With all the sexualization in modern games we focus on, we sometimes forget to look back on some of the most notable classic video game women.
Samus Aran is the main character of the Metroid series, created by Nintendo. You don’t find out the gender of her until the end of the game, since she is hidden under a huge power suit the whole time you are playing her.
Once you finish the first of the games and find out who she is, you are able to replay the game with her gender unobscured — if you did it quick enough and then typed in a password. As you replay, Samus wears only a bikini.
Here we are, starting to reward gamers for their accolades by showing their favorite protagonist in a sexier light, who, up until the very end of their first run through, they thought was a man. I don’t know of anything sexier than that.
The first game in the Metroid series was released in 1986. Even before we realized that graphics could become realistic and mimic the appearance of people in the real world, we started the never-ending line of objectifying our leading game ladies.
This feature was only added onto the American edition of the game. And if 8-bit nudity isn’t your thing, she is shown in a much tighter outfit throughout the later installations of the game.
Another Nintendo creation, Zelda, is one of the most recognizable characters, featured in The Legend of Zelda series. Even though the game is named after her, you can’t play as her in any game besides Super Smash Bros.
Zelda is really a pretty cool character, but we are introduced to her as being someone that Link, the playable character, has to rescue. She eventually fights, helps Link on his adventure and does so much more cool video-game stuff, but the initial point of her is to be rescued by Link.
This is quite reminiscent of the problem that a lot of women find with Disney princesses. The main point of most of our princess movies is for the girl to find her Prince Charming, her Prince Eric or even her John Smith.
Trust me, I love everything about Disney, especially these princess movies, but it does bother me that there has yet to be a princess that has a main goal of something other than finding her prince. I would love the story where she dreamed of something like running the biggest castle business in the world, or maybe owning a lot of Taco Bells or even just starting a dog-walking company. You caught me, I dream of doing these things.
Going along with the Princess theme that Nintendo seems to set down, Princess Peach was featured in the Mario series as the damsel in distress. She is often described as being stubborn and cute, and is first shown as a woman needing to be rescued.
Throughout the series, she has several severe feminism offenses, like constantly rewarding the males with kisses for saving her or baking them a cake. Sorry boys, but if you ever rescue me from a castle I’m constantly getting stuck in, a pat on the back and maybe a swipe into Nelson will have to do.
Most surprising and offensive to me was the frying pan her character can use in Super Smash Bros. Sure, maybe this is coincidence, but doesn’t this just seem a little too fitting to the “woman in the kitchen” stereotype?
Thankfully, she’s grown a lot more since her frail beginnings, to even being the main character in 2006’s release of Super Princess Peach, where she gets to rescue someone and be the standalone playable character. Zelda’s character has also becomes much more dynamic and unique with the times, but unfortunately for Samus, the biggest change for her is a tighter power suit.
I’m sure glad we’re growing with our images of women characters in games, but we still have a long way to go.
Sophie Kruse is a freshman studying journalism at Ohio University and a columnist for The Post. Have video games gotten better about sexualization? Email Sophie at sk139011@ohiou.edu.
