If you like Mario Kart and are a fan of the series' long-running history, this latest video from the same YouTube Channel behind Boundary Break (Shesez) is a must-watch.
It investigates the regional differences in Nintendo's popular kart racing series - from different announcers in Mario Kart 64 to the different physical packaging of Super Mario Kart in the US and Japan.
Perhaps one of the better-known regional differences in Super Mario Kart, in particular, is the trophy celebration. In the Japanese version of the game, the winning racer can be seen drinking a bottle of champagne on the podium.
There are all sorts of changes (some small, some big), so check them out below:
Did you learn anything new from this video? Leave a comment down below.
[source youtube.com, via gonintendo.com]
Comments 23
I have never played Mario Kart 64 but judging from both version differences, I prefer the Japanese version for having slightly better voice over.
The English dub sounds a little bit fake.
I think the Japanese announcer voice sounds better than Mario's voice by Charles Martinet in my opinion.
It was so stupid to get rid of the champagne bottle. Like you can even tell what's in the bottle or a kid would care! Nintendo of America's censorship was ridiculous in the SNES era.
I like Mario and friends sober.
It’s ridiculous to equate a bottle of fizzing drink with alcohol. It could be sparkling apple juice.
It sums americas issues up in a nutshell. Always looking in the wrong places for the ills of society.
It seems to be the “western angry eyebrows” phenomenon - all the Japanese voices sound cuter. And some of them appear to have been used in later games, is that possible?
For Mario Kart 64, the Japanese voice-overs are shared with all regional voices of Mario Party characters from the sounds of it, even reusing some.
japan snes is cooler, us 64 has funnier voices
JP version of Mario Kart 64 had cool sponsors around the track which were a parody of brands sponsoring F1 around that time
@Incognito_D This comment confused me. The US MK64 also had those sponsor banners around the tracks. Were they different from the JP version?
@calbeau Yes, the Japanese version has different ones, such as a parody of Marlboro cigarettes (Marioro) which unsurprisingly was nixed by NoA almost immediately.
Don't agree with the people saying JP MK64's voice clips are better, I much prefer the Western voices, and was annoyed even as a kid when Mario Party 1/2 used what I now know to be the JP MK64 voice clips in all regions.
@Rosalinho Ah, didn't know that. Then again, I've only ever played the US version. Thanks for the clarification.
A winner is you!!
Wow did that take me back. If I remember correctly the Japan version released about 6 months or so before the US version. There was a small local video game shop near us that had the Japanese version available to play. It was one of those places that had TV's and consoles set up and you could rent time to play whatever from 10 minutes to like 2 hours or something. My brothers and I would go over there and rent up a bunch of time and play it from time to time. They also were selling the Japanese version that came with the controller. We all debated for weeks we should not wait and put our money together to buy it. In those days we were the "cool" kids on the block that had a N64 because they were really hard to find still. The neighborhood kids would always be knocking on the door to play or even just get a glimpse of Mario 64 or whatever we had. Anyways we didn't end up buying the Japanese version but we wanted to so bad because we knew if we did we'd be promoted to Legendary God Tier status on the block
@Rosalinho I completely agree that the US voices are better. In the US at the time, at least, it made more sense to do it since it made players connect the unique voice to the Super Mario 64 game and get ppl used to Charles Martinet’s talent.
I think there’s a bunch of things odd to me with the first handful of comments. I guess as adults it makes sense to say, “gee that could be sparkling apple cider or soda. Why does Nintendo have to have such a deal?” But children don’t associate as most adults do with “oh it must be a soda or non alcoholic” when the bottles are clearly resembling as such in other media. Children are impressionable and some things are worth the effort changing. Some mimic what they see, some think the behavior is acceptable. I appreciate they took the time to make those changes - the differences are zero big deal themselves anyway.
@Magrane Nintendo of America ruins the developer's vision on their localizations a lot of times. They are overly concerned about alcohol and body parts, but ultra relaxed with guns and violence. In the past they hated cute games too, this at least changed over the years.
Anyway, thats the price we pay for a readable alphabet.
A majority of the Japanese voice dubbed from Mario Kart 64 were re-used for Mario Kart: Super Circuit for GBA.
@Jhena
A drink does not equal drunk.
Cardboard packaging and cool instruction books, I miss those days but on the upside at least Nintendo is far more lenient with its censorship these days.
@FatWormBlowsASparky
True. Still I like it when heros don't drink at all.
@Stocksy
"It’s ridiculous to equate a bottle of fizzing drink with alcohol. It could be sparkling apple juice.
It sums americas issues up in a nutshell. Always looking in the wrong places for the ills of society."
Some guy at Nintendo decides to censor something and that means Americans are screwed up? Sega didn't censor blood from Mortal Kombat 2 and it did better than the Nintendo censored version. "The SNES version was developed by Sculptured Software. Because of poor sales of the censored SNES version of the original game, Nintendo decided to allow depictions of blood and Fatalities this time around." That's a quote form Mortal Kombat 2 wiki and how Nintendo was forced to allow things because the market liked it. Seems maybe Americans don't care about these things afterall and maybe Nintendo's censorship policies actually had nothing to do with what Americans are like.
@Clyde_Radcliffe The original arcade Punch-Out and Super Punch-Out (different from the later SNES title) featured an opponent named Vodka Drunkenski. He became Soda Popinski in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out/Punch-Out featuring Mr. Dream. Nintendo was very wary of entering the US home market because of the 1980 crash, and was not taking any risks. "Family Values" were a hot button issue in 1980's America. Video games were still seen as primarily for children. No nudity, profanity, religious symbolism, excessive violence and/or gore, booze, or smoking allowed. This policy continued through the early 90's until the SNES port of Mortal Kombat replaced blood with sweat (despite Street Fighter II: The World Warrior already featuring blood and vomit effects), and modified the fatalities. Even though the game looked better on SNES, it had input lag issues, and in combination with the 'softening' of the violence, it took a backseat to the uglier but more arcade-accurate Mega Drive/Genesis port in both sales and critical reception. When the SNES MK2 was announced, it carried an M rating, and Nintendo has gone by ESRB ever since, with some title-specific exceptions.
@abdias Thank you for that perspective. You’re right that the US and Japanese especially back then were opposites in their tastes regarding nudity and violence.
@Stocksy Maybe for Bowser, but Peach was definitely drinking alcohol.
While the kids might not care, the ratings boards would care, and "Mario Kart 64" wouldn't have sold as well if it had been rated T or possibly even M.
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