What Sakurai Really Meant When He Said Smash Bros. "Is For Good Boys And Girls"

Would have loved to see her in the background or as an assist trophy, given her popularity but...we get it. Too much skin means no win. It's not worth complaining about.

In other news, the sky is wet.

Wait...

The 3DS (edited - thank you -_-) struggled with 8 Ice Climbers. I fear the Switch would struggle with the physics of 8 Mais.

I mean, they could just include her and tone down the sex appeal a bit. This is a game that features Bayonetta as a playable character, for god's sake.

the best thing about this whole mess is all the fanart that spawned

I mean Smash isn't really UNFAMILIAR with the T for Teen rating

They could've used Mai's civilian outfit from DOA6 if they wanted to get past CERO and their sensitivity towards such content

Oh hai damage control !

But Bayonetta is A okay.

@Greator Links please.

@Ralizah Bayonetta must've been easier to tone down considering they could just lessen the amount of hair that is used as a conduit for her wicked weave attacks, and that would lessen the amount of skin that her body would show

That's pretty much all they needed to do

Mai's boobs and her overall lack of skin coverage s are actually a core element of her appeal as a character from a design standpoint, and it hasn't really been toned down at all since her first appearance. She's not only the female mascot of SNK, but she's widely regarded as one of the earliest examples of a female sex symbol in gaming. Taking that away from her just for a Smash appearance seems like an sacrifice Sakurai probably wouldn't want to make

He himself was actually quoted as saying chests were his fetish and that CERO's censorship practices were highly unnecessary during a Japanese Famitsu column Q&A with fans as far back as 2008

It's Question 62 from what I remember
https://www.sourcegaming.info/2015/05/25/sakurai-answers-100-questions-from-fans/

I mean Blue Mary doesn't leave much to the imagination when she stands there.

@w00dm4n so unrelated to this article but I love your spinning SNES avatar!

Boobs. Big, bouncing, mesmerizing boobs. Simple as that.

Woman can (rightfully) breastfeed in public but we still freak out about boobs.

Spawn Wave had some more info on this issue in one of his recent vids about an interview with Sakurai, where Sakurai vents his frustrations about all the crap Cero (the Japanese age rating institution) put him through.

Seriously, Smash Bros for WiiU almost got delayed because they kept being a pain about Palutena and Wonder Pink (yes, a trophy...), forcing Sakurai and his team do multiple remodelings...

The video (it's at 13:45): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6svoqlHQ8U

@KitsuneNight She's censored though. If you compare her in this game and in her own game. Technically Mai could've gotten in. But seeing as 60-70% of her is skin then that's 60-70% in need of censoring. And her iconic outfit is what make her, her. It'll be nonsense to make her wear her less revealing clothes.

Though I would've preferred her at least as a spirit with the ehem Mythra-esque tights censor but full body

Whether you like her or not, it was a good idea to leave her out.

@tseliot Apparently the ESRB and CERO doesn't like boobs xD

Its not even her breasts, but her thighs I believe. CERO doesn't like anything that exposes thighs and this can cause the ratings to spike. If Sakurai covered Mai up or used her Fatal Fury 2 I'm sure some people would cry censorship so I am not sure he could've done anything about this. It sucks because I actually like Mai in Fatal Fury and King of Fighters. She's pretty fun to play as.

Blue Mary and Gymnast Samus are in performance clothing. Perfect sense.
Bayonetta shows arms and legs in Smash and the hair is part of the attacks and even clothing. A stretch, but explainable and disconnected from the shenanigans of the home series.
Mai is dressed along an aesthetic and for a specific purpose — this was a hard call, but I think they made the right choice.

Pyra and Mythra have zero logical reason to be dressed as they are beyond fanservice, nevermind "sizes" that are determined at birth. I would like to see a Rex/Pyra fighter implemented in the manner of a Stand or Tag Assist or something out of technical curiosity, but not if it's going to come with all of the "sexualization" baggage.

We can't have Mai, but shirtless Shulk is fine apparently.

