Mario Party Advance’s Comedy Routines in Japanese

A reader sent in a series of questions about Mario Party Advance:

While progressing through the Japanese version of the game, I came across the “Comedy Bomb” quest (in which you have to laugh at Dolphin’s stand-up comedy routine at the appropriate moments), and that got me wondering whether or not the stories Dolphin was telling were any different.

First, let’s look at the scene and the text in question:

And here’s another comedy bit:

So in both stories it sounds like the translation isn’t any different from the original text, minus a few missing details and slight rephrasings. I really like the flow of the localized text, it’s well-written AND fits within the very limited space allotted.

The reader’s next question is this:

Finally, I got what I want you to look into for Mario Party Advance the most! It’s bigger than the Kamek Krew’s dialogue and Dolphin’s stand-up comedy!

In Mario Party Advance, to unlock quests regarding Bowser, you need to complete a certain number of quests in general. If you complete 30 quests, you will unlock the Yellow Pipe leading to the Bowser Toy Shop, which sells Bowser’s favorite cartoon toys, but it only sells to Bowser himself. The Bowser Toy Shop is also home to the “Bowser’s Toys” quest, in which Bowser issues you a Cartoon Quiz to test your knowledge on Toad Force V (which has a series of quests associated with it), followed by a duel game called “Slammer”. Your reward for completing the quest is the “Screen Clean” Gaddget.

Anyway, while Bowser’s introducing the duel game, a very bizarre thing happens. Specifically, Koopa Kid appears to taunt the player, but Bowser actually finishes the sentence for him! That was obviously not part of the original Japanese version. In fact, Koopa Kid was actually making a short exclamation about the subject of what Bowser was talking about, as usual. This kind of thing is perfect to feature on Legends of Localization.

So here’s what this particular scene looks like too:

In this case, Koopa Kid talks in a “tough, young, wannabe bully” style in Japanese, part of which involves repeating the end of a sentence spoken by someone in more authority. That’s what his first “Yours!” line is in the Japanese version here.

It looks like the translators or localizers weren’t aware of this – or maybe they missed the fact that Koopa Kid says this line and not normal Bowser – and just wrote one long line last over the two lines. It might’ve been possible to fix this with some control code changes, but I can’t say for sure since I’ve never looked at the game’s programming. Basically, it looks like it was an understandable oversight – the two portraits do look pretty similar if you’re skimming through the scene quickly and paying more attention to the text than the portraits.

Lastly is this extra little question:

BONUS: I’ve thrown in an extra comparison of part of the Cartoon Quiz that illustrates an unnecessary change made by the localization team.

This is pretty simple – in Japanese, the line says, “What English letter comes after ‘Kinokon’??” The choices are “K”, “V”, and “CD”.

And in the translation, this line is, “What letter is on Toad Force V’s forehead?” The choices are “X”, “V”, and “.COM”.

I’m not familiar with what Kinokon or Toad Force V are, I assume they’re a Power Rangers-esque group within the game, made up of Kinopio/Toad characters.

I’m going to assume the answer in both cases is “V”. If this is the case, then the answer is much more obvious in the localized version. The “.com” answer is pretty funny though.