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Iwata Explains Mario Galaxy
The British Gaming Blog has links to articles on the official UK Wii site exploring the title Mario Galaxy . The first explores the game's origins and gives us a peek behind the scenes of the game's voice acting. The second looks at Mario's essence, and the benefits of the 'planetary gameplay'. The last is all about the sound of Mario: "This time, we recorded with an orchestra of about 50 or so members. Of course, they were not very good at first because they were playing music they'd never heard before, and they are also seeing the score for the first time. But as the day went on, their performance improved dramatically, and the process of recording each track in its final form was actually a very fast one. This surprised Miyamoto-san, who was glued to the glass wall looking at them from the other side. He was saying 'So, sound is something that really changes too!'"
Got a source on that last one? I looked up his name but he just sounded like a scientist.. if Mario really was some kind of religious and historical satire then that is quite hilarious though..
which is totally what she said
I did, and for good reason. Japanese culture is notoriously racist.
Check the demographics: more than 98% of the population are native Japanese, the rest mostly split between Ainu and Korean immigrants (the latter of which are treated today like blacks were in the US in the '50s; the Ainu are treated like native Americans were in the US in the 1800s).
Check the war crimes against the Chinese at Nanjing.
Check the portrayal of Blacks in anime and manga.
Check the history; a scant few decades ago, the name of the country was Dainippon -- Superior-to-all Japan. They dropped the prefix post-Enola Gay, but never dropped the attitude of superiority.
"Mario" being an offensive, racist caricature of Italian-Americans is not unexpected, but it shouldn't be glossed over. Maybe it was okay in the 1980s, but it's a different time now.
We don't do cartoons like "Song of the South" and there are no black mammies supervising Tom & Jerry these days; why should Italians tolerate similar so-called humorous misrepresentations in video games?
Aren't games supposed to be about game mechanics and gameplay? Are you people saying "Mario" would really be less fun if his character and surroundings weren't filled with ludicrous, offensive and racist stereotypes? Or that it would be acceptable for Nintendo to produce a game with the same mechanics as "Mario" but embracing different offensive stereotypes for the environment and characters?
Let's see Nintendo produce a "Yunioshi-san" character with huge buck teeth, slits for eyes, who collects rice and noodles for power-ups and speaks like his namesake in "Breakfast at Tiffany's". No problem, right?