Skullgirls update cleans up its Nazi-inspired imagery, lurid panty shots
The latest update for a decade-old fighting game Skull girls fully concentrates on changing elements of the indie fighting game that could be considered too risqué, controversial or insensitive. Those changes include costume updates with Nazi-inspired iconography and upskirt shots of a female fighter in the game who is just 16 years old.
Since the release of the update, Skull girls has been beaten a deluge of negative reviews on Steam from those who apparently want the game to continue sexually objectifying a minor and celebrating Nazis.
“As many of you know, Skull girls has had a long and colorful history shaped by various contributors over the years,” said Charley Price, creative director at Skull girls developer Hidden Variable, in a statement on the game’s official forums. “As we look ahead to the future of Skull girlswe have reflected on previous decisions regarding certain content that undermined the many things that make Skull girls really unique and special.”
Skull girls debuted in 2012 as the brainchild of veteran fighting game competitor Mike Zaimont and artist Alex Ahad. The extensive knowledge of the former and the unique Art Deco style used by the latter combined to make it an instant hit among hardcore fans of the fighting game genre. More recently, however, reports from Zaimont sexually inappropriate behavior behind the scenes led to a shift in control over the Skull girls brand. Are new developers also now sound poised to step away from some of the game’s grittier inflorescences.
While much of Skull girlsappeal lies with the cartoonish depiction of women as cheesecake pinup models, this detail went from just off-color to inappropriate when it came to Philia, the game’s mascot. Filia is a 16-year-old schoolgirl, but many of her artworks contain slinky or blatant panty shots. This fetishization was such an important part of Filia’s character’s portrayal that the color and pattern of her underwear could often be changed by players depending on which palette they chose for a match.
A patch released in 2015 mitigated these elements somewhat, but the most recent update takes it a step further by changing several instances of Filia’s exposed underwear from white to black or, in some cases, removing the panties altogether. The intro scene from Filia’s story where she is sexually assaulted has also been edited to hide the more explicit elements of her harassment.
“While Skull girls is no stranger to characters confidently expressing their sexuality, there are instances in the game where characters are fetishized and/or sexualization imposed,” Price said in his statement. “This includes a few depictions of unwanted predatory behavior, particularly towards younger characters While alluding to some of this may make narrative sense, we’ve made some minor tweaks throughout the game to make sure this content is less exploitative.”
Another important part of this week Skull girls update concerns the Black Egrets, an antagonistic military force in the game’s universe that takes many of its visual cues from the real-world iconography of Nazi Germany. Price said this comparison was “much too close for comfort” given the continued presence of far-right movements around the world and as such Nazi-style bracelets have been removed from several pieces of Black Egrets artwork as well as from Parasoula playable character who acts as the leader of the group in the Skull girls story.
Minor miscellaneous changes Skull girls Involving:
- Tone down images of racist violence in Big tire‘s story
- Remove the hair from Filia’s afro during hair burst animation
- Remove various artwork from the game’s guest art gallery
- Removing the Soviet announcer voice pack
- Replacing the 18-hit combo fanfare (“Barely Legal” to “Spiffy”)
“We realize, of course, that some members of the Skull girls The community may disagree with these changes, either in terms of how we chose to address them or in terms of whether they were, in fact, issues that needed to be addressed in the first place,” Price said. “Please know that all of these choices have been made after careful consideration and lengthy discussion between all members of the current development team. We are confident that this will lay a firmer foundation Skull girls something we can all be proud of as we continue to grow and expand the universe in the years to come.”
As predicted by Price, the Steam version of Skull girls has been bombarded with over 2,000 negative reviews – some complaining of “censorship” – but the game maintains an overall “very positive” user review score, based on some 21,000 reviews.
Means the update of Hidden Variable Skull girls is suddenly prudish? Of course not. Buxom women love Cerebella, ValentineAnd Eliza remain as playable characters, and the playful sexiness the game has been known for over the past decade is still largely intact. What the patch contains is more of a bit of cleaning to adapt to modern standards. And seriously, suddenly not being able to see a teen’s panties Skull girls a less good successor to the frenetic, team-based gameplay of the classic Marvel vs. Capcom series? Reasonable people of all stripes should agree that what is made Skull girls so great in the first place has not disappeared.