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00:00 Welcome to Mojo Plays, and today we'll be taking a look at our list of 10 censored moments
00:10 in Mario games.
00:20 For as family-friendly as Mario seems here in America, changes in other regions, including
00:25 our own, beg to differ.
00:28 Which moment of Mario censorship surprised you the most?
00:31 Let us know down in the comments.
00:33 Before we begin, we publish new content all week long, so be sure to subscribe and ring
00:38 the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
00:42 Yserb 3-16 One of the strangest things about Mario Party
00:51 is just how often the series has faced censorship compared to the other Mario spin-offs, and
00:56 none of them had anything to do with alcohol.
01:00 You know, the good stuff that can land a party in some hot water.
01:03 The first Mario Party, for instance, was censored because of lines uttered by Wario and Luigi
01:09 that might appall the more religious players outside of Japan.
01:13 Rather than potentially alienate those audiences, Nintendo would change Luigi's line to a
01:18 simple "whale" and Wario's to his German phrase "Oh, I missed."
01:28 Puzzles for Adults Again, you would think the alcohol references
01:36 would be found more in something like Mario Party, not a game where you etch out blocks
01:41 to make pictures.
01:43 Some of the puzzles featured in the Japanese version see you creating pictures of alcoholic
01:48 drinks as well as tobacco and various items that were more focused on Japanese culture.
01:53 For international versions, these puzzles were replaced to etch out works that formed
01:57 animals, food, and other images.
02:00 This was most likely done due to Nintendo of America and various other branches having
02:05 policies against featuring drinking and smoking in video games, which is understandable considering
02:10 how countries view those habits very differently across their respective cultures.
02:16 Yoshi's Seafood Snack Even though Super Mario World faced visual
02:26 changes across different regions, most of them were done out of necessity to character
02:30 names and how systems were optimized.
02:33 The one big change, however, involved our adorable green dino.
02:37 In the Japanese version, Yoshi is able to eat the dolphins featured in some of the water
02:42 levels, but this was removed from international versions most likely due to how other countries
02:46 viewed dolphin hunting and animal cruelty.
02:50 Or by some off chance, maybe this was just because of a bug and it was an overlooked
02:54 bit of code.
02:55 Regardless, the GBA port would restore this possibility in all versions.
03:05 Go home, Luigi.
03:12 South Korea has an incredibly strict government when it comes to gambling, at least it is
03:16 for Korean citizens regardless if they gamble in or outside of the country.
03:21 It's viewed so negatively that a Korean citizen could face some serious time in prison,
03:26 and yet tourists are more than welcome to gamble at what few casinos reside.
03:31 And so, when Super Mario 64 DS was released in South Korea, you could probably guess what
03:37 portion of the game was removed entirely to abide by these laws.
03:41 And it wasn't just Luigi's casino minigames, every minigame got removed.
03:46 Luigi, we might have to have a talk about your… problem.
03:50 It's affecting everybody, man.
03:59 Mushroom Kingdom's Freedom Fighter
04:08 Was this a moment of censorship?
04:10 This one has admittedly never been confirmed, but given the political climate at the time,
04:15 one cannot help but be suspicious.
04:18 In Origami King, one toad goes into a frenzy after being freed, crying out about how toads
04:24 have no rights and deserve freedom.
04:27 In the Chinese version, the new text translates to "Toads need to be clean, toads need peace
04:33 and quiet."
04:35 Some argue that the new quote has more cultural, economic context to it and still uses the
04:40 general tone of injustice.
04:42 But given the events of the Hong Kong protests that occurred before the game's release,
04:47 we wouldn't be surprised if the Chinese government had a hand in the censorship.
04:57 No Bubbles Allowed
05:04 The Mario Kart series has kept its hands somewhat clean, but the first bit of censorship it
05:08 faced was in the very first game.
05:11 The Japanese versions of Super Mario Kart feature two animations for Peach and Bowser
05:15 that see them drink straight from champagne bottles.
05:19 Champagne bottles have long had a role in celebrating victories in motorsports, so the
05:23 inclusion here was totally understandable.
05:26 Not so much when catering to other demographics, though, specifically in the West.
05:30 Nintendo of America changed the animations to adhere to their guidelines on depicting
05:35 alcohol in games.
05:43 The Smoking Guns
05:53 The first Mario Party just faced a couple of audio changes.
05:57 Mario Party 2, on the other hand, was hit with a double whammy.
06:01 First off, Professor Fungi's pipe is removed from the international versions of the game
06:05 because, you know, usage of tobacco.
06:08 But the big one many of you probably know already is the ending to Western Land, where
06:13 Bowser and the winner's guns are replaced with cork poppers.
06:17 For as much as we would love the somewhat more violent version, the cork poppers make
06:22 the whole ending just way more entertaining.
06:31 Facing Problems
06:38 Not even the good Dr. Mario is safe from the censor's scrutiny.
06:43 Thing is that this one does skirt the line of racism.
06:47 In the English versions of Dr. Mario 64, Octo is depicted with a blue shelling and orange
06:53 interior.
06:54 In the Japanese version, Octo has a more questionable appearance.
06:59 Basically, it was an alteration done very much in the same way Pokemon went about with
07:04 changing Jinx.
07:13 Poor Choice of Words
07:22 Mario Party found itself in a bit of trouble once more, and this time it was financially
07:27 damaging.
07:28 Mario Party 8 was not in the United Kingdom market for long when it initially launched.
07:34 Players were furious over the game's inclusion of the term "spastic," prompting Nintendo
07:38 to do a total recall.
07:41 Changes were made in the game's code, using the word "erratic" instead, reprints were
07:45 made, and it inflated Mario Party 8's budget a little more than the conglomerate probably
07:50 would have liked.
07:52 Too Many to List
08:00 The Thousand Year Door may go down as the most heavily censored game in Mario history.
08:05 There were simply way too many changes thrown around for us to make separate entries about
08:10 them.
08:11 There's the house with the chalked outline of a supposedly murdered toad, the less graphic
08:15 name used for the red bones, the alteration of red wine turning into Chocola Cola, which
08:20 by the way is still a clever reference to the Mario and Luigi games, the booze that
08:25 wear cat ears because we can't reference Playboy Bunnies in a Mario game, and even
08:29 Mario's Wave, which was removed in the European versions for reasons obvious to anybody who
08:34 has taken a history class.
08:36 And do we even dare get into the whole thing about Vivian?
08:40 We'd rather not.
08:41 But you get our point.
08:57 Thanks for watching.
09:09 (upbeat music)