Dengeki PlayStation Vol.103 (April 9, 1999)

Japan doesn't bother releasing most Western games.  But when they do, it's interesting to see how they market them.  Case in point, Spyro the Dragon.  I like Spyro.  I find it a very relaxing game to play.  Just run around looking for hidden gems or whatever (forgive me, it's been 20 years since I played it) without too much danger or difficulty.  Which is appropriate, as it's essentially a kids' game.  So how does Japan market it?  As seen in this issue's ad, Spyro zooms by, blowing up Japanese school girls' skirts.  Because someone looked at the game and thought "what this childrens' game's ad campaign needs is a little bit of sex."  Of course, the Japanese release of Spyro was a mess since they mucked with the camera while trying to cater to the common (at that time) Japanese complaint that 3D cameras made people get motion sickness (I call bullshit, but whatever.  Japan eventually realized that 3D was here to stay, so this isn't a complaint heard anymore.)    So, the Japanese version probably deserved to fail as it did.  But you can also take a gander at the Japanese logo for Spyro if you want to see where the American developers got the idea to name Spyro 2's villain, since the stylized katakana for Spyro looks a lot like alphabet characters spelling "Ripto."