Nintendo responds to recent controversy over its choice to include a certain outfit for Mr. Game and Watch, with the Big N deciding to remove the imagery.
Controversy can come in the unlikeliest of forms, and in this case, it comes in the form of a feather on the head of a video game character. The game in question is Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and the aforementioned character is Mr. Game & Watch donned in Native American garb. With the controversy still fresh, Nintendo has now decided to make a last-minute update to the highly-anticipated fighting game, removing Game & Watch’s Native American imagery.
In a recent Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Japanese live-stream that aired following a recent Nintendo Direct, Mr. Game & Watch was seen holding a torch and sporting a feather on his head–an apparent reference to a 1982 game called Fire Attack in which players defend a wooden fort from Native Americans who mean to burn it down with torches. Shortly after the live-stream made its rounds on the Internet, some fans were quick to express concerns over what they felt was a racist depiction of Native American culture.
Oddly enough, this isn’t the first time Nintendo has found itself in hot water for bringing Mr. Game & Watch’s Native American outfit into a video game. 2002’s Game & Watch Gallery 4 included the Fire Attack game, which again featured Mr. Game & Watch with the feather and torch, which Nintendo subsequently removed.
As Nintendo listens to its fans regarding this controversy, it’s going to take the opposite approach when it comes to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate‘s character roster. As it so happens, the game’s creator, Masahiro Sakurai, tweeted a rather sharp-tongued response to Twitter followers making roster suggestions on unrelated posts not too long ago, with Sakurai saying the roster and “DLC line-up is now complete.”
On the bright side, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will have the largest roster of any installment in the series, by far. What’s more is that Nintendo recently revealed that a season pass will bring new characters down the line.
