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#metroid 1986
mhexart · 8 months
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More pink Samus
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88nickc · 1 year
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Gaming Delight Reviews | Mach Rider 
You thought Samus Aran was Nintendo's first female protagonist (not counting the damsels in distress)? Well, you might be wrong.
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waistedyouth · 1 year
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space stuff
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waisted youth
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janmisali · 8 months
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*not necessarily the first instance of the specific incarnation of that character who is in Smash. strictly speaking, Smash Bros. is the first appearance of these specific canonical instances of all of these characters
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xmrnothingx · 7 days
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Samus Aran from Metroid: Zebes Invasion Order (a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book released exclusively in Japan in 1986)
Wanted to draw Samus from Metroid: Zebes Invasion Order again, because she's cute and there isn't enough fanart of her. A "canon" version of her with black hair is also pretty neat.
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prokopetz · 8 months
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I have a pinned post for my games in development, but it doesn't really describe what they're about, and apparently this is something we're doing today, so:
My games in development, in rough order of priority:
(Note: all of these have public playtest drafts behind the links.)
Eat God
A game about weird little anarchist muppets with reality-warping powers themed after classic Looney Tunes gags wandering around a classic sword-and-sorcery fantasy setting stirring up trouble. Roughly 50% character creation rules by volume, with provisions for randomising every part of it; the linked draft, above, includes an online character generator if you want to play with it. The mechanics are a sort of elaborated spiritual successor to Costume Fairy Adventures, a game whose development I headed up about a decade ago.
Current status: actively writing, hopefully zeroing in on a feature-complete playtest draft within the next month or two.
Tiny Frog Wizards
One of my customarily literal titles, this is a game where you play as wizards who are tiny frogs. Features elaborate semi-freeform rules for casting spells, lots of big stupid random tables for when spells go off the rails, and absolutely no mechanics for anything that isn't casting a spell; it's a very focused sort of game. Narratively, it's a game about being an overpowered little twerp sticking your nose into other people's problems and offering solutions no-one asked for. Portions of the rules crib shamelessly from @jennamoran's Nobilis 3rd Edition, for which I offer acknowledgement but no apologies.
Current status: development of the text has been set aside for the moment to work on visual identity, with an eye toward crowdfunding an expanded hardcover edition later in the year.
Space Gerbils
A tactical mecha combat game with a very silly twist: the entirety of the tactical positioning occurs inside the mecha, because the game's premise is basically "what if instead of the Big Reveal at the end of Metroid (1986) being that Samus Aran is secretly a girl, Samus Aran was secretly 3–5 small gerbil-like creatures operating a person-size mech suit?" Players engage in positional jockeying and resource management to determine which stations they're crewing within the suit, which is boiled down to a single roll of the dice to determine what happens outside the suit. Includes papercraft minifigs.
Current status: essentially feature-complete, apart from some character creation options and a planned random mission generator; this will likely be the next game I crowdfund after Tiny Frog Wizards.
Indie RPG Prompt Generator [working title]
Essentially a joke that got out of hand, this is a big set of random tables of common indie RPG tropes that you can roll on to generate a description of a hypothetical game, complete with specific rules toys and setting beats. I probably could have finished this up already, but I decided to include examples of each rolled element, which turned into this big hairy research project I'm not able to give adequate attention to right now. If you've got a game of your own that you think would be a good fit for a presently unfilled example slot, please, let me know!
Current status: plugging away at it in bits and pieces as I'm able.
Three Raccoons in a Trenchcoat
This is an anthology consisting of three minigames: the eponymous Three Raccoons in a Trenchcoat, which is self-explanatory; Unfamiliar, in which you play as uncooperative wizards' familiars; and System Crash, in which you play as malfunctioning robots. More a series of formal experiments in character creation and group composition than proper full-featured games, all share the same core mechanics, with milieu-specific addons of varying practicality; for example, System Crash has specific rules for which senses each player is allowed to use when asking the GM for information, because it's completely possible to have a group in which only one of the robots can see. Large portions of Unfamiliar were later re-used in Eat God, above.
Current status: I have a list of notes as long as your arm on planned changes to integrate into the text, and I'm confident I'll get around to doing so one of these years.
Gone to Hell
Literally a Doom (2016) pastiche as a Belonging Outside Belonging game, which is just as silly an idea as it sounds; grown out of an earlier 24-hour RPG called Doomguy. The central conceit is that there's only a single player character, with players taking turns assuming the role of the Slayer, while everyone else takes ownership of the various hostile factions comprising the game's conspiratorial twelve-car pileup of a plot. Lots of pontificating about the implicit power structures of tabletop RPG groups. This one probably needs a full rewrite in order to lend a bit more formal structure to the "one player character, many GMs" conceit than out-of-the-box BOB offers.
