Early Nintendo Localisation: The Origin Of Mario

A previous post discussed the arcade game Pac-Man, and how localisation defined the game and its titular character. However, the name of an even more prominent character traces back to the arcade scene of the early eighties, the beloved Italian plumber we know as Mario. The character first appeared as the user controlled avatar in Nintendo’s arcade hit Donkey Kong, but was known as Jumpman. Back in those days, gameplay was king and story mattered little, so it’s understandable why Nintendo gave him this utilitarian name to encapsulate his purpose. So what led to him ending up being called Mario?

The answer lies in the period when Donkey Kong was being brought over and localised for the American market. It was decided that for the American market, the playable character needed a cooler, more defined name. According to Shigeru Miyamoto himself, the Mario name stems from the name of the landlord of the building in Seattle that Nintendo was leasing. Moreover, for the Amerian release the name of the damsel in distress Mario is trying to save also turned from “Lady” to Pauline. This was simply because the wife of Nintendo’s American warehouse manager was called Polly. However, just like the case of Pac-Man, these changes for the North American market were quickly adopted by Nintendo of Japan and included in later versions of the game released in Japan.

Today Mario stands as one of gaming’s most famous protagonists, so it’s incredible to see how his identity was shaped by such an arbitrary decision during the localisation process. The name’s Italian origin no doubt informed the Italian characterisation of Mario and other characters in the Mario universe. For example, Luigi (Mario’s brother) ended up with his name because of a popular pizzeria close to the Nintendo of America office was called Mario & Luigi’s. (However, what likely sealed the deal is how the word ruiji in Japanese literally means similar or resembling, which is extremely fitting given that Luigi’s initial character model was a plain palette swap of Mario.)

However, not everything was so arbitrary in the early days of Mario. After starring role in Donkey Kong and finding his identity as Mario, the character went from strength to strength as Nintendo’s core mascot. In contrast, Pauline (who debuted at the time as Mario) disappeared from Mario’s adventures, despite these games still retaining the concept of Mario being driven to rescue a damsel in distress. In Pauline's place came the character we today know as Princess Peach. There doesn't appear to be any public details on the exact reason behind the decision to phase out Pauline, but I can speculate that since the early Mario games revolved around him saving a damsel in distress, a feminine princess was likely seen as more fitting than Pauline, a normal civilian woman. 

Nintendo of Japan created the character with the name Princess Peach and she first debuted in Super Mario Bros. for the Famicom. However, when this game was being brought to the West, the American localisation team regarded the name as too far removed from her position within the game’s fictional universe, the Mushroom Kingdom. And so for the Western release of Super Mario Bros. in 1985, Mario was rescuing a female called Princess Toadstool. This was a strange localisation decision. First, she had already been given a specific name by the Japanese development team. However, more than that, it's hard to imagine any Super Mario Bros. players being alienated (or even caring) that Mario was trying to rescue a character known as Princess Peach. Nonetheless, this naming convention stayed in place until the appearance of Princess Peach in 1993 with Yoshi’s Safari for the SNES. For a while afterwards there were occasional attempts to reconcile this difference (in Super Mario 64, no less) by suggesting that the character’s full name was Peach Toadstool. However, this has long since stopped and the Toadstool moniker has all but disappeared from Nintendo games, save for a brief mention in Super Smash Bros. for the WiiU. 

Mario. A name born from an arbitrary localisation decision about an arcade game today stands as the moniker of arguably the world’s most well-known videogame protagonist. However, the days of such capricious localisation choices now belong to a bygone era. Videogames are big business, and the stories too now often form part of a game’s core attraction. Localisation companies like 8-4, Ltd. exist today because developers recognise the worth in paying for a professional localisation. Three decades ago Jumpman may have been localised on a whim, but today much thought is given to the localisation of the names of videogame characters. A recent podcast from 8-4 made it clear that the characters in Fire Emblem Awakening were named after much thought and discussion. While aribatray freeform localisation has a certain charm, I’m glad that for the most part Japanese videogames are now handled with the utmost care when being released in foreign territories. :)

 
As a side note, the matter of Princess Diasy is occasionally brought up as a localisation issue, but this is not the case. She was just a unique character made for Super Mario Land. Legends Of Localization has a great in-depth article on the matter.