There have been many opinions around the web these days about Mario Kart 8, with reviews appearing nearly every day about the new title in the racing series. At NintendoFire, we’re eagerly anticipating the game’s release day, and we’re looking forward to trying out the new races, characters, and features of the title.
However, not everyone playing the game is as thrilled with the selection of characters as others are. In fact, yesterday a review was posted by Casey Malone of Paste Magazine claiming that the Mushroom Kingdom’s latest Grand Prix event shows a lack of cultural diversity… yes, you read that right. Read on:
“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.”
Readers, we know you have brains and are able to think this one through. The reviewed evidently failed to notice that a significant portion of characters are baby versions of their adult counterparts (or “shiny” versions), which reduces the legitimacy of Malone’s numerical complaint.
Also, the game is made in Japan by a Japanese company, who is including “white characters” in their game. It might be argued that’s diversity right there. You may also be scratching your head about Malone’s inclusion of Toad and Toadette in the complaint…
Agree? Disagree? We’ll leave the rest of the discussion in your hands.
