At the Nintendo party earlier this week, I pulled aside Sega's Toshihiro Nagoshi (Super Monkey Ball) to talk about Yakuza's English dub. Titled Ryu ga Gotoku in Japanese, the game is one of the biggest budgeted ever and cost a cool 21 million US dollars. The game examined yakuza culture in great detail and paid close attention to the language, vocabulary and delivery Japanese gangsters use while speaking. Sega has decided to give the title an English language track, instead of subtitling the game.

"I think it's okay," Nagoshi said. "They've been taking the time to do it."

"But the language the yakuza use is so important," I replied.

"It is."

"It really helps you enter and understand that world. Don't you think it's a little strange to hear yakuza speak English?"

"It is a little strange, but people do this all the time with movies and books."