The US government keeps making video game references and now it’s both Republicans and Democrats that are at it.
You’ve probably already seen that the official White House X account has been sharing cringe-inducing propaganda videos that riff on all manner of pop culture, including video games.
A lot of them have been made with the help of AI, such as a Halo video that was condemned by Master Chief’s own voice actor and a couple of frankly ghoulish Animal Crossing edits.
Unsurprisingly, these have seen plenty of backlash from members of the public, but even foreign politicians are taking umbrage with the US government’s love of copyright infringement.
Last month, the White House X account posted a video that interspersed footage of US army activity with gameplay from Wii Sports, with the game’s title screen edited to read ‘Operation Epic Fury’ – the name of one of the military campaigns conducted as part of the war with Iran.
We’re not even going to try to understand the logic of juxtaposing war footage with the colourful, cartoony world of Wii Sports (a game where the most violent it gets is the boxing mode), but it’s all in very poor taste.
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The video has now ended up being criticised during Japan’s House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee meeting, via Minister for Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi.
‘Generally, even in the case of public institutions, it is inappropriate to reproduce copyrighted works without the permission of the rightsholder,’ said Motegi, as reported by 47News (translated by Automaton).
Motegi didn’t comment on the actual content of the video, which is probably him being diplomatic. Nintendo itself has kept quiet about it, issuing no comments on either the Wii Sports or Animal Crossing videos.
It’s rather surprising when Nintendo is extremely protective of its IP, to the point it’s killed fan games and struck music off YouTube. Although The Pokémon Company did distance itself from the White House’s use of Pokémon related imagery via a statement to the BBC.
In this case though Nintendo is probably worried about attracting any more tariffs, given how the White House has reacted to things like the ongoing spat with the Pope and the fact that they’re already suing the US government over the existing tariffs.
Similarly, Microsoft never commented on the White House’s use of Halo imagery to promote ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) although several developers on the series condemned it as ‘abhorrent.’
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Perhaps we’re old fashioned, but we prefer it when politicians don’t try to speak to the gamer crowd because it always feels embarrassing regardless of what they’re trying to promote.
Just yesterday, New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani held a press conference to announce plans to provide more childcare to residents, by raising taxes on those who live outside the city but own more than one home valued above $5 million (about £3.7 million) within the city.
And yet in doing so he made an out-of-nowhere Mario Kart metaphor to explain it: ‘I like to think of it this way: government is driving the race car, and philanthropy is there to give it that turbo boost across the finish line.
‘Or, if you are a Mario Kart fan, government is Yoshi and philanthropy is the golden mushroom – that edge we need to beat Bowser on the Rainbow Road. To belabour this metaphor even further, Bowser is corporate greed in this scenario.’
At least everyone in the room got a laugh out of it and at the age of 34, Mamdani likely has a better understanding of video games than most other politicians. Although you can play as anyone in Mario Kart, so being Bowser doesn’t make you the bad guy.
While such comments are a clear attempt to appear more relatable to younger demographics, they can’t help but trivialise important issues.
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