Current status: I have not looked at this game in three years, which is actually a really long time for me.
Rotate Bird
Another of my "is this a formal experiment or a real game" titles, this one revolves around constructing characters out of abstract symbols, which are interpreted during play to retroactively define what your character is actually capable of doing. Even the title seen above is an interpretive approximation; strictly speaking, the game is called 🔄🐦. Possibly the most shitposty game I've ever written, which is saying something, but based on playtest feedback it seems functional.
Current status: the only reason this is listed as lower in priority than Gone to Hell is because I genuinely don't know what to do with it. It's probably publishable, with some cleanup editing and graphic design, but it feels like there's something missing. I'm open to suggestions!
Get in the Fucking Robot
A pamphlet-size, competitive, GMless title that's at least as much a board game as it is a tabletop RPG, this one is about a bunch of dysfunctional candidate mecha pilots competing to be the first to pilot the titular giant robot. The game is played under misère conditions: while each character's IC goal is to pilot the robot, each player's OOC goal is to avoid that fate, with the player whose character actually Gets in the Fucking Robot being accounted the loser.
Current status: playtesting suggests the current framework of play doesn't actually work – like, at all – so this one needs to go all the way back to the drawing board; I don't feel like doing that any time soon, which puts it squarely at the bottom of the list.
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loiterer87 · 6 months
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Despite being late, Chris's girlfriend did show up after all! In cosplay! She only said Samus, no specific look...
Nintendo was started yeeeears back in 1889 in Japan making playing cards. As time went on they moved into electronic gaming entertainment. Just shy of a century later, they made a little game in 1986 called Metroid! And here we have the lovely Jo modelling the modern (ish) armour of the main character Samus Aran.
Quite pleased with the little Metroid balloon here...
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maburito · 1 month
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Okay so.....I know I was in the middle of Link's Awakening but I kinda got stuck. So i ended up looking around the NES library and saw the first Metroid from 1986 and while I know who Samus and Metroid were in passing I never took an interest in it
But I don't know this time the stars were aligned and I thought hey let's try and see if I like it.
Except this time, I decided I wouldn't use the internet for solutions like I, unfortunately, tend to do a lot when I'm stuck. But! I did take a look at the manual for help and understanding what the story is even about. I'm going in completely and utterly blind, I don't even know what the Metroid games plot is about aside from space stuff But honestly, it's going great! I love it so much it's an awesome game!
But it's hella hard, there's no map (the manual encouraged me to draw a map oiezjrgoiezj) and I get a bit lost even if I'm still moving forward.
And i knew where i needed to go! There's a first miniboss named Kraid
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And I'm fucking going through all of it, struggling and getting lost and struggling some more and FINALLY, I get to what seems to be a boss room, thank g-
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........This isn't Kraid??????
Who the fuck!!
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WHAT?? THIS IS THE SECOND MINI BOSS! HOW DID I MANAGE TO GET TO THE SECOND MINI BOSS BEFORE GETTING TO THE FIRST!!
Did this happen to other people too??? is this normal for this game?????! Somebody help me!
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secretgamergirl · 2 years
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Just what is it with wiki editors and trans characters?
It’s still June, which means it’s still pride month, which means I’m still updating this blog more often than the usual maybe 3 times a year, and today I’d like to talk to you about some fictional characters who are trans and the weird wiki entries bending over backwards to deny it. And I’m not even playing this game on hard mode here, talking about like the cast of FF6 or something. I’m here to talk about a gal from Final Fight, and a guy from One Piece.
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Oh and I guess I’m also talking about Poison. You all know Poison right? She’s pretty commonly referred to as the first trans woman in a video game, specifically Final Fight in 1989. And that little fun fact is... not an actual fact.
Prior to Final Fight, we had Ms. Pac-Man in 1982. While I hesitate to deadname even fictional characters, Ms. Pac-Man began life as Crazy Otto, and had a brief stint going by Super Pac-Man and a couple other monikers before going with just Ms. Pac-Man. I don’t see why she shouldn’t count.
Perhaps you think we shouldn’t count Ms. Pac-Man because to your reasoning, the origins of the game and the character re-design process behind don’t qualify as transitioning? OK then, the next example that comes immediately to mind is Luigi, from Super Mario Bros., in 1993. Who has had a remarkably consistent portrayal as being very very into feminine clothes, acting super girly while wearing them, and quite enjoying this. Doesn’t count because it’s all in supplementary material? No, it’s in multiple games too. Want to argue there was no in-game confirmation prior to the release of Final Fight? That’s really splitting hairs now, particularly when tie-in media got onboard this train quite early on. Perhaps you want to make the argument that Luigi is not trans, but is a cis man who likes to crossdress, perhaps as a sexual fetish? That is a weird argument to make about a character from a series of games aimed at young children but you do you.
