Banjo-Kazooie's sequel, Banjo-Tooie, is a fun game, true, but one thing that made me rather mad was the use of two characters. One being the character of Mumbo, a toned-down "african medicine man" who lives in a shull-hut. Now, I can't get as mad at that as a black person, but it is still disalarming that Nintendo of America, the two-game set's developer, would put that into a game made for children (as by the E for Everyone rating). What got me was the use of a new character (new to the second game): Wumba. This character speaks Tonto ("Me Wumba. Me big heap magic person."), lives in a teepee inaccurately called a Wigwam (presumably for alliteration name "Wumba's Wigwam"), and has an odd, glowing pink pool of "big heap magic." This is not to say the game is fun (hell, I had fun playing it four hours on end), but it's still slightly disturbing to see in a game for kids. I mean, what the hell are we teaching our kids?

--inten rael, Aug. 13, 2001