Perhaps ‘bit-part’ is a bad choice of phrase, actually.

My Japanese copy of Captain Rainbow arrived through the post today, but far more interesting than that is the current controversy raging over its depiction of Nintendo non-favourite Birdo.

Chris Kohler, over at Game | Life, has detailed Birdo’s chequered history - after starting out life as an apparent male character (who liked to pretend he was a girl by putting a bow in his hair) in Super Mario Bros. 2, evidently Nintendo decided this was perhaps a little odd for its family-friendly image and so decided Birdo was a girl - the Mario sports games refer to him/her as such.

But Captain Rainbow has confused the issue once more, by setting its protagonist a task whereby he has to ‘prove’ Birdo is female (after he is arrested exiting a female public toilet, of course) by producing evidence. The item he finds - in Birdo’s bed, no less - appears only as a question mark, but apparently is a not-so-subtle reference to…a vibrator.

Ick factor? Huge. It’s making me cringe just writing about it.

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 29th, 2008 at 1:39 pm by Chris Schilling
(Probably not) forthcoming titles, Embarrassment, Random Nintendo Craziness, Surprises, Wii.