One of the best features in Version 3.0 of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the Stage Builder mode. It allows users to create and then share their own custom stages online. Of course, shortly after the update went live yesterday, a small minority of players began uploading a variety of lewd levels.
Nintendo has now reportedly cleaned up this area of the game - wiping out all of the inappropriate and offensive custom stages. We had a quick look around on the app ourselves and couldn't see as much, but it's hard to say if it's completely gone - and there's no guarantee it won't reappear. From here on out, we're guessing users who do go out of their way to create any naughty stages will get a warning of sorts, or some type of special system will be put in place to help auto-moderate each upload.
This isn't exactly new territory for Nintendo. The company has previously had similar issues with Super Mario Maker, older iterations of the Smash Bros. stage builder and Miiverse - where memes ran wild.
Did you see any of these inappropriate levels a small portion of the community were uploading yesterday? Have you seen any since Nintendo cleaned it up? Tell us down in the comments.
[source usgamer.net, via gonintendo.com]
Comments 76
I don't know why, but there's something fascinating that people will draw phallic pictures in literally any format with any tool you offer them.
Textbooks. Tables. Drawing Boards. Streets. Buildings. Games... no matter where you go, people will go out of their way to make the easiest, laziest joke in history.
still think all the Mario Pissing stages are hilarious through. how a YouTube video with only 200 thousand views became such a meme on the Stage Builder is beyond me.
Those smashketball stages are already the autorun of the Stage Builder. At least the phallic ones are very very slightly funny.
@TJWorks I am pretty sure there is no person on Earth (aside from completely blind people) who hasn't at some point used some sort of drawing tool to draw a crude phallus.
Everyone has done it, even if it was just with a finger or a stick in sand
@TempOr This.
I wonder how they're going to combat this anyway. Communities do what communities do. I don't see the point in battling it, just let it happen and after the hype dies down a bit the actual cool stages will appear. Let people have their fun for a bit..
I still wish for an adults only tag. Once the player's account has been verified as an adult they could have the option to just dive in without restrictions.
@TJWorks
And yet I've not yet seen any vagina stages.
@Franklin Too hard to draw and still be recognizable.
@FTPinkRabbit This, they should do this. And then tie an option for force it with parental controls. Then let people do whatever they want in the adult section.
We don't need censorship. We need ratings systems and parental controls.
Rest in piece climax, rest in piece
Are there too many giant mushrooms in the stage?
Hm... I wrote a comment before and I can't see it now. Weird.
I just wish the one who made the twin towers one will have a early death. Admins, I know you do also.
@TJWorks I know right? So juvenile...
@Heavyarms55 It’s badly drawn penises. What sort of ‘adult content’ could be created through the stage builder that would be worth creating a whole new section for?
@nessisonett Creating a whole new section? It's as simple as a "nsfw" tag. The quality of the user created content is no issue. If there are people who have fun playing SSB on a stage that looks like "a badly drawn penis", I say they should have every right to. Not my business.
Ratings and parental controls, not censorship. If you don't like something, or don't want your kids seeing something, that's entirely your responsibility to avoid it.
@KazooieTooie What you're doing is wishing death on someone because you are offended by someone making a crude joke about death. Don't you see the hypocrisy in that? And the escalation? I understand and agree with condemning the poor taste involved in that content, but wishing them an early death is way too extreme. That's like cutting someone's hand off because they shop lifted.
@Heavyarms55 Surely that would still get Nintendo into bother with the ESRB? The game couldn’t keep it’s kiddie age rating if the online content was that inappropriate. Even with a barrier, it’s too easy for kids to just use another account on the Switch that is an adult account.
@Heavyarms55 no hypocrisy, because the one who made that stage thought it was funny, so, joking. That extreme 'wish' I said, wasn't a 'joke'. But, I should have kept it to myself. Sorry I bothered you.
@nessisonett The ESRB rating is a valid point, I'm not sure how they would handle that. I've heard of games having a special disclaimer you have to agree to, before seeing user created content that clearly explains that it is just that, user created content, not content evaluated by the game developers. Just having such a disclaimer might push the ESRB to change the rating as well, I don't know their policy.
But I hold to my position that it would be better to have a NSFW tag. If kids are using a different account to get around parental controls, that's on the parents, not Nintendo (or any content company).
If the reasoning is that you cannot have user created content behind a disclaimer without an M or AO rating - that seems absurd - but I could understand Nintendo intervening because it would cost them a lot of money. I don't think it would be fair or just for the ESRB (or another country's rating board) to label a game like that for that reason, but Nintendo cannot control that, and my complaint would shift from Nintendo to the rating board.
