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“Soul Caliber” deals yet another setback to feminism in gaming
By Darin Kwilinski
If one types “sexiest videogame character of all time” into Wikipedia, you know what the first hit is? Ivy. Why am I even surprised? Sure, sex sells, but this is getting absurd.
Some of you may not remember this, but Lara Croft used to have gigantic boobs. Like the Barbie doll kind you would think would be detrimental to someone’s health. Even for a video game character they were unrealistic. A few titles later, the various creative teams scaled her chest down ultimately giving her a more proportional build seen most notably in “Tomb Raider: Legend”.
Arguably, this made her a much more attractive video game character to market on all fronts. Lara was no longer just a pretty chest to look at, but a strong-willed, more-than-capable female hero. However, to this day some characters aren’t so lucky.
Enter a top-heavy wrecking ball of a video game character named Ivy from the “Soul Caliber” series, trying to topple all of that. I could not believe the marketing behind this character. Didn’t we phase this out with Lara Croft? I mean, really, nothing about Ivy is practical. You call that armor? What’s that going to save you from, a feather in a stiff breeze?
If one types in “sexiest video game character of all time” into Wikipedia, you know what the first hit is? Ivy. Why am I even surprised? Sure, sex sells, but this is getting absurd. Maybe it’s the fact that she’s not real, therefore unobtainable, that makes her an object of creepy sexual desire. Yet, when people make mods for video games like “Half-Life 2” so that Alex Vance appears naked, the weirdly thin line of fan and fanatic feels breached. Don’t people have anything better to do with their time, like get a real girlfriend?
Female sexual representation in video games went way, way too far in 2006 with “Dead or Alive: Xtreme 2.” A fan boy’s wet dream, this one was released on Xbox 360 and showcased a multitude of DOA’s hypersexual female characters in a number of ludicrous, sexually charged mini-games. “Volleyball,” “Butt Battle” and “Tug-of-War” were just a few of the most notable eyebrow raisers, but let’s not forget the “Friendship” segments where players could give various scant swimsuits to the other female characters. How…fun?
Did I also mention the secret pole-dancing sequences?
The “Dead or Alive” series is perhaps most notoriously known for its “age” option, wherein the older the player states their age, the bouncier the chest of the females. Don’t ask me if the guy’s man-parts became more buoyant, because I didn’t look.
A year earlier, the similarly unsubtle “Rumble Roses” franchise tried less successfully to disguise a straight up girl-on-girl romp as a wrestling video game.
The irony is virtual “sex” in videogames is not even really a stable, successful formula for video games to begin with. In other forms of media it’s tried and true, but in video games, one need only look to the sales dive the “Hot Coffee” scandal brought upon Rockstar’s “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas”. Take a look at the top 20 selling games of all time and you’ll find an abundance of more cartoonish Mario and Pokemon types mixed in with a few racers and RPGs. I am damn certain “Super Mario Bros. 3” did not put out a marketing poster of Princess Toadstool in a bikini with Bowser on a leash…or something of that nature. Whatever, you get what I’m saying.
Maybe this video gamer is just getting older, but when I was younger, say 12 years of age, I was very much attracted to a video game because of the voluptuous vixen on the front cover. But now? I’ll take a great story or awesome game play over scantily clad ladies any day.
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