Nintendo will cut offensive Native American imagery from 'Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is at risk of offending some people, but Nintendo is taking steps to fix it before the game's Dec. 7 launch.
Ultimate brings back Mr. Game & Watch as a playable fighter. The vintage character hails from Nintendo's pre-NES days, when the company was best known for its handheld LCD video games. It's actually a conglomeration of the multiple characters that starred in Nintendo's early Game & Watch games.
These battery-powered portable devices were big in the '80s, even predating the launch of the Game Boy. Each release consisted of a single game driven by simple rules and rudimentary monochrome graphics. Character animations consisted of no more than a handful of frames. The stone age of video games.
(You can try a bunch of those old Game & Watch-style games at the Internet Archive. None of the old Nintendo products are there, but you'll find plenty of others in the same vein.)
In the Smash Bros. games, Mr. Game & Watch fights like a combination of all the different characters. And unfortunately, one of the older Game & Watch games (Fire Attack) tasked players with defending an old timey fort while torch-wielding Native Americans -- identifiable by the feathers protruding from their heads -- crowded in for an attack.
The original game is of course reflective of a different time when racist depictions of "American Indians" were considered socially acceptable in mainstream arenas. Thankfully, a lot has changed since then.
Unfortunately, imagery of the Native American character from Fire Attack found its way into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, a fact that some fans noticed during a recent Nintendo Direct stream. That led to a conversation about the issue on the popular gaming forum ResetEra, and Nintendo quickly moved to address the issue as more and more people caught wind.
"Nintendo has been planning to distribute an update for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate that removes the feather from the silhouette of Mr. Game & Watch. The original game on which this depiction of the character is based was released more than three decades ago and does not represent our company values today," a Nintendo spokesperson told Mashable in a statement.
"We sincerely apologize that this change was not noticed in our marketing material and are continuing our work to make Super Smash Bros. Ultimate an experience that is both welcoming and fun for everyone."
So there you have it. Good on Nintendo for moving quickly to address this. (Though it would be nice to see more developers and publishers catching this sort of stuff before an issue can even spring up.)
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