How about Metroid, 1986? Samus canonically dresses like a man, uses masculine pronouns, and when that armor comes off we reveal a woman in a low cut leotard ready to start living it up. Who’s also canonically two meters tall, has super broad shoulders, had her biochemistry tweaked as a child... I think I wrote a whole separate post on this once. We still gonna play the “oh that’s all a disguise/misunderstanding” card on that one?
Well, Doki Doki Panic came out in 1987. Birdo (Catherine in Japan) is quite explicitly a trans woman. It’s right there in the manual, and ad campaigns, and really tastelessly referenced in many sources since. What possible justification could anyone use to argue she isn’t trans?
Well, let’s ask Wikipedia.
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“ Since the character's North American introduction, Birdo's gender identity has been an issue of discussion and speculation. The Japanese manual for Doki Doki Panic, when translated into English, states her name to be Catherine and as a man who thinks of himself as female, adding that she likes to wear a bow and would rather be called "Cathy."  However, in the first edition manual for the North American release of Super Mario Bros. 2, Birdo is referred to by a text block that states "he thinks he is a girl" and would "rather be called 'Birdetta.'" In later printings, mention of Birdo being male was omitted. Mention of this fact is further not included in most later games featuring the character and seems to have been retconned to Birdo always being a female to begin with. In the Japanese version of Super Smash Bros. Melee, Birdo, called Catherine, is described similarly to the original manual, though wanting to be called "Cathy." In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, it is said that Birdo is of "indeterminate gender." Birdo appears in the Wii Japan-only video game Captain Rainbow, which delves into Birdo's gender identity. It specifically depicts her being imprisoned for entering the women's bathroom, and the player is asked to locate proof of her femininity (her vibrator) to get her out. Birdo is often lauded as the first transgender video game character. The character was given a female voice actor in Super Mario Advance, a remake of Super Mario Bros. 2. The Spanish language website for Mario Smash Football while describing Birdo suggests that the character's gender is indeterminate. The European website for Mario Strikers Charged Football refers to Birdo as a male character.”
And later in the same article, we have this whole subsection:
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“Gender identity
Birdo has been the subject of discussion relating to her gender identity and has been regarded as transgender. She has become a trans icon due to her gender identity. She has been credited as an early transgender character in video games. The manual excerpt from Super Mario Bros. 2 about Birdo's gender did not receive attention until some time after the game's release. Writer Lorenzo Fantoni suggested that this was because few people read the manual or because no one cared about Birdo's gender at the time. Fantoni also compared the Captain Rainbow scene to the later bathroom debates regarding trans people. Fantoni also suggests that Nintendo does not know what to do with Birdo and that changes to Birdo's character are made to match present-day morals. Author Sam Greer was critical of Birdo's portrayal, stating that her gender had become a "running joke" and was the "subject of much derision and stereotyping." Paste Magazine's Jennifer Unkle criticized Birdo as a caricatured trans person and as an example of Nintendo's poor handling of gender identity in general.
It is speculated by Wired's Chris Kohler that the gender issue was retconned to make her a cisgender female, while video game developer Jennifer Diane Reitz suggests that she may have undergone gender reassignment surgery. Writer Andrew Webster of The Escapist used the history of Birdo in the lead-in to his article, commenting on the changes Nintendo has made to hide Birdo's gender status.”
Weird efforts by wiki editors to try and establish some sort of “ambiguity” or “controversy” here highlighted in bold. Really though, ALL of this text can quite easily be boiled down to just “it used to be that every single mention of this character in any source of any kind felt compelled to include a gross transphobia-informed vulgar 'joke’ about her being trans, but more recently, in North American localizations, they don’t do that as often.”
I wasn’t planning to focus so heavily on Birdo, but wow what a fantastic example of the thinking at play here. Nobody’s trans unless you’re explicit about it. And by explicit about it we mean making gross jokes... and even then the character is only assumed to be trans when we hear that joke, if you go too long without making any, they revert to being cis.
Anyway I’m sure there’s plenty of other examples with other weird excuses not to count them that I’m forgetting. Was Faria out before Final Fight? It’s hard to pin old arcade releases down to a particular month.
