Mario Kart, Nintendo’s, go-kart racing simulator features characters from Mario and several
other popular franchise and is one of Nintendo’s most successful properties.
Mario Kart has spawned multiple sequels and arcade versions, the latest being Mario Cart
8 Deluxe, released this year for the Nintendo Switch
The original game of the series, however, was released over 20 years ago now for the
SNES.
Produced by Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Mario and Zelda, Super Mario Kart was released in
Japan and the US in 1992, with the European release coming the following year.
Super Mario Kart was a top seller for the Super Nintendo, selling 8.76 million copies
worldwide.
In the game, player’s race through twenty Mario themed tracks, playing as several characters
from the franchise.
There is also a battle mode where you try to break balloons attached to other carts,
and a two player mode where players can race or battle others.
Despite being an ostensibly innocent go cart racing game, localizers found things in Super
Mario Kart to change for international audiences.
Whilst some of these were of a censorship nature, Nintendo of America, of course, having
an infamously strict family friendly policy back in the 90s, there were other changes
made that were done for translation reasons or to simply improve on the classic game.
Given the iconic nature of Super Mario Kart, it is definitely worth taking a look at how
localizers changed the game for international consumption.
We at Censored Gaming would like to give a special thanks to the folks at The Cutting
Room Floor for ripping some of the graphics used in this video from the game's files.
You can check them out through a link in the description.
The changes to Super Mario Kart start on the title screen.
Localizers slightly altered the title card for the international version, with the Japanese
version featuring a small stylized “O” in Mario’s name - similar to the style of
Super Mario Bros. 3 For the international versions, the O was
made the same size as the other text and the trademark symbol was also moved to the bottom
right.
Localizers made additional changes to the title screen's background.
In the Japanese version there is a good deal of Japanese text, such as text reading Mario
Kart in Japanese.
More interestingly, though, is the appearance of an “aiaikasa”, which is a drawing of
an umbrella.
If you look closely, you'll be able to see some small text underneath it, with the text
reading “Mario” and “Pichi” - the Japanese spelling of “Peach”.
The “aiaikasa”, meaning “under one umbrella”, is generally used to imply a romantic relationship,
and is often seen in anime and other Japanese media.
Rather than change the text to English, localizers removed it entirely.
They then moved a small blue mushroom from the bottom right of the screen to cover up
the empty space.
Moving on, in both Japanese and international versions of the game there is a Special Cup
mode, which is unlocked on the time trial menu with a cheat code.
In the Japanese version, once you enter the code you can hear a special sound effect.
For some reason, this was removed from international releases.
Another change was curiously made to Yoshi’s sprite art.
Certain iterations of his design were slightly altered in International releases, giving
him a slightly larger head.
Rather than a localization effort, this appears to have just been an upgrade to the art work.
Another upgrade was to the menu.
In international versions, the menu remembers choices the player makes, up to the character
select screen.
This allows players to quickly click through the menu later on, to play under the same
options they previously selected.
Finally and more notoriously, certain characters had their victory animations changed for the
international versions.
Like in real life, racers celebrate their victory with a bottle of champagne.
Over in Japan, Princess Peach's ending shows her picking up a bottle of champagne and drinking
it, again and again.
Her face even turns red, showing her start to become drunk.
In the English version, this was replaced with her simply tossing the bottle up in the
air and catching it.
Bowser's ending was handled similarly.
Over in Japan he gulps the champagne down, with it also spilling all down his front.
Outside of Japan though, this was changed to him raising the bottle up in the air in
a celebratory manner.
At the time Nintendo of America had a strict policy against the portrayal of alcohol, so
the international versions had to tone down these animations.
Censored Gaming is committed to covering censorship and localization in not just modern games
but older titles, like Super Mario Kart, as well.
Please let us know about any classic video games whose localization you would like to
learn more about and, as always, thank you for watching.