Echochrome not politically correct?

Racism is a serious issue, and even video games aren’t spared of the scrutiny. A number of games have raised issues in the past, but this latest one caught us off guard. After seeing Echochrome being played for only a few minutes at Play.com Live, one man commented that the game was “a bit racist,” referring to the black and white mannequins found in the game. Details in the full article.

A lot of games have raised flags on the subject of racism before. Some of the more popular games that sparked some heat from the community were Grand Theft Auto and Resident Evil 5. This latest one caught us off guard.

At the Play.com Live event, an entertainment showcase in the UK, Patrick Steen of ripten was able to get his hands on Echochrome. After a few minutes, he heard one of the bystanders who was watching his game express his opinions to a Sony representative, saying that the game was “a bit racist.”

The man reasoned it out, saying that “youÂ’re a little white guy trying to get rid of the black ones.” He was referring to the gameplay of Echochrome (PSN, PSP) where you play a white, see-through mannequin who follow shadowy figures that serve as guides that disappear once your character reaches the points where the guides were standing.

The comment was given only after seeing the game being played for a few minutes so he probably must have misunderstood the roles of the characters on screen. This probably won’t spark serious flames, seeing as Chess and Checkers have evaded the same comment for having monochrome colors.

Steen expressed his own views on the matter, saying:

Naturally this was one man’s opinion after seeing the game for a few minutes. The game hasnÂ’t been labelled by anyone else, but this manÂ’s words both saddened and amused me.

Perhaps Echochrome could offer a black background (making the colourless mannequin appear to be black) as an option, in the vein of the original design for the PSP version.

Via ripten