How about Final Fight though? Poison isn’t even the first trans character in the game she appears in. Roxy pops in at the tail end of the first level, then again just before Poison, her palette swap. Believe it or not though, there are absolutely people out there who will insist that Poison is trans but Roxy isn’t. I have a lot of building up to do here but have a little tease from the dedicated Street Fighter wiki to get us going...
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Before getting into why “it has been speculated” that Roxy is trans, let’s head over to regular wikipedia and see what they have to say about Poison’s “gender history” shall we?
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“Originally conceived as a female thug in Final Fight and part of the game's antagonist group, Mad Gear, concerns during the game's development about reactions from North American audiences to fighting women led to the character being re-imagined as a "newhalf". However, that was not considered satisfactory and both Poison and her palette swap Roxy were replaced by the male characters "Billy" and "Sid" and have been for every subsequent North American port of the title on Nintendo consoles and handhelds. After the Final Fight series, she later appeared alongside wrestler Hugo, acting as his manager, with her schemes revolving around finding a tag team partner for him or developing their own wrestling organization. Poison first appeared as a playable character in Final Fight Revenge. She was also to appear in both Capcom Fighting All-Stars and Final Fight: Streetwise; however, the former was canceled and she was omitted from the latter as development progressed. Following those aborted attempts, she ended up appearing as a playable character on Street Fighter X Tekken. She was also added as a playable character to Ultra Street Fighter IV.
The character's potential status as a trans woman, consciously left ambiguous by the developers, has remained a topic of frequent debate by both fans and media alike.”
OK we’re going to be here a while, this is just the first section. Before even getting into the point I was going to make it’s super weird not to mention that she’s a playable character in Street Fighter V, how long ago was this last edited? Anyway, right off the bat, we have perhaps the most oft-repeated lie in video games. Which is even called out as such in the next section here... while repeating it again.
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“Conception and history
Poison's first appearance in Final Fight featured her and a palette swap character named Roxy as recurring minor enemies for the player to fight. Named after the band by an unnamed female employee at Capcom, she was designed by Akira Yasuda to contrast against the bigger characters in the game and move about randomly and described as a "cool and rebellious woman". According to the book All About Capcom Head to Head Fighting Games and Final Fight director Akira Nishitani, the characters were originally planned to be cisgender women, but were changed to "newhalfs" (a Japanese slang term for trans women) after the game's release, due to the suggestion that "hitting women was considered rude" in America and the concern that feminist groups would sue. However, concept artwork included in the 2005 compilation Capcom Classics Collection of the pair specifically uses the kana for 'newhalf' (ニューハーフ), contradicting the statement the change occurred post-release. In 2007 Nishitani stated that he supposed the character "could be male", but added it was up to the viewer to decide. He later clarified in a discussion on Twitter that in his personal view Poison was a woman. Yasuda himself commented that as far as her gender, he considers her transgender in North American localizations, but cis in Japan.
A later appearance by Poison as a playable character in Final Fight Revenge, an American-produced 3D fighting game spinoff of Final Fight, portrayed the character in a highly feminine manner and had her romantically interested in Final Fight hero Cody. Commentary about her ending in the game in All About Capcom suggested that the character may have received sex reassignment surgery. The Final Fight-related character profiles featured in Capcom Classics Collection instead allude to her being a cross-dresser, while addressing Roxy as a "she" who dislikes Poison's cross-dressing.
Street Fighter IV's producer Yoshinori Ono, when asked in an interview about Poison's gender, stated: "Let's set the record straight: In North America, Poison is officially a post-op transsexual woman. But in Japan, she simply tucks her business away to look female." He later emphasized it again when asked about what female characters could be included in the game Street Fighter IV, stating that it would be too confusing to include her due to the region-specific gender. However, in a 2011 interview with Electronic Gaming Monthly at the Tokyo Game Show, he stated that Capcom "doesn't have a stance technically", and while they wouldn't give an official answer, felt it was up to the viewer to decide. He added that his intent was to please all fans and that the mystery behind her gender was the core of the character. During the same interview, a Capcom representative further added that they worked closely with GLAAD, an organization concerned with the portrayal of LGBT people in media, to ensure "anything that might be offensive has been very tailored to not be" for Poison's portrayal in Street Fighter X Tekken.”
Where do I begin? Besides shouting a string of profanity and mashing my keyboard while I read all that. Well first of all, I’m fairly certain every woman who has ever worked at Capcom has, in fact, had a name. Also can we have a look at that Final Fight Revenge ending that allegedly hints at her getting bottom surgery?
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I don’t even want to diagram the thought process by which one would get from some stock tropey “I bet I could make him like me” to “clearly this alludes to her running off to get surgery performed after this.”
