(no subject)

[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 The barking has been replaced by "Vive la France!"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.

Comments

[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.)

[kjorteo]

I went back and edited the post to add a link to the match in the NES version, so now it has both for comparison...as I said, the NES version, which I thought was a little exaggerated at the time, is extremely reserved by comparison!

And that's...good heavens.

Edit: They appear to have turned Von Kaiser into a German Glass Joe, with him being beaten up by the young children he's instructing in his intro video for comic effect and such, along with the cowering "Mommy!" bit in the ring, which is definitely new. (They did keep Ride of the Valkyries as his theme song, just like in the NES, though.) Presumably he's too fit and muscular to be a beer-drinking polka-dancing Oktoberfest enthusiast, and even this version of Punch-Out didn't want to make him a Nazi.

[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"?

[kjorteo]

Speaking of Canada....

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

Oh no way XD I'll watch more when I get home, but that looks awesome...

[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..?

[kjorteo]

Upon further consideration, I think that might have been a British Columbia-specific dig, since the dev team is located in Vancouver, and Bear Hugger as billed as being from Salmon Arm, which...well, let's be honest, even their website looks...rural.

And all of the characters are exaggerated stereotypes, but least not all of them are offensive stereotypes in and of themselves, with the possible exception of the wimpy Frenchman and the psychotic brawl-loving Irish guy who's such a vicious cheating dirty-fighting bastard that I'm amazed he doesn't try to brain you with a shillelagh when the referee isn't looking.

[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.