I strongly believe that governments and corporations should not be enforcing morals. That we should be allowed to make out own decisions on what content we see and what actions we do, so long as those actions don't take that freedom from others. Or in the case of children, that responsibility falls on the parents, not the teachers, not the coaches, certainly not governments or corporations.
In defense of companies too, I don't think it is reasonable to ask companies to police the user created content within games with literally millions of users around the world that can lead to potentially tens of millions of pieces of user created content. And asking them to do that is how we get spying programs, or terrible auto filter programs. Just look at what happened with Tumblr, when they decided to say "eff you" to millions of their users and ban adult content, they put in place an auto-filter program that flagged and deleted countless posts and blogs that didn't even actually violate any rules... Or you have stuff like what happens with Facebook, where their algorithms collect countless amounts of data, get hacked, and get leaked all over the world... (or just sold by the company to the highest bigger...)
Than they should at least make a rating system and/or private option that only can be obtained using a link/code or whatever. People want to have fun.
To all those saying defend the children etc, I remember this kind of humor most in my life from elementary school. Before the internet. We also looked at playboys and hustlers. Made jokes about drugs, death and horrible events.
Because we were cruel? No because humor can make things easier to handle.
Nature finds a way no matter what you do.
I reported a few of them myself
Pewdiepie begging for subs
Crapping out poop
Penises
Drawn out letters in the formof profanities
All garbage that needs to be banned.
@Heavyarms55 Honestly, I get what you're saying. Tumblr getting rid of adult content was for the right reasons with their problems with child porn but it definitely wasn't the right solution. There should always be a safe space for adult content in society but ultimately Nintendo have a family-friendly image to uphold and it's being uploaded to their servers so it falls under their rules.
It will always be like this.
Pompeii is full of obscene graffiti.
https://classicalwisdom.com/culture/painting/dirty-world-ancient-graffiti/
I'll happily report any inappropriate stages I come across. Can't people just keep it clean? I play Smash to have fun, not to see some stupid sex joke stages. Grow the heck up.
I agree people should keep their "adult" content out of any public spaces like this, but you can't always say "grow up", because in many cases it's being done by the same age group we're trying to shield from it. To think that kids are all innocents we have to keep things clean for is to forget they already know about this stuff and find it endlessly funny even if they're too young to understand it all.
I won't mind at all if Mario Maker 2 skips the pop up doodles and comments. You give people the ability to do that and you get more crude sketches of butts and negative comments than you do worthwhile things.
I still see lots of bad ones.
And too many tetris stages
Kids and kids at heart will always do this sort of thing to get a rise. I can see why this action is required but don’t understand some offended reactions we see to this sort of thing.
@the8thark is someone going to tell him that they aren’t from pewdiepie but fans? While I personally don’t watch him are you comparing that to penises?
@Jimsbo I never played it but would like to play the second one. That is amazing Nintendo allowed that level of control. That is very trusting of them.
You may censor our penises, but you will never censor our resolve!
@the8thark
🎵One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song? 🎵
Is the stage in question actually pewdiepie's likeness, on his knees begging for subs? because that would be hilarious. @the8thark
Rule #128. If a creation tool exists, there will be inappropriate content of it.
@NintendOrc
I seriously don't get why this is newsworthy. This literally happens anytime there is a stage builder. See Little Big Planet 1-3 for example. Or Minecraft.
@Franklin The kids that make dong stages haven't seen one yet.
Is there a 'report stage' button? Seems like it should have one.
Couldn't care less for those stages. They're not competitively viable anyway. Windows XP though? Best stage I've seen!
100% with @FTPinkRabbit @Heavyarms55
Just tag them and integrate it into the Parental Control App (Nintendo did an amazing job in this department. @4.7 Rating on iOS) And deny access by default.
No reason to carpet bomb so called "offensive content" in 2019 on any Digital platform. Tons of tools exist to deal with this on the user end.
I bet most creators will tag it themselves if it ends the risk of having their work deleted.
We all know most of these creations were designed to antagonize the rest of the public. Giving many tools to censor the adult content and restrict it is all well and good (and I wholly support it for some creations that were actually clever), but if you're attempting to convince me that the dude who made Climax and Mario Whizzing would mitigate the amount of troll they'd do then you're lying to yourself.
Idk why you can't report stages in game. Only on the online app.
There's an old stately home near where I live where the US army was stationed in WW2, in the lead up to D-Day.
The soldiers chizzeled penises into the wall there. In 1945. On the way to beat Hitler.
It's a time-honored human universal.
@Racecar there's a report button on the app, not when you download stages directly from smash though.
Give a n**head a crayon and they will try and draw a self portrait.
Ah, the Miiverse Stage. So many good and equally horrible drawings in the background, including a very detailed one of Lucario getting the good SUCC from Lucina. Good laughs seeing stuff like that randomly.
