the misspelling of charles martinet might be from katakana.. there it would be spelled based on sound, and the T is silent so something like マルティネー maybe? and then it was re-romanized wrongly
Toad's voice is actually preferable in the Japanese version. At least in my opinion. The others I prefer the US version. Maybe that's the nostalgia talking, but oh well.
Hey! I just wanted to let you know, in case you were wondering, that "hyuudoro" is supposed to be a ghost noise, like the equivalent of "woooo" or, you know, maybe even "boo"? Makes me wonder why they didn't go with Boo Boardwalk on the US side, but to be fair, if you say "hyuudoro" out loud in a ghostly voice, it really does kind of sound Banshee-like. Go ahead. Try it. Camera's not rolling. ;D
I think in Japan drinking doesn’t have the negative connotations it does in the west, and is often used as a comedic device in various media…in a weird way, showing peach with flushed cheeks as she guzzles champagne is likely intended to reinforce her innocence (she is neither used to the alcohol nor how you’re supposed to take it)
Japan is an alcoholic culture. "nominication" (combining the Japanese word "nomi" which means to drink, and the English word communication) is an accepted cultural norm in many big businesses, where nobody is expected to be fully speaking their mind unless everyone is drunk. It's common for a salaryman's work day to not end with going home, but with overtime work followed by their boss taking everyone to drink, regardless of whether or not they wanna go home. The presence of acetaldehyde is the main contributor to getting red cheeks when drunk. I think (this is speculation) that East Asian peoples do not break down acetaldehyde as well as some other peoples. Add that to their generally lower weight, it is common to see that redness in the face used as a joke or way to show someone is drunk, cos it's common irl. Alcoholism is a big problem in Japan they can't address because lol the suicide rate would skyrocket source: 1272 hours playing Yakuza games
@@AdamOwenBrowning Japanese work and drinking culture are astonishing in that they actually manage to make American work and drinking culture look better by comparison. There is a reason people who work too much are called work- _aholics_ as opposed to anything else: It's deadly, addictive, and it'll easily take over your life. Capitalism is the worst
tbh they're actually significantly more... 'conservative' if that's the term you want.. about drinking. it's just they don't care about DEPICTING things. The idea that seeing something in fiction makes you do it is very much more a *here* thing.
Ahh the good 'ol days back when Luigi was French, Wario was German but they mostly spoke English, Toad didn't smoke 5 packs a day, and Yoshi had weird orchestra drum beat hits and whistles for a voice...
The french Guy who did Luigi's voice in the japanese version is also the french translator of Zelda OOT and pokémon for exemple (is name is : julien bardakoff)
@@garrybaldeagle the french voice actor actually Translated Mario 64, Zelda OOT and the two first generations of Pokemon, a French RU-vidr (Farod) interviewed him about the origins of the pokemons french names
I believe the announcer in the Japanese version not only wasn’t credited but never got paid for these recordings, he recorded some voice sambles for another game (if I recall Wave Race 64) and Nintendo just snuck in these few extra lines where he read the script but was never told was for another game, might be why NoA decided to re-record these lines with Charles Martinet.
This ^ I came down just to say this because it’s really shady what Nintendo Did at the time. This being said, do quite enjoy his voice, great announcer for wave race 64
I believe this was covered by a Did You Know Gaming episode once. They even contacted the original VA, who was a radio host I believe, and he didn’t even know his voice was reused.
1:25 fun fact: it's not just some random guy, it's actually the waveracer 64 guy that was asked to do some "extra recordings" which then Nintendo used later in this game
The announcer in the Japanese version of Mario Kart 64 is actually Hawaiian actor/radio host John Hulaton, who also voiced the announcer in Wave Race 64, his voice was also used in all regions for Mario Kart: Super Circuit (albeit without credit, and he didn't even know his voice was used in Super Circuit until DYKG told him).
@@thecianinator Nah, I think that might just be Charles Martinet, he did all male character voices in Super Mario Advance, and only him and Jen Taylor are credited as VAs there
in the original version of wario, the one from japan, wario was supposed to have a german essence, but when charlie went to dub him, no one notified him that he was supposed to be german, so he became italian
EXTREMELY minor correction, but figured I'd give it anyway for your own future reference in case something similar comes up again: Yoshi is not saying "Give me! Coin", he's just saying "Give me coin" -- that's not an exclamation point, it's a vowel extender bar and a raised dot. Written horizontally, it would be ギブミー・コイン, but since it's written vertically, the vowel extender bar shows as a vertical line rather than a horizontal one. The extender is necessary to fully form the katakana version of the English word "me," which is ミー (mii) in Japanese. Without the extender bar, it would just be ミ (mi), which would cut off a little too sharply to sound like English to most Japanese ears. (And yeah, Yoshi is speaking "English" there, for some reason; the Japanese reads as "gibumii koin," which is literally a Japanese phonetic equivalency of the English words "give me coin.")
