Regional and Version Differences

This is a sub-page of Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64).

To do: Detailed analysis of differences in the code.

General Differences#

Title Screen#

Japan/US	Europe

Shindou	iQue

• The logo was squashed a bit in the European version and completely changed for the iQue one.
• The "TM" texture has different color and a different font in Europe, Shindou and iQue (Japan/US white, PAL orange, Shindou/iQue blue)
• The copyright info was updated to reflect the European and Shindou releases. The iQue version has an extra copyright year (2003, the year that the iQue was released).

Mario's Head#

Japan/US	Europe

Shindou	iQue

• The intro screen says PRESS START in the US and Japanese versions, but just START in the European version. The Shindou version has a unique graphic on the bottom right of the screen, used to indicate that a Rumble Pak can be used. The background was changed in the iQue version, just to let you know what version you're playing.

Game Over#

International	iQue

• Speaking of background change above, this one from the "Game Over" screen was also changed in the iQue version.

Demo Video#

International	Europe

• In the European release, the demo clip depicting Mario collecting a ring of coins in Whomp's Fortress sees him collect one less coin than in all other versions of the game. Notably, this is the only change to the demo videos between regions.

File Select#

US	Europe

• In the European version, the options menu has three different languages, but the American and Japanese versions don't have a language selection, with the options menu containing only sound options and the language being locked into English or Japanese, respectively. Because of this, the European version has the "Sound" button changed to "Options".

Japan	US/Europe	iQue

• In the US and European versions, a Mario's head icon replaces the word "Mario" (マリオ) on the left of letter of which save file high scores belong to.
• The iQue version uses two pages to display score info due to the larger Chinese characters, thus you change between them with L and R, making this the only version of Super Mario 64 to give a function to the L button.

Hud Textures#

Japan	Europe

• The unused "key" HUD icon was removed from the international versions. It appears as a garbled mess in the US version, while in the European version it was replaced with the German Ü:

Ä (ae)	Ö (oe)	Ü (ue)

• In the European version, the "German Umlauts" (Ä, Ö and Ü) were added. However the Ü isn't used anywhere in the game normally.

• The V and Z alphabet tiles were re-added in the European version of Super Mario 64.

Peach's Letter#

Japan	English Localization

Please come over to the castle. 
I made a cake,
and I'm waiting for you.
-From Peach

• In Peach's letter to Mario, the English version adds a personal greeting to the beginning and a "Peach" signature in pink ink to the end. According to Peach's voice actress, Nintendo of America localizer Leslie Swan, this change was the result of an arrangement she made with Shigeru Miyamoto to deprecate her prior international name, Princess Toadstool. By making her full name "Peach Toadstool", international releases of the Mario games going forward could use Miyamoto's preferred name for the regent, "Peach", as an informal moniker.

End Screen#

• In the European version, the Cake screen has been re-rendered to accommodate the addition of French and German translations. This re-render features a wider field of view, a slightly different camera angle, and a circular "THANK YOU" decoration in place of the square one from the US and Japanese versions. This cake design was reverted for the Shindou version, and does not appear in the DS remake.

International	Europe

Others#

• The gameplay demo of Mario battling Bowser is missing in the Japanese version. The other gameplay demos are still present.

• To talk to NPCs or read signs, the player has to press the B button in the original Japanese version. Overseas and in Europe, either the A button or the B button can be used. The text was not changed to compensate for this and still mentions only the B button. The interaction radius has also been made a bit more lenient.

• The American version has code to detect a PAL TV and change its output accordingly, which is odd given there is a separate European version for PAL regions. The Japanese version doesn't have this code.

• In the Japanese version, coins could land on the void and stay there. Later versions despawn any coins that land on the void.

• In the Japanese version, MIPS has the same speed both times he spawns in the basement. In all other versions, MIPS is slightly slower the first time he spawns (at 15 stars). MIPS also has significantly less gravity in the Japanese version.

European Text Changes#

Compared to the American version, a few strings were changed in the European version - most of them not due to the differences between American and British English. The lines that carried over into Super Mario 64 DS are based on the American version, even when playing the European version in English.

