Bridging the Gap - The cultural exchange thread

[Gors]

- What's the deal with the PS4 being $1800 in Brazil?! Can you just give a crash course for other users what the ridiculous taxes on gaming stuff entails?
Long story short, Brazil considers games as "gambling", so that factors into the tax. Additionally, games are usually import goods and also electronic devices, which further raises the tax value. This, along with shit practices when dealing with foreign money and overall difficulty with industry support, caused Nintendo to leave the Brazilian market, which makes their products literally luxurious items 

- Similar question: As a result, what's the gaming scene like in Brazil? I've heard it described as a bizarro place where Sega won the 90's console wars...?? And the Sega Genesis was recently rereleased there?!
Yes, Brazil was amidst a Military Dictatorial government from 1960 to 1980's, which closed our market to anything foreign. This meant videogames in general, as they were foreign products. This caused the NES to be released only in 1995 in Brazil, way later than everywhere else in the world.
However, Sega saw potential in the Brazilian market and struck a deal with Brazilian toymaker "TECTOY" so that they could produce Sega products nationally - TECTOY even made graphic hacks of some games to include popular Brazilian characters, such as Mônica and Geraldinho. They even went as far as completely localizing Shining In The Darkness in Brazilian Portuguese, something unheard of at the time.
In this deal, TECTOY is able to sell refurbished Sega consoles - this is why the Master System is still sold, and as you said, the new Mega Drive is a thing.

This doesn't mean that Nintendo was completely inexistant in Brazil. The Phantom system and Dynavision were NES clones that were quite popular at the time, and when the SNES was launched, many people would play on rental stores, much like how an internet café works - you pay for a couple hours and then you leave. If you could afford to buy a console, you could rent carts, too.

- I can easily imagine Italian cuisine coming from an Italian heritage family, hence why I didn't ask Ken a similar question - what are Brazilian meals like?
Brazilian meals are basically rice, bean stew, beef steak, salad and some other accompainment. Bean and rice is a combination that is ubiquitous in Brazil, due to its nutritional value and ease of produce.

- What's the absolute worst Brazilian take on sushi you've seen?
strawberry and nutella roll. why did this need to exist

- WHY DO YALL PUT CREAM CHEESE ON PIZZA??? SIGNED, A FAT AMERICAN WHO CONSUMES CHEESE REGULARLY
You are wrong, it's not cream cheese, it's catupiry cheese, a genuinely Brazilian kind of cheese, invented by Italian immigrant Mario Silvestrini in the state of Minas Gerais. It's a popular topping on snacks like chicken croquets (coxinha) and pastries.

- ok I'll cut the shit are FIFA hacks like the most popular thing among normies right now
B O M B A P A T C H 1 0 0 % A T U A L I Z A D O

- What's the weirdest "Americanized" food you've seen in your country? (Like a hamburger made with the assumption "This is what Americans eat in America", but it's very clearly a mindset in your country)
America already produces weird americanized products, no need to do anything about it

- Favorite regional-exclusive McDonald's item?
I prefer Burger King

- Best local pizza topping?
chicken heart pizza