Makes sense. They could have included a toned down mai in the back but seeing as he likes to keep characters as close as possible to their original games it makes sense not to add a toned down version in the back.

@BlueBlur101 Thanks for linking to that interview! It makes for interesting reading. Although the answer to the fetish question (besides being incorrect; there's no such thing as a chest "fetish") makes me think he gave some sort of vanilla answer because he wasn't really interested in the question.

@KingBowser66

Loved Xenoblade 2, didn't care much for the fan service though. I would like to see more Xeno fighters in general.

And I think Smash does a good job of not just integrating other gaming franchises to the game, but it does a good job honoring their roots as well, so having a covered Mai would have been thought as "half-assed." It is, what it is.

A little slap to our face though. It's only for good boys and girls. What kind of remark is that? If a little child is playing such game a child mind would never make sexual stuff out of it. It's you adults who are dirty minded. When a child gets older towards teen yes then. So you aim towards age 3 then... well it's what it is. It's not a lost for me anyway. I'll play King of Fighters

I'd Smash Mai. For sure I would.

@Ralizah That's what I assumed but I also took it in Mai's context as him refusing to add her in without the bust size

That's at least my interpretation given his opinions on CERO's practices as a ratings board

@GrailUK 3ds*

Yes, because the adult female body is something to be ashamed of, aka ‘bad’, and therefore is unsuitable for kids.

The human race needs to move forward. Japan in particular, has a serious problem with censorship and sexism.

If nothing else, I’m pretty sure that exposure to human breasts is a perfectly natural part of healthy development in children. Even ‘good’ ones.

Probably why no female Terry too lol. So many would pause and move the camera up the skirt/down shirt. I'm good with wii fit trainer honestly gonna do some sun salutations as tribute. Whew felt the burn there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIbsBOh5HhI

Eh, it’s not a big deal. Shame she wasn’t included but I get it, Smash is a party game and Mai is a tad more in-your-face than Bayo.

Except, this was known before GameXplain covered it. Don’t know why a clickbait channel was credited when a bunch of people brought attention to it before.

@GrailUK the Wii U managed them fine (I’m sure Sakurai is quoted somewhere as saying they were fully up and running), it was the 3DS that struggled with 4 of them. Same basic reason that Sheik/Zelda and Samus/Zero Suit were split up, and we lost Squirtle and Ivysaur.

@Ralizah Bayonetta has a full body outfit, unlike Mai. CERO doesn’t like women showing skin.

In Sakurai’s own words, the first thing they ask is to see the female characters ”upside down”.

@PBandSmelly How?

@tobsesta99
She literally uses a fighting style that "distracts opponents". Im sure that this is enough to tell that kids who will buy the DLC should not see this

@PBandSmelly Oh my god! Think of the children!!!!! 😂

But Bayonetta is ok lol
Japan is ridiculous sometimes. But we're talking about the land that forces women to wear high heels at work and contact lenses because glasses are banned for females.

Comparing Mai to Bayonetta actually doesn't make sense. Why? Look at Nintendo's pattern: Samus, Bayonetta (in smash), BotW Zelda, Twintelle, and even Ring Fit trainer (female). What do they all have in common? They're bottom heavy, in tight pants/tights, but covered up. Nintendo is sticking to this formula to provide base level sexual appeal without triggering ratings boards or parents.

Mai, on the other hand, is top heavy and very exposed. Too obvious, too flashy, too triggering.

What I'm really curious about is SNK opinion on all this.

As many pointed out is a no brainer that Mai could have been censored in some way and Sakurai's team already did it with other characters. I can't avoid to wonder if maybe it was SNK that decided that no compromise was acceptable and it was better to exclude her.

Bayonetta? ZS Samus? Quite a few other characters of men and women?

But ok, I don’t care that much

Skin is just skin, geez. I'm a cat and run around naked. Hehe

@RazumikhinPG sigh That's pretty bad.