Said by Bowser when first entering Peach's Castle. "Scram" was changed to "get lost", and the em dash was removed.

Said by the narrator when first entering Bob-Omb Battlefield. The Bob-omb Buddies were changed from being comrades to just regular friends.

Said by a Bob-omb Buddy in Bob-Omb Battlefield. "Plastered" was changed to the more common (in this context, at least) "splattered."

Said by Koopa the Quick after finishing a race while having using a cannon. Mario is now a cheater as opposed to a scammer.

Written on a sign in Hazy Maze Cave. The line about being unable to swim with the Metal Cap on was rewritten to be a bit more clear.

Said by Wiggler in Tiny-Huge Island after defeating him. "I give" was changed to the more common "I give up."

Said by Yoshi on top of Peach's Castle after having gathered all 120 stars. For some reason, the last three sentences were removed, completely obscuring the presence of the extended triple jump you get after 100%-ing the game.

Voice Acting#

Mario#

Mario doesn't say a few lines in the Japanese version:

• "Hello!" when his disembodied head greets you.
• "Okey-dokey!" when you choose a save file.
• "Let's-a go!" when you choose a star.
• "Game over!" when you run out of lives.
• "Press START to play!" when you are watching the demo.
• "D'oh!" when you long jump or dive into a wall. He instead says "Uhn!" like when Mario hits a wall any other way.
• "Poin!" when you jump off a Spindrift.
• "Wha-ha!" or "Yipee!" when you Triple Jump. He instead only says "Yahoo!" which can also randomly happen in the international versions.
• "Ha ha!" when leaping out of the pipe in the intro. He still says it after a backflip.
• Mario doesn't say "Mamma mia!" when falling out of a non-painting course after he loses a life in the Japanese version. He does in the international versions.
• "So long-a Bowser!" when you throw Bowser far away (since his name is "Koopa" in Japan). He instead still says "Here we go!" like when you're throwing him a short distance away.
• His "I'm-a tired!" and dreams about pasta while idling are missing.

Peach#

Princess Peach doesn't have any voice acting in the original Japanese release during the beginning and final cutscenes. This was added for all other versions.

Level Changes#

Inside Castle#

Peach Secret Slide Room

Japan	US/Europe

Hard to see at first, a wall texture was shifted in the US and European versions.

Japan	US/Europe

There's a miscolored "red" wall on the inside of the window frame in the Japanese version, this was corrected in the US and European versions.

Jolly Roger Bay#

Japan	US/Europe

In the Japanese version, the painting of Jolly Roger Bay is water with bubbles, and lacks the gold frame seen on nearly every other painting in the game, save Cool, Cool Mountain's and Wet-Dry World's paintings. One possible reason for the change is because this bubble painting was intended for Dire, Dire Docks. The internal level name for both Dire Dire Docks and this painting is "Water Land," not Jolly Roger Bay's "Water Dungeon & Sunken Ship."

In the American version, this Jolly Roger Bay Bubbles painting was replaced with a painting of a sunken ship on the sea floor, and given a golden frame, though this change was reverted for Super Mario 64 DS, which uses the Bubbles painting.

Japan/Shindou	US/Europe

In the level itself, the Star on the stone pillar is out in the open in the Japanese version, but contained inside a ! box in the US and European versions, probably to make the Star's position not too obvious. Again, all versions of Super Mario 64 DS leave the star out in the open, like in the Japanese release.

Cool, Cool Mountain#

Japan	US/Europe

When you take the baby penguin to its mother, the Power Star is placed right above the mother in the Japanese version. This was probably a bit hard to collect, so the Star was moved next to the pool in the US and European versions.

Big Boo's Haunt#

When Mario stops touching the tilting platform on the second floor of Big Boo's Haunt, the platform immediately starts to return to its original position in the Japanese version. In the US and European versions, it continues to tilt in the direction Mario was standing for about half a second.

Rainbow Ride#

Japan	US/Europe/Shindou

In the original Japanese version, the pole located above one of the four rotating platforms has four small blue arrows around its top, similar to a rose compass. These arrows were removed in all other versions.

