I wish I was making this up – a character is being removed from the western release of Tekken 7, and the reasoning is probably more insane than you’d imagine.
The kangaroo fighter Roger Jr won’t be included in the game’s western release, due to the outcry of “animal activists,” according to series producer Katsuhiro Harada. The producer confirmed the unfortunate news in a statement to VG24/7.
“There was a video of a man’s dog being headlocked by a kangaroo, and he punched it in the face. It turned into a big problem,” Harada said.
“People were complaining about him punching a kangaroo. It seems that in the last few years there’s a lot more animal activists—even though they probably wouldn’t play our game they would still hear about that, about a kangaroo in our game being punched, and would complain about it.”
Despite the fact that professional victims are preventing the digital character Roger Jr from appearing in the game, the literal fighting bear Kuma will be in the game. This also doesn’t include Roger Jr’s father, Roger, who has been a mainstay in the series since its second release – back in 1996.
Harada said that Kuma staying in the game comes from him being “obviously stronger than a human being.”
It remains unclear if this is the work of angry PETA-members, Twitter-goers, or what have you. At this point you can look anywhere and find someone getting angry over polygons that offend their well-being.
A similar debacle came about following the reveal of Lucky Chloe, who supposedly angered fans – Harada later clarified he was simply joking and she would still make a worldwide debut. Coming from this, Harada regularly trolls even his own fanbase, so we’ll keep you guys posted.
Tekken 7 is launching across PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on June 2nd.
Geeks Life Luxembourg 