Character in Animal Crossing tosses out the N-word, Nintendo rescues our eyes

Earlier today, MTV Multiplayer spotted an odd NPC in a copy of the DS title Animal Crossing: Wild World, which was presumably sent along with a review copy of City Folk to show compatibility between the two games. Instead of the usual E-Rated greeting that most characters utter, Baarbara the Sheep tossed out a racial epithet. Her words, which you can see clearly in the above image, were originally thought to be some kind of crudely construed hip-hop greeting.

Nintendo has since cleaned the mess up in a statement given to GameSpot, in which the publisher blames a user for virally submitting the message via the wireless functionality of the game. From the statement:

We regret that an offensive phrase was included without our knowledge via a wireless function that allows user-generated catchphrases to spread virally from one game to the next. This version is limited to 14 copies created for media review purposes only and is not available at retailers.

Nintendo added that they are “working with media” and asking reviewers to return the copies to the company immediately. Apparently, this is only a bug that will affect the 14 copies sent around to the press. While I don’t exactly understand why players won’t be able to send each other characters with naughty names and phrases, it appears as though you won’t get the chance. You can probably still wear a shirt with a penis design on it though, if that’s any consolation.