Everybody makes mistakes, and, when it comes to video game journalists, we're probably at the top of that list. But with the arrival of online publishing, it's become easier than ever for us writers to issue corrections whenever we do screw up, thanks to the ability to constantly update and alter our work.
Unfortunately, though, this wasn't really the case for our predecessors working in print back in the '90s, who often had to live with their mistakes — no matter how bad or embarrassing they could be.
The reason we are saying all this is because a review of Puyo Puyo SUN for the Sega Saturn seems to be doing the rounds online again (thanks to the YouTuber Kenny Lauderdale) where the author made the strange and hilarious error of accidentally renaming the game to "Ijidkijidk SUN" after misinterpreting the Japanese hiragana for Puyo Puyo ("ぷよぷよ") for a bunch of letters from the Latin alphabet.
To give the writer the benefit of the doubt, it's easy to see how something like this could happen, as journalists often have to review things outside of their comfort zone and quickly get up to speed while staring down a tight deadline. So the writer or editor may have never heard of the other versions of Puyo Puyo and may have been operating on very little sleep. But it seems kind of bold of the person putting the finishing touches together to simply assume that they could take a look at the Japanese logo and try to pick out English characters that aren't really there like it was some sort of odd Japanese Rorschach test.
While no source for the review was originally given in the screenshot being shared around, we quickly identified it as being from the first issue of Saturn Power. This was a short-lived UK Magazine, which launched in June 1997 as a successor to Sega Power, but only lasted for 10 issues before its parent company Future Publishing pulled the plug.
The review in question was part of a small collection of import reviews — all from a single writer (who shall remain nameless) — with the game scoring a respectable 84%, despite the magazine's struggles to get its name right.
Did you read Saturn Power back in the day? Do you remember this review? Let us know in the comments!
[source x.com]
Comments 12
Hmm
7,-A°-4'J,t7j#,-7, is not Super Mario Bros?
Typing a bunch of random letters as the name doesn't sound particularly "hilarious". I understand people weren't so considerate in the '90s but it's not really "funny" to bring up again.
Also, is that GameFan, the same magazine that was previously reportedly to have had, like, a Madden review or something where the writer wrote a really racist thing to their friend as "filler" text then forgot to replace the text with the actual game review before it went to print? It could've been GamePro, but I've heard stories about the GameFan writers. I also heard reports that their review of Cybermorph for the Jaguar was written while under heavy narcotics influence, according to one of the streamers I watch who did a read through of that full issue once.
@KingMike
I didn't see it at first either (my brain automatically reads the letters). But on twitter someone made an image showing it.
Separating each out and colouring coding them.
The yo letter for example looks kinda like a dk stuck together.
I now cannot unsee it. I'd class this as a great example of pareidolia. Not knowing the JP script, he forcibly reinterpreted the symbols.
I kinda like it. I don't say that in a mean way. I'm sincerely in awe of the elastic imagination which allowed it.
I think, also, it says a lot about the human ability to reframe information based on limited background knowledge and context, and misinterpret it as something else.
I don't mock the writer of that review. Any one of us can misinterpret things if we have don't have all the information. Their error is a great (and amusing) lesson to us all.
@KingMike
Are you seriously getting your jimmies rustled over someone essentially typing grawlix? Taz would like a word.
I think the bigger issue is that they treated this like an all-new Tetris "clone", having apparently never heard of Kirby's Avalanche/Ghost Trap or Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine! (Or, you know, Puyo Puyo itself, seeing as they also covered imports.)
@smoreon
as Games were discribed as Doom Clones and Diablo Clones.
Nothing special making it an Issue.
There was no Didyouknowgaming back then.
@Azuris My point was more that they seemingly had no clue what Puyo Puyo was, even despite there being multiple western releases at that time.
But yeah, that trend of calling things "Doom clone", etc., was especially prevalent back then- now we just add "-like" to the end of everything (e.g., soulslike), which is obviously different and so much better! The more things change...
This is kinda hillarious.
@Nahhhtendo Well, when it is a "professional" magazine writing about a Japanese game and clearly not making any attempt at getting the game title correct, that is a different thing than Taz-speak.
Never seen such a thing out of EGM, who'd sometimes make up names but at least make up plausible names.
Oh Boi, I Do Love The ljidk Ijidk Franchise
The thing that bugs me the most about this is that the writer calls the game a "ripoff" of Tetris, or even going as far to say as that it's a "clone" of the aforementioned game. "I hope somebody got fired for that blunder!"
@MarioFan41 Oh yeah, and the IjidkIjidk Sun was preeeetty dumb, ngl
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