Spike's Dubious Japanese Name Will Be Changed For The Mario Movie
If you have been to see The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and its box office numbers suggest most of you have, then you'll know it includes a lot of deep cuts. One of those cuts is the inclusion of Spike, a character first introduced to the Mario games almost 40 years ago but has been used sparingly for decades. Spike has a different, somewhat problematic name in Japan though, and Nintendo has finally confirmed it will be changed in time for the movie's release there next week.
“The name of the character Blackie that appears in the family computer software Wrecking Crew will be changed to Spike, which is the same as the name in Europe and the United States,” Nintendo Japan tweeted. That's right, from the moment Spike was first introduced right up until that tweet was published, he went by Blackie in Japan. The tweet adds that the name has been changed in time for the Mario movie's arrival in Japan on April 28 but will seemingly apply across the board.
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Why exactly Nintendo went with Blackie rather than Spike in Japan remains unclear. The character was likely named in Japan first and had his name changed to something without racist connotations attached when introduced to Western audiences. As for why it has taken this long to change Spike's name, he doesn't really appear all that often. In fact, Spike has appeared in Mario games so infrequently that most people likely forgot he existed, hence the lack of urgency to change his Japanese name to something less offensive.
Spike was introduced to gamers via Wrecking Crew before making his console debut on the NES a year later. The transient character has appeared sporadically since then, mainly being
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