When Video Games Get Racist

With Capcom’s Resident Evil 5  stirring up controversy about the game having racist undertones (you play as a white special-ops soldier killing zombie African villagers), we took a look back at other video games that probably should have been shown in front of some people of color before they were made and marketed.  

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (Rockstar Games, 2003) 

When players were told to “Kill all the Haitians” during one of the game’s missions, the Haitian-American community took it to the streets of NYC by protesting outside the offices of Vice City’s publisher Take Two Interactive. Rockstar had the controversial line (and a few others) removed for the game’s Greatest Hits and PC release. 

Mike Tyson’s Punch Out (Nintendo, 1987) 

During the 80s Iron Mike ruled the boxing ring. So how was it that a scrawny white guy looks like Asher Roth could take down the champ? Well, he’d have pound his way through boxers who were stereotypical caricatures of the countries they repped. Examples include: a Russian named Vodka Drunkenski, an Italian named Pizza Pasta, and whatever country Great Tiger was supposed to represent.  

Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers (Capcom, 1993) 

Really Capcom? The best way to depict Native Americans in best fighting game of its time is to get an ambiguous ethnic looking character, throw on some feathers and face paint, and call him T-Hawk (short of Tomahawk)? Why not just get Lou Diamond Phillips to play him while you’re at it? But considering the rest of the Super Street Fighter II cast,  we guess he fits in with whatever they were trying to accomplish. 

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision, 2007) 

War is hell. But when Call of Duty entered the Iraq Middle East conflict with its fourth installation, it took it killing your enemy to a whole new level. It was one where gamers got to riddle Iraqis Middle Easterners with bullets and decimate small villages from the sky. Ironically, even after the game is over, there aren’t any weapons of mass destruction to be found.  

Wu-Tang Clan: Enter the Shaolin (Acclaim, 1999) 

No, wait that game wasn’t racist at all. It just sucked. Sorry RZA. 

Custer’s Revenge (Mystique, 1982) 

Once again, Native Americans get the short end of the stick. Made for the Atari 2600, this game falls into two categories - racist and pornographic, as pointed out here. What’s the premise? Well, as “Custer”, your duty is to rape as many Native American women as possible with his pixelated dong. Yeah, that’s it. 

Peep the video above if you don’t believe us.  

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (Naughty Dog, 2007)

Self proclaimed grave robber Nathan Drake, a white American, ventures through the Amazon looking for the fabled city El Dorado while bucking shots at brown-skinned, non-American foes. If he wore a hat, carried a whip, and was willing to have his legacy tarnished by a guy loves to ruin his own franchises, he could be the next Indiana Jones.