Bad Video Game Quotes
Zero Wing's 'All Your Base are Belong to Us' Tops the List
Sometimes truly bad and memorable quotes exist due to a mistranslation and sometimes the quotes are just bad from the beginning.
If the title of this article does not make sense, do not worry. Video game translations have spawned such sites as the ever-popular Engrish.com, where examples of badly translated signs and products are posted for the users' enjoyment. To credit the quote of “All Your Base Are Belong To Us” for starting the Engrish website and other sites with the same mission.
Most of the video games released are programmed and designed in Japan. This makes for quite a variety of badly translated video game quotes for us to enjoy. If you feel guilty about laughing at the bad translations, rest assured that a few American games are just as badly translated into Japanese or the languages fo the countries where they are intended.
All Your Base Are Belong to Us for Great Justice
“All Your Base Are Belong to Us” is probably the most famous video game quote from a Japanese game called Zero Wing for the Sega 32X Master Drive. A Youtube video can show the determined search for the full and exact wording. Other notable statements from Zero Wing are "Somebody set us up the bomb" and "for great justice." As it is quoted word for word on any number of sites, the reader can assume that that is exactly how the text appears.
Those who wish to experience it for themselves should download a master drive emulator and the Zero Wing ROM. The game itself has been long forgotten, but the translation itself is memorable for being perhaps the worst video game quote of all time.
Other Genuinely Bad Video Game Quotes
Although Zero Wing's translators have earned their infamous place in the history of video games, there are some other genuinely bad quotes, and sometimes they are not mistranslations. Below is a brief and by no means comprehensive list of bad video game quotes.
- Capcom's Megaman: “Fight, Megaman! For Everlasting Peace." Anyone who believes in peace through superior firepower has no problem with the oxymoron in this bad video game quote.
- Professor Layton and the Curious Village: “Someday I will rain vengeance down upon you, and on that day you will wish for a raincoat, an umbrella, and maybe some galoshes.” The English of th is correct, but this bad video game quote makes the list for being bizarre.
- Hotel Mario: “Here's the problem. Too many toasters. You know what they say, all toasters toast toast.” The reader is left to wonder what the programmers meant by this horrible video game quote, or if it was a Japanese euphemism that did not translate well into English.
- Bad Dudes: “The president has been kidnapped by ninjas. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue the president?” Let us hope the pirates are out their doing their job of protecting us from ninjas. (The previous sentence derives from an ancient and time-honored Internet debate.)
Bad Video Game Quotes and the Writing in the Industry
Video games are not expected to be literary masterpieces, and the video game programmers and designers are not paid to edit their work. With voice acting becoming more and more common in games, translations by the native speakers will probably cause the truly bad English to be edited out. It is a shame though as it means that there will be no new competitors for genuinely bad video game quotes. That is, no competitors where a bad video game quote is the result of a mistranslation.
Sources
Zero Wing, Sega of Japan, 1998.
Megaman, Capcom of America, 1987.
Professor Layton and the Curious Village, Nintendo, 2008.
Hotel Mario, Nintendo, 1993.
Bad Dudes, Data East, 1998.