Hearing Wario's Japanese voice in Mario Kart 64, Martinet's changes to make Wario's voice deeper over time makes a bit more sense as not only is he getting older but it was likely done to make his voice closer to what Nintendo of Japan seemed to picture for the character. Though I still personally really miss the higher pitched voice Wario had in these N64/GBA/GCN era games.
Yeah, I prefer Wario's older, higher-pitched voice myself, though I think the change was also made to distinguish him more from Waluigi. Hearing Wario's Japanese voice in MK64 also explains why he sounded the way he did in Super Circuit and the early Mario Party games, which I remember hating because it sounded so different from how he sounded in the US version of MK64.
The only other recent time Charles Martinet brought back the higher pitched voice for Wario was in WarioWare Gold, before the final boss. Granted, it's not as high as it was in the N64/GCN days, but it's less like how it is in, say, Mario Kart Wii or something.
Fun fact: Wario in the Japanese version of MK64 says "So ein Mist!" when hit by a shell or a banana, which is German that literally translates to "such manure" but more sensibly translated into English would be a PG version of saying "that's bullshit!"
The Luigi voice kind of makes sense. They japanese version made him talk like Mario does, with high pitch voice and all the excited "yahoos" and what not. Although it just sounds like someone doing a bad Mario impression.
my brother has autism and absolutely loves Mario Kart. him hearing the different voice actors from the Japanese region surely made his day, he couldn't help himself from laughing at just how different they sounded. Thank you for this video.
I believe the Japanese announcer is the same one from Waverace 64 and Luigi's voice in Japan is the main French localizer that Nintendo used for Pokemon games back then,. Peach is also voiced by a localizer but she was a native Japanese speaker at the time so she sounds a bit goofy. Toad's voice i have no clue. Wario is voiced by the German localizer for, again, Pokemon games Nintendo used. Fun fact about Luigi's voice in Japan the French localizer wanted to voice toad instead of Luigi but the guy in charge in the recording studio thought he suited Luigi better. That guy was Koji Kondo and the French localizer didn't know that at the time and just argued with him since he wanted to voice toad.
Luigi's Japan voice is the one from Mario Party 1 & 2! Also I just noticed Peach's, Toad's and Wario's voices were later reused for other N64 or other titles. The Japan Peach was reused for Super Circuit and Toad's Japan voice was used for the N64 Mario Party games. Same with Japan Wario for Mario Party 1 & 2.
@@GCTubaTim i think it is since the voices were very inconsistent throughout that entire era. Hell Luigi was voiced by two people that entire era. Sometimes even in the same game. If you want you can watch Thomas Game Docs videos on character voices over the years and how they've changed.
Japanese Wario has one of the most misunderstood lines imo. It's "So ein Mist!" (meaning "What a load of crap!" in german) not "D'oh i missed!" like many seem to believe.
So I wasn't tripping. When this line was shown in the video I immediately heard "So ein Mist". Got really confused if I was hearing right. Seems kinda out of place, since everything else is this mixed english with italian accent and the occasional "mamma mia". Also pretty unusual to hear an actual swear word in a Mario game.
He also laughs in German: after the shell hits he says 'Jaaaa! Hahahaha' (Yeeees! Hahahaha). At first I thought he was yelling 'yeaaaaah hahahaha' with a silly accent but the more I listened to it, the more I am convinced that line is in German as well.
The interesting thing about Kinopio Highway being renamed to Toad’s Turnpike is that it’s technically a less accurate name, since the N64 version lacks any evidence of being a toll road, which is what a turnpike is, but they addressed this when they remade the track in Mario Kart 8 by adding a turnpike service area by the starting line.
@@Retro_Red similarly the mario localizers enjoy adding extra food theme naming in these, so karakara to kalamari works on a few levels. I actually can't remember offhand if that's _wholly_ a localization thing or if plenty of canon locales have those terms too. I know the "donut lifts" in mario are called chikuwa, which is a lot more accurate. actually they look more like sliced kamaboko than chikuwa.
