So if “niga” is a filler word, what is the sentence? “I almost forgot about you, um”? That doesn't make sense. Can it mean like bro or friend? In which case it works similarly to the n-word in America, in certain groups.

No, I'm not mixing up my Asians. Normally, I wouldn't dignify a comment on my intellect with a response; but I must point out that whether or not Japanese people use that filler word, it does have a tonal inflection as written in the game. So was the character saying the word Chinese? The programmers? The writers? I don't know. But no one is “entitled” to find offense due to their ignorance. It's a feeling, not a thought process. And everyone is entitled to squishy feelings, afterall.

No Jeffery has mixed up his Asians.

Nintendo is a Japanese company and the scripts are written by native English speaking foreigners.

Japanese does not have the word “Niga” except what is used by Japanese rappers who pretend they are black. There also are no tonal marks in the Japanese language.

People have a right to be offend at such a blatent and stupid mistake or joke by Nintendo's translation staff.

It's too bad everyone in America become so damn sensitive. There are people in the world getting thier hands cut off for stealing and we sit here and Presidentialy pardon people who traffic drugs. There is something wrong here. This fits into the catagory of “The pussification of America”

Jeffrey is right, this is a common filler word in Asia. The tonal accent on the end indicates that the final vowel has a rising sound. It has no racial implication. Just as, 'women' means “us” or “we” in Chinese. The only error was a direct translation to English. Just replace it with 'oops' or 'sorry' for this context

Oh thank goodness, something to be offended about.
It's been at least 10 minutes and I didn't know what to do.

(Repost as it didn't appear the first time) Niga is a asian filler word. It serves the same purpose as “um” and “uh” in english. Ask someone chinese, japanese, or korean if you don't believe me.

Niga is a chinese filler word. It's the same as our “uh” and “um”. God, people are sensitive.

um yeah, they probably have filters to block this also, which is maybe why it starts with an 'en-yay' It would actually read n-yig-GAH if you read it correctly.

To say that the game has the epithet “in its programming” is a little misleading — the characters in Animal Crossing games can be taught new greetings by players, and those new greetings are saved & used every time you run into that character. What happened here is that whoever played the game prior to its being sent out to journos — and the articles make it clear that the games were intentionally pre-played — taught the word to the game; in no way is it a part of the game by default. Still, the Nintendo peon who did do this is a pretty big idiot.

I wonder if the execs will apologize profusely then stab themselves in the stomach?