Even still, not dark brown isn't straight up black. And in the case of Misango he's clearly Aztec/Native American.
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
Nintendo, can we get some black male characters?
- Thread starter Sea lion
- Start date
that's why those characters shouldn't be involved in any discussion.
What makes the Splatoon 2 girl not Southeast Asian vs Black vs Latina vs Native American.
Nothing.
Nondescript skin slider options just be talked about separately.
Another example (albeit all women, but the men are the same) ^ Not sure I see the point, unless you're referring to main characters, then, yes, that is lacking.
You're missing more than a few.
Alyx from Half-Life 2
Aveline from Assassin's Creed: Liberation
Clementine from The Walking Dead
Rochelle from Left 4 Dead
Marlene from The Last of Us
Riley from The Last of Us
Vivienne from Dragon Age: Inquisition
Nilin from Remember Me
Anne from Virginia
Jade from Beyond Good and Evil
Purna from Dead Island
Vella from Broken Age
Maggie from Evolve
Daisy Fitzroy from BioShock Infinite
GAIA from Horizon Zero Dawn
Jade from Mortal Kombat
Tanya from Mortal Kombat
Maya from Killer Instinct
Alex from Oxenfree
Inklings... don't have real hair. Maybe the shredded tentacles could be used to look more like weave? Maybe?
How does having characters with different skin tones all just interacting normally NOT help? Yes, I know there's cultural influences not shown much - a lack of games about Native American, Hawaiian, African, Indian and SEA themes. But that's getting into a matter that affects much more than some characters in a game's aesthetic.
Also, like, the OP himself counted Twintelle and Marina.
How does having characters with different skin tones all just interacting normally NOT help? Yes, I know there's cultural influences not shown much - a lack of games about Native American, Hawaiian, African, Indian and SEA themes. But that's getting into a matter that affects much more than some characters in a game's aesthetic.
Also, like, the OP himself counted Twintelle and Marina.
Yeah I remembered most of those the fact a large portion of them aren't even notable within their own series says a lot.
how could you miss GTA:SA and GTAV
but as a pure Japanese company, I think Nintendo is kinda doing a better job than others
They were specifically wondering about black female characters by Western devs, though if you include male characters, the list would certainly be more extensive.
I was wondering why Nintendo is getting praised for the equivalent of skintone sliders for generic male/female models that have been standard and expected in custom avatar games since forever, while Sony was getting singled out for "white male" characters even though they actually have some games with written, main protagonists that represented ethnicity or gender outside of this expectation. Not many, but certainly more than Nintendo.
no love for vandham?
Are any of these characters black?Well, for sure. The Inkling girl on 2 is black and I would say the main one.
The OP is about male characters... and the Gerudo specifically don't have any male representative at all in BOTW. And I don't even thing they are meant to be black, more like an analogue of southwest Asian peoples / cultures.
Another example (albeit all women, but the men are the same) ^ Not sure I see the point, unless you're referring to main characters, then, yes, that is lacking.
Oh, it wasn't reflected in that post, but in this thread I've been talking about recent characters. And main characters.
even further I want to see titular characters, or ones that they are the franchise. Not co-stars or casts. So Nadine or Until Dawn or the guy from Detroit wouldn't even count. Someone like Lara Croft
That is where I personally was going. I know there have been lots of black girls in gaming as a whole.
Last edited:
Basically what I was referring to was character that may not inherently be main characters but are the characters you think of when the series names pops up. Like if you think of assassin's creed the most common image that would pop up in your mind is not Aveline despite her being a MC of sorts same with Nadine. Characters that have some sort of cultural cache and were marketed as such.
Well then I don't really get the point of such threads because Nintendo doesn't really feature a huge amount of realistic human characters.
Their ARMS roaster is diverse. They should definitely add more variety to their Fire Emblem cast.
I guess that would leave Zelda and Super Mario where I don't expect new main characters to be added in the (near) future.
But if we don't count anthropomorhpic characters then is there a lot left to discuss about in terms of Nintendo?
Edit: Plus I do think that characters like Marina help people identify with them. So I would not dismiss that in any case.
No this is not true. Not anymore. Last time you needed to do that was in 2013. There have been 2 games since then where you create your character and choose your skin color (Happy Home Designer and Pocket Camp).
I think skin sliders should be counted, but separate, since you can't really cite any specific cultural influence.
So yeah, without counting anthropormorphics, there's not much to talk about. Except for stuff like arms, FE, new metroid if it has more people, etc.
Arms and W101 had some diversity with clear cultural influences at least.
edit:
to your edit, I think characters like Marina are good too. I just have them separate from characters with actual cultural influences.
One one side I would have stuff like Misango or the Indian or French seeming guys from W101 (or Nadine for hyper realistic characters)
On the other side would be skin sliders in Xenoblade X, Splatoon 2, or characters like Elma or Marina.
And I put more importance in the first group.
Last edited:
The Gerudo always struck me as an amalgamation of stereotypes mostly based around the Roma people in Spain, or gitanos (hence the thievery and flamenco music in Ocarina of Time).