Anyway damn, I haven’t even gotten to the sections on “censorship” and “reception” here, but I don’t want to be here all night. So let’s just say there’s a bunch of quotes from various people about how she’s really hot, half of those add some “I hope that doesn’t make me gay” sort of comment, and we have a couple more rephrasings of the big lie. So... yeah let’s get into that properly.
So... game developers tend to be gross creeps who love dehumanizing jokes about women and queer people in general, “games journalism” has traditionally been the realm of clueless teens quoting each other in circles, paraphrasing press releases, and pasting anything that claims to be a translation of an interview with someone speaking Japanese, said interviews tend to involve flummoxed third party interpreters, and none of these people are particularly likely to know a single damn thing about trans people, let alone what various slurs and terms in languages they don’t speak really imply.
So, first off, there’s nothing at all “mysterious” or “left to the player’s imagination” about the Final Fight girls. They are a pair of trans women who when not busy being brawler enemies or getting folded into the Street Fighter franchise and rounded out are sex workers, specifically catering to the the plausible deniability crowd who can go “hey she totally looked like a hot cis girl when I picked her up” in regards to women they very much know are trans and haven’t had bottom surgery. It’s a pretty common fetish. There has never actually been any ambiguity or deviation on that. It’s spelled out plain as day right on their original designs. Which I have a scan of, right here!
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There it is, plain as day. If you can read katakana, and you’re up on your Japanese sex work slang, there’s no ambiguity here. Same term all these developers keep tossing out in interviews. It ends up getting translated in all sorts of awkward ways because an interpreter is going to have to try and clean it up and simplify it, especially back when most of these quotes were pulled (the one from Ono is a bit more explicitly worded) and I’m guessing all the bits of “well in America she’d be considered a woman” stem from our language regarding trans women being a bit better generally, and/or a further weird crack because, well, America is kind of the country all the other country’s trans women come to when they want bottom surgery. Very few people in the world perform it, and we have a shocking percentage plus the best reviewed ones. Now you know.
The whole story about “making them trans in the U.S. to avoid being sued by feminists” is... just self-evidently BS? That’s like, a 10 year old on a playground’s understanding of “feminists” and the concept of a lawsuit. The closest thing to a source on it is a vague second or third hand anecdote passed along a decade after the fact from someone who thought one of them was blonde. Plus when you remove the later embellishment about neither of them being trans before being swapped out for random guys in the SNES release, it’s uh... pretty obviously all just a setup for a gross “trans women aren’t really women” joke. So let’s all stop spreading that around and get an adult to fix wikipedia.
All THAT said, back to the full text of the funniest thing I’ve ever read on a wiki:
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“Trivia
Roxy is named after the English rock band Roxy Music. It has been speculated that Roxy is transgender like Poison not only due to the latter's gender history but also because of Roxy being referred to as a "newhalf" (Japanese term for a pre-op transgender person) in her original character concept art, but this has never been confirmed or denied.”
Yes, that’s right. According to the Street Fighter wiki, some people have this wacky theory that Roxy might be trans, just because the artist who first designed her wrote a giant note under the illustration stating “hey this is a trans woman!” And apparently this “has never been confirmed or denied” despite the citation note literally linking to her original concept art. Which, again, could not be more clear on this subject.
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You can’t even ask, “what do designers have to do? Spell it out for you!?” because they ACTUALLY DID in this case.
But I’ve got one more for you all. The other day see, someone showed me a recent scan from the manga One Piece, with a very satisfied “well that should finally settle this.”
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So... full disclosure here, I haven’t been up to date on what’s going on in One Piece for at least like a decade, and my effort to catch up on the context here ironically just involved me hastily trying to look up what that is with the horns between Luffy and Zoro. I’m not even sure what his name is. But I sure as hell know when I’m looking at some wiki editing weirdo trying to deny a character is trans when I see it.
Like all trans characters with wiki pages, we have a big subsection just labelled “Gender” which does some filibustering about “controversy” Japanese not using gendered third person pronouns (and conveniently ignoring the first person ones) and so on before begrudgingly hitting us with something like this:
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“However, certain statements by characters in the manga have continued to create confusion and uncertainty regarding Yamato's gender, particularly regarding Yamato being referred to as Kaidou's son. Yamato has stated that she refers to herself as Kaidou's son due to her desire to adopt Oden's identity, saying "Oden was a man, wasn't he? So I chose to be a man too!"  Yamato has also been referred to as Kaidou's son by Kaidou himself as well as the Beasts Pirates; though their reasons for doing so still remain unclear, given their relationship with the real Oden and their reactions to Yamato claiming to be the legendary samurai. This has led to a significant portion of the fanbase believing that, in-universe, characters who know Yamato consider her to be male, and the official VIZ and Funimation translations have taken this approach, with Luffy and the Beasts Pirates referring to Yamato with masculine ("he/him") pronouns.”
