Talk:Super Mario Bros. Special

(First topic)

I just found an (unofficial) NES port of this. Should I mention it? Paperphailurethemariomonster99 00:42, 18 July 2012 (EDT)

According to MarioWiki:Canonicity, the SMW only covers official content. The fan-made port above should not be mentioned in the article.

Shokora (talk · edits)

you need to put super mario bros special music for both pc88 and sharpx1 version.

please put.

--46.130.44.4 07:21, 10 January 2016 (EST)

Lucky Star description

Can I change "similar to a POW Block except it also affects airborne foes" to "similar to a POW Block in Super Mario Bros. 35"? Their effects are almost the same. Wynn Liaw 07:23, November 27, 2020 (EST)

I think it's better to be more descriptive of it (especially when Super Mario Bros. 35 has limited availability and in the future will be a quaint game not much have played), but you can simply add a reference to a later game, such as "similar to a POW Block except it also affects airborne foes, similar to a POW Block in Super Mario Bros. 35". It's me, Mario! (Talk / Stalk) 16:12, November 28, 2020 (EST)

I added it. (Probably could've worded it better though; feel free to change it) Harvstar (talk) 13:21, January 3, 2025 (EST)

does anyone know where we got the name Carolina Software?

I've been doing a bit of searching about the Korean SPC-1500 and trying to find information about the copy of SMBS that was released on it. I'm early into the search but so far the only game publisher name I've seen (relating to the only snippet we have about SMBS existing on the SPC-1500) mentions a company called 스태틱소프트 (Staticsoft), I've also found a couple names of other game publishers for the SPC-1500 but I haven't seen anything like Carolina Software. I was wondering if anyone knew where we got the name.

Thanks
— The preceding unsigned comment was added by CMAYK (talk).

• Caroline was added by an IP poster back in 2017. The circa 1987 date is also a guesstimate from the forum post. The magazine is dated to March '89 but the ad says SMBS was popular so it should have been around for a while. I cannot vouch that Static Soft made an official copy as piracy was very rampant in Korea back then.--Platform (talk) 11:45, October 20, 2023 (EDT)

Translate names?

Should we translate the names/use the English ones, or keep them the way they are? (Assuming the names are different in the English versions) Harvstar (talk) 13:31, January 3, 2025 (EST)

Determine what language(s) to use for the SMBS enemies

This talk page section contains an unresolved talk page proposal. Please try to help and resolve the issue by voting or leaving a comment.

Current time: Wednesday, March 19, 2025, 20:23 GMT

This proposal will not only impact this article, but the articles for the SMBS worlds/levels as well.

This proposal is predicated on the credits of the game, which contains a (very, very slow) cast listing with the Japanese names of the enemies. For the longest time, the level articles have used the English names of enemies as they were known around the time of release, while the table on this article has used only the Japanese names. Recently, the contemporary English names were added to the table.

So like... Should we be doing that? The game itself makes no use of these English names, and in fact, its cast listing only lists the romanized Japanese names. On the other hand, though, including these English names does help clarify what enemy is what, especially in regards to the enemy table itself, so maybe only a partial adjustment should be made.

(Before you ask about items, those are all already--for the most part, obviously Hachisuke was Romanized Japanese at the source--listed in English by the game. The table even keeps the "Hummer" typo for the Hammer. Also, of course, this wouldn't impact "Names In Other Languages" sections, since covering foreign names is their entire point; this is just for what to do for this article and the various level articles.)

Proposer: Camwoodstock (talk)
Deadline: March 29, 2025, 23:59 GMT

Romanized Japanese Names Only (be literal!)

1. Camwoodstock (talk) Primary option. It's what the game uses, and we don't see any reason to use names that the game itself doesn't provide.
2. PopitTart (talk) Second choice. Neither the game nor any supplementary material gives English names, so its not really correct to say "Little Goombas are in 1-1". There's no enemy in Special called a "Little Goomba".
3. LinkTheLefty (talk) Tertiary; link piping does an adequate enough job telling you what's what.

Contemporary English Names Only (my name is American Koopa!)

1. Nintendo101 (talk) Typically, with Japanese exclusive games, we still use the contemporary English names for the subjects that appear in those games. We even have a proposal precedent for things like this, where we always refer to Bowser as "Bowser" in English translations. I don't think we should treat Super Mario Bros. Special any differently.
2. Camwoodstock (talk) Tertiary option. Personally, while we realize this might be contentious, we don't see the issue with renaming things like Wrecking Crew '98 to use the Japanese names from the source; however, we feel like parity is far, far more important than our own personal preferences. No matter what, something has to change about this, and while it's easily the least favored out of the options for us, we wouldn't be mad about it by any means, either. Just about anything's better than the weird meld we've got going right now.
3. SGoW (talk) If these topics have English names, it feels asinine to use anything that isn't those.
4. Waluigi Time (talk) Per N101, our policy has always been that English names take priority if they're known (even retroactively) so I don't see a compelling reason for making an exception here just because the game was never released outside of Japan.
5. Cadrega86 (talk) Usual SMB enemies that had localized names even back in 1985. Absolutely no reason to use the Japanese names other than actively trying to be hostile to readers.