@nessisonett don't people realize kids will grow up to be adults in the first place? can't remove everything thats for adults thats just wrong.
@Yosher they are grown up, they're adults. lol
@Toastess Are you sure? I very much question their adulthood.
@Yosher well for actual kids? no, but for some whos mature enough and wanna have fun, yes.
People that are offended by it are new to the internet. If you get offended by something on the internet, maybe the internet isn't for you.
I find them humorous. I'll download them when available.
they also deleted trans flags and other pride statements because they were "political" so maybe not all kudos to them
@Heavyarms55 you can make a stage like that and play it, you just can't upload it tho
it's not blocking people who enjoy that
It's worth noting that even the Romans, possibly the first true superpower on planet Earth, were infamous for vandalizing their own bathhouses with penis drawings. The greatest composer of all time, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, was such a fan of jokes that today's 10 year olds would find funny that there is debate amongst some researchers that he may have had Tourette's syndrome.
If anything, our lives are made richer by badly-drawn penises. It's a sign of a healthy ecosystem.
@Majora101
"If anything, our lives are made richer by badly-drawn penises. It's a sign of a healthy ecosystem."
I wouldn't go that far.
@Toastess I wouldn't call drawing these types of things in a family-friendly game (or most types of games) mature though. Sure, they're adults, but they sure as heck don't act like it.
@Yosher "family-friendly"? dude smash bros is a fighting game thats for all ages with guest characters that are even crossed over coming from a background for mature audiences alike. also, define "act" like an adult, how do you think sex jokes came about? sex in general is more adult themed as any, besides if you're that offended you don't have to play online you know, just play with people you know or don't play at all, seriously theres annoying spammers on there. lol
How inappropriate. Thank you Nintendo for taking care of that!
@Heavyarms55 Companies and other organizations have every right to determine what goes and what does not go into their products. If you don't like the fact that they're not allowing certain things, then don't buy their product.
@Majora101 : I don't know. If mine looked badly drawn, I'd have a doctor take a look at it.
Good. Please continue, Nintendo.
is it just me or does anyone else not give a damn about inappropriate stages? So many snowflakes nowadays
@Toastess Why are you even trying to defend this kind of stuff? Do you enjoy seeing penis stages everywhere? I mean, feel free to create your own or download any that you find before they get taken down and go nuts on those, whatever floats your boat dude, but most of us really do not care for this kind of stuff in Smash Bros and I'll keep reporting any stage of this kind that I come across because it has no business being here.
And yes, this game IS largely family friendly. It is all set up very cartoony, the fact that some characters hail from more mature games doesn't change that, they've been implemented to fit right on in with the rest of the cast. The only character I'd argue there is Bayonetta and she's been censored properly really.
@Racecar Unless they're boys. Kids aren't magically eunuchs till they hit puberty.
Why am I not surprised?
@Franklin The guys building the stages have never seen any! lol...
@Yosher sure i like penises, though i don't make those cause, as an artist i can draw better ones. lol though i did see one stage on twitter that showed overly explicit sexual content of a hetero couple having sex which was a little too much, sexual things are natural but showing little content of it i feel is fair like a character showing cleavage (even though thats not fully considered sexual content) but i think whats more offensive that anyone can do would be making stages that are racist and homophobic. also, anything thats cartoon-like doesn't mean it's family friendly, there are adult cartoons as well but i'm sure you know that. also, crossover games like this is a selling market for guest characters that come from other games which can, would and will peak the interest of players who are new to them and may want to play the games they originate from, Nintendo i'm sure knew about this therefore smash bros isn't meant to be family friendly since they can add more characters licensed from other game developers that have a background for mature audiences that suits their interests, the game like i said is for all ages, most things that would be considered family friendly would be anything thats non-violent and some other crap.
@Cissero Nintendo can just take that online aspect down. You can still create your own stages but not share them. They did it with Swapnote when an adult sent inappropriate messages to an underage person.
A publisher or company choosing what you can host create or otherwise use their software for isn't censorship.
I find it funny that more people whine about things done to protect corporate branding than people actually calling for censorship of penis stages.
Low class, no class, thinking its funny. If you all want a real shock. Try watching a show on Netflix called Deadwood. Omg. Its right along the same lines as this isuue and netflix allows it.
Oops its Amazon Video not Netflix
This happened a lot later than I expected to be honest.
@TJWorks If I recall correctly, this was the very reason MiiVerse -with all its beautifully simple 2 bit art- was delayed for the west: to program it to recognise these... patterns.
Why people do it is beyond me. I wouldn't take offense in it, it says more about the, well, "artists". But I would like to see the trend disappear.
I figured this would happen
thank lord its over with bad stuff.
That’s great because nobody wants to see penises in a game where Mario and Kirby try to kill each other.
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