This is extremely helpful! I’m a huge Mother collector and Sega Saturn importer, so this makes things waaaaay easier. Already bidded on some Mother 1 capsule figures, so I’m pretty happy.
5:12 my mom always “misremembered” them as being called boo diddlies, and i always thought that was so ridiculous. now i have to apologize for unintentionally gaslighting her 😅
It looks like the reason why the art was traced and re-colored is because in the US manual, mario is wearing his more modern blue overalls/red undershirt, whereas the Japanese manual has him in his classic red overalls and blue shirt.
I have no right to complain but I wish he’d edit a little more so we can all see this stuff. It’s weird that he’s just like “remember that?” when he can show it
I don't know much Japanese beyond the kana, but somehow noticed that! I recognized くるりん as "kururin" which wouldn't mean much, except Zelda fans like myself may know that Tingle's phrase "kooloo-limpah" is romanized from "kururinpa", which is something to do with a spinning motion.
16:40 And for the longest time, I was waiting for her to send me that one special jewel, not knowing it was the very item that suddenly popped into my inventory after the letter.
One thing to take into consideration concerning the difficulty is that the Japanese version is the direct sequel to Lost Levels, so the harder difficulty and the SMB1-style power-up rules make sense because those rules had been consistent in the series so far. Whereas the US version is supposed to technically be the sequel to SMB2 USA, which was much easier than Lost Levels and had a power-up system that gave you more than simply 2 hits, where if you got enough mushrooms a single hit wouldn't immediately turn you into small Mario like in SMB1, so doing a similar thing for SMB3's power-ups made more sense there.
And it really devastated the game design. Now the mushroom powerup is a disappointing waste of space that feels like a punishment, when all the other powerups have that extra hit already included. It also doesn't at all match the balance in stage design where all the enemies function more as disturbances to goad you into the actual ahzards, pitfalls and spikes, by missing the PLATFORM you're trying to jump on. In case anyone forgot what genre this is. Even fireball is lame because hitting one enemy is only slightly better than just tanking the hit. If it's an easy game you want, might as well have given mario a 10 hit limit and call it a day.
I recently played through the All-Stars version of SMB3 and I noticed after this video it seems to be based on both the JP and US versions, with things like the suit outlines coming out when you get hit but also being able to take multiple hits if you stack powerups. It'd be interesting to go through and see all the things they pulled from each version. Great video!
The Koopalings had their English names derived from musical personalities and that apparently extended to Boo's first game appearance who was named after rock n' roll pioneer, Bo Diddley. And I seriously called them Boo Diddly for like 20 years after this game came out.
I always thought it was weird one of them was named after Morton Downey Jr, who I only know as a short-lived "shock" TV talk show host. Do the Koopalings not have Japanese names? I have been assuming that they have more "normal" Japanese names, but I can't find any reference to this.
The rock and Roll naming scheme lasted for a bit longer in some places, in Yoshi's Island the Piranha fish are named "Hootie the Blue Fish" named after Hootie & The Blowfish.
@@evilvix21 Interesting - I went and checked Super Smash Bros on the Switch... It has the option to change language to Japanese, which as far as I can tell completely changes it to the Japanese version. Anyway, in the Vault area's sound/voices section, the Koopalings' names are indeed the same as their English names (in katakana). You can also see the names of their voice actors, which I think is a nice touch.
12:33 Hidden "boxes" is a mistranslation - the text says hidden 笛 (flutes), not 箱 (boxes), which makes more sense in the context of the game (the "warp whistles" are these flutes).
Is he supposed to be sophisticated? Or is it because he's inspired by the the famous musician and we are trying to parallel their personalities in our minds?
I'm still curious about who the mother is. And...are they all the same age? They seem to be.... but now "Bowser Jr." is the only cannon offspring....but still... who's the Mom!? 🤔
@@downscale I still regard them as Bowser's kids, in addition to BJ. It seems disrespectful to them not to make them his kids. As for their ages, they appear in SMB3 in order from youngest to eldest. So the birth order is Ludwig, Lemmy, Roy, Iggy, Wendy O, Morton, then Larry.
@@downscale Miyamoto has stated that he's Bowser Jr.'s mom. I suspect that Bowser had another significant other before Miyamoto and that person is the mother of the Koopalings. The whole "the Koopalings aren't Bowser's kids" thing is a lie born from Miyamoto's jealously.
The very first time I beat Mario 3 when I was a kid, my heart sank as that slow moving text box started that “but our princess is in another castle" troll. I was ready to throw my TV across the room when the “just kidding" line came over. It's such a good burn.
It got me so badly too. My thoughts were something like "Wait theres more? This isnt the real princess! I didnt really beat it!" And I was expecting another boss battle with Bowser. Then I realized it was just a joke literally from her, never seen anything like that in Mario before
Oh, my god!!! When I was a kid, I found a PS1 disc with hundreds of NES roms, many Japanese, I remember playing a "harder" version of Mario 3 while browsing and testing, I remember not being able to jump on the ship and getting very frustrated. time passed and that version of the game started feeling like a dream... until I'm watching this video!!! EVERYTHING WAS REAL!!!
The variety store near me used to rent out Famicom games and a pirate cart 72 pin converter. Since the rental shops near me didn't always have Super Mario Bros. 3 because it was kind of a hot commodity and all, I'd have to settle for this one every now and then. It was my first exposure to the world of regional differences.
@@A_Black_Sheep94 Not back then...Super Mario Brothers 3 was so incredibly hot you couldn't find it anywhere. You would be lucky to find a copy in the wild at a rental store within a year of its release. I remember my local Blockbuster in Miami got like 20 copies and they were rarely in. While finding a shop that rents Japanese games was very rare if they had a copy of the game and it was out here in the US...I doubt many people rented it. Thinking back, SMB3 was one of the last Nes games I got back then as I made the switch to 16-bit in '89 with the Sega Genesis.
There are several very early NES carts that internally had a famicom->NES pin converter inside it, maybe it wasn't a 'pirate cart'? or was it actually in plastic and not just the PCB?
@@Sinn0100 Indeed! There were many Japanese SMB3s imported early since SMB3 was released in Japan around the same time SMB2 was released in the USA. I could see it being way easier to obtain Japanese at that time. That was a really smart store!
Much like how all the Koopalings’ names are parodies of actual musicians, “Boo” Diddley is most likely a play on Bo Diddley, the late 1950s blues musician.
For April Fools, there should be a Region Break over Mother 3 where it’s completely normal on the Japanese side but the American side should just be blank.
The first half-ish would be like the first look at one of the versions, and the second half-ish would act like the look at the last of the versions, smoothly transitioning so anyone just kind of... watching... wouldn't immediately notice that there was only one version reviewed in the video. The best April fools video passes as a normal video for most of its length
Interesting that Japanese Mario's text has him say sounds that weren't actually heard until Mario 64. How he ended up sounding must be quite close to how they'd imagined him.
7:35 Ok, I just noticed the Japanese Version of Back of the Box doesn’t have the Screenshot of unused Course of Grassland Area with the Para-Beetles in it since that was brought up by Andre from GameXplain that he doesn’t find that specific location from the Screenshot from the US Boxart anywhere in the game.
Strange indeed! Pretty incredible to consider that a beta pic sneaked it's way on to the box when there was so much time between Japanese and NTSC releases.
One important thing you missed from the manual is that the koopalings didn't have names in the Japanese manual. They were added after a translator that they needed some. (He named them after musicians he liked).