Oh, I moreso said that because it's like the protagonist in Splatoon 2 doesn't count as any ethnicity or particular color, white or otherwise, so characters like Pearl and Marina are the ones that matter.
I also think the option to go back and change your skin, hair and eyes at any time makes it easier to just pick something different on a whim, and then other players see that.
My bad, I was meaning to affirm what you were saying.
This might be awkward but aren't they green? I know they were in OoT and I'm colorblind so legit, I'm not sure now.
Another example (albeit all women, but the men are the same) ^ Not sure I see the point, unless you're referring to main characters, then, yes, that is lacking.
I don't really think that this is black. She's more light brown/olive skinned, which is still a good representation, but it's not black.Well, for sure. The Inkling girl on 2 is black and I would say the main one.
Nah, in OoT they were darkish brown. Ganondorf was greenish tint because I guess hes all evil and corrupted.
When reading this thread, do you mean 'black' as just the skin color or the culture of 'black' as in African, African-American, and so on? Because they're are two different things, at least to me. Like the Splatoon characters are not 'black' as a race, they're just black as a skin color depending on the character.
User Banned (1 Week): Reinforcing harmful racist stereotypes
Plenty of Goron representation in BOTW.
Busted! None of the Switch owners I know play ARMS, so I never thought to pick it up
Not really. I mean, the iconic human(ish) Nintendo characters (Mario, Link, Samus) are 30+ year old. We can't expect them to change. Newer games(the ones you call niche) all have diversity in the characters.
Well, here we are: the most famous nintendo black male character is Ganondorf... an evil one. I would like a Ganon spin-off game :)
I love this fan made cartoon about little Ganondorf:
As cool as I think he is, isn't that just some aztech dude with dreadlocks
1) you can, link can legit be anyone. They should just cut the shit and stop pretending he's a character and let us make a link
2) In arm's case, There are more interesting characters like twintelle who aren't in spotlight while boring geneiric dudes like spring man is. I personally want more brown people not just around but prominence, and arms is neiche, it is not some big title like the ones you mentioned
Well, here we are: the most famous nintendo black male character is Ganondorf... an evil one. I would like a Ganon spin-off game :)
I love this fan made cartoon about little Ganondorf:
A game about young Ganondorf would be neat actually. See how he got to where he is.
To be fair, Ganondorf was green - all of the female Gerudo are brown, though. I've always wondered why he's green... maybe it's a male Gerudo thing?
Fair point about the south-West Asian/cultures. However, I would say there is at least one male representative in BOTW.
This, but everyone skipped it over since it breaks some arguments...
Some of those are as black as the Splatoon 2 cover inkling. Which is not an issue for me, but wonder how some in this thread that had an issue with Splatoon 2 find those ones...
No they can't, oh boy here we go again.
I don't think he's green in Oot. I see it as greenish-Brown colour - i have shoes that are identical to Ganondorf skin in oot, and i wouldn't say they are "green".
Anyway, the later games, smash included, clarified the character is black, not green.
There are fighting games that sell way beyond that much, still very much a niche thing. I would like it to be bigger, and they are getting bigger in terms of both general audiences and tournoment attendees but it is what it is. Or at least its neiche in comparison to a great deal other games. And that's not mentioning it seems like a lot of people in this thread alone didn't play arms. Though I will admit using reset era or enthusiast sites like this for accurate beats on the general populaces game purchasing habits is a fools errand
Yeah they can particularly with link and pokemon trainers
Characters can be anything and anyone
Go for it
I don't think he's green in Oot. I see it as greenish-Brown colour - i have shoes that are identical to Ganondorf skin in oot, and i wouldn't say they are "green".
Anyway, the later games, smash included, clarified the character is black, not green.
Do you have a source on them referring to him as black? I can't find anything.
EDIT: Unless you meant that his skin in other games is black, which I still don't see.
I dunno, he still looks green to me.
Do you have a source on them referring to him as black? I can't find anything.
I dunno, he still looks green to me.
Its not exactly green, but as a skintone it appears that way.
How you perceive greyish tones largely depends on the background color though, like some optical illusions have shown.
No, he can't. Link maybe the 'link to the player' or the 'player avatar', but Link is also his own character and he has become more of his own character with every new game to the point that in Breath of the Wild you can't even change Link's name because of the voice acting. Even before then, most recent games gave 'Link' as a default name when before it was left blank before. In short, Links isn't like Robin or even Corrin who are built from the get-go to be 'your avatar'.
Also, ARMS is an IP that sold over a million copies and it's a new IP. Since when is a million seller considered niche?
Certain games in a franchise selling more doesn't make a title that sells less 'niche'. That is like calling Street Fighter niche since Smash sells more. Something like the Guilty Gear series would fit more under 'niche fighting game'.
Again, Links has become more of his own character for decades now with Breath of the Wild where you can't even change Link's name.
I played breath of the wild
That game does nothing to make anything but an avatar for the player
Make a male and female voice
Let me make a link dude
Can we stop pretending this fucking self insert is a character and let me make a cool character
I'm not even here for humoring this dumb ass argument because I have been for years and ya'll been spouting the same bullshit to keep a boring ass nothing white self insert as the protagonist for no goddamn reason