@@Retro_Red Alliteration was actually a major part of Anglo-Saxon poetry (along with compound word riddles calling kennings), as the inflectional endings English used to have made rhyming too cumbersome--with rhyme being taken from French poetry. One will even find it a fair bit in the original text of Beowulf.
It’s interesting that the “bunched-up” version of the Super Mario Kart logo is the one that’s persisted for years, even internationally! If you look at Super Mario Galaxy, you’ll see that same overlap between the M and the A in “Mario”
I noticed that too, and as a graphic designer I'm wondering why they stuck with it if it's slightly illegible to players who read in the Latin alphabet -- but I think it's become enough of a mish-mash that it becomes more of an imagery logo to Japanese and other non-Romanized language readers that it's immediately recognizable. Pretty cool, but would've been super overhauled if Nintendo originated in a western country!
@@birdie8006 I have a hunch that they kept the overlapping design in Mario 64 to allude to the logo being “3D,” since for many players it would be the very first thing they see when using their N64 for the first time. I’m not a graphic designer though! So I could be way off base
21:20 Funny side note: The 3DS version of that round "64" sign in Luigi's Raceway goes back to the original orange-and-blue colors even in the American release.
I think it's very sweet they use the Furigana above Kanji in the manuals as they know a lot of kids will read the manual and so make it as easy as possible for kids who won't know many kanji.
Some of the Japanese character voice clips for Luigi, Peach, Toad and Wario were carried over for Super Circuit on the GBA, so old voice lines were reused while the GameCube was coming out with games with the updated voice cast lol
If im not mistaken I'm pretty sure that Japanese voice actors in 64 for luigi, peach, toad, and wario are the same ones in mario Kart super circuit on the GBA. So either they brought back the voice actors to reprise there role and get them to do some of the same lines or the ripped some of the lines from 64 on to super circuit
It’s crazy how different some of the voices are, and that in some cases what Nintendo went with for the US release is what became the canonised voices globally.
Using the word canon to describe a voice actor... The only one that stuck was Charles Martinet...and his voices for Wario & Luigi weren't consistent until the latter half of the Gamecube's life.
@@SonicmaniaVideos I would say beginning of the GameCube era. By Mario Party 3 (a Nintendo 64 game), all of Wario and Luigi's lines were done by Charles Martinet. The only game that still used the Japanese Mario Kart 64 voices during this era was Mario Kart: Super Circuit, which came out on GBA. This game basically reused the Japanese Mario Kart 64 clips. Luigi's Mansion was the game, in my opinion, that really solidified Charles as Luigi's voice actor, as this was his first solo game that Nintendo developed in-house.
The first couple of Mario Party games on the N64 used the same voice actors for Luigi, Toad, Peach and Wario as in the Japanese version of Mario Kart. I distinctly remember Luigi and Toad sounding really different, as well as Wario being German (which apparently meant he was ‘evil’ in Japanese lol)
Peach's Japanese voice is kind of adorable, especially the way she muddles English, "get lady?". American sounds like she's got a mouth full of mashed potatoes.
Like a bunch of other people noticed, the Japanese Mario Kart 64 audio clips were in the American version of super circuit! I did a lot of time as Toad and Luigi, so those stood out as making me nostalgic, haha
Re: the Jugemo fable, I was just thinking the other day about a story my teacher or something read when I was in kindergarten to the class, that had basically exactly that story, but the name was instead "Rikki Tikki Tambo" etc., and he fell down a well instead of a river. Not even sure which culture it was supposed to have come from, it was so long ago.
My sister was in a school play based on that in grade school some twenty-odd years ago. It was "Rikki Rikki Tambo" then too. I only heard one reference to it since then and the later names were distinctly different, so there's probably at least a couple versions going around. Jugemo definitely sounds like the basis of it.
@@joshmakarenko5809 no-unrelated. The story everyone is naming is Tikki Tikki Tembo and is about two brothers, one with a simple short name and the eldest having an extravagant name en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tikki_Tikki_Tembo
This unlocked a memory for me! I had been reading the manga Akane-banashi, a manga about rakugo in which the Jugemu story is a key plot point. It made me remember what I thought was a children's book version of Jugemu that I remembered reading a very long time ago, but it was actually Tikki Tikki Tembo!