I can confirm that the glitch at 26:00 can be done on the US version as well. It's a frame perfect glitch. Basically when you hit the ? block, the Fire flower has to start appearing on the same frame that the rotating shooter above rotates. I learned about this glitch in the Mario 3 speedrunning community. I've gotten the glitch to work on both the NES and Switch. *Edit* Another cool thing about this glitch is you can grab the fire flower and Mario will bounce just like the flower does on the block. The block is still there, but invisible!
@@A_Black_Sheep94 Yeah no. Japanese expresses in many ways that you cant in English, so everything sounds dry. Trying to translate English to Japanese results in the exact same result.
When they say that shutting off the game would mean you have to start all over again, I feel like this is why they put in things like the Warp Whistle so you can go back to the world you left off at, as long as you knew where they were of course.
I've only now realized that I played the japanese version of the game when I was a kid. I had a famicom bootleg when I was growing up because that's what was easier to get in my country and my parents were not ones to search a lot for videogames, they barely tolerated me playing them. Anyways, the cartriges were famicom like but most games were US versions, because most text was in English (I didn't understand English back the but I still saw they used the same as Spanish does), so I assumed I played SMB3 US version too. But now, seeing the differences, I realized I played the Japanese version.
I had a similar realization a few years ago, when I played the Virtual Console version of SMB3 and it was noticeably easier than the one I was used to. Then again, the one I used to play had this cheat where you could press Select in the item menu to give yourself any item of your choice. I never knew if that was a cheat added to that particular version or some glitch that left some developer access available.
@@AizensPlan I played an assortment of english and japanese titles on a bootleg famicom, titles would sometimes come in japanese, sometimes in english, neither language I could understand back then, so I just skipped any and all text. I didn't know SMB3 was among the japanese ones.
There is at least one more translation error in the Princess’ letters where they forgot to translate Kuribo to Goomba. It was corrected in later releases. Yes, it is supposed to be Goomba’s Shoe. That always confused me as a kid since I didn’t know Kuribo was what they called Goomba in Japan.
I had the Kuribo's shoe copy as a kid, never made the connection to the goomba who was using it. The "jewel" bit in the letters confused me too. I didn't realise it was in reference to the items, and thought I was being protected up in general.
@@evilvix21 Yep. It was changed to “Goomba’s Shoe” and stayed that way for Super Mario Advance and Super Mario All*Stars but that’s what it was always supposed to be.
@@evilvix21 Yeah tbh I have no idea why they translated たから/takara as jewel to begin with. It quite literally means treasure. Jewel is ほうせき/houseki. Unnessessary confusion.
8:14 It’s more like “yahoh” then “yahoo,” and the Japanese kinda use it like a more casual greetings sometimes between friends. “Uwaaaaa” is often something said when falling down (slipping on ice, tripping down the stairs, etc.), and “Don” is pronounced “dohn,” onomatopoeia for a loud thump or some explosions (but yeah it’s written like it’s pronounced like the way it was said here). Just thought you or someone else would like to know.
@@Schwarzorn the name "クッパ" supposedly came from the korean dish 국밥 (Gukbap) which is written クッパ (kuppa) in japanese so its more like gukpab -> kuppa -> koopa
I still just can't get over the Mario 3 JP box art. It's so beautiful. Been giving me nostalgia trips for years because I remember seeing it in old magazines.
Breaking news, Region Break back in action! I had no idea about some of these changes. Interesting that the power-up cycling went back the JP Mario 3 style for Mario World after this instead of following the US SMB3's example. Also Buyee looks neat, gonna browse that right away 🙏
I think Mario World went back to the SMB1/SMB3JP style power-up damage cycle because of the addition of the item slot, where if you have a Fire Flower you likely have the Super Mushroom from before you got it in reserve, so that if you take damage as Fire Mario the Mushroom drops down and you (hopefully) grab it and go back to Super Mario.
@@KawaiiiFive-O Yeah the GBA versions of the 2D Mario games kinda just standardized and semi-modernized everything, and in Super Mario World's case, that included the more modern damage system I guess, to make it more consistent with the other Super Mario Advance games.
It's still weird to me to see this game explored as vintage. I still remember when this game was released and it was "current Mario", not "vintage Mario". I recall holding that very manual in my hands as a young child.
@@fearedjames to my early-knowledge, the OP's writing would have a more prominent "P" sound while yours would be softer but the point remains that it'd have the same "koo" sound"
This manual was so entertaining to me as a kid, and set the standard for what I expected going forward. I don't know if anything else ever lived up to it.
The Mario 3 US box is one of the best boxes of all time. That yellow and blue really made it stand out and the minimalism made it intriguing. It definitely stood out on the store shelves.
Regarding the powerups, I always hated the fact that, in SMB1 and 3, a powerup like a fireflower or leaf (SMB3 only) didn't transform you to that powerup right away from small Mario. They always acted like a mushroom. This was changed in SMW when a small mario went all the way to Cape Mario or Fire Mario. As a kid playing SMB1 and 3 it never made sense to me, but I ended up growing used to this quirk.
I grew up playing Super Mario Bros 3, yoshis island and SMW on GBA instead of SNES and NES since I was like 7/8 when they came out, its super duper weird for me to play SMW on snes, going back to small mario with 1 hit and not being able to do spin jump with L t.t
Well in SMB1, it was kind of a rare thing to happen… Every power up was either a mushroom or a fire flower, but they were always “progressive”, so you would only get the flower if you were already big The only time you could grab a flower when small is if you took damage after unveiling the flower. Personally, it made perfect sense to me that the flower would act as a mushroom in that rare case, since they would have been trying to give you a mushroom anyway Eventually the power up mechanics changed for the better, but the evolution was all based off how SMB1 originally functioned
This is cool! Love these retro comparisons. A note on some pronunciations: "Ludwig" sounds like "Lood-vigg", since it's a German name. And "Kuppa", as a Japanese word, is still pronounced "Koopa".
@@nthgth I never day it that way. It just sounds wrong. Pronouncing Tōkyō as TOH KEE OHH. No one but old people do that nowadays from what I've heard on modern shows and movies.
This video deserves WAY more than just ~55% of your sub count. Awesome work on this one. Thanks for your hard work, good editing, and all around great content
So, this sounds nuts, but as a kid, I could've sworn I saw that bouncing Fire Flower glitch on the airship on my American copy. I've never been able to replicate it, and this is the only time I've ever seen it again, proving that it wasn't something insane my imaginative childhood mind made up
To help the three of you, people say this happens if you hit the box at a precise frame when the canonball overlaps it but since the NES was programmed by duct tape I imagine other things could as well
The translation you have for Ludwig's Japanese manual text is incorrect. At the end, he is saying that there are more enemies besides the ones shown, and that those enemies are to be kept secret 「ナイショ」 from Mario. There is no dismissiveness about it.
This channel half asses a lot of stuff, I'm not surprised. He even got incorrectly the translation for オヤジ as dad, when in context it doesn't mean dad, just "old man".
@@dusklunistheumbreon in some context yes, but considering the koopalings are not his children, in this case nope, it just refers to an older person, or even just their boss, since that's another way to translate "oyaji". NOA made the same exact mistake back then because they assumed those are his children.
You forgot to mention that in the Japanese version of SMB3, Bowser stomp could kill you as small Mario whereas in the NA version small Mario is immune to the stomp.
This series is so cool. No idea how much of a Spyro fan you are, but the Japanese versions of Spyro 1 & 2 have a ton of differences that make the games a lot worse. That could be a cool video.
