kjorteo: A 16-bit pixel-style icon of (clockwise from the bottom/6:00 position) Celine, Fang, Sara, Ardei, and Kurt.  The assets are from their Twitch show, Warm Fuzzy Game Room. (Default)
[personal profile] kjorteo
I'm actually somewhat surprised that Punch-Out!! for the Wii actually somehow managed to make the country stereotypes even more blatant than what I was used to before. I haven't run into Pizza Pasta yet, but at the rate this is going, I really wouldn't be surprised.

Example of how the national origins are actually played up from how they used to be: everyone knows that Glass Joe is from Paris, France. In NES Punch-Out!!, all it did was play the French national anthem before round 1 started and leave you feeling vaguely uncomfortable about what they were trying to imply by making the blatantly weak and wimpy guy with a 1-99 record French. In Punch-Out Wii, in addition to the French national anthem and the unfortunate implications, it also plays a little slide show-type movie before the fight with him in front of the Eiffel Tower holding a baguette, and the addition of voice acting allows him to triumphantly declare "Bonjour! Bonjour! Je suis Glass Joe!" as the fight begins. Also, now that there are voices, that one move he did where he backed up a bit, barked a few times, came forward again, and punched? The barking has been replaced by "Vive la France!" And when you knock him out, the special effects emphasizing it involve croissants flying everywhere. I am not making any of this up, and this is the first fight in the game.

Date: 2009-05-22 06:12 pm (UTC)
davidn: (prince)
From: [personal profile] davidn
Having never played any of the Punch-Outs I can now only imagine this character as fighting in a blue and white stripey top with a black beret, with a string of onions round his neck and a baguette under his arm.

I've noticed people in America seem a lot more sensitive (although that isn't quite the right term, because it implies that it's a bad thing) to offensively exaggerated stereotypes like that, which in Britain they're still more acceptable - particularly about the French! For example, Banzai was a Channel 4 institution (demented though it was) for many years, but I gather it lasted about two episodes on FOX before being pulled off due to complaints about it being too rude to the Japanese. (Looking at it now, I admit I can see why.)

Date: 2009-05-22 08:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ravenworks.livejournal.com
The original Punch-Out gets by on a similar clause; they just don't take stereotyping as seriously in Japan, for better or worse. This one, though, was entirely made in Canada, by the Mario Strikers team.. I guess it gets grandfathered-in with "well that's how it was in the original"?

Date: 2009-05-22 08:29 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ravenworks.livejournal.com
Oh no way XD I'll watch more when I get home, but that looks awesome...

Date: 2009-05-23 02:49 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ravenworks.livejournal.com
See, now, that was great. X3 And seeing that makes me wonder if ordinary folks in each of the countries represented don't find their own "caricatures" equally hilarious, y'know? Though maybe it's easier for me to say that since I know that Canadians made the game...

Also, I just realised the worst part of the way they introduce Glass Joe and Von Kaiser. Von Kaiser, they establish he's weak by showing that children can beat him up. Glass Joe? They establish that he's weak by showing that he lives in Paris..?

Date: 2009-05-26 01:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] raptorianone.livejournal.com
I think it's meant to be tongue-in-cheek. Hell, there's a Japanese guy who wears a Rising Sun headband and says "SUSHI KAMIKAZE NIPPONICHI" and other such nonsense. And the game was fuggin' MADE in Japan.

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kjorteo: A 16-bit pixel-style icon of (clockwise from the bottom/6:00 position) Celine, Fang, Sara, Ardei, and Kurt.  The assets are from their Twitch show, Warm Fuzzy Game Room. (Default)
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