Wario Ware Touched and the tale of worldwide localization

Nintendo officially released the Nintendo DS in South Korea earlier this year and they have been rapidly localizing games Hangul. Wario Ware Touched, better known as Manjyeora Made in Wario, is the most recent game to get localized in specifically for Korea. You might imagine a game like Wario Ware doesn’t require that much localization work. After all the focus in Wario Ware Touched is the collection of touch screen microgames and not minor snippets of text, so this might surprise you.

Here is a screenshot outside the dentist’s office, from the first set of microgames in the US release. Notice the dentist’s name Dr. Payne, a clever pun that pokes fun of dental phobia.

Let’s see what happens in South Korea….

Nintendo localized the name of the dentist to Dr. Kim, a common Korean surname, probably to give Manjyeora Made in Wario more of a hometown feel than Dr. Payne would have. It’s also important to note that you see the screen for two seconds, tops. Nintendo could have easily left in Dr. Payne or the original Japanese name, Mastu Dental, and I doubt anyone would complain or notice. However, detail oriented Nintendo thought that Dr. Kim would be a better fit for South Korea. Should we give out kudos to Nintendo for good localization?

In case you were wondering here is the same screenshot from the dental clinic in the Japanese version….

… and all three signs side by side.