Games and Nationalism pt 1

The recent announcement of a game called "AAA: El Videojuego" which is a wrestling game featuring the Mexican "AAA" league (think Mexicans wearing masks, lucha libre) got me thinking about something I mentioned in a previous post: how video game companies were now "pandering" to the Mexican audience.

The truth is there is no pandering, what is happening is that some time ago (I want to say around the time the FIFA games started including Mexican teams) videogame companies discovered that Mexico is a viable market for their wares. Capitalism needs to expand to ever increasing markets in order to continue to make money for the super rich capitalists. Mexico, and its diasporous citizenry accross the U.S and the world, was a market which consumed a fair amount of games but which had been ignored as far as content aimed squarely at them. The introduction of the lucha libre game is the culmination of the video game industry's expansion.

But the inclusion of anything Mexico is not a phenomenon limited to the magical time when Mexican soccer teams made it to FIFA, on the contrary, it has been around for some time and the occassions in which the country has been utilized by game makers is too vast to encapsulate here, so in lieu of that we're gonna go with a few examples.

My first exposure came with SNK's King of Fighters '94 which separated its fighters by country, the number of countries was limited and to my surprise Mexico was included and represented, not by stereotypes like the U.S team oddly, but by Ryo Sakazaki, Robert Garcia and Takuma (the characters from Art of Fighting). Obviously the characters arent "Mexicans" but they represented the country nonetheless, how this was decided I have no idea but the fact that it was might play a part in the popularity that KOF continues to have in the country, where tournaments continue to be played and merchandise continues to be sold. SNK included an actual Mexican character (a wrestler in fact) named Tizoc in later versions of the game.

Capcom had to follow suit and it did so in Super Street Fighter II with the introduction of T. Hawk who was an absolute mess in that he was big, bulky and impossible to control. He was more of a Native American to the point where I often wonder if they didnt want him to be from New Mexico. In 1994 Capcom debuted Darkstalkers where one of the bosses was a robot named Huitzil who was also, ostensibly, Mexican. The loinclothed Urien from Street Fighter III was another, probable, Mexican fighter from Capcom, the company would go all out in 2009 with (what else?) a Luchador named El Fuerte in Street Fighter IV.

This is not limited to fighting games, though. The Mexican soccer team has been present since most early adaptations of the sport. The great Mexican iconic Julio Cesar Chavez even had his own video game (and sequel!).

Obviously this list is very very short and missing some, no doubt, big entries. I will definitely do some more research as I do find this topic fascinating. I'm not trying to create an encyclopedia but I do want to see how it evolved: the earliest incarnations of Mexican teams or characters were, from what I remember, stereotypical and in many ways it continues to be so as the luchador continues to be the biggest signifier of the nationality.

Any tips on finding even more early appearances are greatly appreciated. The biggest thing I remember is a soccer team which consisted of angry brown skinned players but I dont remember the game nor the system. So for now this thing is TBC.