Tekken 7 will be the first entry in the fighting series for a while when it comes out in June, but producer Katsuhiro Harada has revealed via an interview with VG247 that one famous character won't be returning: Roger the Kangaroo.
Apparently the video of a man punching a kangaroo that went viral a few months ago had something to do with the decision. "There was a video of a man's dog being headlocked by a kangaroo, and he punched it in the face", he explained. "It turned into a big problem. People were complaining about him punching a kangaroo. It seems that in the last few years there's a lot more animal activists - even though they probably wouldn't play our game they would still hear about that, about a kangaroo in our game being punched, and would complain about it."
But what about Kuma the bear? Well, he is still in the game because bears are "obviously stronger" than people.
Many thought that PETA may have influenced the removal of Roger, but Harada tweeted: "Huh? PETA has not said anything. And I said we [have] worries. What are you talking about?" in response to such rumours. It seems, then, that the decision was purely to pre-emptively avoid any controversy, rather than responding to existing controversy.
Do you agree with the decision?