White House staff are using Donald Trump again Nintendo games to promote their political agenda, this time focusing on Wii Sports franchise in support of Operation Epic Fury, the ongoing military conflict in Iran. New unclassified military footage featuring clips of bombings mixed with images and sounds from Nintendo's classic sports simulation series has been released on White House social media.
Released in 2006 alongside the Nintendo Wii console, Wii Sports is widely regarded as one of the best multiplayer Nintendo games of all time. The innovation of motion controls mixed with various sports attracted a lot of gamers, and since it was part of the console in most regions around the world, it is also instantly recognizable to almost everyone who has ever owned a Wii.
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A newly released video posted on the White House's official Twitter account opens with Wii Sports' theme song and a mockup of its title screen, but with the title replaced by the words 'Operation Epic Fury'. What follows is a mixture Wii Sports a series of activities such as boxing, tennis, golf, archery, baseball and bowling interspersed with unclassified black and white video footage of military attacks in Iran. Cross-cuts between gameplay and military footage occur repeatedly at the moment of impact in each sport, with the play announcer reacting the same way as shouting “Hole in one” just after the golf ball hits the center of the target, followed by an actual explosion. The video appears to use footage from both originals Wii Sports and Wii Sports Centerusing primarily the aerial dogfight mechanics of this game in the Air Sports category in one excerpt.
The White House social media team uses video game assets in their images and video posts. A week before Wii Sportswas posted – related video, account shared by a Pokemon Pokopymeme supporting the MAGA agenda, using the popular image creator that allows users to send their own messages through the game's skin. The message was very brief, accompanied only by the words “Make America Great Again” and a few emoticons. This prompted an official response from The Pokemon Company International, which stated that the company had not authorized the use of its intellectual property for the meme and that its “mission is not linked to any political viewpoint or agenda”.
It's also not the first time the White House's official social media team has used video games to promote Operation Epic Fury. March 4 Childish Gambino song “Bonfire” and gameplay from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 were mixed with footage of the Iran strikes in a White House Twitter video that appears to have since been taken down. Two days later, the account posted the video Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' theme song and protagonist, Carl Johnson, which repeats in several clips with footage of various military targets in Iran being hit, showing the 'Wasted' trademark animation accompanying each explosion.
While the White House hasn't relied solely on Nintendo for its video game-related contributions, it's been the most frequent target in recent months. Pokemon The franchise in particular seems to be popular with the social media team. In September, a video of ICE agents detaining people was set to original Pokemon anime theme song sparked controversy on the White House's TikTok account when it used the franchise's catchphrase “Got to catch 'em all” to draw a parallel between a collection of virtual monsters and federal agents hunting down undocumented immigrants. Responses to all of these posts have been overwhelmingly negative, although they appear to be popular with MAGA's voter base, with an ICE-related video being liked more than 1.9 million times and the latest Twitter post already generating more than 84,000 likes.
- Released
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November 19, 2006
- ESRB
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E For all due to mild violence
- Developers
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Nintendo EAD
- Publishers
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Nintendo
- Multiplayer
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Online multiplayer
