10 Games Nintendo Needs to localize

18.08.2023 - 21:29 / destructoid.com / Nintendo

Nintendo is hardly the worst company when it comes to localizing their games, but considering how many great titles they have, any single game that an audience doesn’t get is a real blow.

Leaving a game unlocalized wasn’t very common in the early days when there was less text in games. Mostly we missed out on games like Famicom Detective Club and Fire Emblem, both titles that eventually received translations and re-releases. Mainly, the number of unlocalized titles bloated out in the early 3D era, then retracted again once we hit HD and the world became better connected through the internet.

However, there are still a number of titles that Nintendo has yet to localize, and I would like to bring them to your attention. Maybe we just need to make a bit of noise, and we’ll finally get to see them in English.

Both the Famicom Grand Prix games remained in Japan and never got the cartridge treatment. Frankly, I’d love to see both of them get a tongue-swap, but of the two, the biggest standout is Famicom Grand Prix II: 3D Hot Rally.

It’s a bit like Outrun but more off-road. You drive one of three cars piloted by Mario and Luigi across branching tracks. It’s not a terribly big game, but it’s one of my favorite retro raster racers. The effort to translate this one would be rather minimal. There isn’t much Japanese text outside the menus. It wouldn’t be a bad choice to just release as-is on the Nintendo Switch Online NES channel.

The precursor to Advance Wars, Famicom Wars has been superseded by newer entries in a lot of different ways. However, I still love it as a curiosity. With fewer complexities and a fun campaign, I still think the original Famicom Wars is worthwhile.

Heck, we briefly got a re-release of the original Fire Emblem, and that’s a game that has been remade on DS. Famicom Wars would be easier to translate, as there isn’t really any dialog. On the other hand, I think Nintendo is terrified of cannibalizing sales. With Advance Wars Reboot Camp 1+2, freshly released, they might be afraid that people would start with the original and never move onto their shinier, more expensive modern remake. A ridiculous hypothetical, but you won’t stop me from speculating about the sort of evils that cigar-chomping corporate executives get up to.

Joy Mecha Fight is an odd one. It came out late in the Famicom’s lifespan and seems to be an attempt to cash in on the arcade fighter boom. However, Nintendo had already secured Street Fighter II for the Super Famicom, so it almost seems irrelevant.

Nonetheless, Joy Mecha Fight is a pretty solid arcade fighter. It’s one of the few to ape the Street Fighter II formula on the 8-bit console outside of bootlegs. It also has an interesting single-player mode that has you