Mario Golf: Super Rush update makes stealthy changes to Daisy’s voice lines

Publication date of the original Japanese article: 2021-08-10 09:25 (JST)
Translated by. Ari Clark

On August 6, Nintendo released a free update for Mario Golf: Super Rush, a golf game currently available for the Nintendo Switch. The update added Toadette as a playable character, as well as implementing a new course, New Donk City, and online Ranked Matches.

There were a lot of other additions and fixes, but one small item not listed in the patch notes has been getting a lot of attention from fans. That would be a change made to the voice lines for Daisy, one of the playable characters. It’s been reported on by Nintendo Life.

Daisy is a character who first appeared as the princess of Sarasaland in Super Mario Land. Since then, she’s repeatedly appeared in sports games in the Super Mario series, and she competes as a playable character in the new game, Mario Golf: Super Rush, which went on sale in June of last year. She’s a Speed type character who shows off her strengths in the game’s Speed Golf mode, where players run across the course following their balls as they hit them.

The change pointed out in this latest update involves the voice line for when Daisy does something like hitting a bogey or losing a match. Until now, she said “Whatever”, but after the update, her line was changed to “Boo”. A bogey reduces your score by 1 point, so each character has their own way of reacting with disappointment or embarrassment. These scenes could be said to give you a glimpse of their individual personality quirks.

The updated “Boo” line seems to indicate that Daisy is booing herself out of dissatisfaction with the results. Character-wise, Daisy has been established as a lively, rather tomboyish girl, so a casual response like this voice line would seem to be in-character for her.

However, according to Daisy fans, the cheeky attitude of the original voice line was a better expression of her personality, and they seem to be unsatisfied with the change. Since the animation has been left as-is, they’re also concerned about the mismatch between the voice line and her lip movements.

On Reddit, some users are expressing disappointment, saying that Daisy’s sassiness was what made them like her, while others are angry and claiming that the Mario games refuse to give their characters any personality. In addition, in the comments on the comparison video above, some people are clamoring for a signature-gathering campaign to bring back sassy Daisy.

As mentioned above, the change to the voice line is not listed in the patch notes, and there has been no explanation of any particular reason for the change from Nintendo, developer Camelot, or Daisy’s voice actress, Deanna Mustard. It therefore remains unclear why the line was changed. Some fans have conjectured that Nintendo might have decided that it wasn’t acceptable for small children to imitate the line, since the game is intended to be an all-ages product.

In addition, it seems like Daisy’s voice line for when she makes par has also changed since the update. She originally said “OK” in a mild tone, but after the change, she now exclaims “Alright!” in an energetic tone. The previous voice line might perhaps have split opinions on whether it was in-character for Daisy or not, but there at least didn’t seem to be any problem with the content of the line, so it’s a puzzling change.