Capcom has recently released their newest collection of Mega Man games in the form of the Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection according to Video Games Chronicle. This collection contains the 10 Mega Man Battle Network games that were released from the period of 2001-2005 for the Gameboy Advanced. However, this release has been the cause of controversy as the original games had multiple lines of dialogue that showed a high level of cultural insensitivity that the re-release has decided to keep for the sake of maintaining the original games’ authenticity.
To provide context to some of these problematic statements, there are a couple of lines used as examples for this that portray racial stereotypes, such as when a Black man says “I pray every morning to my God, and the chicken he provides.” Another notable example of this is a portrayal of a Native American character named TomahawkMan.exe who stated “Women, can’t live with ‘em and can’t live without ‘em.”
According to Eurogamer, the Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection does provide a disclaimer for the words that were used in the games, which goes as follows:
“Capcom values diversity and inclusivity within its games and its community,” the disclaimer notes. “Please be aware the games in this collection may contain some cases of insensitive cultural depictions that are presented as originally created to preserve their authenticity.”
In the modern landscape of remembering works that use problematic language or visuals, there have been two routes of handling the issue. The first of which is what the Mega Man Collection has decided to do, providing a disclaimer noting the issues with what is in the game, but acknowledging that it was a product of its time and that is not how they feel. This can also be seen with old Disney movies and shows that have used racist stereotypes in the past, many of which can still be found on streaming through sites like Disney+, with the disclaimer that those statements and characters are not a reflection of their modern beliefs. This course of action is usually meant to preserve the legacy and authenticity of the original work, keeping the art as it was originally created.
The other way people handle the issue is by removing the problematic language and imagery all together. This can be seen in examples such as the original James Bond novels, which were rewritten to remove problematic depictions and language used against Black people according to Independent. While this does not preserve the original’s work, it does work well to modernize a given work to preserve its good image.
It will be interesting to see how people respond to this as it gets spread later, but using this disclaimer has worked for Disney products in the past, so only time will tell how fans will respond to Capcom’s choice to keep the problematic language in their games.