An Accidental Offensive Gesture Had To Be Removed From Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has been patched to remove an accidental offensive hand gesture.

Although Inkling Girl’s fist pump celebration isn’t considered offensive in the UK (nor in Japan, where the game was developed), in other countries - including Brazil, France, Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain - the meaning differs, translating into a raft of different things, from the equivalent to giving someone the middle finger, to, er, disrespecting someone’s mother. Whoops.

https://twitter.com/BubblemanPedri/status/865015774741766145?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shortlist.com%2Ftech%2Fgaming%2Fnintendo-gesture-offensive-mario-kart-8

The replacement is subtle, but rather than putting her left hand on her right arm and pumping, Inking Girl now simply makes a fist-pump action with just her right arm. Here, you can see the difference yourself thanks to NeoGAF user Neiteio.

And that’s not all that’s changed, either. Other tweaks and improvements to the game on Nintendo Switch include a change to permit players to see opponents’ names in the rearview mirror in online matches, starting positions on the track now “properly reflect” the order in which players join, tournament clocks now show real-world times, and up to two players can spectate a friend group whilst waiting to join in with the action (and if you have 100+ friends, you can create a friend lobby).

Nintendo have also removed the invincibility period after a spin-out or crash in online matches, "Worldwide" and "Regional" modes add players to Mirror and 200cc matches less often, and - best of all, perhaps - Driver Miis now properly showing facial expressions. Yay!

- By Vikki Blake @_vixx