Nintendo withdraws game that taunts 'spastics'

Nintendo has been forced to withdraw a computer game from sale in the UK because it contains the word 'spastic' in its script.

Mario Party 8, a multi-player game for the Wii console, went on sale in the UK on Friday but was taken off the shelves after the mistake was discovered.

In the game, designed to be played by groups at parties, a blue wizard called Kamek appears on screen and intones: "Magikoopa Magic! Turn the train spastic! Make this ticket tragic!"

Nintendo said in a statement: "Unfortunately we have discovered that a small number of games contain the wrong version of the disk due to an assembly error. We have therefore decided to recall all copies of the game from UK retailers so that this mistake can be corrected."

Nintendo said that Mario Party 8 was developed in the US, "where the word does not have the same offensive connotations as in the UK." The inconsistency was not identified early enough when the title was produced for the UK, the company said, and as a result, 2 per cent of the first batch shipped to the UK contained the American wording.