00:14:32.179 --> 00:14:34.779 is a wonderful touch of immersion for a 1993 00:14:34.779 --> 00:14:38.059 game. But 8 -bit graphics can only do so much 00:14:38.059 --> 00:14:40.320 to sell the atmosphere of a late -night flight 00:14:40.320 --> 00:14:43.500 to a new country. To really make the player feel 00:14:43.500 --> 00:14:46.059 that globe -trotting scale, they had to rely 00:14:46.059 --> 00:14:49.019 heavily on the audio. And that brings us to the 00:14:49.019 --> 00:14:52.159 legacy of this sequel, because aside from its 00:14:52.159 --> 00:14:54.580 convoluted release history, it is actually highly 00:14:54.580 --> 00:14:57.379 regarded for its music. Oh, absolutely. The audio 00:14:57.379 --> 00:15:00.559 landscape of Casino Kid 2 was created by the 00:15:00.559 --> 00:15:04.100 EIM sound team, specifically the work of Kenji 00:15:04.100 --> 00:15:07.679 Ino and Michie Hirasawa. Both of whom are sadly 00:15:07.679 --> 00:15:09.700 now deceased, but their work on this game left 00:15:09.700 --> 00:15:12.610 a really lasting mark. It is fascinating that 00:15:12.610 --> 00:15:14.809 a game with such a messy development history, 00:15:15.389 --> 00:15:18.070 a cancelled project wearing the skin of a localized 00:15:18.070 --> 00:15:20.929 manga adaptation, ended up preserving the work 00:15:20.929 --> 00:15:23.450 of these two notable artists. It really is a 00:15:23.450 --> 00:15:25.649 testament to the fact that even in the most corporate, 00:15:25.929 --> 00:15:28.570 cynically repackaged media products, you can 00:15:28.570 --> 00:15:30.970 still find pockets of genuine artistry. The music 00:15:30.970 --> 00:15:33.289 just elevates the experience. It gives it a heartbeat. 00:15:33.669 --> 00:15:36.009 Exactly. It gives this strange orphan sequel 00:15:36.009 --> 00:15:37.970 a soul of its own, filling in the gaps where 00:15:37.970 --> 00:15:40.570 the graphics just couldn't quite reach. It is 00:15:40.570 --> 00:15:43.490 an incredible journey. When we started this deep 00:15:43.490 --> 00:15:46.149 dive, we were looking at a daydreaming Japanese 00:15:46.149 --> 00:15:49.309 kid with blue hair. Then, through the aggressive 00:15:49.309 --> 00:15:52.250 blender of 1980s localization and hardware limits, 00:15:52.610 --> 00:15:55.590 he becomes a blonde, high -stakes tournament 00:15:55.590 --> 00:15:58.889 competitor trapped in a localized Vegas parody. 00:15:59.049 --> 00:16:02.029 And then he just keeps going. Right. And finally, 00:16:02.289 --> 00:16:05.429 he evolves into the star of a globetrotting sequel 00:16:05.429 --> 00:16:08.350 that is completely severed from its Japanese 00:16:08.350 --> 00:16:11.830 roots. Studying a single vintage source like 00:16:11.830 --> 00:16:15.129 the Casino Kid Wikipedia page is honestly like 00:16:15.129 --> 00:16:17.149 looking at a core sample of entertainment history. 00:16:17.309 --> 00:16:20.929 It reveals these massive seismic shifts in how 00:16:20.929 --> 00:16:22.889 international media handling used to operate. 00:16:23.029 --> 00:16:24.889 It was a completely different Wild West back 00:16:24.889 --> 00:16:26.990 then. It was. It wasn't about preserving a global 00:16:26.990 --> 00:16:29.889 artistic vision. It was about hyper -specific, 00:16:29.929 --> 00:16:32.549 sometimes ruthless adaptation just to make a 00:16:32.549 --> 00:16:34.350 product fit on a shelf. It really makes you look 00:16:34.350 --> 00:16:37.009 at every old cartridge, every old physical media 00:16:37.009 --> 00:16:39.230 format differently. You have to wonder what code 00:16:39.230 --> 00:16:41.009 was deleted just to make room for a different 00:16:41.009 --> 00:16:43.190 language. And that actually leads me to a lingering 00:16:43.190 --> 00:16:45.269 thought for you to take away from this. Think 00:16:45.269 --> 00:16:48.059 about that lost original The Prince of Othello. 00:16:48.360 --> 00:16:50.759 The Phantom Game. Right. The one that was temporarily 00:16:50.759 --> 00:16:53.179 canceled before being resurrected and reskinned 00:16:53.179 --> 00:16:55.960 as Casino Kid Shannack. It really makes you wonder 00:16:55.960 --> 00:16:58.120 how many of the games, movies, or books you love 00:16:58.120 --> 00:17:01.820 today were originally meant to be entirely different 00:17:01.820 --> 00:17:04.180 stories. Oh, wow. Just suddenly forced to wear 00:17:04.180 --> 00:17:07.079 the skin of an existing franchise just to survive 00:17:07.079 --> 00:17:09.740 in the market. What else out there is hiding 00:17:09.740 --> 00:17:12.319 a canceled Phantom project beneath its title? 00:17:12.539 --> 00:17:15.359 That is a brilliantly unsettling thought. the 00:17:15.359 --> 00:17:18.700 media we love might just be wearing a mask. Thank 00:17:18.700 --> 00:17:20.880 you so much for joining us on this deep dive. 00:17:21.480 --> 00:17:23.119 The next time you buy a piece of entertainment, 00:17:23.539 --> 00:17:26.299 remember the blue -haired daydreamer. Remember 00:17:26.299 --> 00:17:28.160 that depending on where you stand on the globe, 00:17:28.559 --> 00:17:30.720 the world inside that screen might be entirely 00:17:30.720 --> 00:17:33.740 different. Keep looking for the hidden histories 00:17:33.740 --> 00:17:36.220 in the media you consume every day. We will see 00:17:36.220 --> 00:17:36.819 you next time.