Fighting Game Characters Are Racist

19 responses to “Fighting Game Characters Are Racist”

1. 

   PuppyLicks

   November 21, 2011 at 8:29 pm

   Dis artwork is makin’ fun of Joisey, WHAT’S UP WID DAT?!

   Reply
2. 

   sig

   November 21, 2011 at 8:30 pm

   that’s not racism. I suggest you look up the meaning tongue and cheek or not.

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3. 

   Eh?

   November 21, 2011 at 8:41 pm

   Racism? Or a celebration of culture and history?

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4. 

   matt

   November 21, 2011 at 8:55 pm

   the only thing to really look at in fighting games is the characters, so they naturally HAVE to be over-the-top to give them each a personality, so if they are asian they are like Bruce Lee super asian. It’s not racist unless you look at it from a critical point of view, or are super soft like jelly. Get the fuck over it people, racism is so 1999 😛

   Reply
5. 

   Chazz

   November 21, 2011 at 8:57 pm

   “Herpaderp, I’ma use a social issue to get my work noticed.”

   I’m fairly certain that is the exact sentence that played through the mind of “artist” Sachin Teng.

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   1. 

      Roh

      November 22, 2011 at 10:27 am

      Doubt it, the guy is pretty good, I don’t think he needs an article on kotaku to boost his profile.

      Reply
   2. 

      El Phantasmogoro

      November 22, 2011 at 6:09 pm

      Is there a single goddamn thing yu aren’t acidic about?

      Reply
6. 

   Shinkada

   November 21, 2011 at 9:16 pm

   tbh I only call racism on T Hawk. A lot of the others are (hopefully intentionally) ridiculous, exaggerated stereotypes, but there’s something about T Hawk’s Ultra 1 that’s just SO much so that I can’t help but cringe at it. And not cringe in the same way that I cringe whenever someone points out that Dhalsim’s fighting style is ‘yoga,’ I mean an actual, oh geeze I hope nobody in this room is native American cringe.

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   1. 

      whatever3003

      November 22, 2011 at 11:50 am

      “How! White Man”

      I liked T-Bird the best actually… kudos to the big fella for representing his cultural heritage by using it to beat people up.

      Reply
7. 

   Mmm

   November 21, 2011 at 9:19 pm

   At least its not as bad as having a bias opinion and anyone that disagrees gets greeted with being called a idiot elitist asshole.

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8. 

   Steve

   November 21, 2011 at 10:07 pm

   Where’s the Jew character from? None of this is particularly racist, just cartoonish and stereotypical. Calling “Racist!” every which way at harmless things like this detracts from the seriousness of genuine racism, just for a couple of cheap page hits and mentions on blogs like this.

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9. 

   Charles

   November 21, 2011 at 10:47 pm

   Yeah racist is the wrong word, but they are hugely flat cultural stereotypes. I agree with the above poster regarding characters in fighting games having to be a little over the top to be effective.

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10. 

    dave

    November 21, 2011 at 11:02 pm

    You are all reading into this too deeply. look at the pretty picture and then click away.

    Reply
11. 

    Mic

    November 21, 2011 at 11:45 pm

    I don’t get it.

    Well I should rephrase it: I get what he’s trying to say, but he’s failing at it, and the point isn’t that big anyway.

    Reply
12. 

    AerintheADEQUATE

    November 22, 2011 at 3:20 am

    Fighting game characters need to be easily discernable from each other as well as from the background. They need to pop on the screen and be easily read with nary a glance.
    The easiest way to accomplish this with a cast of 8+ characters is to make them into caricatures. Solved.

    Reply
13. 

    Green Cheese Bellbottom Mind Games

    November 22, 2011 at 9:47 am

    Stereotypes

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14. 

    Roh

    November 22, 2011 at 10:35 am

    I don’t know if anyone remembers this but it’s actually called Street Fighter World Warriors, so it is supposed to depict fighting styles from around the world specific to the location of each style. Don’t you think it would get confusing if the guy from africa was white and did sumo wrestling? It has to have some form of continuity. If anything it’s empowering, pitting the best fighting styles from around the world against each other where each fighter starts at an equal standing using his/ger strengths to better the opponent. It never says one fighting style is better than the other, you can win the game with every playable character.

    What the illustrator has done here is swap out fighting styles with cultural styles, hardly ‘racist’ sterotypes at best. But none of them seem ‘inferior’ to each other so it’s just generalising. The strange thing is, is that most stereotypes come from somewhere, there are people out there who perpetuate them, either consciously or not and that’s where they come from.

    Reply
    1. 

       whatever3003

       November 22, 2011 at 11:54 am

       “But none of them seem ‘inferior’ to each other so it’s just generalising.”

       T-Bird would put the beat-down on Hitler. Also, Rasta vs American-Negro would be pretty close, but when it comes to Pharoh vs Hillbilly: Hillbilly hands down. Pharoh and his slaves would have zero chance against Hillbilly’s coon-dog and scatter gun.

       Agree?

       Reply
15. 

    Aaron

    November 22, 2011 at 12:33 pm

    Don’t all Indian people have fire breath and stretchy limbs?

    Reply