Nintendo renamed the Super Mario Brothers character to avoid racism

Nintendo’s official account tweeted that he is, in Japan, the NES game’s foreman character wrecking crew It will be renamed from “Blackie” to “Spike” in games and The Super Mario Bros. film. This change was already made in the US and EU versions of the original game, likely because Spike’s original Japanese name could be read as a racial slur.

“The character Blackie, who appears in the family computer show Wrecking Crew, will be renamed Spike, the same name in Europe and the US,” reads a translation of the tweet posted in Japanese by VGC.

Spike first appeared in wrecking crew, an action puzzle game released for the Famicom in 1985. As the title suggests, players control Mario (or Luigi in two-player mode) and have to destroy multiple objects with a hammer while avoiding hazards. Since they are carrying a heavy tool, they have to complete the levels without jumping. Spike is a foreman who tries to stop Mario by dropping things. He appeared again in The Wrecking Crew 98although the Super Famicom game was never released in the US and yes, in case you were wondering: he’s a white guy.

Most of the localization uses “Spike”, with the exception of some Asian versions of the wrecking crew games. It was Ho Burakke in Japan and Bulaki in Taiwan, both of which were transliterations. An elderly person fan theory He notes that the correct romanization of Spike’s old name is “Breaky”, since he is never depicted wearing black in game appearances.

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in Super Mario Bros movieSpike was Mario and Luigi’s boss before they quit their construction jobs to become plumbers, and is often around to make the brothers feel bad about going out of business on their own. The brothers liked it when they saved Brooklyn from Bowser, though it could be said that the mess was their fault in the first place. oh well. I like to think that Spike meant well and was trying to get their old jobs back in the least diplomatic way possible.