2:30 they changed this back in all-stars. I remember as a kid getting as many hammer suits as I wanted by breaking the rock, going to the hut, getting the suit and then saving & quitting.
For the longest time, I thought the koopalings were Bowser's children, just like the US manual stated. Then they mostly stopped appearing in the games at all, to eventually be replaced by Bowser Jr as Bowser's apparently retroactively one and only child. This was later backed up by online fan claims that the English localizers made up the "Bowser's children" part entirely on their own, as the original Japanese manual never called them his children, but rather something more like his minions. I didn't really like this change, but it seemed to square with the newer games and it was my accepted understanding for the last several years that the koopalings were never intended to be Bowser's children. The change wasn't a retcon, but a correction. Now I see another translation of the original Mario 3 manual, and this version seems to show that manual pretty clearly saying the koopalings are Bowser's children just like the US manual did? So the Japanese designers really did originally intend for them to be Bowser's children? Their change in status really is a retcon after all? Now I don't know what to believe anymore. All I know for sure is that I preferred the koopalings as Bowser's children, and for Bowser Jr to only exist as the young version of Bowser in Yoshi's Island. It makes sense for him to look like a younger clone of Bowser in his design's original context of simply being younger Bowser, but as Bowser's separately existing son that similarity feels like a really lazy bland design instead, especially compared to the far more interesting non-clone-like koopalings. Speaking of which, those same distinct designs are why koopalings just seem like they make a lot more sense as Bowser's children. They're clearly different from all other generic koopas, but so is Bowser himself. If they're his kids then that uniqueness naturally follows. If not, then it's just further questions.
The discrepancy is mostly Screw Attack's fault. In 2012 they reported on the interview about the retcon, and said that we were never his kids. It was a simple case of critical research fail. Enough people complained that they issued a correction... to state that Miyamoto had said this was "the current story" meaning that it could change at any time... naturally this addressed literally none of their failings and I've been fighting ignorance online for-- oh God, this is the 10th year now! -I'm tired-
@@jayo1212 Yes, what Shigeru Miyamoto said is very dependent on interpretation. Because what he really said was that Junior was Bowser's only kid... which is _almost_ the opposite of the way Screw Attack reported on it. Simply based on the interview, we could still be his niece and nephews, his cousins, etc. even his adopted children (this being the lead theory) and I don't have any problems with people quoting/spreading the original interview. My problem is the blatant lies of Screw Attack that we "were never related" being repeated ad nauseum... when the only official *_in universe_* reference is from Smash Brothers where Pit claims that the relationship between Bowser and the Koopalings "is a real mystery."
@@Wendy_O._Koopa at first I thought that “we” was a typo for “they”… But then it happened again, and I saw your username… 😅 Er, I mean… Thank you Wendy, for providing us accurate information regarding your family! ❤️
Maybe part of the reason that the Western version was easier was because the Japanese version came out first, and it allowed them to realise which bits were a little too difficult, and improve upon them by making them less difficult.
4:359:43 And here I figured the American manual used watercolors for those two pics of Mario in the frogsuit because he was swimming underwater. Geez, I was way off. lol
There's multiple revisions for the N-Spade panel games: Original NES version: "Miss twice and your out!" NES revision: "You can only miss twice!" GBA revision: "Miss twice and you're out!" Mushroom Country name revisions (NES 1/NES 2/GBA) World 1: Grass Land/Grass Land/Grass Land World 2: Desert Land/Desert Hill/Desert Hill World 3: Water Land/Ocean Side/Sea Side World 4: Giant Land/Big Island/Big Island World 5: Sky Land/The Sky/The Sky World 6: Ice Land/Iced Land/Iced Land World 7: Pipe Land/Pipe Maze/Pipe Maze World 8: Castle of Koopa (Kuppa)/Dark Land/Bowser's Castle
7:10 the bowser on the jpn box reminds me of the one on the jpn box art of SMB1. I have a feeling that Smb3 jpn’s box artwork was drawn by Miyamoto himself.
The glitch you discovered also reveals a difference between the two versions of the game that you might not have noticed. In that scene, you get hit by a cannonball, stripping you down to small Mario because the Japanese version removed all powerups on hit. You then collect the fire flower, but are only promoted to Super Mario, not all the way to fire Mario. In the US version, if you lost all your powerups, going all the way down to small Mario, but there was another powerup on the screen that you subsequently collected, you'd be promoted into that form despite not yet being Super Mario.
Actually, in the US version, grabbing an already revealed Fire Flower or Super Leaf while you're small would still only make you normal big again. (However, grabbing a Frog Suit, Tanooki Suit, or Hammer Suit while small does power you all the way up to the collected suit, since those are special. Also, using any power up item from your inventory on the map always transforms you directly into that form, regardless of your status beforehand.)
I've noticed some Western releases with a worse cover sometimes has the better Japanese cover on the manual for some reason. Always makes me disappointed...
It's always interesting seeing subtle differences in both game design, background design, and even unintentional glitch design between regions. It's also interesting to see when they catch this stuff, like the single pixel on the letter R in "World".
They should have had a difficulty selector where the Japanese version is hard mode but in all modes the shoe gomba should be a separate hit. Also I've been playing this game on the Wii u the special version with all the special levels and I could have swore that the silhouette flies off of you when using the special power ups I'm in America
i sometimes feel like he doesn't really know how his character bios work. The man is getting old and he kinda feels out of touch with the mario franchise.
Worst of all, he didn't give us a _new_ backstory. How long would it have taken to say, oh we're Bowser's niece and nephews, or cousins, or that we're adopted and he's adoption shaming like a little bitch?
19:21 - I would say that you are right. It appears they were able to properly fix it in the All-stars version of SMB 3, the "cookie cut" goes in and out (though it is circular) and is the correct color on the over world map pipes... Also it appears the throne room in the US version of All-stars is from the Japanese version, but the text boxes in the Japanese version are full-sized... Sorry for rambling, awesome video!
I think the reason why they might have traced over the watercolour art in the western release might be so that Mario's colours are consistent with the game and the artwork on the cover. He still wears his old, red overalls in the Japanese version whereas in the western one, they are the blue he's had ever since.
@8:15 The Japanese ヤッホー pronounced "yah-hoh" (which is what Mario says) and the English "yahoo" are not the same thing. "Yah-hoh" is used exclusively as a casual greeting used by (mostly younger) people in Japan similar to "hey there!" or "what's up!" which is why it makes sense to Japanese kids reading it.
Oh, would you look at that, Christmas came early this year. Awesome upload, Shesez! Seeing those difficulty changes make me glad they exist, because there's no way I would've finished SMB3 as a kid without 'em. "Boo Diddly" I rofled.
I also noticed that when the wand drops back down towards the king, it drops slightly closer to the stairs in the NA version than in the Japanese version. Not a big deal, but still a difference I noticed.
15:50 ‐ It's not just that this game were apprehensive about calling her Princess Peach. In the US releases, she was *always* called Princess Toadstool. Mario 64 was the first game where the name Peach was used in the US. Good vid!!
Nice, thanks for doing the research and making this. I remember spending hours as a kid playing this. Cool to see the differences other kids on the other side of the world were seeing when playing their localized version.
Thank you SO much for turning me on to Buyee. I've just ordered a (used) box set of Pokemon Gen 2. Going to keep the boxes on the shelf and frame the carts. You just made my night at 3 AM.
