Konami has undertaken the arduous task of localizing Scribblenauts for Japan but that means the title gets a bit lost in translation.
The unique puzzler Scribblenauts was a breakout hit on the Nintendo DS in English-speaking nations in 2009, but it was never released in the DS’s native country of Japan. That’s because the game is largely based on using language to solve puzzles, allowing the player to write in the word for any object for that object to then appear in the game. For it to work in Japan, all of that code would have to reworked for the Japanese alphabet and language. Konami announced today that it has been working on translating Scribblenauts to Japanese, but part of that process means changing the very English-sounding title. The game will release in Japan on January 27th with the title Hirameki Puzzle: Maxwell’s Peculiar Notebook.
According to Andriasang.com, the game is a full Japanese version of Scribblenauts, which I assume means that it uses the Japanese characters as well. It also seems that Konami will be offering a deal of sorts for Japanese players who have waiting so long for this port. You can pick it up for ¥3,980 (~$49) which is about ¥1,000 cheaper than most DS titles in the island nation.
Not only is Maxwell’s Peculiar Notebook an awesome title, but I think it almost more perfectly encapsulates the gameplay than Scribblenauts does. What do you guys think? Should 5th Cell change Scribblenauts 2 to Maxwell’s Peculiar Notebook, er, 2?
Source: Andriasang.com
Published: Nov 9, 2010 07:33 pm