Press-only Animal Crossing features N-word

December 4th, 2008, 00:49 Posted By: wraggster

A pre-played version of 2005's Animal Crossing: Wild World for DS, sent out to media outlets to encourage connectivity with the recent Animal Crossing release for Wii, contains at least one shocking addition, reports MTV Multiplayer. Importing the saved data from the DS cartridge sent by Nintendo into Animal Crossing: City Folk introduces a host of changes into the game, including one, suddenly no longer E-rated character, Baabara, who now greets players with: "How are you, Ñ---á?" [edited; original creator added diacritics]

To clarify, this generally offensive slang term (preceded by another potentially offensive phrase above it) is not included in the retail release of the game. Rather, whomever Nintendo employed to play the version of Wild World sent to press with all of the game's items unlocked, purposely "trained" the Baabara character to use the term. Further, introducing this kind of offensive content into a new copy of the game, from a stranger via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, is nearly impossible. To import content from another game cartridge over the internet requires two users to first exchange their unique 16-digit codes before they are able to share data. In other words, your kids are safe -- unless they or their "friends" are the creators of such content.

What MTV Multiplayer and other outlets have discovered is an isolated matter. Still, since the media serves as a filter through which you receive your news about Nintendo products, Nintendo clearly needs to work harder to prevent the kind of incident highlighted here from happening again. Also, an apology would be nice.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/12/03/pr...atures-n-word/

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