They really should come around and make physical instruction booklets again. It added so much to the game in some cases. At least for the big Nintendo titles :-/
It wastes too much paper and also physical space is a concern because game cases are made of plastic now instead of cardboard and are universal across all games for a particular console. Modern digital manuals can keep the same charm though
The removal of the first hammer makes sense. You could use that to softlock the game, by killing The first Bombom throught the wall/flour, by messing around near the candle
2 ปีที่แล้ว +5
I love Region Break! Thanks for making my evening happier!
ヤッホー doesn't mean "yahoo", it means "hello". It's an informal greeting. Edit: Also I don't get why you're making a big deal of the word repetitions, those are quite common in Japanese and don't have the same effect there that they do in English. If they included similar repetition in English, the translation would be inaccurate because it would be turning entirely ordinary, standard Japanese into unusual and possibly incorrect English. Like you mentioned よかったよかった, which is literally a Japanese term for "thank goodness" repeated twice (your translation of the word as "good" is largely oversimplified, よかった almost never should be translated as "good"). Translating that to "Oh, thank heavens" looks to me like an entirely perfect translation with the exact same meaning and "feeling" as the Japanese text. This is why you shouldn't use "literal translations" in an attempt to learn about _actual_ differences. "Literal translations" are by their very nature inaccurate. You can't remove a language from its context of the idioms etc that are natural in it. Using "literal translations" has you assuming that entirely normal, unremarkable speech patterns are some sort of "quirky trait", which is incorrect. Consider this simple Japanese sentence: 学校に行かなきゃいけない。 It just means, "I have to go to school." Nothing complicated. But translating it "literally" would have you thinking that it says something weird like, "If I don't go to school, it can't go." Because the English pattern of expressing that you have to do something (like an obligation) has basically nothing in common with how that same sentiment is expressed in Japanese.
Finally, a video in my recommended that I actually want to watch. (Also 0:06 "earfbound") (Also also I don't know if you didn't catch this or something but the throne room's steps are one tile shorter in the Japanese version.)
What an entertaining content! Found your channel and I’m totally stoked! It’s pretty amazing the way you display every aspect and differences between both versions! Cheers from Mexico City
I had glitches from airship stages where the flower turns white. Also, wallscrolling above Bowser's Room by ducking over the statue above his door. It showcases multiple layouts of his room until the last one, where you get stuck in the wall and have to time out.
Users that create an account through the link will get a 2000 yen (Approx. $20) off coupon on their first order on Buyee. bit.ly/Buyee-Shesez
👌
Ok
This is extremely helpful!
I’m a huge Mother collector and Sega Saturn importer, so this makes things waaaaay easier.
Already bidded on some Mother 1 capsule figures, so I’m pretty happy.
Please do an episode on the original Metal Gear on NES vs MSX
Can you do Metal Gear Solid?
6:21 "You'll see a coffee stain"
Every copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 is personalized.
When I saw the coffee stain i didn't think about it, as mine has the same exact marking...hmm.... 😋
*I want a coffee stain! Was it by Kooper or Mario?*
@@afriend9428 it's from Lakito - it's hard to fly without drinking coffee all the time!
@@greensun1334 *Ha! ha! ha!*
The plot thickens
5:12 my mom always “misremembered” them as being called boo diddlies, and i always thought that was so ridiculous. now i have to apologize for unintentionally gaslighting her 😅
😂 That's hilarious
It looks like the reason why the art was traced and re-colored is because in the US manual, mario is wearing his more modern blue overalls/red undershirt, whereas the Japanese manual has him in his classic red overalls and blue shirt.
Good catch
I have no right to complain but I wish he’d edit a little more so we can all see this stuff. It’s weird that he’s just like “remember that?” when he can show it
I'm trying to grasp why the reversed the shadows on the pillars? Was it a nod to the east/west thing or just convenient or better looking.
@@ryancurrier6845 More space for the text box to be between the pillars
@@Hann61669 Loud mouth
14:38, you have the Japanese Toad screens backwards. くるりん is “spin” and えあわせ is “picture match”
I don't know much Japanese beyond the kana, but somehow noticed that! I recognized くるりん as "kururin" which wouldn't mean much, except Zelda fans like myself may know that Tingle's phrase "kooloo-limpah" is romanized from "kururinpa", which is something to do with a spinning motion.
くるりん is kururin and えあわせ is eawase.
@@juliodaguy *kururin
@@HelpTheWretched That is one hell of a roundabout way to getting to the right answer. Honestly impressive.
16:40 And for the longest time, I was waiting for her to send me that one special jewel, not knowing it was the very item that suddenly popped into my inventory after the letter.
Damn dude she should have just let the ghosts gotten you you unappreciative butt
@Sovereign Snorlax 😂
It's strange that he considers _that_ the only translation error when there are items like *Jugem's Cloud* and *Kuribo's Shoe* in the game.
How did you not know
One thing to take into consideration concerning the difficulty is that the Japanese version is the direct sequel to Lost Levels, so the harder difficulty and the SMB1-style power-up rules make sense because those rules had been consistent in the series so far. Whereas the US version is supposed to technically be the sequel to SMB2 USA, which was much easier than Lost Levels and had a power-up system that gave you more than simply 2 hits, where if you got enough mushrooms a single hit wouldn't immediately turn you into small Mario like in SMB1, so doing a similar thing for SMB3's power-ups made more sense there.
And it really devastated the game design. Now the mushroom powerup is a disappointing waste of space that feels like a punishment, when all the other powerups have that extra hit already included.
It also doesn't at all match the balance in stage design where all the enemies function more as disturbances to goad you into the actual ahzards, pitfalls and spikes, by missing the PLATFORM you're trying to jump on. In case anyone forgot what genre this is. Even fireball is lame because hitting one enemy is only slightly better than just tanking the hit.
If it's an easy game you want, might as well have given mario a 10 hit limit and call it a day.
@@sboinkthelegday3892 nah
Nice observation
SMB1, SMB2/Lost Levels, JP SMB3 form a much more coherent trilogy than SMB1, SMB2/USA, and US SMB3 do.
Make sense until Super Mario World change everything. Even as Cape Mario you can revert back to small Mario in the NA version as well.
I recently played through the All-Stars version of SMB3 and I noticed after this video it seems to be based on both the JP and US versions, with things like the suit outlines coming out when you get hit but also being able to take multiple hits if you stack powerups. It'd be interesting to go through and see all the things they pulled from each version. Great video!
Great idea! A Famicom/NES/All-Stars Comparison video would be awesome!
Thank you! I was having a real Mandela Effect moment, but you solved it.
@@downscale complete with some added GBA comparisons...
I think I had NES version but I only really played all-stars version. These comparison videos are always so confusing
@@gJonii you must be very young
The Koopalings had their English names derived from musical personalities and that apparently extended to Boo's first game appearance who was named after rock n' roll pioneer, Bo Diddley.
And I seriously called them Boo Diddly for like 20 years after this game came out.
I always thought it was weird one of them was named after Morton Downey Jr, who I only know as a short-lived "shock" TV talk show host. Do the Koopalings not have Japanese names? I have been assuming that they have more "normal" Japanese names, but I can't find any reference to this.
@@btr3k They do not have names in the Japanese version at all. When the manual is shown you can see it's blank except for their mischief statement.
The rock and Roll naming scheme lasted for a bit longer in some places, in Yoshi's Island the Piranha fish are named "Hootie the Blue Fish" named after Hootie & The Blowfish.