Glitches#

Some glitches which were present in the Japanese version have been fixed for the American release.

1000 Coin Glitch#

It's possible to collect more than 999 coins (for instance, grabbing the coins generated by Bowser's fire), at which point the coin counter gets forced back to 999. A bug in the Japanese version causes it to instead try to set the life counter to 999. Since the life counter is an 8-bit signed integer, this becomes -25 (or 231 unsigned), which is displayed as M25 in the game. (M is used in the place of a minus sign. This is also seen in the debug displays.) If you then try talking to Yoshi without entering a new course to reset the invisible coin counter, the game will lock up. He'll try to give you 100 total lives, but the game will continuously set Mario's life total to -25 (231 unsigned) each frame, and you'll be stuck on the roof with Yoshi while the "counting" sound effect continuously playing. Watch on YouTube

The lines of code relevant to this glitch were included in game.c in the July 2020 source code leak. While the glitch has been fixed, the relevant lines have a comment that reads "JPBUG."

if (marioWorks->nlifes > 100)  marioWorks->nlifes = 100;   /* for sefty    */
if (marioWorks->ncoins > 999)  marioWorks->ncoins = 999;    /* for sefty    */  /* JPBUG    */
if (playerMeter.coin   > 999)  playerMeter.coin   = 999;    /* for sefty    */  /* JPBUG    */

Presumably the glitch came from copy-pasting the logic from the first line into the second and forgetting to change one of the variables:

if (marioWorks->ncoins > 999) marioWorks->nlifes = 999; /* OOPS! */

• In the Japanese version, when Bowser is defeated and leaves behind the key, run to where the key will land and press C-Up and look somewhere. Mario will keep looking that way during the key collection cutscene.
  • Further, the key collection cutscene shows a Star instead of a key; early footage (see right) of the first Bowser fight shows him leaving behind a Star upon defeat, suggesting that this is a very old leftover.

Watch on YouTube

• In both Bowser in the Sky and Shifting Sand Land's pyramid, it is possible to trigger a bug that causes the music to stop. Attempting to leave the course will cause the game to freeze.
• If you exit a level while on a falling bridge block, upon returning to the castle, Mario will clip through the first thing he stands on.
• An exploit was fixed where the game freezes all surroundings except for Mario himself when a text box is queued up, but doesn't actually check whether Mario can receive the text box (is standing on solid ground), thus allowing to move around in a frozen world where no objects update (collected stars don't disappear, doors don't open, etc.) as long as you stay in mid-air. Notable applications included the cap switches, the boos in Big Boo's Haunt Star 1, and Ukiki in Tall Tall Mountain.
• If you take a warp while racing Koopa the Quick in Course 1 (Bob-omb Battlefield), the race music will change back to the regular course music.
• On the first star of Big Boo's Haunt, there is one Boo in the room with the Mr. I where you get the Star "Eye to Eye in the Secret Room". In the Japanese version this Boo counts towards the five boos required to spawn the Big Boo; if this Boo is killed last, the text box won't show up and the jingle won't play due to the Big Boo downstairs being despawned. The later versions added a check so only the five boos on the lower floors count.
• In the Japanese version, Bowser's collision doesn't despawn when he is defeated at the end of Bowser in the Sky, so Mario will still be able to collide with him as if he were there.
• In the Japanese version, King Bob-omb's velocity is not set to zero when he despawns, i. e. by warping away from the battle. As a result, if you start the battle, warp away using the warp right below him, warp back and then talk to him, he will move away while the text box is up.
• The Japanese version has a camera glitch. If Mario grabs a Wing Cap and triple jumps to take off but dives or ground pounds after the camera moves close but before he actually starts flying, the camera will stay behind Mario as if he were still in flight.
• When Piranha Plants are killed and then despawn during the death animation due to being too far away, the Japanese version will simply interrupt the death animation and patiently wait for the player to return to finish the death animation. Trying to do this in later versions will reset the Piranha Plants.
• Mario takes damage from bumping into a sleeping Piranha Plant in the Japanese version only. In later versions he will not take damage from this action.
• Dying from fall damage while falling into the trigger for the Lakitu cutscene at the very beginning of the game causes a softlock in the Japanese version.