I know, I know, us trans people are always itching to claim any character we can as a trans guy, but just because someone unambiguously says 'I am a man' and 'I am this guy's son' and that guy says 'yes, this is my son' and the official translation exclusively uses he/him pronouns, and when visiting the bathhouse he heads to the men's side and nobody bats an eye at that, well that doesn't really mean ANYTHING, necessarily!
For real though, wiki editors are out here admitting to going out of their way to misgender this guy and stubbornly shout that the official localization is wrong. There’s also some grasping at straws involving a trading card, but like... even if the guy writing the manga were to say “oh this character is actually a girl” that wouldn’t trump the fact that he... unambiguously says “I’m a guy, refer to me as a guy, everyone refers to me as a guy, I am living my life as a guy.” Like, that wins. The only way to argue this isn’t a trans character is if you want to go and say he was actually assigned male at birth and we should just ignore the gynecomastia that might have lead to thinking otherwise.
I don’t know what it is about people who edit wikis where they find it so damn hard to admit when a character is trans, but according to the standard they seem to have set, I guess I have to infer that no cis person has ever actually existed in any work of fiction, or indeed in real life! If they did we’d clearly be bombarded with crass jokes about them.
Also for real, for as often as people make [citation needed] jokes, nobody who edits wikipedia seems to know a primary source from a hole in the ground. People seem to just be searching for whatever they just typed, pasting the first hit, and praying nobody thinks to look at any of the footnotes. It is a MESS down there.
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metroidbosshowdown · 1 year
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It's all been leading up to this moment. You may have predicted that the two Metroid villains iconic enough to become Super Smash Bros. fighters would make it to the final round. But now it's time for the Metroid fans to decide which is the baddest villain of them all.
Ridley first appeared in the original 1986 Metroid for the Famicom in Japan (1987 for the NES in the US). Since then he's been a staple of the series, an inescapable rival to Samus who keeps coming back from the brink of death. Versions of this boss have appeared in Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, and Metroid: Other M, making him easily the most recurring enemy in the series.
Dark Samus was first teased in a bonus ending scene of Metroid Prime in 2002 (2003 outside the US). She then made her first proper appearance as a main antagonist of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and later Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. Dark Samus is the defining villain of the Metroid Prime trilogy, a widely acclaimed part of the Metroid series.
Now let's see which villain Tumblr thinks is the most iconic!
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master-of-47-dudes · 1 year
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Thinking about Metroid: Other M right now after that last post I reblogged. The idea of playing it again is... painful, but it does make me think about what it was trying to explore with Samus as a character.
I think a lot of the problems with Other M come from the fact that it was trying (poorly) to explore Samus's relationship with her femininity and how that impacted her past. As we all know, that ended with THE BABY and a sexist portrayal of Samus that then got worsened by things that didn't translate well out of Japanese.
But exploring Samus's past and her relationship with her gender as well as how that affects her professional life isn't a bad thing I think, it just needs to be done from the perspective that the rest of the Metroid and Metroid Prime series offer: Samus being a woman was always a secondary thing to her character.
It's why Samus being the last Metroid is significant, as well as Metroid being Chozo for "Ultimate Warrior". Samus's character (of which we admittedly only see when she's on the job) and identity is that she is, first and foremost, a warrior.
It's also, in my opinion, why the reveal of Samus being a woman in Metroid in 1986 was so significant- not only was she one of the first female protagonists, but the things Samus could do and accomplish weren't hindered or colored by the fact that she was a woman. She was as capable as (and later in the series proved to be significantly more capable than) any man.
But it's interesting too, because I feel even for Samus the fact that she's a woman is kind of a secondary thing; Metroid Fusion and Metroid Dread both introduced and expanded on the idea that the Power Suit is quite literally a part of Samus, a second skin.
I personally feel it's been heavily implied that Samus sees herself more as the suit than the person inside of it, and I would love to see the Metroid series explore that aspect of Samus's perceptions of herself contrasted with what the world and the people who know her see her as.
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mhexart · 8 months
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37 YEARS OF HUNTING
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alecbicheno · 3 months
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Blog post 10 - Representation of women in games
The way women have been represented in video games has evolved significantly over the years, often reflecting societal and cultural changes. The portrayal of female characters has gone through a complex transformation; however, challenges and criticisms still persist.