I too hate that Mai is not in it even though I understand it. I was curious in the beginning when Smash Ultimate was rated E10, I'm surprised a fighting game wasn't rated T for Teen anyway. It's a shame SNK couldn't have their Chun-Li equivalent in Smash because of some ratings issues, a real shame. It's a shame the ratings board put Sakurai and Sora Ltd. through all that trouble with Palutena and Wonder Pink, so that they knew they would have problems getting Mai in there. It's a shame, but I'll get over it. She's in other games along with my favorite, Shermie.

SNK just needs to bring their modern KoF games to the Switch.

Still an excuse. No one's buying it. It's stupid since Bayonetta is in the game.

I'm fine with the exclusion if even so much as an image of Mai, as a spirit, would have raised Smash Ultimate's rating, but I will also say that Fatal Fury isn't represented as well as it could be in Smash without having who is arguably the series' most iconic female character. It also makes me feel that Terry/Fatal Fury wasn't as well planned out as previous DLC fighters as I'm sure the team is talented enough to take liberties with Mai's design to allow an inclusion to occur without impacting the rating.

I was very much disappointed, to be honest. She is arguably one of the most recognizable SNK characters in video game history.

And the argument that because she is scantily-clad or overly-sexualized falls flat, when you think about it, because you have characters like Bayonetta, Zero Suit Samus, Krystal, and Candy Kong, to name a few, all making appearances, either as playable characters, Assist Trophies, or Spirits.

Furthermore, just because an age rating is raised doesn't mean that parents will necessarily follow it. I don't know what laws are like in Japan regarding the sale of teen or mature-rated games to minors, but here in America, parents will buy games like Call of Duty, Halo, Watch Dogs, and Grand Theft Auto for their prepubescent kids all the time. As long as it's an adult buying it, game retailers have no choice but to make the sale, even if the game is intended for a little kid.

Ah well can't have everything. I'd argue though that our kids get sexualized more anywhere else than in videogames these days!

the rating board doesnt realize that kids still ignore that and still plays cod and other rated m games so wats the point with the rating system

Be good boys and girls consume the product, don’t ask questions, consume the product.

Did anyone here read the article? The only reason Mai wasn't in this cause CERO would've caused many problems to Sakurai and Nintendo. It doesn't take a genius to figure that out. Adding Mai would've changed the rating. You can censor her all you want, but that's not the Mai people's love, and I don't Sakurai would want that.

Once again, why are people bringing up Bayo and Zero Suit? They're covered up! Also, Bayo was censored.

@MsJubilee you do realize zero suit samus has a outfit showing her in shorts with her arms and legs skin showing.

It's the double standards that are the worst.

The whole sexuality thing is stupid anyway when you really think about it. Graphic violence could theoretically traumatize or desensitize certain people and encourage them to be more violent, but what is seeing bouncy breasts and more skin going to do to young children? Encourage rape? Considering rape is a problem in even the most moderately-dressed nations, that argument doesn't hold water. Show me a child (without crazy religious parents) who has been negatively affected by seeing half-naked women and I'll reconsider my position.

Personally, I'd be more disappointed in Mai's exclusion if I was more of a fan of this game. The loose-feeling controls are becoming a real turn-off for me and it seems to be getting worse with each entry. Unfortunately for me, it's a staple of the series and I think changing it would alienate more people than it would please.

Im cool wit it. But to see her in the backround of king of fighters mightve been weird

Sakurai:This game is for good boys and girls....
Bayonetta/Zero suit Samus/Shulk (no shirt): Are we a joke to you?

@The7thHokage1995 not to be rude but....
Your profile pic is anime,right?
So you’d obviously be used to seeing (ahem)Exposed breasts(ahem)
In something cartoony so therefore you wouldn’t have a problem with it....

But the main problem is the fandom:
If this character was to be realeased,some random guy would make an animation or Fanart or even a mod to over sexualize this......
Just remember I’m not tryna be rude I’m being civil

I suppose it boils down to the fact that both the most used(/presented), recognizable, & popular iteration of the character, is (also) the most sexualized. Even if the character has been less sexualized at some point, that is not the iteration of the character (that) most recognize.

