This Is How Advance Wars Was Censored In China

Weeks ago, a dozen of fully translated Game Boy Advance titles planned for launch in mainland China that never saw the light were auctioned online. These games were never officially released as the Chinese government did not approve them during the video game ban.

Thanks to Forest of Illusion which has dumped these titles, dataminers and other players are trying to find out what Nintendo and iQue have changed or censored in these games. One of the games that was censored is Advance Wars.

According to Chinese Nintendo, the only commanding officer who saw a makeover in the Chinese iQue version of Advance Wars was Kanbei. In the Chinese version, Kanbei’s mustache and beard were removed, his Katana was taken away, and his uniform was changed:

Instead of Orange Star fighting Kanbei’s Imperial Forces, the Chinese version had Red Star fighting Kanbei’s Special Forces:

In the western version of Advance Wars, Kanbei believes he is a modern samurai, but in the Chinese version, he thinks he’s a modern Zhang Fei instead. Not just that, his winning expression has also been changed:

These changes could be attributed to how imperialism is negatively viewed in mainland China, and how Nintendo wanted to avoid any connotations to the Japanese invaders in World War II.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.