A YouTuber has gone to the trouble of deciphering the “Dolphin” alphabet. We finally find out what the signs in Isla Delfino say
When playing the GameCube classic Super Mario Sunshine many questions can pop into your head:
Who the hell put the one Shine sprite on top of the church tower?
Do I actually have a 24-month warranty on the dirt road 08/17?
What do these strange signs in the game world say?
We finally have an answer – at least to the last question. For any warranty claims concerning your dirt road, please contact Professor I. Gidd directly
A YouTuber has finally revealed one of the few remaining secrets of the Super Mario games after 22 years: The alphabet of Isla Delfino! After years, fans can now read the signs in the game.
A painstaking piece of work
Who achieved this feat? The YouTuber 2CPhoenix, who captured his success in a video lasting just under nine minutes. In it, he also describes the long, arduous path to deciphering the secret language.
According to 2CPhoenix, neither data mining nor boundary breaking (the free movement of the camera in the game world to look behind the scenes) or fan hacks could solve the riddle of the alphabet on Isla Delfino.
What’s so special about it? Over the many years since the release of Sunshine, more and more fans assumed that the symbols on the signs and some buildings in the game world were nothing more than scribbles with no meaning behind them. The symbols were simply too rare and in many other places, text in the game world was in English or Italian.
However, 2CPhoenix never lost faith that what he calls Dolphinese
was a real language from the Nintendo developers – and after 22 years, he was proved right.
It all started with a sign above an attraction in Level Pinna Park. 2CPhoenix discovered that these five symbols could actually be translated. What followed was extensive detective work. The YouTuber finally deciphered the remaining parts of the dolphin ABC with success
The solution is sometimes astonishing, but sometimes also unspectacular: Some flags and signs reveal that the symbols are the language of the indigenous Noki people. The name of the respective level is then written on them, for example Mare Bay
, so that the Noki never forget where they are.
On the above sign, on the other hand, there is only the insanely important note RZTUBODTVR written. Now you know what to do!
Tunic has made a gameplay finesse out of it
Now we know: Dolphinish in Super Mario Sunshine is not an important gameplay mechanic, but rather once again proof of Nintendo’s typical attention to detail. However, there is one game that, 20 years later, has even put the use of a fantasy language at the center of the gaming experience
We are of course talking about the great indie adventure Tunic. As a player, you have to gradually decipher the lovingly designed – and initially incomprehensible – manual over the course of the game in order to discover some elementary gameplay functions or clues for puzzles.
Whether Super Mario Sunshine or Tunic, both games prove one thing in their own way: working out an imaginary language is worthwhile, because it can spark years of passion among fans.
We have linked you to more interesting and curious stories from the world of Nintendo in the box above. We know that Super Mario Sunshine enjoys a rather modest reputation among plumber fans, but what about you? Did you love the GameCube part back then (like the author of these lines) or did you not like it? Let us know in the comments!