If Mai, over the history of the character, had been (regularly) less sexualized it's likely censoring would have been much easier, without sacrificing how the character is usually presented. However, sexualized is how the character apparently, has been prominently presented throughout its history. Therefore, the character would have to undergo censorship changes, that also change the identity of the character; the likeability, and recognizability, at least.

What about immature people who 'don't identify' as male or female?

I'm fine with it. I love playing Smash with my young son and stuff like this just makes it a bit more awkward. Hyrule warrior's Cia is bad enough.

@Seananigans Boobies scare you?

@JokerP5 Nah it would've been natural, that's literally what happens if you play any King of Fighters. It's a three on three format, so if you or your opponent have selected her and she's not currently fighting she's always in the background. That's what makes this sting, because everyone else is.

I am ok with Nintendo's decision, while they technically could have added Mai and tone down her sexuality like how was done with (Female) Corrin, by giving Mai Shiranui white shorts and covering up them big bouncy twins a little more with her clothes so they show very little skin, that would have just given people a reason to fuel hate due to the censorship, so the best decision was to not include her at all.

@DrDaisy i agree plus kids get easy access to the internet as well and see xxx stuff so dam easily and some parents themselves let their kids play violent games and trash talk others on some as well.

@Seananigans you never took your shirt off in public or at the beach? I mean, I haven’t seen you, but I could understand why you probably wouldn’t.

@Seananigans Breathing is a bodily function.

@Seananigans you do realize theres nude beaches in europe just saying man.

I don't even really care either way, it's the reasoning that's dumb. Bayonetta is very sexialized, even in Smash where she's been toned down, and the Zero Suit leaves little to the imagination for Samus. Pretty sure an outfit modify would have been fine here.

@Seananigans where would the women feeds their newborns at they cant just stay home all the time cause they need to do shopping or other things and they take their babies with them.

@GrailUK You win the day

@Chibi_Manny Yeah O don’t think there was a way to win that dilemma

@MsJubilee Exactly this. People are treating it like this call was made by the western branches playing the "children" card to explain it. CERO and the level of exposure games get for having their A rating are why this is happening. If both the Japanese and western markets were able to go back to letting a B/12/T fly, we wouldn't be having this issue. I'd even go as far to say Mai's design could've been fine for the current rating with minimal tweaking had it not been for CERO's requirements to try and look up the skirt and zoom in.

@Ephidel @Kingbowser86

They could have covered her up like Mythra from Xenoblade 2... Also, I loved the hilarious tie in within Xenoblade 2 where you could get her covered up outfit once the Smash Spirit was released.

Also, they won't have Mythra / Pyra + Rex because they already have the spirits of them.

It sucks, would have been nice to have Mai as a spirit, but I get it though.

R34 Mai Shiranui, nuff said

@Ralizah like what, give her a big coat or something? lol
lets face it, we've run into the same problem again, mai is too big for smash

@boxyguy mai is to big for smash thats over blowing it man.

Mai is going to be the next Ridley for the fans. From too big to too sexualised.

@The7thHokage1995 You realize though when you say “Man=Woman” you are ignoring all the codified social, psychological, and political elements within the realm of sexuality. As much as I’d like to “return to the garden” theorically as well, there is no “pure” understanding outside of history and the power dynamics at play when discussing sexuality any longer. It’s too engrained in other institutions and traditions.

i dont blame sakura on this its all on the rating board making something out of nothing i mean dont they even realize that plenty of parents ignore the ratings on violent games and still let their kids play them.

Although it was already pretty obvious why she was left out, the Japanese broadcast at least confirms the team wanted to keep the Switch entry within the lowest age rating

DLC cannot raise a game's age rating, DLC and the base game have different age ratings, and do not effect each other.

This is one of the reasons why games always have the warning that online content cannot be guaranteed to keep to the age rating on the base game.

That said, Nintendo wanted to keep Mai out to keep the image they want for the game intact.