@@evilvix21 Interesting - I went and checked Super Smash Bros on the Switch... It has the option to change language to Japanese, which as far as I can tell completely changes it to the Japanese version. Anyway, in the Vault area's sound/voices section, the Koopalings' names are indeed the same as their English names (in katakana). You can also see the names of their voice actors, which I think is a nice touch.
And then there's Larry, who was named that because "he looked like a Larry"
12:33 Hidden "boxes" is a mistranslation - the text says hidden 笛 (flutes), not 箱 (boxes), which makes more sense in the context of the game (the "warp whistles" are these flutes).
Thank you. I had to make sure someone said this.
there's something giddy about Ludwig being all like "I'm stoked baby!" when he's supposed to be the sophisticated one of the group.
That was before the koopalings had personality
Ludwig saying “I’m stoked” fits his look more than him being sophisticated
He even literally says "beibii" there so the translation was verbatim on that part.
Is he supposed to be sophisticated? Or is it because he's inspired by the the famous musician and we are trying to parallel their personalities in our minds?
@@azumangaX He's the oldest son so for what it's worth he probably has more sense in him than his siblings.
Fun fact: They were never called "boo Diddly" The manual was actually written by ned flanders
"Hi diddly ho, Nintendorinos!"
Lol clever. But it is based on the singer Bo Diddley, which fits the them of the Koopalings names being music based
@@rileyk5228 it’s not it’s by flanders
"stupid Flanders"
@@plushluigi7417 "Stupid **sexy** Flanders," you mean. 😜
I love how unambiguous it is that the Koopalings were Bowsers kids in both versions
I'm still curious about who the mother is. And...are they all the same age? They seem to be.... but now "Bowser Jr." is the only cannon offspring....but still... who's the Mom!? 🤔
@@downscale Miyamoto
@@downscale I still regard them as Bowser's kids, in addition to BJ. It seems disrespectful to them not to make them his kids.
As for their ages, they appear in SMB3 in order from youngest to eldest. So the birth order is Ludwig, Lemmy, Roy, Iggy, Wendy O, Morton, then Larry.
@@downscale He's not a cannon, though. He's a turtlem'n.
@@downscale Miyamoto has stated that he's Bowser Jr.'s mom. I suspect that Bowser had another significant other before Miyamoto and that person is the mother of the Koopalings. The whole "the Koopalings aren't Bowser's kids" thing is a lie born from Miyamoto's jealously.
The very first time I beat Mario 3 when I was a kid, my heart sank as that slow moving text box started that “but our princess is in another castle" troll. I was ready to throw my TV across the room when the “just kidding" line came over.
It's such a good burn.
It got me so badly too. My thoughts were something like "Wait theres more? This isnt the real princess! I didnt really beat it!" And I was expecting another boss battle with Bowser. Then I realized it was just a joke literally from her, never seen anything like that in Mario before
I was too tired to care at that point and said that you are the Princess.
Oh, my god!!!
When I was a kid, I found a PS1 disc with hundreds of NES roms, many Japanese, I remember playing a "harder" version of Mario 3 while browsing and testing, I remember not being able to jump on the ship and getting very frustrated. time passed and that version of the game started feeling like a dream... until I'm watching this video!!! EVERYTHING WAS REAL!!!
The variety store near me used to rent out Famicom games and a pirate cart 72 pin converter. Since the rental shops near me didn't always have Super Mario Bros. 3 because it was kind of a hot commodity and all, I'd have to settle for this one every now and then. It was my first exposure to the world of regional differences.
Seems odd that the Japanese exclusive version would be more readily available than the American one in America.
@@A_Black_Sheep94
Not back then...Super Mario Brothers 3 was so incredibly hot you couldn't find it anywhere. You would be lucky to find a copy in the wild at a rental store within a year of its release. I remember my local Blockbuster in Miami got like 20 copies and they were rarely in. While finding a shop that rents Japanese games was very rare if they had a copy of the game and it was out here in the US...I doubt many people rented it. Thinking back, SMB3 was one of the last Nes games I got back then as I made the switch to 16-bit in '89 with the Sega Genesis.
There are several very early NES carts that internally had a famicom->NES pin converter inside it, maybe it wasn't a 'pirate cart'? or was it actually in plastic and not just the PCB?
@@Sinn0100 Indeed! There were many Japanese SMB3s imported early since SMB3 was released in Japan around the same time SMB2 was released in the USA. I could see it being way easier to obtain Japanese at that time. That was a really smart store!
@@downscale
It very well could be. I remember hearing about the Japanese ROM's inside of NES carts with a pass through.
Much like how all the Koopalings’ names are parodies of actual musicians, “Boo” Diddley is most likely a play on Bo Diddley, the late 1950s blues musician.
For April Fools, there should be a Region Break over Mother 3 where it’s completely normal on the Japanese side but the American side should just be blank.
The first half-ish would be like the first look at one of the versions, and the second half-ish would act like the look at the last of the versions, smoothly transitioning so anyone just kind of... watching... wouldn't immediately notice that there was only one version reviewed in the video. The best April fools video passes as a normal video for most of its length
@@ferociousfeind8538 yeah
“This is different from the American version because as we all know, it doesn’t exist”
That's where I put my american mother 3
If I had one
Interesting that Japanese Mario's text has him say sounds that weren't actually heard until Mario 64. How he ended up sounding must be quite close to how they'd imagined him.
That's awesome
7:35 Ok, I just noticed the Japanese Version of Back of the Box doesn’t have the Screenshot of unused Course of Grassland Area with the Para-Beetles in it since that was brought up by Andre from GameXplain that he doesn’t find that specific location from the Screenshot from the US Boxart anywhere in the game.
Strange indeed! Pretty incredible to consider that a beta pic sneaked it's way on to the box when there was so much time between Japanese and NTSC releases.
One important thing you missed from the manual is that the koopalings didn't have names in the Japanese manual. They were added after a translator that they needed some. (He named them after musicians he liked).
That explains the Bo Diddley reference as well 🎸
And Larry because, well, he looked like a Larry!
Or pop culture figures of the time, e.g. Morton Koopa Jr, named after talk show host Morton Downey Jr.
This is actually one of my favorite series on this channel. It happened quick but it's really good. I liked the Earthbound one
It's the only reason I'm subbed
Mother 2 was changed SO much. It's no wonder mother 3 was never localized lol.
I can confirm that the glitch at 26:00 can be done on the US version as well. It's a frame perfect glitch. Basically when you hit the ? block, the Fire flower has to start appearing on the same frame that the rotating shooter above rotates. I learned about this glitch in the Mario 3 speedrunning community. I've gotten the glitch to work on both the NES and Switch. *Edit* Another cool thing about this glitch is you can grab the fire flower and Mario will bounce just like the flower does on the block. The block is still there, but invisible!
Does this work on the SNES and GBA versions though?
I've seen this glitch happen just through normal playing as a child. I figured it had to do with that rotating bullet shooter thing.
I love how brutal the Japanese descriptions can get! It’s just so aggressive! 🤣
Japanese is just much more detailed, expressive, straightforward, and thorough than English, kinda like Greek.
@@A_Black_Sheep94 Yeah I think there is plenty lost in translation/original meaning for sure!
@@A_Black_Sheep94 Yeah no. Japanese expresses in many ways that you cant in English, so everything sounds dry. Trying to translate English to Japanese results in the exact same result.
*South Park*
When they say that shutting off the game would mean you have to start all over again, I feel like this is why they put in things like the Warp Whistle so you can go back to the world you left off at, as long as you knew where they were of course.
