The newest replace for decade-old combating recreation Skullgirls focuses entirely on altering parts of the indie combating recreation that may very well be thought of too risqué, controversial, or insensitive. These modifications embody updates to costumes that function Nazi-inspired iconography and upskirt pictures of a feminine fighter within the recreation who is barely 16 years previous.
Because the launch of the replace, Skullgirls has been hit with a deluge of negative reviews on Steam from those that apparently need the sport to proceed sexually objectifying a minor and celebrating Nazis.
“As a lot of you already know, Skullgirls has had a protracted and colourful historical past formed by quite a lot of contributors over time,” mentioned Charley Value, artistic director at Skullgirls developer Hidden Variable, in a statement on the game’s official forums. “As we glance forward in the direction of the way forward for Skullgirls, we now have mirrored upon previous selections relating to sure content material that has undermined the various issues that make Skullgirls really distinctive and particular.”
Skullgirls debuted in 2012 because the brainchild of veteran combating recreation competitor Mike Zaimont and artist Alex Ahad. The intensive information of the previous and the distinctive, artwork deco model employed by the latter mixed to create an prompt hit amongst hardcore followers of the combating recreation style. Extra not too long ago, nevertheless, reviews of Zaimont’s sexually inappropriate behavior behind the scenes has resulted in a shifting of management over the Skullgirls model. Its new developers now additionally sound able to distance themselves from a few of the recreation’s seedier prospers.
Whereas a big a part of Skullgirls’ enchantment lies with its cartoonish depiction of girls as cheesecake pinup fashions, this element veered from merely off-color to inappropriate when it got here to Filia, the sport’s mascot. Filia is a 16-year-old schoolgirl, however a lot of her art work contains both sneaky or blatant panty pictures. This fetishization was such a core a part of the depiction of Filia’s character that her underwear colour and sample may usually be altered by gamers, relying on which palette they selected earlier than a match.
A patch launched in 2015 toned down these parts considerably, however the latest replace goes a step additional by altering a number of cases of Filia’s uncovered underwear from white to black or, in some circumstances, eradicating the panty shot altogether. The intro scene from Filia’s story wherein she’s sexually assaulted has additionally been adjusted to cover the extra graphic parts of her harassment.
“Whereas Skullgirls isn’t any stranger to characters that confidently specific their sexuality, there are cases within the recreation the place characters are fetishized and/or have sexualization imposed upon them,” Value mentioned in his assertion. “This features a few depictions of undesirable predatory conduct, notably in the direction of youthful characters. Whereas alluding to a few of this may be narratively significant, we now have made a lot of small changes all through the sport to make sure that this content material is much less exploitative.”
One other main aspect of this week’s Skullgirls replace considerations the Black Egrets, an antagonistic army drive within the recreation’s universe that takes a lot of its visible cues from the real-world iconography of Nazi Germany. Value mentioned this comparability was “method too shut for consolation” given the continued presence of far-right actions the world over and, as such, Nazi-like armbands have been faraway from a number of items of Black Egrets art work in addition to Parasoul, a playable character who acts because the group’s chief within the Skullgirls story.
Smaller assorted modifications to Skullgirls embody:
- Firming down depictions of racial violence in Big Band’s story
- Eradicating the hair decide from Filia’s afro throughout her burst animation
- Eradicating a number of illustrations from the sport’s visitor artwork gallery
- Eradicating the Soviet Announcer voice pack
- Changing the 18-hit combo fanfare (“Barely Authorized” to “Spiffy”)
“We after all notice that some members of the Skullgirls group might disagree with these modifications, both by way of how we selected to handle them or whether or not they had been in actual fact points that warranted addressing within the first place,” Value mentioned. “Please know that every one of those selections have been made following cautious consideration and prolonged dialogue amongst all members of the present improvement group. We’re assured that this may present a extra sound basis for Skullgirls that we will all be pleased with as we proceed to develop and broaden the universe within the years to come back.”
As predicted by Value, the Steam version of Skullgirls has been review-bombed with greater than 2,000 unfavourable opinions — a few of which complain about “censorship” — however the recreation maintains an general “very optimistic” consumer evaluate rating, based mostly on some 21,000 opinions.
Does Hidden Variable’s replace imply Skullgirls is abruptly prudish? In fact not. Buxom ladies like Cerebella, Valentine, and Eliza stay as playable characters, and the playful sexiness for which the sport has been identified over the past decade continues to be very a lot intact. What the patch contains is extra like a little bit of housecleaning to regulate for contemporary requirements. And critically, doesn’t with the ability to see a young person’s panties abruptly make Skullgirls any much less of a successor to the frenetic, team-based gameplay of the basic Marvel vs. Capcom collection? Affordable folks of all stripes ought to be capable to agree that what made Skullgirls so nice within the first place hasn’t gone away.