What's with random British censorship in games/TV?

[Tornado]

Now, I'm not speaking of anything remotely related to the Manhunt 2 bit bubbling over in the opinions subforum, but this is a question harking back to my 16-bit youth. I've noticed that a few rather innocent games have odd edits surrounding them, and I am wondering if this has to do with some political witchhunt that was happening at the time or something.
For example, we have the obvious Contra to Probotector stuff:

But there is also weirder stuff like censoring out the word "Ninja" from seemingly everything:

Then we have completely random stuff, such as editing of flowers out of the PAL release of Treasure Land Adventure:

Did Contra Ninjas (or Ninja Contras) invade Europe with Flower guns in the mid 80's, or something, because they never told us that in Global History.

 

[Famine]

Now, I'm not speaking of anything remotely related to the Manhunt 2 bit bubbling over in the opinions subforum, but this is a question harking back to my 16-bit youth. I've noticed that a few rather innocent games have odd edits surrounding them, and I am wondering if this has to do with some political witchhunt that was happening at the time or something.
For example, we have the obvious Contra to Probotector stuff:

But there is also weirder stuff like censoring out the word " " from seemingly everything:

Then we have completely random stuff, such as editing of out of the PAL release of Treasure Land Adventure:

Did Contra (or Contras) invade Europe with in the mid 80's, or something, because they never told us that in Global History.

Your post doesn't seem to make much sense to me...

 

[Jedi2016]

I don't know about Contra or the others, but I remember reading something where British censors had decided that all things "ninja" implied nothing more than brutal violence and thus had to be changed.

Does make games like Ninja Gaiden somewhat worthless, since that's the whole point of the game.. you're a frikkin' NINJA for cryin' out loud.

 

[Race Idiot]

God England sucks I swear if I ever meet an english person I will punch them in the face

 

[ExigeEvan]

What have the American's got against Philosophers?

It's just a regional marketing trend. You guys can't say philosopher's, we don't care for ninjas?

 

[Tornado]

What have the American's got against Philosophers?

You know, I knew that you were going to pop in here with that. I must personally say its an apples to oranges thing anyways. One could probably argue that the first Harry Potter book was renamed to help explain the setting.
And I can say philosopher, thank you.

 

[Wolfe]

What have the American's got against Philosophers?
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It's just a regional marketing trend. You guys can't say philosopher's, we don't care for ninjas?

It's because we americans are stupid and would be confused by the original title -- "Huh? Philosophers? I thought they were wizards."

Both the book and the motion picture were released in the United States with the revised title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The book's American editor Arthur Levine, who was responsible for translating primarily British English words and spellings to American English, felt that Philosopher's Stone conveyed an incorrect idea of the subject matter, and that a title change was necessary. Rowling and Levine had agreed to change words only when they felt that it would otherwise be incomprehensible to American readers. Several alternate titles were discussed, and Rowling chose Sorcerer's Stone in the end. The translations in the American Edition led to criticism by many readers. The New York Times ran an article titled "Harry Potter, Minus a Certain Flavour" on 10 July 2000, which heavily criticized Scholastic's decision to Americanize the US Harry Potter editions. Many felt that the translations insulted the intelligence of the American public (for example changing "Mum" to "Mom"). In their editions of the sequels, Scholastic did not Americanize the text as much and did not change the titles.

 

[Keef]

What have the American's got against Philosophers?

It's just a regional marketing trend. You guys can't say philosopher's, we don't care for ninjas?

Ooooo, "philosopher". Exciting. If you want to make money on a movie in America, it's title better be a good one, and it'd be sweet if the movie was badass, too. Aristotle wasn't exactly exciting. But Sorcerers are evil and mysterious and they do black evil magic and have that laugh and...Aristotle wore a robe.

Maybe British folk are prone to heart attacks or seizures and can't take the excitement, so the government dumbs everything down.

 

[Famine]

It's because we americans are stupid and would be confused by the original title -- "Huh? Philosophers? I thought they were wizards."

I think the worry at the time was that Americans wouldn't necessarily understand what a "Philosopher's Stone" was. Which is of course, wholly unjustified.

Ooooo, "philosopher". Exciting. If you want to make money on a movie in America, it's title better be a good one, and it'd be sweet if the movie was badass, too. Aristotle wasn't exactly exciting. But Sorcerers are evil and mysterious and they do black evil magic and have that laugh and...Aristotle wore a robe.

Oh, wait.

 

[Keef]

Wait, indeed. Your theory is plausible--seeing as I didn't know what a philosopher's stone was--but mine is just as applicable, since Hollywood is all about grabbing attention and making money.

 

[Sureboss]

God England sucks I swear if I ever meet an english person I will punch them in the face

You were quite slow at the meet then?