Banned Video Games!
Countries are straight-up banning video games! And on this week's YouTube Episode we're discussing why!
Have you ever played a video game and found yourself thinking "...wow that's not okay..." or "How did this get made?!", if like us you are a passionate gamer who likes to try various genres you probably have stumbled on some very questionable ones. But have you ever played a video game that was BANNED?
So do you know what it takes to get a game banned? If you live in the UAE (United Arab Emirates) all it takes is for you to use the word "Gods" in your title. Which NetherRealm Studios & Warner Bros. found out in 2013 when their game Injustice: Gods Among Us was completely banned on release. Luckily, for the DC Comics fans over in the UAE, this was changed later down the line!
It does seem like a few countries are a little too touchy on what they will ban games for. Much like the UAE, Singapore banned Mass Effect due to the option to have cross-species relations! Or as Jordan so poetically put it in this episode
"The government in Singapore were like “Hell no! we don’t want sexy single sex aliens going to bone town with human ladies! Not on our watch!”
Now there are a few games that are understandably banned in certain places... For example, Megaman 5 was banned in Vietnam due to a boss character being added called Napalm Man. Now, this doesn't sound particularly bad until you realize the level seems to be based on Vietnam itself. So yeah... completely understandable!
In the UK our laws on violence seem to be slightly more relaxed. Many people have actually played the game Manhunt which was hit with a whole lotta backlash on release. However, its sequel Manhunt 2 was banned due to its violent content dealt out by Daniel Lamb. Jordan did make a point here that at no point does this violence come across as real, this is a game and it never made him think otherwise while playing. A larger franchise that got the same banning in the UK was Marvel's very own The Punisher. This game according to many looked great, played great, and had some very interesting mechanics dealing with interrogation. You built up a pressure bar in order to get your bad guys to give you information and finally could choose whether or not to let them live afterward... Most people didn't I presume. Some of the kills were pretty imaginative for example feeding their face to piranas or sacrificing them on an Aztec alter!
Now on our list, there was a bunch of games being banned in places for very strange reasons too. Whether that's including energy drinks, which actually got EA Sports MMA banned in Denmark, recognizing Tibet as its own country in Football Manager 2005 actually got that game banned in China and weirdly Germany has the longest list of banned games we've ever seen! They even banned GoldenEye back on the N64! Crazy!
Want more? Or to hear the full list?
Click here to watch the full video episode
Hazz