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Diddy Kong Racing (N64): Japanese vs. English

 

Diddy Kong Racing is a game that was developed by Rare in 1997. Since Rare is an English company, the game was created in an English environment and then localized to Japanese (Where it was released first!).

 

I’d like to compare the original English to the localized Japanese in order to see what changes Nintendo of Japan made. In the N64 version, all of the English voices are all kept (See video below).

The bosses names in Japanese are simple. With the exception of Wizpig, they are simply translated to the animal that you are racing against. It does makes sense that Wizpig would keep his name as he was the final boss.

English: Japanese: Literal Translation:
Tricky トリケラトプス Triceratops
Bluey セイウチ Walrus
Bubbler タコ Octopus
Smokey ドラゴン Dragon
Wizpig ウィズピッグ Wizpig

 

English: Japanese: Literal Translation:
Dino Domain ザウルスゾーン Dino Zone
Ancient Lake サンシャインレイク Sunshine Lake
Fossil Canyon ゆうやけキャニオン Sunset Canyon
Jungle Falls ジャングルフォール Jungle Falls
Hot Top Volcano マグマかざん Magma Volcano
SnowFlake Mountain スノーゾーン Snow Zone
Everfrost Peak フローズンマウンテン Frozen Mountain
Walrus Cove スノーコースター Snow Coaster
Snowball Valley ゆきだるまランド Snowman Land
Frosty Village クリスマスむら Christmas Land
Sherbert Island トロピカルゾーン Tropical Zone
Whale Bay くじらビーチ Whale Beach
Crescent Island みかづきアイランド Crescent Island
Pirate Lagoon かいぞくじま Pirate Island
Treasure Caves トレジャードーム Treasure Dome
Dragon Forest ドラゴンゾーン Dragon Zone
Windmill Plains ふうしゃカントリー Windmill Country
Greenwood Village グリーンウッドむら Greenwood Village
Boulder Canyon リバーパレス River Palace
Haunted Woods ゴーストウッズ Ghost Woods
Future Fun Land フューチャーゾーン Future Zone
Spacedust Alley スターダストアレイ Stardust Alley
Darkmoon Caverns ダークムーントンネル Darkmoon Tunnel
Spaceport Alpha スペースポートΑ(アルファ) Spaceport Alpha
Star City スターシティ Star City

 

 

Personally, I think naming the areas “Zones” makes a lot of sense and I like the consistency. The biggest changes are to the first couple of tracks, as the track names make no mention to dinosaurs.

The MagicCodes are the same in each version. Therefore, the word play (Such as: BYEBYEBALLOONS for “No Balloons”) would have been lost on the Japanese audience.

one comment
  1. Your “#YouMayHaveMissed” twits worked because I definitely have missed this article… Actually, I remember a lot of time before when I first read SG, there was a lot of work put into the articles but I felt bad because mostly of the time there was no comments or just one… Glad today’s articles have a lot of views and comments because you deserve it. : ]

    Was the game released first on Japan on purpose? Maybe they wanted to test first if it would sell well, I guess..

    Ar on March 22 |