When I bought a region free pikachu n64 the seller gave me a copy of japanese mario kart 64 and wow I was really surprised at the differences while playing especially Peach's voice lines
Is it me or are some of the Japanese voices (or at least voice actors?) used in the US Mario Party games? (At least 1 and 2). I recognized the voices! That's so cool if true! Thank you for the video!
I've got a 2022 Super Mariokart calendar. It's really interesting, most of the art is faithful to the box and manual art for Super Mariokart, but some of it is updated. Stuff like Yoshi sitting in the kart and Lakitu pulling Mario out of the water is the same, but Lakitu's traffic light has the modern, horizontal look instead of the vertical one on the front of the manual. Neat stuff.
I first encountered the Jugemu name via a fullmetal alchemist edit for some reason I always thought it was just some ridiculous name string they picked for laughs, so it's really cool to learn the actual story behind it!
What is interesting to me is that many of the japanese drivers' sound clips from mario 64 are in the european (and I suppose american as well) version of Mario Kart Super Circuit on Gameboy Advance.
This was so weird to me because some of the Japanese voice lines sound way more familiar than the American lines because they used the Japanese voices for Mario Party 2 as well! Luigi, Toad, and some of Peach and Wario (Specifically the laughs caught my ear) Very strange!
Peach is voiced by Leslie Swan of Nintendo Power for the Western releases. She first voiced Peach in Super Mario 64 but the Japanese version didn’t get her voice until the Shindoh Edition so neither did Mario Kart 64. She had to be re-recorded anyway because of the whole “Get Lady” thing. ;) The announcer in the Japanese release is the same announcer from Waverace.
I'm wondering if the voice for Kinopio in the Japanese version is the same voice actor that they LEFT for the Mario Party games for all of the Toad voices -- That "Ya-Haaaa" around 3:50 is unlocking a core memory, and I definitely didn't play the Mario Party games in Japanese! EDIT: From what I'm hearing in other comments, I'm correct! That's so wild that they would recast this game but not other ones!
I think Shesez deserves a lot of credit for using the best song from The Sims, "Build 6" (or sometimes titled "The Simple Life"), as BGM for part of the video. Thanks for making this video even more pleasant to watch!
18:15 Both Thomas Spindler (the voice of Wario) and John Hulaton (the voice of the announcer) have their names misspelled as well. 22:17 Kalimari Desert's name is a portmanteau of calamari, a squid dish, and Kalahari, a desert in Southern Africa. The name "Kara Kara Desert" I presume was changed because it makes no sense to western audiences.
They could have translated it as "Dry Dry Desert" as they've done in later titles. A lot of the changes seem very typical of '90s era localization quirks.
When you start talking about the background of SMK's title screen around 23:45 , it feels like a couple of clips cut out abruptly and repeat themselves. Anyway, already looking forward to the next video!
“Hyuudoro” represents the typical sound effects used in the horror genre in Japan. “Hyuu” is the sound of a pipe, and “doro” is a drum, beaten continuously like “dorodorodorodoro…”
I remember playing a US/English version with the old signs. I remember the “Marioboro” signs making the connection to my mother’s favorite Cig brand. Maybe it was a Version 1.0 release? It was a rental we never returned.
No such version was ever released. Some promotional screenshots and footage prior to release still depict the older designs, that might be where you remember them from. There’s a remote chance the video store had a Japanese cartridge, but it wouldn’t have fit in a standard US console (unless you file down the little plastic region lock bits).
@@DoomKid Maybe we found a realy bizarre version then. I remember the Marioboro thing in the n64 game, but I know it wasn't a JP version as it had Martenet voicing the intro and menus. I don't remember ever reading any magazines as a kid. in fact most games I played came from whatever rural video store we'd go to. Maybe it was a super early version, who knows? but I swear I remember the Marioboro signs and me thinking there's no way. lol
man I really miss the manuals that came with NES and SNES games. they put so much thought into them and were so fun to read and were filled with good info
Thank you so much for going over the differences between the boxes/booklets/manuals!! I have very vivid memories of being a kid and buying a game, then on the 20+min drive back to our house, I would read through the game's booklets/manuals to try and have a grasp on controls before I ever get home. When the manual/booklet was small, I would have some free time during the last half of the drive, and I would look out the window and fantasize about how the booklets/manuals look in Japan. I would always wonder if its just the exact same thing with the text translated, or if maybe since its Japan, would they got super cool secret tips and tricks? Was a fun sense of wonder. Huge nostalgic trip from this video, very fun!
