Nintendo Clarifies Language Error in Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros.

The Game & Watch Version of Super Mario Bros. Has a Hilarious Error

Earlier this fall Nintendo announced a brand new Game & Watch console that includes a playable version of Super Mario Bros., a digital clock, and a few other neat little features. The handheld system is one of the many releases announced in Nintendo’s Mario 35th Anniversary Direct. The system will be released this week on November 13th and will be available until March 31, 2020. There’s just one thing, the console has the same language error that cannot be fixed.

Nintendo has placed a little Easter egg in Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. that players can access by holding down the A button while the digital clock of the system is active. Doing so will play the English version of the “Mario Drawing” song. The song will also display the lyrics but depending on the language selected, the lyrics will show up in the wrong language. While English, Dutch, and Japanese are unaffected, if the player has selected German, French, Italian, or Spanish, they will not get the language they hoped for. Here is a breakdown of which language will be incorrectly shown for each of the selected choices.

French -> German
Spanish -> French
German -> Italian
Italian -> Spanish

To clarify, if you select French as your language, the lyrics will show in German. Same goes for selecting Spanish and having the lyrics show in French, and so on. It is possible to change the language of the lyrics shown at any time while the song plays, so players can easily change to get the language they really want.


While this is a minor issue for a silly little Easter egg, it is quite funny to see–especially considering the language selection feature is only used for the “Mario Drawing” song and nowhere else. While this may be fixed in any future releases, there are undoubtedly hundreds, if not thousands, of consoles already produced and ready to be purchased in just a few days. Since the console doesn’t require the use of the internet, there won’t be any simple patch to fix it either.

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