History of representation
In the early years, female characters were often portrayed in a stereotypical manner, with a common portrayal being the damsel in distress trope such as Princess Peach and Zelda, where they would later be the reward or prize for the male protagonist.
In the 80s the 90s, we see iconic characters who broke away from traditional stereotypes like Samus Aran, who was a strong independent character whose gender was hidden to be a surprise reveal to players. Lara Croft is another example, however her design featured very unrealistic proportions which would be adjusted in later games.
In the 2000s, despite progress there were persistent challenges and some instances of regressive representation. Many games continued to objectify and sexualize women, for example Grand Theft Auto III (2001) and every instalment since has featured women as sex workers.
The gaming industry continued to grow and with it so the demands for better representation. In the 2010s we got to see some complex characters such Ellie from The Last of Us (2013), who had depth and were central to the narrative.
As we reached the 2020s great strides had been taken towards better representation. We got games with strong, well executed female protagonists such as Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn (2017) and Horizon Forbidden West (2022). We also saw examples of complex and believable female protagonists in indie games like Madeline from the game Celeste (2018).
Examples
Lara Croft is a character we were first introduced to in Tomb Raider (1996) and while she was a strong female character, there were many criticisms about her appearance, especially in earlier iterations. Her design focused on exaggerated and unrealistic physical proportions which contributed to the objectification of women in games and reinforced harmful beauty standards, furthermore the focus on her sexualised appearance overshadowed her character depth. Eventually she got a complete redesign in the reboot to the series Tomb Raider (2013), where she is a well-proportioned, more suitably dressed protagonist who also becomes more a fully realised character with flaws, who learns and is overall just more human.
The GTA series of games has often been talk of controversy for the way it glorifies sexual harassment and violence against women characters. In many GTA titles female characters are often objectified and reduced to hyper sexualized roles, such as sex workers like mentioned above. The games frequently depict scenes with derogatory language as well as violence against women, this reinforces negative stereotypes and misogynistic behaviour, as well as contributing to a culture of sexism amongst the gaming community. The larger concern, however, is that the exposure to these things can cause it to become so normalised that when instances of violence and sexual harassment occur in real life, people won’t be as shocked or empathetic about it.
A decade before Lara Croft in Metroid (1986) we were introduced to Samus Aran, who stands out as a positive example of female representation. Her surprise reveal at the end of the game broke the gender norms by showcasing a woman as a powerful and capable space bounty hunter. Since then, she has been consistently portrayed as strong character, her narrative not being driven by damsel-in-distress scenarios or romantic situations, but instead by her battle against threats and the pursuit of justice. Then as the series progressed, she became a well-rounded character with depth and resilience, whose legacy has consistently helped challenge stereotypes surrounding female characters.
Aloy, the protagonist of Horizon Zero Dawn (2017) and Horizon Forbidden West (2022) is a more recent example of positive female representation in videogames. She defies the traditional gender expectations as a skilled and determined hunter in her post-apocalyptic world and is defined by her intelligence, resourcefulness and sense of justice. Her narrative doesn’t revolve around romantic plots but rather a quest for knowledge and understanding of the world she inhabits. Her design is also a great part of her character, not being objectified or sexualised so players connect with her through her personality and abilities. She is a testament to the gaming industry’s ability to create diverse and empowering female protagonists, and the popularity of her character only proves this, setting a standard for future portrayals of women.
What can be done?
Challenging stereotypical representations of women requires diverse character creation by developers which will help ensure depth beyond their appearance. This is something I aim to achieve in my field of 3D modelling, making sure that I avoid exaggerated features and prioritize authenticity in the physical appearance.
There will need to be a large collaborative effort from developers, players, and the industry as a whole in order to create positive change on this matter. Celebrating games that break the traditional norms will incentivize developers towards more of these narratives, and there are also certain discussions that need to be had within the gaming community about gender representation and awareness, as well as education on these matters in order to create positive change.
An interesting example of change is the recently revealed next instalment in the GTA series, which features a female protagonist called Lucia. This is a huge step for Rockstar Games, especially considering the above-mentioned history and controversies and even though the game isn’t set to release till 2025, it will be interesting to see the depiction of Lucia and other female characters in the game.
Bibliography
CORE DESIGN. (1996) Tomb Raider. [DISC] PlayStation. London: Eidos Interactive
CRYSTAL DYNAMICS. (2013) Tomb Raider. [DISC] Xbox One. London: Square Enix Europe
DMA DESIGN. (2001) Grand Theft Auto III. [DISC] Xbox. New York City: Rockstar Games
GUERRILLA GAMES. (2022) Horizon Forbidden West. [DISC] PlayStation 4. San Mateo: Sony Interactive Entertainment
GUERRILLA GAMES. (2017) Horizon Zero Dawn. [DISC] PlayStation 4. San Mateo: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Harris, W. & Phillips, R., 2023. 23 Best Video Games With Female Protagonists. [Online] Available at: https://www.thegamer.com/best-video-games-female-protagonists/#night-in-the-woods [Accessed 29 December 2023].