That’s what they were referring to as the items that can help you :)
I don't think I knew a kid who *didn't* know where the warp whistles were back in those days. It was probably an intentionally well published secret.
I love how in the artwork Mario is flying away first and Luigi is the one rescuing the princess by hand.
One of the biggest mysteries as a kid was seeing the anchor in the manual and never figured out until later how to obtain it.
12:33
It doesn't say hidden boxes. It specifically says the hidden flute might help you.
Ooh you're right! I helped with this, and unfortunately I misread 笛 for 箱 at first glance, where the latter means box. 🙃
I've only now realized that I played the japanese version of the game when I was a kid.
I had a famicom bootleg when I was growing up because that's what was easier to get in my country and my parents were not ones to search a lot for videogames, they barely tolerated me playing them.
Anyways, the cartriges were famicom like but most games were US versions, because most text was in English (I didn't understand English back the but I still saw they used the same as Spanish does), so I assumed I played SMB3 US version too.
But now, seeing the differences, I realized I played the Japanese version.
I had a similar realization a few years ago, when I played the Virtual Console version of SMB3 and it was noticeably easier than the one I was used to. Then again, the one I used to play had this cheat where you could press Select in the item menu to give yourself any item of your choice. I never knew if that was a cheat added to that particular version or some glitch that left some developer access available.
@@Dreadjaws That's the same one I used to rent when I was a child!!! It was so cool being Hammer Mario on EACH LEVEL!
You played the japanese SMB3 which had japanese text but you thought it was in english? ok
@@AizensPlan I played an assortment of english and japanese titles on a bootleg famicom, titles would sometimes come in japanese, sometimes in english, neither language I could understand back then, so I just skipped any and all text.
I didn't know SMB3 was among the japanese ones.
There is at least one more translation error in the Princess’ letters where they forgot to translate Kuribo to Goomba. It was corrected in later releases. Yes, it is supposed to be Goomba’s Shoe. That always confused me as a kid since I didn’t know Kuribo was what they called Goomba in Japan.
I had the Kuribo's shoe copy as a kid, never made the connection to the goomba who was using it.
The "jewel" bit in the letters confused me too. I didn't realise it was in reference to the items, and thought I was being protected up in general.
@@evilvix21 Yep. It was changed to “Goomba’s Shoe” and stayed that way for Super Mario Advance and Super Mario All*Stars but that’s what it was always supposed to be.
@@evilvix21 Yeah tbh I have no idea why they translated たから/takara as jewel to begin with. It quite literally means treasure. Jewel is ほうせき/houseki. Unnessessary confusion.
@@emmettturner9452 They changed to goomba shoe on NES too on the 1.1 revision.
There’s a lot of “noki” this and “noki” that in Super Mario RPG but, by then, I knew it was a reference to the Japanese name for Koopa Troopa. ;)
8:14 It’s more like “yahoh” then “yahoo,” and the Japanese kinda use it like a more casual greetings sometimes between friends. “Uwaaaaa” is often something said when falling down (slipping on ice, tripping down the stairs, etc.), and “Don” is pronounced “dohn,” onomatopoeia for a loud thump or some explosions (but yeah it’s written like it’s pronounced like the way it was said here). Just thought you or someone else would like to know.
And *Kuppa* is pronounced the same as Koopa. It's just a more direct transliteration.
@@Schwarzorn the name "クッパ" supposedly came from the korean dish 국밥 (Gukbap) which is written クッパ (kuppa) in japanese so its more like gukpab -> kuppa -> koopa
I still just can't get over the Mario 3 JP box art. It's so beautiful. Been giving me nostalgia trips for years because I remember seeing it in old magazines.
Does no one remember just swimming under the ships? Such an easy level.. with the step haha.
Yep! I discovered it by accident originally. But you can still die if you are not careful
Breaking news, Region Break back in action! I had no idea about some of these changes. Interesting that the power-up cycling went back the JP Mario 3 style for Mario World after this instead of following the US SMB3's example. Also Buyee looks neat, gonna browse that right away 🙏
I think Mario World went back to the SMB1/SMB3JP style power-up damage cycle because of the addition of the item slot, where if you have a Fire Flower you likely have the Super Mushroom from before you got it in reserve, so that if you take damage as Fire Mario the Mushroom drops down and you (hopefully) grab it and go back to Super Mario.
Curiously enough in the GBA version of super mario world you don't go straight back to lil mario if you get hit while having a cape/feather
@@KawaiiiFive-O Yeah the GBA versions of the 2D Mario games kinda just standardized and semi-modernized everything, and in Super Mario World's case, that included the more modern damage system I guess, to make it more consistent with the other Super Mario Advance games.
How much was it to buy that verification? Because in no way do you deserve it.
It's still weird to me to see this game explored as vintage. I still remember when this game was released and it was "current Mario", not "vintage Mario". I recall holding that very manual in my hands as a young child.
Just when you think every drop of Mario 3 content was sucked dry by youtubers you push out this banger.
I wish they still had cool game manuals like that, makes you feel closer to the characters and story line.
Ikr. :(
“kuppa” is the direct romanized rendering of the japanese for “koopa” (クッパ = ku p-pa) and is pronounced the same as “koopa”.
In Finnish 'Kuppa' means syphilis so when some Finnish gaming magazine told that Koopa is 'Kuppa' in Japanese that was hilarious for many readers. :D
Koopa would imply クーパ for it to be 'pronounced the same' to English users.
@@fearedjames to my early-knowledge, the OP's writing would have a more prominent "P" sound while yours would be softer but the point remains that it'd have the same "koo" sound"
*I like a Kuppa tea please!*
@@velvetbutterfly I think it would be Kuppa and Kuupa right?
This manual was so entertaining to me as a kid, and set the standard for what I expected going forward. I don't know if anything else ever lived up to it.
The Mario 3 US box is one of the best boxes of all time. That yellow and blue really made it stand out and the minimalism made it intriguing. It definitely stood out on the store shelves.
It's also full of Satanic imagery
@@A_Black_Sheep94 ...HUH?!
@@legoboy7107 Watch the AVGN about SMB3 lmao
@@A_Black_Sheep94 Oh, okay 😂
@Sovereign Snorlax 😂😂😂
As a Japanese, I really enjoyed this video! I never knew that there are so many minor changes!
It's not Hidden boxes but hidden flutes. They tried to get around the lack of battery by using the flutes to get to further worlds.
That's so much better than a password system.
Regarding the powerups, I always hated the fact that, in SMB1 and 3, a powerup like a fireflower or leaf (SMB3 only) didn't transform you to that powerup right away from small Mario. They always acted like a mushroom. This was changed in SMW when a small mario went all the way to Cape Mario or Fire Mario. As a kid playing SMB1 and 3 it never made sense to me, but I ended up growing used to this quirk.
I grew up playing Super Mario Bros 3, yoshis island and SMW on GBA instead of SNES and NES since I was like 7/8 when they came out, its super duper weird for me to play SMW on snes, going back to small mario with 1 hit and not being able to do spin jump with L t.t
Well in SMB1, it was kind of a rare thing to happen… Every power up was either a mushroom or a fire flower, but they were always “progressive”, so you would only get the flower if you were already big
The only time you could grab a flower when small is if you took damage after unveiling the flower. Personally, it made perfect sense to me that the flower would act as a mushroom in that rare case, since they would have been trying to give you a mushroom anyway
Eventually the power up mechanics changed for the better, but the evolution was all based off how SMB1 originally functioned
I've only played the GBA version of Super Mario Bros 3. I played it to death years ago!
