That's very tolerant of you, Dwriter, and maybe you think you are being picky even to notice. I may have given the impression I think so, too.

In fact it used to annoy me, and still does, that it's assumed any kind of approximation to English will do, especially as it costs nothing. After all, you wouldn't expect your new TV to explode or your car to run off the road on its own. Somehow when it comes to language it's assumed it doesn't matter. So I think you should complain about that game( if you can find out who made it) in no uncertain terms and say it spoiled your enjoyment, what a shame because otherwise you'd recommend it for your friends' children only they'd pick up bad English habits, etc.

Then maybe they'd start to respect the language and realise it's not just an add-on that's not important.

Good luck with the games anyway. I see ads for them at the cinema but all I've got on my Mac iBook is a marvellous (but childish) one called 'Bugdom'.

Sheila

There is another thing I think I have to bear in mind. Compared to English, the japanese language doesn't have that many words (at least so I believe), so things are not always 100% accurate when they translate to English. Indeed, the legendary winning speech from Streetfighter 2's Ryu "You must beat Sheng Long to stand a chance", should have been "You must beat my Dragon Punch to stand a chance" (as Sheng Long apparently means Dragon Punch in Chinese). So it's not uncommon for translations to be wrong.

I even heard there are no swearwords in Japan. When a character in Japan swears, they usually say something else, but louder.

Of course, I could be wrong in this, but it's just what I heard. I'm not trying to sound like a bigot and if it comes across like that, I apologise.

To be fair, when playing games, I think it's playablity that's important. So long as the game is at least playable, we can overlook the spelling errors. But that's just me.

Compared to English, I think no language has so many words. The Eastern language I'm familiar with is Chinese, and certainly there are not so many synonyms. If you're 'looking' at something it's always, as far as I know, going to be 'kan' - none of this nonsense about gazing, watching, etc. So yur point about the translation problem is well-founded. Sometimes when I want to read a film review in a language I don't know and there's a 'translate this page' option, I notice that computer translation, which they probably use for the games, is really very strange. As you say, it's English but not as we know it.

Sheila

So yur point about the translation problem is well-founded.

A spot of "Engrish" entered your comment I noticed. hehe.

Dwriter,

It might pay you to pick up a copy of The Elements of Style by Strunk and Whyte or Good Writing Guide by Collins. The Strunk and Whyte is a fabulous little book, but a little 'stuffy' at times. GWG is great for those moments when you have an 'apostrophe moment' or, as I did the other day, a 'who or whom moment'.

Steve