I don’t know what to say so I’ll just start with the facts. Nintendo, through its France office, tweeted an image over the weekend of Metal Gear’s Snake looking at Samus Aran from Metroid’s ass. A couple hours later it then deleted the tweet. Now we are left to pick up the pieces.
The tweet, which was a screenshot from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, went up at 1:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, and was quietly deleted a couple hours later with no further comment.
The screenshot was innocuous enough, but in its horniness, Nintendo France added the eyes emoji, and immediately it began to take off. Were the eyes supposed to represent Snake’s first-person perspective? Were they just Nintendo France giving a Jim-from-The-Office-style side-eye to fans? Was it an attempt to promote Samus ahead of the Metroid Dread release this week? A nod to Smash fans desperately awaiting the game’s final DLC fighter?
Whatever the cosmic brain intent behind the tweet, it gave fans the horny greenlight, who then immediately started making memes and sharing other images of Nintendo butts, like Zelda’s from Breath of the Wild. Nintendo France tried to put the lock back on Pandora’s box, but it was too late.
Nintendo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
There are a couple of other layers to this weird internet moment that make it even more irresistible. One is that despite being the voyeur here, Snake himself is renowned for having a great ass, but it was unceremoniously nerfed in Smash Bros. Ultimate. Another is that while Nintendo is known for producing family-friendly content, its fanbase online is full of artists and writers creating sexy variants of its canon. And occasionally, Nintendo even steps in, like when Nintendo moved to ban a Peach fan game inspired by hentai that was 8 years in the making.
Maybe the Snake Samus tweet was one enthusiastic social media manager’s attempt to get in on the fun. Though someone at Nintendo clearly thought they were being too cheeky.