Something about it was so comfortable when playing it.
This is cool! Love these retro comparisons.
A note on some pronunciations: "Ludwig" sounds like "Lood-vigg", since it's a German name. And "Kuppa", as a Japanese word, is still pronounced "Koopa".
In English, the name Ludwig sounds different from how it does in German. (Like most names).
@@nthgth I never day it that way. It just sounds wrong. Pronouncing Tōkyō as TOH KEE OHH. No one but old people do that nowadays from what I've heard on modern shows and movies.
@@Schwarzorn what
@@beesree39 What?
Thanks again for letting me help translate! :D Great video as always, keep up the good work 😊
This video deserves WAY more than just ~55% of your sub count. Awesome work on this one. Thanks for your hard work, good editing, and all around great content
I love how Japan didn't pull any punches calling the enemies fat. This is coming from someone who is 6 feet and 250 lbs lol.
So, this sounds nuts, but as a kid, I could've sworn I saw that bouncing Fire Flower glitch on the airship on my American copy. I've never been able to replicate it, and this is the only time I've ever seen it again, proving that it wasn't something insane my imaginative childhood mind made up
You're not the only one I had that happen on my Aus copy a few times never knew what triggered it
Happened to me when I was trying to make a bootleg-esque rom hack of the game. I'm pretty sure it wasn't me accidentally messing something up
To help the three of you, people say this happens if you hit the box at a precise frame when the canonball overlaps it but since the NES was programmed by duct tape I imagine other things could as well
Ditto for the EU version. It just looks and feels so familiar.
The translation you have for Ludwig's Japanese manual text is incorrect. At the end, he is saying that there are more enemies besides the ones shown, and that those enemies are to be kept secret 「ナイショ」 from Mario. There is no dismissiveness about it.
Dismissive of the first game enemies, how they weren't as good as the new ones.
@@Retro_Red No such text exists in the Japanese manual.
This channel half asses a lot of stuff, I'm not surprised. He even got incorrectly the translation for オヤジ as dad, when in context it doesn't mean dad, just "old man".
"Old man" is a term that means "dad" though.
@@dusklunistheumbreon in some context yes, but considering the koopalings are not his children, in this case nope, it just refers to an older person, or even just their boss, since that's another way to translate "oyaji". NOA made the same exact mistake back then because they assumed those are his children.
You forgot to mention that in the Japanese version of SMB3, Bowser stomp could kill you as small Mario whereas in the NA version small Mario is immune to the stomp.
This series is so cool. No idea how much of a Spyro fan you are, but the Japanese versions of Spyro 1 & 2 have a ton of differences that make the games a lot worse. That could be a cool video.
I hope to see a video like this for Spyro!
2:30 they changed this back in all-stars. I remember as a kid getting as many hammer suits as I wanted by breaking the rock, going to the hut, getting the suit and then saving & quitting.
For the longest time, I thought the koopalings were Bowser's children, just like the US manual stated.
Then they mostly stopped appearing in the games at all, to eventually be replaced by Bowser Jr as Bowser's apparently retroactively one and only child. This was later backed up by online fan claims that the English localizers made up the "Bowser's children" part entirely on their own, as the original Japanese manual never called them his children, but rather something more like his minions. I didn't really like this change, but it seemed to square with the newer games and it was my accepted understanding for the last several years that the koopalings were never intended to be Bowser's children. The change wasn't a retcon, but a correction.
Now I see another translation of the original Mario 3 manual, and this version seems to show that manual pretty clearly saying the koopalings are Bowser's children just like the US manual did? So the Japanese designers really did originally intend for them to be Bowser's children? Their change in status really is a retcon after all? Now I don't know what to believe anymore.
All I know for sure is that I preferred the koopalings as Bowser's children, and for Bowser Jr to only exist as the young version of Bowser in Yoshi's Island. It makes sense for him to look like a younger clone of Bowser in his design's original context of simply being younger Bowser, but as Bowser's separately existing son that similarity feels like a really lazy bland design instead, especially compared to the far more interesting non-clone-like koopalings. Speaking of which, those same distinct designs are why koopalings just seem like they make a lot more sense as Bowser's children. They're clearly different from all other generic koopas, but so is Bowser himself. If they're his kids then that uniqueness naturally follows. If not, then it's just further questions.
The discrepancy is mostly Screw Attack's fault. In 2012 they reported on the interview about the retcon, and said that we were never his kids. It was a simple case of critical research fail. Enough people complained that they issued a correction... to state that Miyamoto had said this was "the current story" meaning that it could change at any time... naturally this addressed literally none of their failings and I've been fighting ignorance online for-- oh God, this is the 10th year now! -I'm tired-
@@Wendy_O._Koopa and really, what he meant by them not being Bowser's kids is pretty much left to interpretation...
@@jayo1212 Yes, what Shigeru Miyamoto said is very dependent on interpretation. Because what he really said was that Junior was Bowser's only kid... which is _almost_ the opposite of the way Screw Attack reported on it. Simply based on the interview, we could still be his niece and nephews, his cousins, etc. even his adopted children (this being the lead theory) and I don't have any problems with people quoting/spreading the original interview. My problem is the blatant lies of Screw Attack that we "were never related" being repeated ad nauseum... when the only official *_in universe_* reference is from Smash Brothers where Pit claims that the relationship between Bowser and the Koopalings "is a real mystery."
@@Wendy_O._Koopa at first I thought that “we” was a typo for “they”… But then it happened again, and I saw your username… 😅
Er, I mean… Thank you Wendy, for providing us accurate information regarding your family! ❤️
22:04 Why did Mario just move upon the bushes? That's a Boundary break!
Maybe part of the reason that the Western version was easier was because the Japanese version came out first, and it allowed them to realise which bits were a little too difficult, and improve upon them by making them less difficult.
I think they actually just enjoy a harder playthrough. Making it too easy makes it boring.
4:35 9:43 And here I figured the American manual used watercolors for those two pics of Mario in the frogsuit because he was swimming underwater. Geez, I was way off. lol
25:55
You hit it just right. It can be done on the US version, a few TASes have displayed it
There's multiple revisions for the N-Spade panel games:
Original NES version: "Miss twice and your out!"
NES revision: "You can only miss twice!"
GBA revision: "Miss twice and you're out!"
Mushroom Country name revisions (NES 1/NES 2/GBA)
World 1: Grass Land/Grass Land/Grass Land
World 2: Desert Land/Desert Hill/Desert Hill
World 3: Water Land/Ocean Side/Sea Side
World 4: Giant Land/Big Island/Big Island
World 5: Sky Land/The Sky/The Sky
World 6: Ice Land/Iced Land/Iced Land
World 7: Pipe Land/Pipe Maze/Pipe Maze
World 8: Castle of Koopa (Kuppa)/Dark Land/Bowser's Castle
20:08 Regarding the throne room, Are the clouds different during the fall to the throne room, or are they just always in different places each time?
Really intriguing stuff! Loved this and the amount of effort put into this! WELL DONE!!!!
7:10 the bowser on the jpn box reminds me of the one on the jpn box art of SMB1. I have a feeling that Smb3 jpn’s box artwork was drawn by Miyamoto himself.
Castle Of Kuppa, Bowser sure loves to drink.
Just like he did in Japanese Super Mario Kart.
