When I play a game, the last thing on my mind has anything to do with anything related to social justice issue. I would be apt to believe that’s how most gamers feel. Now, it would be one thing if we’re talking about a game that honors the KKK or something - that would be pretty fucked up. But in this write up I’m talking about a game where you build and play custom Super Mario Bros levels in Super Mario Maker.

I’ve been obsessively obsessed with this game since the Nintendo World Championship final round. I have so many ideas for cool level designs, and I can’t wait to try out the number of awesome (and not awesome) stages made by other players, and would-be future Nintendo employees.

But of course a game that is specifically based on creating dynamic stages, with no filler as far as a story line is concerned, nothing to do with social justice, HAS to be shit all over with hints of racism accusations.

Ben Gilbert wrote a piece with Business Insider, citing the woes of seeing a white female hand on the level design screen. It’s such an awful thing. What were those Japanese designing assholes thinking with all of their white privilege?!

I tried the game and was immediately struck by the strangeness of a disembodied human hand – bearing little similarity in looks to my own – acting as a stand-in for my actual hand…

I’ve watched dozens of videos of this game and haven’t found this concept strange at all. I don’t see any aesthetic flaw in part to the design of the way the level design is presented to the user. Oh, but here’s where the problem really lies.

What if I were, say, a 10-year-old black girl? Or a 30-year-old Japanese man? Or literally anything other than an adult white woman (which the hand appears to belong to)?



So, racism, essentially. Another white male journalist speaking outrage for non-white, non-male people (which is ironic considering that the hand looks to be female, as Gilbert even muses).

Given the mainstream appeal of the mustachioed hero and his ongoing battle against Bowser, you’d think Nintendo – a company that’s repeatedly shown willingness to be inclusive – would have thought of this.



Except that they did. Gilbert and Business Inside ran the piece originally with this particular paragraph being its original conclusion. Here’s what Nintendo had to say regarding the matter when asked for clarification:

We are able to confirm there are more options, including various skin tones.



This is why these social justice knuckle dragging bloggers need to go and find a real career that they actually have real skills at. We have a game that is going to be a great seller for Nintendo, and has truly given the credence that the Nintendo Wii U Gamepad really deserves, especially in the wake of Satoru Iwata’s passing (not to mention the fact that as an almost three decade Nintendo devoter who loves the fact that the game’s GUI is somewhat centered around Mario Paint), and some dipshit wants to muddy it up with subliminal racism claims.

The piece should have originally said, “we’re not 100% sure if optional skin tones and settings are available,” or something akin to it, rather than taking a limited look at a demo and finding something to complain about it. You had a chance to talk about the great aspects of this game, and instead you chose racism where there ACTUALLY WASN’T ANY! Great job, Gilbert!