Mario goes woke: Paper Mario game removes catcalling dialogue after 20 years ahead of relaunch
The latest Nintendo remake of a Mario game faced the axe of censorship in one of its opening scenes, changing dialogue that would likely be deemed too offensive for woke audiences.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door was first released in 2004, but it seems developers found that some dialogue from the original didn’t pass the woke test for the game’s 2024 reboot.
In one of the opening scenes of the game, the paper characters come across some typical Mario enemies, Goombas, as a way to set up a tutorial. As Bounding into Comics reported, the original version of the game had one of the enemies say, “Hey! Hey, man! What’s up? Who’s the hottie you got there with you?”
A second villain then said, “Wassup, baby? Why don’t you hang with us for a while? We play real nice!”
“Man, what’s a FINE-lookin’ Goomba doin’ with a tubby mustache man like that?!?” said the third Goomba.
The female character then replied, “Oh, it is, like, SO sweet that you boys think I’m cute! Seriously! Yeah, guys like you make me feel like…TOTALLY BARFING! Now get out of our way!”
The original scene is shown on PlayFrame, with narration from the host.
Despite the female character being disgusted by the advances of the cartoon baddies, this did not stop the game’s new release from changing the dialogue completely.
A first look at the relaunched version on CG Magazine revealed that the dialogue strayed away from any type of aggressive flirting from the characters, who instead decided to pick on Mario.
“Hey! Hey, man! What’s up? You think it’s cool to just waltz your way into OUR underground?” the first Goomba says, noticeably not mentioning the female character.
The second enemy, again not mentioning the girl, stuck to calling the characters snobs.
“Typical! You surface-level snobs are so stuck-up. ‘OoOoh, I get to see the sun! I like to breathe clean air! OoOoh!'”
The third villain no longer calls Mario “tubby.”
“Heh! Yeah! Come on over here, scruffy mustache man. … We’re gonna teach you some proper manners …”
Instead of rejecting their advances, the female character says to “leave [Mario] alone” and mocks the enemies for living in a place that “stinks.”
The only line that stayed the same in the sequence was one enemy’s response of “Ouch! That was cold!”
However, the line “What, you’re too good for us?” was changed to “What, you’re too good for a fight?!”
Nintendo has yet to make any public comment about the new dialogue; however, it is typical for games to change before they get a full release. The remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is set for release on May 23, 2024.
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