Miburi & Teburi definitely offends in a number of ways -- the backgrounds, the premise, the use of blue-screened full-motion video, the full price -- but is it racist? We never even thought hard enough about the game to consider it, but Insert Credit's Brandon Sheffield did. He sees a particularly ugly style of casual racism in the big, dumb American characters. He may be on to something.The bearded, shirtless American guy (along with the other silly characters who perform charades in the game) is identified as a "hint-giving American" who says things like "I love Japan. I love Japanese people." in poor, broken Japanese. It's certainly a broad performance, and it would certainly be insulting to be compared to this guy. Sheffield said "I honestly think I'd have less of a problem with it if they were truly playing with American conventions and American Japanese fetishism - but they're just unconsciously making fun of a group of people. And I'm not sure anyone will tell Sega this isn't appropriate."
What a serious issue to have show up in Miburi & Teburi!
