Stereotypes in Punch-Out!!
# Stereotypes in Punch-Out!!

Nintendo's long-running Punch-Out!! boxing video game series extensively utilizes racial and ethnic stereotypes, particularly in the opponents faced by the player character. The stereotypes featured in the games have received substantial recognition and criticism and are an important facet of Punch-Out!!'s visual and aesthetic identity.

## History

Graphical advancements in the early-mid 1980s enabled the Punch-Out!! arcade game to display human-like characters with exaggerated features and animation. Writing for Kotaku, journalist Kevin Wong wrote that the 1984 Punch-Out!! "lacks cultural sensitivity, to put it mildly — the characters range from being slightly offensive caricatures to highly offensive caricatures." Notable stereotypical characters in the 1984 arcade game include Glass Joe, a French boxer who is easily defeated in combat, and Pizza Pasta, whose name was described by Wong as "just incredible; a shining testament to just not giving a shit. It’s like naming a Chinese boxer Chop Suey Wonton, or a Thai boxer Pad Thai Curry Puffs.

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! continued the trend of using characters with "distinct stereotypical exaggerations." The 1987 game is widely recognized as a landmark of racial stereotyping in video games: Brandon Mendelson described the boxer opponents as "a cavalcade of racial and ethnic stereotypes," and Sam Machkovech described them as "a veritable United Nations of stereotypes." Writing for The Escapist, Sumantra Lahiri detailed the Japan-developed NES game's extensive stereotyping:

   As you go through the game, you gain an encyclopedic knowledge of ignorant American sentiments: The French are weak and cowardly; the Germans are ultra-militaristic; the Japanese are sneaky and untrustworthy; the Spanish are flamboyant and vain; Samoans are fat and stupid; Indians skin tigers alive and wear turbans; Russians love their vodka; and black people are ruthless and a bit ignorant.

Of particular note in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! is the stereotypical Soviet Russian character Soda Popinski, representing the stereotype of Russians as brutish alcoholics obsessed with vodka. In Soda Popinski's entry for the 2017 publication 100 Greatest Video Game Characters, Rahima Schwenkbeck analyzed the character's Russian tropes within the context of contemporary international relations in tandem with localized pressures faced by Nintendo in their attempts to penetrate the American consumer market. Noting the pervasiveness of unflattering tropes about Soviet or Russian people in popular culture in the West, Schwenkbeck pointed out that this is not a phenomenon unique to American media, citing the historically turbulent Japan–Russia relations and the predominantly negative image of Russia among Japanese society based on the findings of a Pew Research Center survey in 2015. Schwenkbeck observed that Popinski's continued depiction as a caricature of a vodka-loving Russian, regardless of changing political climates and expectations of improved character development with the advancement of technology, reflects a larger narrative about long-standing negative stereotypes of Russians prevalent in both American and Japanese culture.

The 2009 Punch-Out!! game for the Wii heavily uses ethnic and national stereotypes like its predecessors, largely through the use of recycled boxers from previous games. In addition to old stereotypical characters such as Glass Joe and Soda Popinski, the newest Punch-Out!! game also features the stereotypical boxer Disco Kid, portrayed as a Black American preoccupied with music and clubbing.

## Reception

In contrast with Punch-Out's mainstream popularity, critical reception to the series' stereotypes has generally been negative. Davey Nieves and Wong condemned Punch-Out!!'s ethnic and national stereotypes as offensive and mean-spirited. John Speerbrecker described the stereotypes as "much worse" than those featured in Street Fighter II, another popular fighting game whose stereotyping is often compared with that in Punch-Out!!. Machkovech characterized Punch-Out!!'s ethnic and national stereotyping as part of a broader lack of racial diversity in Nintendo video games and general bias in favor of white characters. Schwenkbeck unfavorably compared Soda Popinski to the Street Fighter character Zangief, calling the former "pure stereotype" while the latter is referred to as a "solid character."

Despite the generally negative reception to Punch-Out!!'s stereotypes, some critics have also expressed more forgiving views of the stereotypical characters. Brett Elston characterized the depictions as "friendly jabs at everyone’s equal expense," and Wong argued that "the developers took a 'scorched earth' approach to their stereotyping; every ethnicity was equally lampooned, which pre-empted any accusations of 'singling out' anyone."

