Nintendo: A History of Censorship

Tomorrow Fire Emblem Fates launches in Europe. To celebrate this let's take a look at the history of censorship in Nintendo Games.

Censorship has always been a part of Nintendo games, whenever the transitioned to the West. Most of the time it was because of religious themes or some adult jokes not fitting into the kid friendly image of Nintendo of America. As we all know this is still a problem, so let us take a look into the past and see how little has changed since then.

The Legend of Zelda Series:

The Legend of Zelda has had its fair share of censorship starting even with the first title of the series. I'm not talking about the third dungeon of the game (during the first quest playthrough), which is shaped like a left facing swastika. Because this was left in. No I'm talking about the Book of Magic, which was a bible in the Japanese release of the game. This also explains the cross on the cover of the book.

In the second game the Palaces were originally called Temples, but once again this was changed for religious reasons.

A Link to the Past is one of the better known cases of censorship in the series. At least with fans. The original Japanese title translates to The Legend of Zelda: Triforce of the Gods. Also Agahnim was called a Priest in the original source instead of Wizard like in the Western releases.

Next up is a well known case of censorship with German Zelda Fans. The original release of Link's Awakening for the GameBoy shares many differences with it's remake for the GameBoy Color. For example Martha the Mermaid lost her Bikini Top and not her Necklace. If Link dove underwater she quickly swam away to escape the lecherous hero, who tried to stare at her bare breasts.

Also, and this only applies to the German version, if you stun the Buzz Blobs with the Magic Powder and turn them into Cukeman they will talk to you. In the german version they then utter sentences like ''Nie ohne Kondom'' (Never without Condom) or ''Gib mir deinen Saft, ich geb dir meinen.'' (Give me your juice, I'll give you mine).

This was later edited out with the DX Version and is a one of the reasons why I prefer the original GameBoy release.

The Game with the most changes is without a doubt Ocarina of Time. Pretty well known are the changes to the Gerudo Symbol and the original Fire Temple music. The Gerudo Symbol was originally a crescent moon and a star. Many thought this resembled the Islamic emblem to closely. Also the chants in the original Fire Temple music were taken from Islamic prayers. Once again for religious reasons these two things were changed in any release of the game beyond the N64.

Another case of censorship was turning the Blood of Ganondorf Green to avoid and ESRB Rating of T (Teen).

Lastly the design of Skull Kid was changed. This case was similar to the outrage about the Pokemon Jinx. The original Skull Kid design featured a black face and prominent lips, often associated in the United States with derogatory black stereotypes. For Majoras Mask and any following releases like Ocarina of Time 3D this was changed. Now Skull Kids sport beaks and their skin color was changed to resemble wood or straw.

Super Mario Series:

While the Main Mario Series has been spared from any sort of censorship, the countless spin-off titles got their fair share of it. However most of this Censorship was very miniscule.

Let's start with Super Mario RPG for the Super Nintendo. Here the victory animation for Bowser had to be changed because it looked like he was flipping the player off.

Next up is another Super Nintendo Game Mario Kart. And once again Bowser is the target of Censorship. While celebrating his victory he could be seen drinking from a bottle of champagne.

Also another act of censorship in Mario Kart 64 was the removal of Billboards. In the Japanese version companies like Marioros (an obvious allusion to Malboro) advertise all over the race tracks. This was removed for western releases. However if it's was due to the family friendly image of Nintendo or concerns of getting sued, is not clear.

And lastly we have the case of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year door. Here we have several notable acts of censorship. First up is the infamous house in Rogueport, which sported the chalk outline of a Toad coupled with dried blood on the floor. It was obvious that a murder had taken place in this house. For Western releases all of the evidence was removed. The Crime Scene Cleaners really did a good job on this one.

Another thing, that only affected Europe, was the removal of Marios Arm raising animation whenever he talked to people, because it resembled the Nazi Salute.

Another small change was that the bottle of Chuckola Cola was originally called vintage Red. Nintendo of America changed the Name of the item and the color of the liquid into something more kid friendly.

Next up is the character Peeka and her obvious resemblance to the design of Playboy Bunnys. Like with the billboards in Mario Kart this was probably changed out of fear of getting sued for copyright infringement and the concerns about their image. 

Lastly the big thing. In the Japanese Version the companion Vivian is openly stated to be a transgender Woman. It is said that she may look like a woman, but is in fact a boy. She seeks acceptance from her sisters, who finally see her as a female in the end. This entire story was censored in America.

Of course this is only a small overview. Bu from this we can see that Nintendo was always happy to change details, which they deemed controversial or damaging to their kid friendly image. If we take a look at recent cases of censorship, like Tokyo Mirage Sessions#FE or Fire Emblem, we see that this is still the case. Nintendo is still living in the past and hasn't adapted to this new situation, where they also release games targeted at a more mature audience. Xenoblade Chronicles X, Fatal Frame 5, Fire Emblem... These are all series tailored for a more mature audience. They often deal with mature themes.

In the End it's not Nintendos Job to protect Children from ''harmful'' images. This is the job of the parents.

And as always

Thanks for reading