"Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" Slammed For "Racist" Mr. Game & Watch Reference
55 replies, posted
https://comicbook.com/gaming/2018/11/04/super-smash-bros-ultimate-nintendo-switch-racist-mr-game-and-watch/
The Internet is mad about a lot of things these days. The latest target: Nintendo Switch exclusive Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
So, what's the issue? Well, apparently there is some -- alleged -- unintentional racist depictions in the platform fighter.
First reported on by DualShocker's Lou Contaldi, rumblings of racist depictions began on popular gaming forum, ResetEra, when one user spotted one of the game's characters -- Mr. Game & Watch -- had an attack that has the character adorn a Native American headdress, and then uses fire to attack enemies.
Honestly yeah, Nintendo probably should have done something about that one.
I don't see why it's worse than Mario and Luigi existing
Apu and now this
Probably the fact that Mario originated as a hard working Italian plumber from Brooklyn whereas the Native American Game and Watch was a villain character that attacks your settlement with a torch as you bash them with a hammer
rumblings of racist depictions began on popular gaming forum, ResetEra
it's a shame that anyone takes resetera seriously
Reminded me of how in TF2, the Buffalo Steak Sandvich was almost a peyote, until they realized the item set was Native American themed, and Heavy in a headdress punching people in a drug fueled rage
would have looked pretty bad.
Hard working Italian plumbers, you say? That's a pretty old and common stereotype for Italians that I'm sure some people don't like, so why not change Mario and Luigi? Could be considered offensive to Italians. Same applies to Mario listing off names of pasta while he sleeps.
I'll be real here, I get the reason to be offended and I wouldn't mind if they did change it, but in cases like this, usually ResetEra is the only one offended while constantly trying to act like they're offended on the behalf of others.
Cue ResetEra and random non-Hispanic people on Twitter calling Mario's sombrero and poncho "racist / cultural appropriation" when most of the Hispanic fanbase loved it.
It's an issue of severity. To me the argument that "well Mario and Luigi could be offensive to some" is not enough of a counter argument. Obviously Nintendo agrees there are problems with the original since they changed it in the GBA remake.
I've seen Italians or impersonations of Italians being cast as plumbers in media that takes place in New York even before Mario was a thing. It's a pretty common casting. When you think "plumber in New York", the first thing that comes to a lot of peoples' minds is "fat man of Italian descent whose ass crack you see when he bends down."
It is pretty specific, but there is a "stereotype" of the Italian plumber. Just as there are stereotypes for a lot of things in media. "Stereotype" itself isn't really a dirty word, it's more that some stereotypes can be outright offensive.
I just don't understand how something like this can offend. Native Americans did use fire in warfare, but to see them as "villains" in this is kind of a stretch considering the "hero" is a goofy looking cowboy wielding a hammer
You might as well go break up groups of kids dressed up like this and tell them how racist they are
https://i.imgur.com/ahYkY87.jpg
Do kids play Cowboys and Indians anymore? No one played that when I was growing up. I figured that was a staple of the time when western movies and TV shows were a lot more popular, and the reason the old-fashioned Western stopped being popular is very much because of the increased consciousness of the plight of Native Americans.
You're acting like the only course of action would be to rip the headdress off and scream at them how they're appropriating culture instead of making it a proper learning experience for kids about the topic.
Since, you know, they're kids, and likely don't know the nuances of race, culture, and the implications of their actions.
Regardless of what anyone thinks I bet Nintendo of America will probably try to get it changed (at least in the US) since 1) the last thing they want is their big holiday game to have a racism controversy and 2) they already showed in GAWG4 that they knew it'd offend and changed it. That said I doubt this was literally done to be racist, it was probably just some game artist looking at every G&W reference and modelling each of them without stopping.
Probably depends where you live, I played it a lot growing up in canada but yeah it's probably not as popular nowadays, since I recently saw a local news article complaining about Native American Halloween costumes.
I'm starting to think all these "racist" things are just journalists trying to find anything to raise a stink about so their website gets more click bucks.
"Slammed" = five people on a forum no one should take seriously
You'd be a bit naive to think that this will put a dent in their sales. The crowd of people who care that much about this thing is minuscule.
I never said it would. I only talked about how the PR would look.
Nintendo getting absolutely SLAMMED by like 4 people on Twitter crying over such a nonissue. Why do we give these people attention?
Not to mention some Native Americans are stepping up on Twitter and saying they aren't offended at all.
Feels like it's another repeat of the whole Mario Odyssey sombrero with poncho outfit scenario I mentioned earlier. A mess of people feeling like they have to be offended for others, while the others in question either aren't offended or don't really give a shit.
Youtube skeptics need to get their material from somewhere.
Such clickbait trash. So one dude on twitter is now considered to be getting "slammed" ugh
wtf even is that thread
The real outrage culture is people creating news articles after news articles about non-issues an absurdly small number of people are concerned about
all in the name of views. Click culture is bigger than outrage culture.
if people are telling the truth with their posts, i've seen plenty of posts by people claiming to be of native american descent saying that they don't give a flying fuck about this. even then, can we stop getting offended on other people's behalf?
They mentioned in the article that they had already changed the sprite in a previous game. So I bet they'll change it.
And yet not a word was said when he showed up on Melee 17 years ago.
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