While it might not be quite as well-known as Street Fighter or King of Fighters, Atlus' zany Power Instinct (Gōketsuji Ichizoku in Japan) still has many fans – and those same fans might be expecting some kind of celebration to mark the series' 30th birthday in 2023.
However, according to one source in Japan, such an event might be unlikely due to the fact that the game contains some rather questionable stereotypes.
The source in question is the Noise Factory Twitter account, which remains active despite the company folding in 2017. Noise Factory was the studio founded in 1998 by Keiko Ijuu and several other staff members who had worked on Power Instinct while they were with Atlus.
According to the Twitter account, plans were in place to properly celebrate Power Instinct’s anniversary, with ports being an initial suggestion. However, the same account later revealed that the request to re-release the games had been denied by the rights holder, with the reason being that a certain character would be considered at odds with what is "politically correct" in the modern era.
Japanese site Automaton has speculated that the character in question is White Buffalo, a Native American fighter. Given that MLB’s Cleveland Indians and the NFL’s Washington Redskins have recently re-branded in order to avoid causing offence to Native Americans, it's a fair piece of speculation – but one that ignores the fact that T. Hawk still exists in the Street Fighter series. Still, it's understandable that the rights holder would see it as an unnecessary risk, given the niche popularity of the Power Instinct series in general.
The original Power Instinct hit arcades in 1993 and was ported to the SNES in the same year. Notable for its unusual sense of humour and the ability of characters to transform mid-fight, it gained enough attention to spawn several sequels.
A second game followed in 1994, and was ported to the PlayStation. The third entry, Gogetsuji Gaiden: Saikyou Densetsu, remained exclusive to arcades. The fourth game, entitled Groove on Fight: Gōketsuji Ichizoku 3, arrived in 1997 and was ported to the Sega Saturn. 2003's Shin Gouketsuji Ichizoku: Toukon -Matrimelee- was developed by the aforementioned Noise Factory, while 2009's Gōketsuji Ichizoku: Senzo Kuyō (running on the Taito Type-X arcade board) remains the sixth and final game in the franchise.
[source automaton-media.com]
Comments 20
Those flashing shadows are rather distracting. I wonder if this is an effect you could probably turn off in emultation?
I'm not familiar with this series but aside from from T Hawk mentioned in the article there's the similiat Nightwolf from Mortal Kombat and Chief Thunder in Killer Instinct.
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@sikthvash that’s the first thing I noticed. So odd lol
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I discovered the original in the arcade and played a few times with Keiji. It was however a few months later I discovered the Super Famicom release and that one I played to completion. A compilation of the entire series would be rather cool.
@victordamazio
What bothers me most is, that People are taking Positions for Cultures they are not related to.
For Example Speedy Gonzalez, i love him, he even shares my Name ;P
They wanted to get rid of him.
What the Heck?
Also that white People can't wear Dreadlocks, what is wrong with them?
@victordamazio Oh that's such BS. Recent rereleases have done just fine with Native American characters (see Killer Instinct for example) by just... Checking with actual people how to make the design accurate.
It's not about censorship, it's using the claim of 'political correctness' as an excuse to avoid releasing anything with a risk of losing money. At the end, that's all it's about.
@Azuris On the latter one, most white people shouldn't wear dreadlocks. Not because of the cultural BS, but because if your hair isn't textured right then having dreadlocks requires basically destroying your hair and being generally unclean.
The problem nowadays is that people pretend to be offended by absolutely anything and everything. A lot of the time they aren’t really offended, it’s just attention seeking and making themselves appear to be some kind of moral do-gooders.
If you're ever concerned regarding a re-release, just include a disclaimer like the Warner Bros cartoon collrctions and call it a day.
@icomma
No. This is a good conversation.
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Oh this is that weird fighting game with a bunch of old people fighting? One of the later arcade releases has a freaking godtier soundtrack, I recommend any fan of videogame music to check them out.
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I'm a far-left "SJW" type, but I don't see how the character designs are any different from other fighting game characters?
It doesn't look like the characters are played for laughs or anything. So I'm not seeing a problem.
@victordamazio
Frankly, does anyone know what “political correctness” is? Simply put, it is asking us to treat another as we would to ourselves.
Would you like to be depicted as “savages” or “uncivilized” just because you happen to be this or that? Or would you want to be called derogatory names because you are you? Or how about being treated as second class citizen just cause?
And it isn’t about censoring your “freedom” either. We all chose to live in society and there is a minimal of decorum we as a society decided to follow. You can’t just run around naked or pee anywhere you want. Or commit any crimes we want. There are consequences to our actions.
Yet you can still stream the Seinfeld episode cigar store Indian. The fact we can’t laugh at ourselves anymore means we are denied something like this game potentially.
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