Romanized Japanese & Contemporary English Names on Table, level articles use Romanized Japanese Names (be literal, except for that!)

1. Camwoodstock (talk) Secondary option. While we would prefer fully using the Romanized Japanese names, we can see the merit in at least including them on the Enemy table itself.
2. LinkTheLefty (talk) Secondary; this product does not have a Western release, and is relying on external Western-release media.
3. PopitTart (talk) First choice. They may never be called "Little Goomba", but they are still Goombas. Acknowledging the English names helps navigation.
4. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) - In-game, and all of that.

Romanized Japanese & Contemporary English Names on table, level articles use contemporary English Names/Status Quo ('s fine.)

1. LinkTheLefty (talk) Primary; on the other hand, just having the in-game romanizations listed somewhere convenient may be more pragmatic.
2. Waluigi Time (talk) Secondary choice, not too bothered by their inclusion as long as they're not overriding known English names.
3. Hewer (talk) Not sure I understand what the problem is here. Listing the names on this page makes perfect sense, but using them elsewhere not so much considering they're not English (because the game never released in English).
4. Cadrega86 (talk) Secondary option per Waluigi Time, as long as these never take priority over the English names.

Comments (enemy name language proposal zone place)

In a vacuum, I agree with using the names as they were presented in the material as released, but if we do that, the next question would be what to do with the likes of anime and Wrecking Crew '98. LinkTheLefty (talk) 17:17, March 15, 2025 (EDT)

To be honest, we think that a more generalized approach would be fine, but we could definitely see that being a bit contentious. For right now, we'd like to keep this to Super Mario Bros. Special, though we do acknowledge the precedent this could be setting for sure. ;P ~Camwoodstock (talk) 17:24, March 15, 2025 (EDT)

@LinkTheLefty: In regards to the recent edits on the table, we imagined that if option 3 passes, the table would be prioritizing the Romanized Japanese names and putting the English names into parenthesis; so, the opposite of how it's currently set up with your current edits. That being said, for right now, we don't particularly mind those edits being made, unless anyone particularly cares to inject themselves. Consider it "acknowledged, but fine by us until the proposal itself ends". ~Camwoodstock (talk) 20:58, March 15, 2025 (EDT)

It just looked strange for the list of levels to have a mix of Japanese and English names, especially when there's a majority preference toward the latter at the moment, or at least, if the second or fourth option passes. Whichever is in parenthesis in the end doesn't really matter, though note that the current setup leaves out Mushroom, Flower and Star. Anyway, the second option is my least preferred because the new elements in this game only have their romanizations available and not the actual Japanese (not even in the manual, last I checked). This means that they're not included in "names in other languages" sections. That's why I'd prefer the third or fourth options; otherwise, it makes the info a bit harder to find. LinkTheLefty (talk) 21:07, March 15, 2025 (EDT)

By the way, can we tie the Japanese or English preference into whether or not we rename Hudson Bee? LinkTheLefty (talk) 08:03, March 16, 2025 (EDT)

Also, if someone can explain why the second option is preferable over the fourth, removing and obfuscating in-game info... LinkTheLefty (talk) 12:03, March 16, 2025 (EDT)

I mean I wouldn't really consider it removed/obfuscated considering that information is still on the NIOL tables on the enemy pages. -- Too Bad! Waluigi Time! 12:11, March 16, 2025 (EDT)

I said above that it's not, though, in the case of the new/unique names, since we just have the romanizations to go off of. LinkTheLefty (talk) 12:14, March 16, 2025 (EDT)

Nakaji and Sigebou

The cast names are thankfully self-explanatory for the most part (Chokichoki is the basis of Chokkī, Tarusar contains taru (barrel) and Tsurara is just Japanese for icicle), but what indicates that Nakaji and Sigebou refer to Fighterfly and Fireball, respectively? Nakaji may refer to Nakajima, but that's not terribly much to go off of. Sigebou possibly has a similar origin as Bō, but that's hard to tell since it could also be the same -bou as Kuribou (and Sige- might be a reference to Shigeru). Briefly looking it up leads me to a TMK page, which has question marks for these two. LinkTheLefty (talk) 23:56, March 15, 2025 (EDT)

We can buy Sigebou being rooted from "Bō", which would just kind of leave Nakaji as the remainder. To be honest, we have NO idea what to make of that one, so it's moreso a matter of what the fireball is meant to me... ;P ~Camwoodstock (talk) 10:00, March 16, 2025 (EDT)

Likely just a developer in-joke, not taking it too seriously since they figured not too many players would reach the end. Maybe someone said, "hey, that fly's face looks like yours," or something. LinkTheLefty (talk) 12:07, March 16, 2025 (EDT)

I think it's a safe assumption as can be seen in Bōbō, Hībōbō, Bōbō Heihō, Tamabō, and Mokubō.--Platform (talk) 12:00, March 16, 2025 (EDT)

Fair enough. LinkTheLefty (talk) 12:07, March 16, 2025 (EDT)