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Is “Punch-Out!!” Racist?
Dissecting the long-running fighting series’ history with stereotyping
Shawn Laib
SUPERJUMP
Shawn Laib
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SUPERJUMP
5 min read
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Dec 9, 2020
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Punch-Out!! is one of the most beloved fighting series in video game history. Although it hasn’t had that many recent releases, being relegated to the NES and SNES eras by most fans and the developers of the franchise at Nintendo, we still love to pick it up and go again for a few minutes every once in a while. Based on pattern recognition and reflexes, there’s never been a boxing title that combines the gameplay and charm of these games.
Here’s where things get hairy. I never realized while playing the Wii version of the game as a teenager that the colorful cast of characters you are pitted against capitalizes on the racial stereotypes of a variety of fighters. The boxers all have their place of origin listed in a placard before each level, and the graphical designs that follow try to have some fun with the emphasized features of those cultures.
Do these caricatures do more harm than good? The question I have is if the game itself is racially insensitive or racist. With several decades to dissect this from fans and critics, I figured I’d do some research and layout those facts and analyses below.
Little Mac versus the world (aka The Great White Hope)
An article on Sociology of Video Games contains a pretty accurate statement about what makes the insensitivities pop out more than they would have otherwise. “Needless to point out that the plot of the game is a little white guy beating the shit out of racial and cultural stereotypes.”
Little Mac is the problem. The playable protagonist of the game, he not only is the only character who doesn’t have any ethnic characteristics that shine through, but his small stature gives off the impression that no matter how tiny a white man is, he will always prevail over the whack jobs of other countries.
When considering the institutionalized racism within the sport of boxing that still prevails today, it makes Nintendo look pretty bad that they didn’t make the playable character just as cartoonish and semi-offensive as the opponents.
“Unlike other major sports, where athletes are routinely fined for using slurs and making offensive statements, boxing virtually stands alone — a warped and
