The only character with any melanin seems to be Super Mario (get it? because he’s Italian? eh, probably not even from Southern Italy).
Having watched the recent Pokemon Presents, it seems that the next Smash Bros. game is just going to be white, white, and more white. But more than that, does Nintendo have any major BIPOC representation aside from Ganondorf? That chap seems to be the only Black and/or Arab guy around. And he’s the villain so that’s going to irk even more people.
Idk. Quite a pity that at best you’re getting Asian representation, not that that isn’t important or anything. Only the Pokemon games have any sort-of BIPOC representation.
Legend of Zelda has a bunch, obvious you mentioned Ganondorf but all the Gerudo have brown skin! They’re not all enemies or villains in Breath of the Wild, they’re just regular people.
There’s the guy that trains you in Punch Out (besides Mike Tyson lol).
I’m sure there’s some non Asian POC representation in street fighter or whatever, but I didn’t play a lot of fighters.
There definitely isn’t a lot though and even when you could customize your main character (like in Animal Crossing) they didn’t do the best in representation either until, like, this decade.
Idk enough of LoZ lore but I read somewhere that the Gerudo are a tribe of thieves? I’m playing TotK and there was a line about how the Gerudo are extra dedicated to redeem themselves for following Ganandorf in the past
Same vibes as Lord of the Rings easterlings being the ontologically brown and evil races
But beyond that, yeah they are just yet another people in Hyrule. I don’t get why they’re all women though
Infinite genocide on the voe
It really is just white and Japanese for almost every property. You can consider Splatoon an exception, but well, Splatoon’s aesthetic of awkwardly appropriated black culture doesn’t make that feel like a point in Ninty’s favor.
No, it probably doesn’t.
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Yes, and we should!
What debate?
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Why whould anyone think they are white lol
Im pretty sure “most” characters in anime are supposed to be Japanese unless we are talking about the trope of the blonde exchange student. Its just that western audiences see them as white. A ton of Anime play in Japan and ofc the characters depicted in those shows are supposed to be japanese. This is not to say Anime cant feature wh*te people there are more then enough shows that feature people of other nationalities just that the classic Anime playing at a japanese highschool is…yes meant to depict japanese highschoolers.
^ Me during the Cultural Revolution back in '72.
I don’t think the Cultural Revolution caused Nintendo to be racist
lol I’m just making a joke.
Legend of Zelda has the Gerudo, which are portrayed in varying degrees from problematic to quaint depending on the title.
Good point.
The one, the only, the GOAT, Mike Tyson in “Mike Tyson’s Punch Out”
Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! Around the time the Gold Version was released for a NES Open Tournament Golf competition,[19] Nintendo of America’s founder and former president Minoru Arakawa attended a boxing match during the Heavyweight unification series that featured its future champion Mike Tyson. Arakawa became so astonished with the athlete’s “power and skill” that he was inspired to use his likeness and the tournament itself in the upcoming game.[20] Tyson was rumored to have been paid $50,000 for a three-year period for his likeness. This transaction was something of a risk for Nintendo, as it occurred before Tyson won the World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight championship from Trevor Berbick on November 22, 1986, which greatly increased the profit for the game.[21] Nintendo re-released Punch-Out!! in Japan.
Mike Tyson was written out due to licensing and also is personally just a monster. On the bright side, the expy character Mr. Sandman is alright
Can’t forget about every national/racial stereotype in that game. Plus the black boxing coach.
But Mike Tyson… like, exists and stuff.
So they don’t count.
hrm then I’m pressed then, can’t think of any other representation off the top of my head.
Right?!
…Actually… Little Mac seems to be Latino.
Edit: No wait, I think it was said once that he’s supposed to be Italian.
Ugh…
He’s based very directly on Sylvester Stallone as Rocky, so yeah, despite the Irish-ish name he’s Italian.
Yes, that’s true.
What about Disco Kid?
DISCO KID, PEOPLE
Oh good point.
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Pilotwings64
Ibis is a very rare female Indian-coded character!
Oh my~
…I don’t know what that is.
Pretty fun flight game for N64
Oh, to be fair, I have heard of it, and I can guess that it’s a “flight sim” of some sort.
Just never seen footage of it, not that I know of.
But yeah, I hear that it’s pretty popular or was back in the day; still sticks in the imagination.
Pilotwings on SNES is fun, even if all I can do is crash. Haven’t tried Pilotwings 64, but I do have access to N64 online…
Oh nice
Everyone is forgetting about Pikmin smh
Oh, what examples?
Bernard, Yonny, Shepherd, and the player character of course.
Ah nice
Ensemble style games sometimes do, like ARMS or F-Zero. But if you want racial diversity, Nintendo is only going to let you down.
Agreed.
Oh good points.
pikmin 4
Wdym
What other Nintendo properties and IPs have non-white characters?
im just answering the question
Thank you!
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I think that saying that the monochrome character is black is at least not funny, if not racist. I hope that a Hexbear Moderator can think about that again?
Oh good point! I’ll delete.
My apologies.
It’s cool.
Yeah, deleted the comments soon after you told me. My apologies.
I’ve deleted the two comments.
Thanks for notifying me.
To be fair a lot of Nintendo characters aren’t even human.
This is a very good point.
Starfox is latino-coded and no i will not be explaining any further
In SSBU, Inkling and Villager have non-white alt costumes. And I think those are options in their original games as well.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses has Dedue and Claude, who look to have a little melanin.
You mentioned the Gerudo, but yeah I think that’s probably it.
According to a discourse my friends and I had, in SSBU you have Falco, Villager, Inkling, Mewtwo, Ganondorf, Steve, Banjo, Dark Samus, Meta Knight, Duck Hunt, Mr Game&Watch, and Wolf as POC
With Lucario and Inceneroar being Latino
Yes, Dedue and Claude are definitely non-white.
But three houses also has Petra who seems like a racist caricature of a race that doesn’t exist irl. Really trying to figure out the directors decision to make a foreign character who does not speak with an accent but instead uses the wackest grammar
Yeah, it seems to be mimicking mispronunciation but doesn’t make any sense even in real life.
I don’t like it
At least she’s a fuckin’ beast in game, she was my highest damage output character by the end and she was basically unhittable lmao
True.
