Nintendo has at times been criticized by not having the most diverse cast of characters. And while this may seem to be true, I also think the fantasy non earth worlds that they have created do not necessarily allow themselves to have them. Although some effort has been done in recent years, Nintendo has never shied away, but this article is more about black characters in Nintendo, since they’ve been a part from the beginning. This isn’t a boring Top 10 list with boring entries or unworthy characters. All know my man, Dione Blaster from 1080 snowboarding needs to make a comeback Nintendo.
There will be no ambiguiously brown characters in this article either, I feel they deserve their own article on their own. Some might even consider Reggie Fils Aime to not be black enough but he is. Forever one of the most iconic Nintendo employees, CEO of NOA during one of Nintendo’s best eras and all thanks to him embracing his meme status. He came with an attitude and in a way an official Mii character for Smash Bros Wii U. We still miss him to this day.
Nintendo had black characters since the early days of the NES. Punch out had plenty of boxers and while I could name Mr. Dream I think we all can agree there is no one more iconic than Doc Louis. Yes, not even Mike Tyson can beat his students. He went on to get his own game in the series albeit more of a glorified demo, that’s more than most Nintendo characters can dream of. Nintendo might not be as proud but he also cemented his legacy as an early meme in internet history wrongly being accused of stealing bikes.
Many people forget but Nintendo used to own Seattle Mariners. Unlike Mike Tyson’s Punch Out! which I’m not sure if he could qualify as a Nintendo character, Nintendo actually owned Ken Griffey Jr. Well that’s a poor choice of words but I’m counting him alongside his appearances with other Nintendo characters in posters. He got 6 games across the SNES, Game Boy, Game Boy Color and N64. They sold their majority stake, but I hope we eventually see the games on NSO one day, I mean their whole Nintendo Sports initiative in the 90s relied on him, what an icon. I didn’t know much about Baseball but I knew who my favorite player was, Ken Griffey Jr. all thanks to Nintendo.
I don’t think Nintendo has been too great with adding skintone to generic characters but the option has been there for a few games. It does make sense and it’s cool to see Inklings and Animal Crossing Villagers be different colors. Sometimes the black tone doesn’t fit as well but they have improved, and have done a much better job at it than the Pokemon skintone selection. I don’t want random black toads for example but if they have humanoid characters like the Mario Golf & Tennis used to, that was a great way to include some new faces.
Mii’s are the easiest way to get black characters into Nintendo games, and thanks to it you could make pretty much any black celebrity you’d ever want play a sport or a party game with you. While it’s kind of cheating there are some Mii’s that have become especially noteworthy, one of them is none other than the meme Matt. I knew he was popular online but I wasn’t as aware of his lore. His golden gloves, him being the best at sword fighting and boxing, overall being a loved badass and appearing recently in Switch Sports.
Overall I could go over a bunch of obscure characters I’d like to mention like Agent Morris that are not well known and even debate if Kid from Mario Golf is white or black. But the point is I think Nintendo has provided some great characters and I’m hoping we’ll see more that are great and not just fill a quota. I’m still seething over the fact Min Min made it over Twintelle on Smash by the way.