Nielsthooft.com

Wii Menu

On my most recent grand adventure, I was drafted to come to Frankfurt and translate stuff for Nintendo’s European localisation department.

First, they let me work on ‘Brain Training’, the first Nintendo game in ages to be translated to Dutch, then they let me do ‘Big Brain Academy’ all by myself. I like to think I managed to stick some idiosyncratic funniness in there.

After these two Nintendo DS games—and loads of manuals, packaging texts and other nicities—it was time for the real deal, the system menu that boots up when you power up the Wii system. This was a true luxury gig, as I had months to finetune everything, while it’s a relatively small amount of text. I even got to visit Kyoto to put on the last polish.

I haven’t done subsequent updates and downloadable extra software channels, but the fundamental Dutch stuff—including unforgettable Wii terminology like ‘Wii-afstandsbediening’—was all my job. If you find mistakes, blame the guys who tinkered with it later.