This video has me thinking about something I've often wondered about, why is it that many Japanese games will utilize English in certain parts of the titles. I've seen this in a lot of games, from the writing to voice acting, you'll see English pop up in the games here and there, yet there will still be plenty of Japanese as well in many of these same games. What's the deal with that? Is English pretty well known by most people in Japan? Or is it just like a cultural thing where bits and pieces of English naturally gets integrated into their own language?
Some of it is certainly from english being recognizable to a degree. But also, english words are just how video games are supposed to be, and it apparently feels weird if there isn't some random english scattered around. This is likely just carrying forward from the late 70s and early 80s. Lots of unmodified arcade games were imported, and resolution and storage limits made it impractical to use japanese text.
Might be wrong but its just "cool" there like how shirts with Japanese text are also considered stylish here in the states and i assume Canada since we are so similar
I think it's also for aesthetic purposes, like when parodying English/American brands they used English characters because that just makes sense for what they're trying to show
This is due to the westernization in their culture, especially after World War II. With the United States being the greatest world power at the time, Japan also began to introduce American culture to the country and adapt it in its own way (not forgetting also the post-war educational reform in Japan, which had certain conditions imposed by the American government). Not surprisingly, there are a lot of loanwords from English in the Japanese vocabulary.
The japanese and US versions of Super Mario Kart have many more differences, such as different turbo start timing, engine burn duration and how to save a time trial ghost. But still really nice work, especially with the manual comparison! 👍
I'm almost completely sure those Japanese voice clips for Mario Kart 64 got reused in Mario Kart Super Circuit. I remember them so clearly and I remember thinking about how their voices sounded so different in it. I guess the localizers just weren't as concerned with changing the voices for it.
Toad's Turnpike was probably just done for alliteration. Kalamari Desert likely references the Kalahari Desert in Namibia. And the squid boss from Super Mario RPG.
Fun fact abut the japanese voices for luigi, peach, toad and wario: Not only are these clips pretty much directly taken from their appearances in mario party. but funny enough, these voice clips are used in all versions of mario kart super circuit: the next game after mario kart 64. Also, i always thought wario was saying "doh, i missed!" When swearing in german.
This was such an interesting video!! A friend of mine picked up the Japanese copy of Mario kart a few years back and I remember seeing some of the differences in being really amazed to see them
I just realized that the desert stage in the Japanese version has an identical name to DRY DRY DESERT, a location from Paper Mario and Mario Kart: Double Dash. Just with the "desert" part in English. Were they supposed to be the same location? The train is the odd one out in that case. Maybe the Mario Kart 64 version of the map is closer to Mt. Rugged, if the train there is supposed to be part of the Dry Dry Railroad?
These game differences don't completely make it a new game but the overall marketing kinda does. The games are all really interesting in either country.
The Japanese announcer on 64 reminds me of the one from super monkey ball. Not if there's a direct connection but the Mario Kart, Super Monkey Ball, and F-Zero combination is an interesting coincidence!
hmmm I don't think the 'drowning story' part factors in, since the first appearance of Jugem was in Super Mario Bros where he doesn't fish anyone out of anything. he just throws out the Paipo eggs.
I have huge appreciation for your channel buddy. It's been a couple years and you just keep getting better. I'm excited to check out your new host too especially if it means more videos. Love your stuff
something that i dont see many people ever bring up is that strangely enough, the voices used in mario kart super circuit for the gba are the same as the japanese voices for mario kart 64, even in the american release. as someone who grew up with mario kart super circuit and have a soft spot for the game, all of the voice lines are very memorable and engraved into my brain.
Great video! There is actually game patch for the US version of Super Mario Kart that restores Peach and Bowser's drinking animation from the Japanese version. Also, there is another patch for the US version of Mario Kart Super Circuit that changes the character voices to the ones in the US version of Mario Kart 64, since, for whatever reason, the vanilla version of Super Circuit (US) uses voice clips from Mario Kart 64 (JP).
This series seems to be exclusive US vs Japan (ie NTSC vs NTSC-J) versions. Will you ever take the different PAL versions of a game into account when they have region differences as well?
@@Liggliluff Sounds like you're moreso looking for excuses to get upset about something. Regional change videos mostly focus on Japan going to North America because that's where most of the actual interesting changes happen. Nine times out of ten PAL localizations are either extremely minor shit like changing the spelling of some words or adding extra language options to account for other regions and that's IF they get a different localization to begin with since the vast majority of them will reuse the North American one.
