There was a bit of a minor controversy over Super Smash Bros. Ultimate this week, over a small detail that popped up thanks to changes made to Mr. Game & Watch.
The major change to Mr. Game & Watch in Ultimate is that now his attacks reflect the look of the LCD sprites from the original games. For Mr. Game & Watch’s Forward Smash attack, he now turns into a character with a Native American feather and a torch, referencing the original ‘Fire Attack’ game.
The controversy arose when people realized that the premise of ‘Fire Attack’ was that of the player character defending a fort from being burned down by Native Americans, which could be perpetuating unhealthy stereotypes about the culture.
People reached out to Nintendo about the issue, and Nintendo confirmed that the feather will be removed from Mr. Game & Watch’s silhouette. They clarified that the game was from a game more than three decades ago and do not represent current company values, and apologized for the issue.
Fire Attack was brought to Game Boy Advance as part of the Game & Watch Collection, and the feather was removed for that iteration as well.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate releases for Nintendo Switch on December 7, 2018.
