Nintendo has pulled all UK retail copies of the Mario Party 8 game for the Wii, due the appearance of the word ‘spastic’ in the translation. The official information refers to the appearance of an offensive word:
"Unfortunately we have discovered that a small number of games contain the wrong version of the disk due to an assembly error," reads a statement from the company.
According to the good folk at Spong, the offensive word is contained in this sentence:
“Magikoopa magic! Turn the train spastic! Make this ticket tragic!”
Overkill? I understand why the kid-oriented game would make family-friendly Nintendo want to stay clean but it’s hardly up there with the Hot Coffee fiasco or the recent Manhunt 2 ban, now is it?
Of course, maybe Nintendo has learned from Sony’s mishandling over the Manchester Cathedral spat that the best thing to do is to act fast, over-react if necessary and take the financial hit before the media has a field day and Tony Blair weighs-in on the topic.-Martin Lynch
http://uk.gizmodo.com/2007/07/17/nintendo_recalls_offensive_gam.html
