Nintendo is known to be an overbearing company when it comes to enforcing copyright. When the company loosened its restrictions back in November for YouTube content makers, it was seen as a first step toward being a more open company. However, recent removals of things have shown that the company is still cruel when it comes to enforcing its will.

On the 17th, the big 3.0 update for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate came out. An upgraded stage builder mode was part of it, with the ability to share stages online. The stage builder has seen heavy use, with online being filled with sincere stages like a playable version of the table in the original Super Smash Bros. opening and meme stages like Dio and Jotaro walking toward each other.

For a time, the stage builder was full of transgender flags, crying out the epithet of “trans rights!” Some call it a meme, but many others consider it a sincere movement to gain visibility for the sake of bettering the rights of transgender people.

So, it was a shock when Nintendo removed a trans flag stage by one Twitter user (whose identity I choose to protect). The user reached out to customer support, where the user found out that it was taken down for being considered a “political statement” after being mass-flagged. Making things worse, the supervisor that the user reached out to was apparently fired, due to telling the user information beyond what they were allowed to give.

Aside from the bad stance of reducing the rights of transgender people to being a “political statement,” the issue also highlights Nintendo’s authoritarian attitude toward enforcing its will. There is no appeals process, there are no support forums. If the supervisor part of the story is true, it shows that this attitude extends toward the company’s own employees, willing to toss them aside if it is inconvenient; even if fake, Nintendo has previously thrown an employee named Allison Rapp under the bus when she was being harassed by a hate group rather than face heat for itself.

Mere days later, Nintendo held its take-down hammer toward something else.

A coder in the Commodore 64 scene, ZeroPaige, had finished porting Super Mario Bros. to the Commodore 64 after seven years of work. Released April 18th, it was a fully playable version of the game on a system not built to run it, a modern marvel of coding. And that seven years of work was all gone by the 22th, with the Commodore Computer Club (the game’s host) receiving a DMCA take-down notice.

Nintendo has often been criticized for its take-downs of fan stuff in the past; most notably its controversial take-down of Another Metroid 2 Remake, but there is simply no justifiable reason to defend this take-down. A Commodore 64 version of Super Mario Bros. does not threaten Nintendo’s bottom line at all. Even without considering the multiple re-releases and versions of the game, an average consumer is not likely to play anything Commodore. It is simply a spiteful enforcement of the company’s power.

This coming off the heels of the trans flag take-down shows that even with the loosened restrictions on YouTube content, nothing has changed. Nintendo is the judge, jury and executioner when it comes to take-downs. If it poses a problem, even if the “problem” is identified by users flagging it in bad faith; it’s gone without much examination. If it’s a fan project, it’s gone, even if it poses no threat to the company. Nintendo has yet to publicly address the trans flag take-down incident despite outcry.

Phenixx Gaming is everywhere you are. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.