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.
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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..