![]() Polygon's Carli Velocci referred to even the new version of Wang as "a walking Asian stereotype" in an "outdated, unfunny game" full of "horrible dialogue and racist stereotyping." As harsh as that is, it's still nicer than this guy deserves. While the 21st-century's version of Lo Wang started off a whole lot better than his 1997 counterpart, with dialogue that set him up as a capable hit man with a penchant for one-liners, the 2016 follow-up wasn't so lucky. Surprisingly, Shadow Warrior was rebooted in 2013. It's one thing for Western developers to play with distinctly Japanese elements like katanas, zaibatsu mega-corporations, and the Yakuza, but to do it while your main character delivers lines like "ooh, you good-rooking sailor babe" and "just rike Nagasaki" goes way beyond appreciation and into the (3D) realm of something that definitely should've been tossed in the trash rather than released to the public. ![]() Lo Wang, whose name is exactly the joke you think it is, is voiced by John William Galt, and delivers the game's one-liners in such a monumentally offensive fashion that you'd think his enemies could be defeated by racism as easily as they were defeated by bullets. It's the definition of making the best of a bad situation, but at least it's something. ![]() Not only did that cover up the more offensive aspects of his original design, it also added a nice sense of motion that made him seem like a more dynamic threat. When Oil Man appeared in the Archie Comics series based on the Mega Man games, artist Chad Thomas gave him a redesign that added a scarf that was reminiscent of Japanese superheroes like Kamen Rider. ![]() The good news is this is one of the few stereotypes in gaming that has a relatively happy ending. To make matters worse, while Capcom thankfully didn't give him a stereotypical voice, his dialogue in the game is loaded up with lines like "how's about chillin' out" and "I don't know nothin' about that" that don't do him any favors, and he literally shouts "yo!" every time you jump. The design was so bad, in fact, that he was given a slightly different color scheme and left off the box art for the American and European releases for the games, as though surprising players with an accidental racist caricature would go better. ![]()
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