Sound Effect Changes#

To do: Upload and compare these sounds (ripped not recorded because of US and Japanese console pitch differences).

Japanese to US

• The Chain Chomp makes a totally different barking sound in the Japanese version; it sounds more like a human saying "wanwan", which is both its Japanese name and an onomatopoeia for barking. The US and later versions changed this to an actual dog's bark.
• When collecting Red Coins, the Japanese version uses a different sound that doesn't increase in pitch with each successive coin. This also applies to secrets (for the stars that require finding five "secrets" on the course) and the water rings in Dire Dire Docks.
• Finding the secret shortcut on the slide of Cool Cool Mountain does not play a jingle in the Japanese version. The object that plays this jingle is missing entirely.
• Hitting a cap switch does not play a jingle in the Japanese version.
• The Big Boo in the merry-go-round of Big Boo's Haunt plays the sound effect normally used for opening the chests in Jolly Roger's Bay when he spawns, this was changed to the standard jingle in later versions.
• In all versions other than the Japanese version, coins stop playing a sound for every consecutive bounce after the 5th.
• The Japanese version is missing certain sound effects in the game's opening, specifically the "whoosh" when Lakitu is flying, the "click" when the camera goes into his point of view, and the "boing" when Mario jumps out of the pipe.
• The warping sound effect heard when exiting a course without getting a Star is absent in the Japanese version, and the star sound effect doesn't play when entering certain "mini-courses" like the Tower of the Wing Cap.
• An audio cue titled "Lakitu's Message" was added when Lakitu flies up to Mario to introduce himself and explain the camera controls. Thus, it isn't in the official soundtrack.
• Money Bags don't make a sound when they turn back into a coin in the Japanese version.
• The flying ship on Rainbow Ride is silent in the Japanese version.
• The buzz when trying to zoom out the camera while the camera is already zoomed out is missing in the Japanese version.
• If the Big Penguin beats Mario in the Japanese version, he mistakenly uses Koopa the Quick's dialogue sound instead of the usual penguin cry.

US to European

• In the intro, when Mario jumps out of the pipe and the pipe goes back into the ground, a variation of the classic Mario "pipe sound" is heard in the US version. This sound has been made a lot quieter in the European version, almost down to where you can't hear it.
• Bowser's doors have completely different sounds for opening and closing in the US version. In the European version, they sound pretty much the same.
• The yellow coin collecting sound is slightly slowed down in the European version.
• When letting go of Mario's face when playing around with it, the European version's sound is in a lower pitch.

Shindou Pak Taiou Version#

"Shindou Pak Taiou" (which appears prominently on the box, cartridge, and title screen) is Japanese for "compatible with Rumble Pak", and that's the primary addition to this Japan-exclusive re-release. It includes nearly all of the changes from the international version.

Changes were made so that when you long jump backwards your speed gets set to 0 once you touch the ground as well as giving Mario a negative speed cap for long jumps, subsequently patching the famous "Backwards Long Jump" glitch. Also, Mario faces the screen after grabbing a tree.

The only other difference was Mario's taunt when swinging Bowser far away ("Bye-bye!", rather than "So long, King-a Bowser!", or just "Here we go!" in the original Japanese release), as Bowser is named Koopa in Japanese. The "Bye-bye!" clip is slowed down compared to the sound clip in the DS version and the first and second jump sounds are higher in pitch from their international counterparts.

First Jump

Second Jump

"Buh-bye!"

The "Buh-bye!" clip was sped up and reused for Sleep Mode in Super Mario 64 DS and New Super Mario Bros., and once again when throwing Bowser far away in the former game.

New Feature#

A neat Easter egg was added to the "Press Start" screen: pressing Z makes the background get filled out with images of Mario's face. This is taken from the frame buffer, so the faces move alongside the modeled Mario face. This is still present in the iQue Player version.

