Those lucky few folks who have been able to try out Nintendo’s new Super Mario Maker game have noticed that, when you use the interface in the game, your real hand is replaced on screen by a projected version provided by the game. That hand is always female and Caucasian. And apparently, it cannot be changed, according to the company.
That has a few people criticizing the game as “not inclusive.” Ben Gilbert, of Business Insider, criticizes Super Mario Maker’s “bizarre, glaring flaw,” saying that he is disappointed in Nintendo, a company that is usually renowned for its keen cultural awareness. As he opines, what will the reactions be from all the game’s players who are not white, female adults?
“What if I were, say, a 10-year-old black girl?” he speculates. “Or a 30-year-old Japanese man? Or literally anything other than an adult white woman (which the hand appears to belong to)?”
Only time will tell if this “glaring oversight” is attacked by others. But in our current culturally-sensitive times, it is one more example of how companies have to be very careful in the ways that they market their products.