Although for comedy's sake, someone made a "Smash Safe" version of Mai.

@Seananigans Tell you what, you go and eat you sub or what ever else you shove down your throat on the crapper every day for a year and then maybe someone will listen to you sad hangup stories about how babies should eat there for your sake. In the mean time if you are unable to face the fact the 50's are long gone try closing your door, shutting your curtains and turning off the lights.

Smash Bros - Rated M for mature!

I have always looked at Super Smash Bros as a teen game, but it would be funny if Nintendo ever made a mature version of the game.

@Strumpan But you still keep it private? Or was it about the boobies after all?

@RazumikhinPG Bayonetta was modified for Smash. Since Nintendo owns that IP now, they could. Nintendo doesn't own the Fatal Fury IP, so changing Mai would have been legally troublesome.

@sanderev Nintendo doesn't own Bayonetta at all. It's just that Sega doesn't care about her so they can do what they want.

I still think, whatever people could argue, that this is plain discrimination, and the worst part is that the problem lies in the dirty mind of people.

But this news article doesn't add anything new to the previous one. It's the same information.

@GrailUK true, 8 Mai's = 16 jiggling bazookas

wait so you give us samus in her active-like sports clothes as an optional clothes change appearance in the game and give us bayonetta who in a crossover game is used to promote a game she originates from that consists of sexual and violent content, and you won't add mai as a cameo cause of her appearance? like...wtf? that makes no sense.

@Moroboshi876 yeah thats true smash bros already has sexual appeal anyway, to exclude a character of this sort to be so much as a cameo at least is just hypocritical.

Leaving her out because she affects the rating is reasonable. Why exactly did the western translators feel the need to portray it as a "anything even remotely sexual is bad and terrible and Good People and children will spontaneously combust if they see a little exposed skin" matter?

@Seananigans Na mate, we're all just having a laugh at you. Your the one who was triggered cos you could not look away from a baby having its lunch. But you carry on mate, we all need someone to laugh at every now and then

At the end of the day, Smash Bros is a pretty non-controversial game series and it's understandable they don't want anything in it that would cause CERO to give them a higher rating.

However, I do think it's a shame that female figures are so much more political than they used to be. If someone walked into an arcade in 1994 and saw Mai in King of Fighters, sure she might raise in eyebrow or two (and a smile), but I do not believe many people would have thought she was unsuitable for children. In the same way, Chin Li's muscular legs were part of her appeal, and many of the male characters were topless. From a visual design point of view, certain things just suit the sexes differently.

Now we still have topless men, but increasingly female characters can't show any thigh. I don't know if CERO has become stricter recently, but female characters in RPGs don't have so many proper bikinis (ie. that would show the thigh).

I do believe this is because in today's culture, it's extremely politically incorrect to have anything that would arouse or please heterosexual males, whereas the double standard is that it's fine to have things that would arouse women.

Bottom line is that it's not Nintendo's fault, but it's a shame the way modern society has gone.

I see comments are getting deleted now.

@DarkKirby I actually wouldn't mind that outfit at all! It covers up all the areas that would raise the game's rating, but still keeps her form intact. I can just imagine how fun she would be to play as in Smash, but the Mai purists would probably get their claws out if she was modified in any way.

I will just stick to playing as her on my arcade machine, jiggling bits n all.

I'd rather just have
Capcom vs SNK 3, please.

I think E10 is such a weird rating, the "E" part of it probably just makes some parents think it's way better than the scary 3 years older counterpart. Though, most parents don't even pay attention to ratings :/

Sakurai cares about No Nut November

@TrevorMcD i now respect you.

@Baker1000 respect. All the bois now worship sakurai for his knowingness of our struggle

Each lonely night I get through without Mai, becomes my victory.

If esrb did not freak out about stuff like phoenix wright dual destinies i think she would be in the game and I dont blame him for not adding her he just did not want esrb and all the mother and fathers (like mine) freaking out over some skin.

But we got that sweet fanart.