As some of you may know, I'm now helping out BrawlCentral.com by translating information that we get from Japanese sources about Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Many of these sources happen to be Japanese forums, so I know when to trust one piece of information when I get it.

A lot of people go to 2ch.com and run the Brawl discussion thread through Google Translator to see what they can make out from it. This is a bad idea on many levels. Not only is Google Translator, or any other online translating program unreliable, but the translated posts could simply be fans speculating or wanting certain things to be true. It's as if you're viewing a regular forum and people post their thoughts about a certain character or development. If someone were to translate that into another language, there would be misinterpretations and confusion.

Whenever I post something on Brawl Central or even translate any news I find, I try really hard to make sure that info is correct and not just something a fan said in Japanese. Forums are not my favorite place for information, so I avoid them. Magazine articles, and magazine clippings are the better type of source though.

Rest assured I won't post or submit any type of information that is skeptical or mistranslated.

Labels: games, smash bros, translation

Last night on 2ch, a person submitted a post stating he had the game and was playing it. To back up his statement, he posted two pictures - the disc, and a screenshot of the starting roster.

No one really knew what to make of this except take it as being fake until proven true. The picture could have been created, some said, and the disc could have been created with a label maker, others said. No one knew what to make of it.

The poster also said he had uploaded three video clips somewhere. I take it he meant mbga.jp, a website where you can upload your cellphone videos and share them with friends. But, no links were found despite this either. He wrote:

Clip 1
After, I chose Pit with the cursor as my character
("Battle On!" was heard)
My first oponent was Link
Clip 2
Menu
->I chose Subspace Emissary
->The "Input your name" screen
->Choose your Difficulty - Easy, Normal, Hard, Really Hard, Insane
->Movie (The first movie of Mario vs. Kirby)
Clip 3
Pit in a dark cave? Lasts for a few secs
Pit's name title appears etc.



Then suddenly this afternoon, a video on youtube was found of the poster playing his game. The first clip was what he described his first clip to be...



Is this definitive proof?

Labels: games, smash bros, translation, wii

This article recently came to my attention. The picture posted is from the actual Corocoro Magazine website, the one the article alludes to and quotes from.

スマブラXに登場する全てのキャラクターは12月15日までに判明?

小学館の漫画雑誌「コロコロコミック」の公式サイトによりますと、
12月15日頃発売予定の「月刊コロコロコミック 1月号」にスマブラXこと『大乱闘スマッシュブラザーズX』の全てのキャラクターを解説するガイドブックが付属するとのことです。

このガイドブックは「大乱闘スマッシュブラザーズX オールキャラ大公開BOOK」というもので、具体的な内容には触れていないものの、「『スマブラX』の全キャラをバッチリ解説しきる充実の一冊!!」としています。

ここで挙げられている「全キャラ」が、隠しキャラクターを除いた参戦キャラクターか、それとも（参戦・アシスト問わず）本当に全てのキャラクターを網羅しているのかは不明ですが、本誌発売予定の12月15日が、キャラクター情報における一つの区切りの日となることは間違いなさそうです。

According to Shogakukan publication's "Corocoro Comics" official web site, the December 15 scheduled issue of "Monthly Corocoro" will include an explanatory guidebook for all the characters of Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

This guidebook is said to be "a book that will reveal all Brawl characters to the public", and without touching much on concrete details, "will be a book that will perfectly and completely comment on all characters in Brawl".

What remains unclear is whether "all characters" really includes all the characters in Brawl or just the characters that are not hidden. What does remain clear is that December 15 will be a definitive day for information about these characters.

I left most parts as literal as possible; I did some parts loosely as well.
http://www.mother-jp.net/times/20071121.html

Labels: games, Japanese, smash bros, translation