Mr. Game & Watch

Early designs of the Game & Watch title Chef. They were drawn during a meeting, and given to Makoto Kono to make official designs.

Although the specific character did not exist until 2001, he is an amalgamation of the avatars from the Game & Watch series of handheld consoles released by Nintendo in the 1980s. Video game and electronic toy designer Gunpei Yokoi witnessed a businessman fiddling with an LCD calculator out of boredom while riding a bullet train. Inspired by this, he conceptualized a portable electronic minigame that doubled as a watch for killing time.[1][2] The visuals and LCD design were conducted by Makoto Kano, although he was also present in the original handheld's hardware production. At the time there were only a handful of designers, so work wasn't equally balanced and multiple people worked on numerous different tasks. According to Kano, he designed the system shell and its color, the packaging, and the stick-figure silhouettes.[3]

The games were designed around everyday tasks, which is why the titles had simple concepts such as cooking. The game and its looks were designed on a blackboard by the development team, and Masao Yamamoto drew up the ideas in a notebook. He gave the visuals to Kano for polishing, where he recalled how he would say, "The rest is up to you". After he would redraw the designs, it then became clear whether or not they would continue with the project. They would then create a model of how the game would function using plastic and wheat bulbs about the size of an A4 sheet of paper to test the smoothness of the visuals. Yokoi was very keen on making character movement natural, which the designers dubbed the "Yokoi standard". Yamamoto and Takehiro Izushi worked on the software afterwards.[3]

The first handheld released was Ball in 1980, the spiritual introduction to Mr. Game & Watch.[4] Kano's enjoyment of visual design for the handhelds were increased with the introduction of a new line of Game & Watch devices, the Wide Screen variants. In a 2010 interview on Iwata Asks, Kano said that he modelled the octopus character for the title Octupus after Hatchan the Octopus, a Japanese manga character who first appeared in 1931. He tried to design the octopus so it would be recognized as such in other countries.[3]

The specific character known as Mr. Game & Watch was introduced into Super Smash Bros. Melee in 2001; as a representation of the series as a whole, his attacks and other abilities are direct references to various Game & Watch titles. His character icon also represents the Game & Watch's alarm feature, where it depicts the character holding a bell. The character comes with seven alternate colors to choose from before a match.[5]

Mr. Game & Watch originally appeared as playable characters in the 1980 Game & Watch game Ball, as well as Flagman, Vermin, Fire, Judge, Manhole, Helmet,[6] Lion, Parachute, Octopus,[7] Chef, Turtle Bridge, Fire Attack, Oil Panic, Greenhouse, Rain Shower and Life Boat.[4] The Game & Watch brand is represented in Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. series with the character Mr. Game & Watch, appearing in Melee, Brawl, 3DS and Wii U[8] and Ultimate.[9] As he represents the Game & Watch series, he pre-dates Pac-Man by one month as being the oldest character on the roster.[10]

Beyond the Super Smash Bros. and Game & Watch series, Mr. Game & Watch has also appeared in Game & Watch Gallery 4.[11] He has also made cameo appearances in Donkey Kong Country Returns, WarioWare: Touched!, Rhythm Heaven Fever, Nintendo 3DS Sound, Super Mario Odyssey[12] and The Super Mario Bros. Movie.[13]

Competitive player Maister garnered criticism for his use of the character in professional Super Smash Bros. tournaments.

Mr. Game & Watch received mixed positive by critics, mostly the character appearance on Super Smash Bros. series. David Mello of Screen Rant said Mr. Game & Watch is a second of the forgotten Nintendo characters, saying that it is a classic character from the younger days of Nintendo.[14] Michael Derosa of Screen Rant also said that it should be added in Mario Kart, and stated that 2D character in the magical 3D Mario Kart world would offer the type of visual contrast that gamers love.[15]

In Super Smash Bros. Masahiro Sakurai described Mr. Game & Watch along with Duck Hunt as fighters that fall "outside of people's typical expectations", and explained further that without such characters the roster might only have typical "hero/heroine" type fighters in the lineup, which would be "probably not very interesting".[16] IGN noted that Mr. Game & Watch became weirder as it maintains his unique 2D nature in an otherwise 3D world.[17] As a result, several magazines have criticized the character for being "annoying" and included at the game, despite being not a realistic character or one of the Nintendo icons.[18] [19][20][21] In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, it was considered as "low-tier", or one of the weakest characters available for selection.[22] In 2020, Enrique "Maister" Hernández Solís became the first professional Super Smash Bros. player to garner successful tournament results while using Mr. Game & Watch; before it, he remained an unranked position in the Panda Global Rankings charts until eventually ranking 6th place globally. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, while Mr. Game & Watch was still considered low-tier at the time of Maister's 2019 win,[23] the Smash community eventually realized that the character had become significantly stronger. He began receiving criticism toward the character and himself, with people blaming his success for the character he chose and not his skill, pointing out abilities of his that were too powerful or too fast to react to.[22][24] Maister commented on the backlash and acknowledged the character's criticism due to his faults. However, he struggled with negativity and threats directed towards him personally and it has been chosen to lower how much time he spent on social media.[22][24]

Use of Native American stereotypes

Character artwork of the cowboy (top) and a Native American (bottom) for the 1982 Game & Watch title Fire Attack

In the 1982 Game & Watch title Fire Attack, the player controls a cowboy defending his fort from an onslaught of Native Americans attempting to burn the fort down. In the game, the Native Americans wear a feather on their head and attack the fort with torches. This has since been deemed as a racist Native American stereotype, and the racial aspects of the characters were removed for the re-release of the game in Game & Watch Gallery 4.[25]

For Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in 2018, Mr. Game & Watch was given new designs to his animations; instead of his overall appearance remaining a stick figure silhouette, whenever he would perform an action represented from a Game & Watch title, he would also assume the cosmetics of the character in question and look like them, then returning to his default look when the action is complete. With this came the return of his Native American counterpart, which is referenced in one of his attacks. After a Nintendo Direct that showcased the character, he was used in gameplay during a Japanese livestream, where the attack was used and visible for about half a second.[25]

Later, claims were made on Twitter and an online message board that the character represented a racist Native American stereotype. These claims were later echoed elsewhere online.[26] Nintendo took action by removing the feather headband on his head and responded with the following claim to Eurogamer:

"Nintendo has been planning to distribute an update for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate that removes the feather from the silhouette of Mr. Game & Watch. The original game on which this depiction of the character is based was released more than three decades ago and does not represent our company values today. We sincerely apologise that this change was not noticed in our marketing material and are continuing our work to make Super Smash Bros. Ultimate an experience that is both welcoming and fun for everyone".[27]