Proto:Donkey Kong Land III/Japanese
This is a sub-page of Proto:Donkey Kong Land III.
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An early prototype of the Japanese version of Donkey Kong Land III was part of the September 2020 Nintendo leaks. This prototype was likely built off of English v1.1. It also notably lacks any Game Boy Color support.
General Differences
- The game's title differs from both the final English version and the final Japanese version. In the Japanese prototype, the title is Donkey Kong Land 2, continuing from the previous title which was Donkey Kong Land in Japan. The logo is based on the English v1.1 logo, where "Donkey Kong Land" is all on one line, but the 2 is new. The final version uses katakana instead and renames it to ドンキーコングGB ディンキーコング&ディクシーコング, which translates to "Donkey Kong GB: Dinky Kong & Dixie Kong".
English (v1.1) | Japanese (Proto) | Japanese (Final) |
---|---|---|
- As noted above, the Japanese version lacks Game Boy Color support, but still has Super Game Boy support. The final version completely removes Game Boy and Super Game Boy support in favor of Game Boy Color support.
- The Japanese prototype has a 512 KB ROM and is an MBC1 cart, like the English version. The final Japanese version expands the ROM size to 1 MB and is an MBC5 cart instead.
- World map animations were removed in the Japanese prototype, which were present in the English version. This was possibly done because new code or data was added to ROM bank 05, which seemingly necessitated the removal of code to animate the maps (though the graphics for each frame are still present in both the prototype and final, starting at ROM offset 7CF24).
- The subroutine to animate the maps contains a single "ret" instruction at 1483E in the Japanese prototype (it starts at 1641A in the English version). Strangely, even though the ROM size was doubled in the final Japanese version, with several empty ROM banks, the code to animate the maps was not added back in, still containing a "ret" instruction (at 14910 in the final version).
English | Japanese (Proto) | Japanese (Final) |
---|---|---|
- In Time Attack mode, the Japanese prototype does not display the player's last time, unlike in the English version. The code to display this was removed completely. Tiles that read さいごのタイム (the Japanese translation of "last time") appear in VRAM from 9580 to 95EF, but are never displayed in-game. This remains unchanged in the final Japanese game.
- As with the world map animations, the ROM bank that where the code to display the player's last time resided in the English version (05) seemingly did not have enough room for this code to remain in the Japanese version (possibly due to addition of other data, text, or code in the same bank, including but not limited to the credits text for the Japanese translation team, which is in the same bank), which might explain why the code was removed. Again, as with the world map animations, even though the ROM size was doubled in the final, and ROM bank 05 had empty space, the code was inexplicably not restored.
English | Japanese (Proto) | Japanese (Final) |
---|---|---|
- Bear's animation was removed in the Japanese prototype and remained that way in the final version. The reason for this is unknown. All of the graphics for Bear remain in both the prototype and final Japanese versions, in ROM offsets 1F420-1F97F.
English | Japanese (Proto) | Japanese (Final) |
---|---|---|
- The Japanese prototype fixed the bug where it was possible to enter the Lost World early in the English version if the player loaded a saved file that already had unlocked the Lost World, soft reset with A + B + Select + Start, and loaded a different file with the path to the Lost World already accessible.
- However, the variation of the bug where the player can access K. Rool's Last Stand (by loading a different file with six Watches and access to the level, soft resetting, and loading another file with the path to the level accessible) was not fixed in this prototype. However, it was fixed in the Japanese final version.
- The text (when talking to Bear or Wrinkly) scrolls one kana at a time, unlike the English version which displayed all the text at once. This change remained in the final version.
- Because the prototype is still a GB/SGB game, the Jetty Jitters demo does not desync, unlike in the final Japanese version which has GBC double-speed support.
Text Changes
When Bear proffers the Teleport, it's "new" in the prototype, but apparently it aged significantly by the final. Strangely, this makes the final translation less accurate than the prototype's.
English | Japanese (Proto) | Japanese (Final) |
---|---|---|
ひょうめんのドキドキ |
ひょうめんのドキドキ |
This hint for the bonus stage in Surface Tension (located beneath the level's KONG "O") was rephrased to be more direct.
English | Japanese (Proto) | Japanese (Final) |
---|---|---|
ファイアーボール カービン |
ファイアーボール カービン |
The hint for Karbine Kaos is meant to suggest that Squitter is required to reach the bonus area, but the prototype translation rephrases it in a way that completely obscures the intended meaning. It was fixed for the final by...just telling the player exactly what to do.
English | Japanese (Proto) | Japanese (Final) |
---|---|---|
ながれに気をつけろ |
ながれに気をつけろ |
The Rickety Rapids bonus stage, found by dropping down a pit near the Star Barrel, had its hint slightly tweaked for the final. The verb used in the prototype translation can mean either "fall down" or "roll over"; this was possibly misinterpreted as referring to the Kongs' rolling ability.
English | Japanese (Proto) | Japanese (Final) |
---|---|---|
ダクトコースター |
ダクトコースター |
Whiplash Dash's second Bonus Barrel is hidden via an invisible Blast Barrel slightly beyond the first one. The prototype uses a direct translation of the original hint for this, but for some reason it was completely changed for the final (becoming much less helpful in the process). Perhaps test players mistook it to mean the bonus stage was near the start of the level?
This message appears in K. Rool's Last Stand when the player tries to enter the level without having enough DK Coins or Watches. In addition to being beefed up for the final, the Japanese prototype's message makes no mention of the DK Coin requirement. Interestingly, the English prototype's message didn't mention DK Coins at all either, suggesting that the Japanese prototype's message was based off the English prototype's one. However, DK Coins were not actually required in the English prototype, whereas they are everywhere else, including the Japanese prototype.
Similarly, the message for when the player has collected everything doesn't mention the DK Coins either.