Text Differences#

The Shindou version insists you can use A as an alternative to B for interacting with things. Non-Japanese scripts are based on the original Japanese version. The localized English version is also present to complete the comparison.

Uh-oh, looks like you've landed smack dab
in the middle of a dangerous battlefield.
The worlds inside the paintings
contain the Power Stars that
were stolen by Koopa.
First off, try talking with
the red Bomb Trooper! 
Strike up a conversation with B.
They're sure to
help you out.
To read signs, stand in front
of them and press B.
Use A or B to scroll through text!
There are also creatures who will talk 
to you if you stand in front of them.

Uh-oh, looks like you've landed smack dab
in the middle of a dangerous battlefield.
The worlds inside the paintings
contain the Power Stars that
were stolen by Koopa.
First off, try talking with
the red Bomb Trooper!
Strike up a conversation with B.
They're sure to
help you out.
You can read signs by standing
in front of them and pressing A or B.
Use A or B to scroll through text!
There are also creatures who will talk 
to you if you stand in front of them.

Virtual Console version#

In general, the HUD elements of the Wii VC release look mangled compared to the real N64 version, as a result of the Wii VC emulator using the Wii hardware's texture filtering, which is inaccurate to the original N64's. This can be seen in the following subsections.

Chain Chomp's Chompers#

Due to an emulation bug, the inside of Chain Chomp's mouth appears purple rather than red in the Wii Virtual Console release. This is fixed in the Wii U Virtual Console release.

Nintendo 64	Wii Virtual Console

Dissolve Effect#

The game uses an alpha dithering noise effect to replicate fuzzy or dissolving objects, for instance when Mario uses a Vanish Cap or a teleporter. The Wii VC emulator doesn't support this, so the object simply becomes translucent (like a ghost). This is fixed on the Wii U Virtual Console.

Nintendo 64	Wii Virtual Console

Bowser in the Fire Sea's Elevating Platforms#

The Wii Virtual Console version of Super Mario 64 contains a floating-point rounding error as a result of an emulation inaccuracy. Specifically, when the game converts a 64-bit float to its 32-bit equivalent, the last digits of that float don't align neatly with the 32-bit float. The Nintendo 64 internally sets the float to the nearest available float, but the Virtual Console emulator rounds it to zero instead. This is otherwise universally imperceptible, but when a object that uses floats calls this function in a loop this can cause that object's position to gradually drift over time.

The Super Mario 64 community put this to good use with the infamous A Button Challenge, where the level Bowser in the Fire Sea features a platform that oscillates in and out of the lava. Originally, in the context of the challenge, this was a level that required one A press (specifically to jump off the pole leading to the elevator). This particular platform usually doesn't go anywhere, but on the Virtual Console the emulator's faulty rounding raises the platform's position away from the lava and into the air. This paved the road to a rather infamous exploit where runners wait a few hours for the platform to rise, store Mario's vertical speed by jumping in the lava and landing on the platform's exposed edge, and waiting for three days for the platform to rise until it's just high enough for Mario to launch off the platform using his stored speed and hang onto the elevator's exposed hitbox.

This bug was fixed with all later Nintendo 64 games released via Virtual Console, as well as the Wii U Virtual Console version of Super Mario 64.

Super Mario 3D All-Stars#

To do: Add some screenshots/ripped textures for comparison? Some text was changed in the rerelease to reference the Switch controller. Look for other text differences.

The version included in Super Mario 3D All-Stars is based on the Shindou Pak Taiou version, with some textures being redrawn in a higher resolution (most notably the HUD and Mario's textures). Certain textures that were based on pre-existing artwork (like the Bowser puzzle in Lethal Lava Land), use higher-resolution prints of said artwork, and most other textures (like the Hazy Maze Cave map) were algorithmically upscaled. For languages other than Japanese, the text is translated accordingly. These changes are actually patched in on-the-fly as the game runs, and as a result ripping and playing the ROM outside of its intended environment gives you the standard, no-nonsense Shindou Mario 64 experience.