I think everyone except me are wrong here.
You guys who don' t care, you care too little.
You guys who do care seem to care waaay too much.

ORIGINAL: Virtua fighter 5

should we care?? really? Not as if one man is superior than others

Superman is.

Apparently.

Cry me a fu****g river already!!!!!!!!!

Don' t like it, then move to some other fu****g commy country that will use force to prevent you from ever having to see or hear anything you deem as offensive. Democracy means freedom of speech, even if some people don' t like it, and that' s it.

When the hell did the world turn into a bunch of winy cry babies? How about we all grow up!!!!!!!! There are a lot worse things in the world that need to be changed before we even look at political correctness. Makes me sick!!!!!

Look here you insensitive little prick, it' s not about political ***ing correctness, it' s about good old basic human compassion, something that a lot of you ignorant wankers don' t have.

Spastics have more guts, compassion and dignity then half of you little ***ing gobshites on here, whining about your 360 showing the red ring or this game not being on the PS3, my god if that is all you can think about the human race is ***ed. It has nothing to do with having freedom of speech it is about common decency to people that go through more in their lives than half of you whiny wankers.

To put the record straight my sister was born with severe physical and mental handicaps due to complications at birth, she struggled through 5 years of life with a smile on her face, unfortunately she wasn' t able to fight off some of the more common diseases that you insensitive ***s cry off work with. She died 19 years ago and every year since I have made sure that I try and raise as much money as I can, I even continued this during active service in the Royal Air Force during the 1st gulf war. So as you can see this is something that is not about political correctness or freedom of speech it is about real people who suffer but still carry on regardless.

Ok, it seems we' re getting a little personal and emotional here.
Words are important because they are filled with meaning that affect our lifes. Some people can' t see the affect or symbolism words can have and have a hard time understanding why others care so much.
But we who do understand the weight of words should also understand why some people would rather not put weight on words. Getting upset and resorting to insults is not the way to make things better.
I' m sorry to hear about your sister Alistair, but I do not think she, or any person with illness such as hers, would be happy if they knew you get upset and resort to angry outbursts because people can' t see how they suffered.

That' s a very nice thing to do, alijay. But I think one of the points of the thread was to see if the word was as offensive to others as it was for British people. It seems as if the British are the only ones who use the adjective " spastic" exclusively for people with cerebral palsy.
So the issue was not really about disrespect or lack of compassion from the translator' s side from what I' ve gathered. More of a misunderstanding and a different perception of using a word, depending on where the person lives.

There IS a lack of compassion among many forum users here though. Or at least their attitude shows signs of that.

Ok, READ THIS on Wikipedia. It pretty much explains a lot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spastic

" The word spastic is used differently depending on location, which has led to some controversy and misunderstanding."

IN THE UK
" A sufferer of spasticity. This usage is generally believed to have been popularized from its use in the name of The Spastics Society, a charity for people with cerebral palsy. As a result of the next listed usage, this usage has become offensive to many. "

IN THE US
" In American slang, the term " spaz" is generally inoffensive, most Americans considering it casual slang for clumsiness, sometimes associated from overexcitement, excessive energy, or hyperactivity."

I do feel it is inapporiate to use the term " spaz" or " spastic" even in the US but only if the word comes directly from the British word " spastic" .
I mean, how respectful is it? If we replace the word " spastic" with what it really means, the Wii game would be saying:
" Let' s turn this train into a goofy clumsy thing like those handicaped people"
Not very respectful.

Yes I agree that words have different meanings all over the world. That is not at question, it is the fact that a " Global" company like Nintendo have released a game in the UK with a word that to all intents and purposes means, to be disabled. why use it, surely someone in the lofty towers of Nintendo Towers must have realised it? Think of it as someone going to the states and burning the stars and stripes, it' s not the same thing I here some of you say, yes it is, it is showing disrespect toward a country, albeit by other means.
Nintendo should and I am sure they do have a QA department, which should look into the regions where the game is being sold in and should change the language to suit that said region, not only that perhaps they should buy a thesaurus.....Oh and BTW I also feel that Nintendo should offer an apology in the way of money to fund research.