21st May 2010, 10:07 PM
A Black Falcon Wrote:... So the "plot" this time is that Peach was kidnapped by Bowser while she was baking a cake? Do I really need to say anything about Nintendo's sexism, or do they make it obvious on their own...
I know that the gameplay certainly sounds amazing, but the wrongness of the "plot" really does deserve to be mentioned. Mario games don't need much plot, certainly, but come on, come up with something slightly better.
I get what you're saying, but it's pretty much set in stone at this point. Besides, they've made Peach a lot more active in her rescues lately. The same can be said of Zelda. Heck in the games where Zelda gets captured, it tends to happen pretty late in the story these days, and not before establishing her as a badass in her own right.
If you want something better, play Super Princess Peach. She rescues the brothers.
SSBB... really? The series is about invoking legendary heroes from various Nintendo franchises and beyond. Let's face facts, that means the main characters and a few oddballs. Admittedly it puts into stark relief the presence of far more male leads than female leads, but SSBB didn't really have a lot of options ya know. Who would you suggest? Note: Has to be a MAIN character, the character that DEFINES a franchise. At least Nintendo HAS some female leads. Doesn't help that it's called "Brothers" though...
What's much more notable is the total lack of racial diversity in Nintendo games. Even Disney finally made Frog Prince (which among the obvious, also flat out murdered a comic relief character at the most unexpected moment, yeah that was weird). Square-Enix is a little more noticable here, considering their worlds are supposed to represent entire planets of white people, making the presence of singular black people on a whole world far more weird. Poor Barret... is he representative of a wider part of the gene pool or a genetic anomale in that world?
Anyway, back on point, it's Mario. There's some good attempts at Peach playing different roles, but she is the "go to" for damsel in distress. Sometimes, those exist, and there's nothing wrong with that in a Mario game.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)