A cartoon that appears in atomic heart save rooms briefly features a racist cartoon. In it, a wolf chases a hare through a museum and accidentally knocks over a statue that presumably depicts a member of an African tribe. Although the scene is brief, it’s shocking that it was somehow turned into a game in 2023.
Note: We have posted the cartoon image below for informational purposes. PSLS does not condone or endorse any racist content.
Atomic Heart features Soviet cartoon with racist imagery
The racist images of Atomic Heart come from the cartoon Nu, Pogodi! (Well, wait!). It is a Soviet version of Tom and Jerry, with the central premise of the wolf chasing the hare, and all 22 episodes can be viewed in-game. The episode in question is number 12, “Museum”, and it first aired on April 8, 1978, with the statue shown at 5:50.
Every episode of Nu, Pogodi! it lasts about ten minutes, bringing the runtime of the entire series to about 3.6 hours. Since the statue only appears onscreen for about five seconds (or 0.037% of the total duration), it may have been included by mistake. It may not have been censored either, as the game is set in another year of 1955, a time when visuals like this weren’t so looked down upon.
The studio has not released a statement on the cartoon; at the time of writing it is still in rotation. However, unless you sit back and wait for the scene in question to appear, chances are you won’t see it. Removing it will likely be a low priority for Mundfish, as the studio also faces criticism for its ties to Russia and a game character’s similarity to a former Ukrainian prime minister.