Harveston, K., 2023. A Brief History Of Female Representation In Video Games. [Online] Available at: https://headstuff.org/topical/female-representation-in-video-games-history/#:~:text=History%20indicates%20that%20women%20began,good%20example%20of%20that%20trend. [Accessed 29 December 2023].
MADDY MAKES GAMES. (2018) Celeste. [DISC] Xbox One. Vancouver: Maddy Makes Games
NAUGHTY DOG. (2013) The Last of Us. [DISC] PlayStation3. Santa Monica: Sony Computer Entertainment
NINTENDO R&D1, INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS. (1986) Metroid. [GAME] Nintendo Entertainment System. Kyoto: Nintendo
Williams, H., 2020. How Horizon Zero Dawn Moves Beyond The Strong Female Character. [Online] Available at: https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/08/how-horizon-zero-dawn-moves-beyond-the-strong-female-character/ [Accessed 29 December 2023].
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wariodemambo · 7 months
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Found a list of articles ""written"" by Wario for Nintendo of Europe's webbed site in the early 00s. And uh. Man. advertising used to be wild in the attitude era. It's just him rambling about games, including some gems such as:
Resident Evil: Wa-ha-ha-haaa! And that's my genuine laugh there, readers, not my evil laugh. I don't spend my whole life shaking my fist and cackling - that's Nintendo and their stinking propaganda for you.
Metroid Fusion: ... So Waluigi set about dismantling the 273-metre high stack that we referred to fondly as "Big Mama". I had to wipe away a tear as she was brought down to size, box by beautiful box. And, of course, next thing was a call from the Guinness Book of Records - we can wave goodbye to our entry under "Most Senseless Attempt to Defy Fundamental Laws of Gravity". What a day.
Hamtaro: Wa-ha-haa! I'm not laughing, readers, I'm crying. You see, my hamster Fluffy died. In 1986. But it still hurts to this day. The reason I've been forced to remember was your requests for help on Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite!
Wario World: Wa-ha-haaa! I'm rich beyond my wildest dreams. Or, at least I would be if life was like videogames. You see, while my persona in Wario World had a golden castle filled with treasure, the truth is sadly more humble.
No, instead of swimming in piles of coins and feasting on the finest foods from across the world, I make game tips. In my own little way, I'm happy.
I ... I just ... this man?
Ya'll HAVE to read these.
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pochapal · 1 year
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Also a significantly sillier question - since as mullet anon pointed out it *is* the 80s, who in this family plays video games, who wants to but doesn't, and who has zero interest?
so like this'll be very limited since my knowledge of the 80s and also videogames isn't too extensive, but going by a rudimentary examination of a wikipedia timeline umineko takes place a good halfway into the nes's lifespan and hit titles such as super mario bros, the legend of zelda, dragon quest, and metroid were all on the japanese market by october 1986.
obvious gamer candidate is battler. 18 year old who is financially comfortable and kind of in a rebel phase? would absolutely be on that gamer grind.
jessica can game, and is better at video games than battler is, but she's not overly interested in gaming outside of a casual interest.
maria is weirdly good at fantasy rpgs in a way nobody can explain (when prompted she will claim it's "beatrice's magic" letting her succeed) because of course her mind would be wired to be obsessed with the concepts. doesn't actually own a gaming system because rosa is a Hater, however >:(.
most of the adults don't care about games for obvious reasons. however i will say that eva and hideyoshi bought a nintendo for george as a present at some point, except george was never interested in it so it kind of sits neglected. eva sometimes plays mario on it. she's not good at it by any stretch of the imagination but she does better than hideyoshi and that's all that matters.
dark horse gamer candidate is kyrie. a bigbrained chessthinker like her would be naturally inclined to be weirdly good at games. was probably one of the things she did as an icebreaker with battler. is also the type who would not let a child win when competing against them, however. if mario party had existed in 1986 i think kyrie would have induced a rokkenjima murder incident all by herself.
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xmrnothingx · 1 year
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Samus Aran from Metroid: Zebes Invasion Order
Samus Aran with her first illustrated design from Metroid: Zebes Invasion Order, a Japan exclusive Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book released a few months after the original Metroid game came out in 1986.
Turns out Samus with a sword is real and she has black hair
Bonus art from the book:
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