Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Switch just got an update that amongst other tweaks changes one of Inkling Girl’s animations, which I guess Nintendo didn’t realise meant something a little more offensive in Europe than it did in Japan.
Here’s a comparison showing what’s been changed, courtesy of NeoGAF user Neiteio. First, a shot of the new animation, a simple show of excitement:
And now the old one:
While all that’s been changed is Inkling Girl’s hand resting on her bicep, that’s enough to make the game a little cleaner, because in parts of Europe like Italy that gesture can mean everything from “up yours” to “fuck you”. Which, you know, is not a very Nintendo look.
Here are the official patch notes, which confirm the change:
Comments
19 responses to “Mario Kart Update Removes Offensive Gesture”
I look forward to the anti-censorship brigade’s spirited outcry on this one.
Those darned SJWs ruining all the fun in the world. It’s political correctness gone mad!
Ha! I don’t often agree with you but yes.
A large, ocean going vessel was carrying shipping containers full of incense burners. It was a Censer ship.
Censorship! How dare Nintendo change the gesture in their game to how they see fit. I have the right to view the previous version! Something something outrage.
For those unsure, yes the above is all in jest and sarcasm in response to that localiser for different company who took himself out of the credits after Japan team changed something to avoid completely unintended and accidental kkk reference.
I heard they’re changing it to a dab (Given that dabbing is the ‘in’ thing right now) :p
Donkey Kong already does that.
Really? Cool, I didn’t know that!
I usually see more comments on this site mocking the kind of people who would call it censorship than I actually see people calling it censorship.
Is this really a big issue or do we just get linked the odd idiots twitter post so we can feel good about how much smarter we are?
No it’s unfortunately real. Just see the recent furore about a KKK “reference” being scrubbed from a game, ruining artistic integrity or something.
Spot on man.
Its just easy outrage when you fabricate a narrative, just plain dishonest when you fabricate opponents.
The best part about that is when the “Here come the censorship cries…” or such crowd shows up before anyone else has even said anything, effectively starting arguments they like to condemn others for starting.
It’s not without precedent.
I did a CTRL-F and found one example of someone using the word censor, It seemed mostly pretty civilised?
Most people there were questioning how it was offensive rather than being “outraged”
There are a few people in there who are unreasonably outraged at the change or complaining about a slippery slope of appeasing people. Plus there’s also the whole Alison Rapp thing that happened last year with the Fire Emblem translation.
It’s a thing that exists. A tongue in cheek reference to it seems pretty harmless when we’re talking about a similar issue that’s clearly not going to spark any ire.
There used to be fewer comments of that ilk. Then there was a protracted hullabaloo of bullshit. Now most articles that even vaguely touch on censorship, ethics, women, sexuality, etc. contain a number of defensively mocking comments. It’s not at all a surprising response.
KotakuAU is pretty good with having a community that is willing to engage in conversation rather than hurl flames at the first opportunity. That doesn’t mean we don’t have our fair share of shit that goes around.
Can I not download the updated? The game is a mess online anyway.
I have no idea why anyone would want to play meaningless, laggy, 2 minute races with voiceless strangers when the result is decided by chance most of the time.
It’s fun on the lounge when you can hit the person who flukes the win, and it’s more fun if the game makes an offensive (and comically inappropriate) gesture.
I’m pretty sure you can use any gestures to convey offensive concepts/words in Italian anyways. it’s probably the world’s most versatile sign language.
Sometimes adjustments are necessary. It would be censorship if they had wanted to flip off the population of Europe, but they clearly didn’t here. There was a kids’ show in the UK a few years ago in which the host insisted that he was signing ‘I’m happy to see you’, when really he was telling every signing kid in the audience that he was going to fuck them. Telling him to fix his signing wasn’t censorship either.