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Mario Kart 8's character roster criticised for a lack of skin colour diversity

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P

PotionBleue

Member
From pastemagazine.com:
Casey Malone said:
The other notable omission is in the cast of characters’ diversity. After 30 years there are still zero Mario characters of color, a problem that Mario Kart 8 highlights by lining up all the characters on a single screen. When it comes to human characters, Mario Kart 8 is overwhelmingly white. Of the 29 drivers, 14 are human (including Toad and Toadette), and every single one of them is white. While it’d be atypical of Nintendo to introduce new characters into a Mario Kart game, it’s also where the deficit is the most obvious, and during play I found myself disappointed that Nintendo’s stable of characters so painfully fails to reflect the diversity of its audience.
Click to expand...

The author considers these characters as white humanoids: Mario, Baby Mario, Wario, Luigi, Baby Luigi, Waluigi, Peach, Baby Peach, Daisy, Baby Daisy, Rosalina, Baby Rosalina, Toad, Toadette

32px-mk8_mario_iconvjjgt.png
32px-mk8_babymario_icirk4j.png
32px-mk8_wario_icon0ekrj.png
29px-mk8_luigi_iconfkkaq.png
32px-mk8_babyluigi_ic3ak8x.png
27px-mk8_waluigi_icon0dkni.png
32px-mk8_peach_iconyijdy.png
24px-mk8_babypeach_ic5zj3r.png
30px-mk8_daisy_icon08k0b.png
24px-mk8_babydaisy_ic84ked.png
27px-mk8_rosalina_icoy1eyz.png
25px-mk8_babyrosalinagodsv.png
32px-mk8_toad_iconwpe7u.png
32px-mk8_toadette_icobqc2p.png


Full character list:
characters_mk8_unlockwkjfu.png


However, the review does not mention the fact that Miis are playable, and of course Mii skin colour can be changed.

Lots of reactions about this in the Review thread, I guess it deserves its own

--------------------
EDIT: Casey Malone responds to his own review on his Tumblr
All these comments are laden with confusion as to why I’d bring this up in a review of a video game. People have ascribed a bunch of political motives to me, or claimed I’m part of the “Social Justice Warrior trend” in games journalism, or that I bring it up for “click bait,” or for a hundred other reasons. While the people in the comments of that article are mostly, frankly, monsters, I thought that maybe some non-monsters were wondering the same thing, so here’s why I chose to bring up the issue of race in Mario Kart 8.
Because when playing the game, I noticed it, and I had an opinion, and my job as a reviewer is to share my opinion.

No grand conspiracy, no ‘white guilt’ - I was playing the game, and when all 30 characters were unlocked, they appeared on screen at once, and I was struck by how the overwhelming majority of them were white. After the recent conversation surrounding Tomodachi Life and after reading this article on race in Animal Crossing, maybe this stuff was on my mind, but I thought about what I saw on the screen, and formed the opinion “Nintendo can do better than this.”
And I said so, because my only job as a reviewer is to give you my opinion.

If you see the screenshot above, read those articles I linked, and think, “Nintendo shouldn’t have to do better!" then, well, I don’t know what to tell you dude (you are most likely a dude). We just disagree, probably fundamentally. If you can’t handle an opinion you disagree with, good luck going through life just in general! But as far as video game reviews go, you’re welcome to read someone else’s instead.
Click to expand...
 
B

BatDan

Bane? Get them on board, I'll call it in.
I'm pretty sure it's against the rules to post parody sites without making it clear that it's satire.

... This is satire right?
 
P

Pudge

Member
I'm more offended that they did Baby versions of Daisy and Rosalina for this game instead of including literally ANY other Mario character.
 
B

bobbychalkers

Member
I'm usually pretty keen on diversity in games but the racial makeup of the greater-Marioverse (Mario, DK, Yoshi + spinoffs) has never crossed my mind.
 
P

prawnmatic

Member
Who is the author to say that Toad and Toadette are human? Also are Japanese gamers concerned by the lack of Asian characters? ie are there news stories like this in Japan?
 
L

LiK

Member
holy shit, i guess lizards, apes, mushroom people and turtles aren't diverse enough. Casey, I disagree!
 
A

alr1ght

bish gets all the credit :)
I don't know why the baby versions of Italian characters are Italian.

It could be a bit more diverse, but counting them twice seems like cheating.
 
P

Polioliolio

Member
The koopalings are totally black.

Mario, Luigi, and Wario are Italian.

Waluigi is Spanish.


edit: Lakitu is also black.


The only white characters are Toad and Toadette.
 
M

mrhej

Member
Said this in the review thread.

Time to bring out Mario's long time friends from plumbing school, Carl and Darnell. And princess Keisha from baboomland
 
K

Kinsei

Banned
While I agree that the Mario series could use more racial diversity in their human characters, a review of MK8 isn't really the place to open up this kind of discussion. Also calling Toad and Toadette human is just what.
 
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