The glitch you discovered also reveals a difference between the two versions of the game that you might not have noticed. In that scene, you get hit by a cannonball, stripping you down to small Mario because the Japanese version removed all powerups on hit. You then collect the fire flower, but are only promoted to Super Mario, not all the way to fire Mario. In the US version, if you lost all your powerups, going all the way down to small Mario, but there was another powerup on the screen that you subsequently collected, you'd be promoted into that form despite not yet being Super Mario.
Actually, in the US version, grabbing an already revealed Fire Flower or Super Leaf while you're small would still only make you normal big again. (However, grabbing a Frog Suit, Tanooki Suit, or Hammer Suit while small does power you all the way up to the collected suit, since those are special. Also, using any power up item from your inventory on the map always transforms you directly into that form, regardless of your status beforehand.)
Seeing the American Mario bros 3 case brought back fond memories. Very interesting how the gameplay and instruction manual's arts are different.
Just realized I have a notebook officially licensed by Nintendo that have the Japanese boxart image on it.
I've noticed some Western releases with a worse cover sometimes has the better Japanese cover on the manual for some reason. Always makes me disappointed...
It's always interesting seeing subtle differences in both game design, background design, and even unintentional glitch design between regions.
It's also interesting to see when they catch this stuff, like the single pixel on the letter R in "World".
They should have had a difficulty selector where the Japanese version is hard mode but in all modes the shoe gomba should be a separate hit.
Also I've been playing this game on the Wii u the special version with all the special levels and I could have swore that the silhouette flies off of you when using the special power ups I'm in America
that idea reminds me of how they did the difficulties in Mega Man 2
Hard in Mega Man 2 is just the original Japanese difficulty level of Rockman 2
15:47 The way Peach looks on that letter is frightening...!
Miyamoto later would go on to state that they're not Bowser's kids but his followers.
i sometimes feel like he doesn't really know how his character bios work. The man is getting old and he kinda feels out of touch with the mario franchise.
Worst of all, he didn't give us a _new_ backstory. How long would it have taken to say, oh we're Bowser's niece and nephews, or cousins, or that we're adopted and he's adoption shaming like a little bitch?
19:21 - I would say that you are right. It appears they were able to properly fix it in the All-stars version of SMB 3, the "cookie cut" goes in and out (though it is circular) and is the correct color on the over world map pipes... Also it appears the throne room in the US version of All-stars is from the Japanese version, but the text boxes in the Japanese version are full-sized... Sorry for rambling, awesome video!
I think the reason why they might have traced over the watercolour art in the western release might be so that Mario's colours are consistent with the game and the artwork on the cover. He still wears his old, red overalls in the Japanese version whereas in the western one, they are the blue he's had ever since.
@8:15 The Japanese ヤッホー pronounced "yah-hoh" (which is what Mario says) and the English "yahoo" are not the same thing. "Yah-hoh" is used exclusively as a casual greeting used by (mostly younger) people in Japan similar to "hey there!" or "what's up!" which is why it makes sense to Japanese kids reading it.
Oh, would you look at that, Christmas came early this year. Awesome upload, Shesez! Seeing those difficulty changes make me glad they exist, because there's no way I would've finished SMB3 as a kid without 'em.
"Boo Diddly" I rofled.
I also noticed that when the wand drops back down towards the king, it drops slightly closer to the stairs in the NA version than in the Japanese version. Not a big deal, but still a difference I noticed.
I was so absolutely excited for this!
15:50 ‐ It's not just that this game were apprehensive about calling her Princess Peach. In the US releases, she was *always* called Princess Toadstool. Mario 64 was the first game where the name Peach was used in the US.
Good vid!!
Wait. The Boos were originally called "Boo Diddly".
I get that reference!
Nice, thanks for doing the research and making this. I remember spending hours as a kid playing this. Cool to see the differences other kids on the other side of the world were seeing when playing their localized version.
Loved the content, loved the sponsor. Loved the hard work and attention to details!
I always thought the 'jewel that helps protect you' was the gem she has on the chest of her dress, and it was somehow enchanted to aid the brothers.
Summary: In Japan the tanooki suit flaps it's giant balls instead of tail to fly.
Have you ever seen the Studio Ghibli film Pom Poko? _Because that's the plot of Pom Poko._
Thank you SO much for turning me on to Buyee. I've just ordered a (used) box set of Pokemon Gen 2. Going to keep the boxes on the shelf and frame the carts. You just made my night at 3 AM.
They really should come around and make physical instruction booklets again. It added so much to the game in some cases. At least for the big Nintendo titles :-/
It wastes too much paper and also physical space is a concern because game cases are made of plastic now instead of cardboard and are universal across all games for a particular console. Modern digital manuals can keep the same charm though
I still remember the first time I played this game, I was 9 years old. Even then I thought "Why do you get a racoon tail?". I still wonder that.
22:43 it me!
It you!
The removal of the first hammer makes sense. You could use that to softlock the game, by killing The first Bombom throught the wall/flour, by messing around near the candle
I love Region Break! Thanks for making my evening happier!
Both informative and entertaining as always. I really enjoy this format.
Just an idea: Have you thought about putting music in the background?
There already is! It's just playing in a really low volume
ヤッホー doesn't mean "yahoo", it means "hello". It's an informal greeting.
Edit: Also I don't get why you're making a big deal of the word repetitions, those are quite common in Japanese and don't have the same effect there that they do in English. If they included similar repetition in English, the translation would be inaccurate because it would be turning entirely ordinary, standard Japanese into unusual and possibly incorrect English. Like you mentioned よかったよかった, which is literally a Japanese term for "thank goodness" repeated twice (your translation of the word as "good" is largely oversimplified, よかった almost never should be translated as "good"). Translating that to "Oh, thank heavens" looks to me like an entirely perfect translation with the exact same meaning and "feeling" as the Japanese text.
This is why you shouldn't use "literal translations" in an attempt to learn about _actual_ differences. "Literal translations" are by their very nature inaccurate. You can't remove a language from its context of the idioms etc that are natural in it. Using "literal translations" has you assuming that entirely normal, unremarkable speech patterns are some sort of "quirky trait", which is incorrect.
Consider this simple Japanese sentence:
学校に行かなきゃいけない。
It just means, "I have to go to school." Nothing complicated. But translating it "literally" would have you thinking that it says something weird like, "If I don't go to school, it can't go." Because the English pattern of expressing that you have to do something (like an obligation) has basically nothing in common with how that same sentiment is expressed in Japanese.
Finally, a video in my recommended that I actually want to watch.
(Also 0:06 "earfbound")
(Also also I don't know if you didn't catch this or something but the throne room's steps are one tile shorter in the Japanese version.)
I like the idea that Bowser had a Koopa Troopa write his letter for him, and the Koopa Troopa signed it himself instead of for Bowser.
Haha that's hilarious! It's in my headcanon now
I am LOVING this series, please do more!! :)
They reused a lot of the manual art for the one in Mario World.
Early US box art for SMB3 had the "Bros" part of the logo on the left, rather than the right!
Man, I was really hoping the coffee stain would come with every release!😂😆
FK
What an entertaining content! Found your channel and I’m totally stoked! It’s pretty amazing the way you display every aspect and differences between both versions! Cheers from Mexico City
Remember when these were generally called, "Quality of Life", changes? I certainly do.
I had glitches from airship stages where the flower turns white. Also, wallscrolling above Bowser's Room by ducking over the statue above his door. It showcases multiple layouts of his room until the last one, where you get stuck in the wall and have to time out.
22:27 does this only happen to Mario? I wouldn't be surprised if it popped out green if you were Luigi.
I thought it was red because of the fire flower specifically