Super Smash Bros Ultimate AKA Smash is a crossover platform fighting game series published by Nintendo and created by Masahiro Sakurai on Nintendo Switch. It’s target audience ranges widely between young kids, young adults, adults, and competitive gamers.
“What does it mean to play that game as a feminist? What critiques do you have of the game. How does it intertwine feminist theories (or other theories mentioned in the book), or fail to do so? If it fails to do so, discuss how utilizing feminist perspectives could improve the game.”
Playing Smash as a feminist involves scrutinizing the gender representation within the game, recognizing the lack of diversity and complexity in female characters, and advocating for changes that reflect feminist values. While the game is diverse in terms of characters from different franchises, it often falls short in providing nuanced and empowering portrayals of female characters.
Chess emphasizes the importance of representation and the impact it has on players’ experiences. Smash includes female characters like zero suit samus, Zelda, and Bayonetta, but their portrayals often reinforce gender stereotypes. Bayonetta’s hypersexualized appearance, for example, exemplifies the problematic representation that Chess critiques. These depictions diminish the characters’ depth and reduce them to mere visual spectacles rather than fully realized individuals. However, male characters in the game exhibit a wider range of traits, such as human-like Link versus part dragon part turtle Bowser, highlighting a disparity in character development. This reinforces Chess’s argument that games need to move beyond superficial representation and embrace more meaningful diversity. Compared to other fighting games, Smash is more gender-balanced but still lacks the nuanced representation seen in games like Overwatch, which Chess praises for its diverse and complex characters. Overwatch features strong female characters with varying body types and backgrounds, setting a standard that Smash could aspire to.
Things to improve:
- Better character design: Future updates or sequels should introduce female characters with diverse body types and attire that prioritizes functionality over sexualization. Characters should be designed to showcase their abilities and strengths rather than adhering to traditional beauty standards.
- Better storyline: Developing backstories and narratives that highlight the experiences and challenges of female characters can provide depth and relatability. These stories should be crafted to emphasize the characters strengths and complexities, moving away from reductive tropes.
- Some kind of community engagement: Nintendo could reach out more to female gamers and feminist scholars, to gather feedback can help shape more inclusive character designs and narratives. This aligns with Chess’s call for participatory game design that values diverse perspectives.
The game could benefit from a more balanced gender ratio in its roster and equitable representation in marketing materials. Promoting female characters as central figures rather than secondary roles can challenge existing gender norms within the gaming community, as Chess suggests. The game’s mechanics and aesthetics wouldn’t have to change much to make Smash more representative in my opinion. I think the underlying dynamics that players experience as they play, however, would have to change. To do this, redesigning characters skins and adding more nontraditional female characters that players want to play as more often would help. For instance, right now I hate when people play Palutena because she has a dumb laser beam staff, but if there were more female characters that had better skill move combos that were satisfying, powerful, but not overpowered, I believe people would play female characters more often.
Here are some pictures of me selecting Palutena and Bayonetta in Smash. As you can see from the character roster, there are very few female characters compared to male and ambiguous gendered characters.
Some discussion questions I have:
- What changes to Smash do you think would help make it more representative? What about other games in general?
- Do you think that all games should be changed to be more inclusive and cooperative instead of individualist and competitive? What impact would this have on competitive free-for-all games (ex: Fortnite)?
