Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Guy Who Dresses in Native Attire For Seemingly No Reason

Job experience: Qix (GB, 1990)

These bizarre ethnic cameos seem inextricably linked with Mario's moonlighting gig as a time traveler (more on time traveling in our continuation next week!). How else would he end up clothed in the indigenous garb of a Native American, a Mexican ranchero, an Indian snake-charmer or a Spanish matador? Next to acting as a historic interpreter or participating in some kind of ethnic role-playing sex romp, it just seems unlikely. As far as we can tell Mario's appearance in Qix is wholly unrelated to gameplay, and is actually an indecipherable design choice. It feels like fun, though, but with the added tension of bordering complete racial profiling.

02/07/08