Outlawed Videogames

[gmyers31]

For awhile I've been trying to track down obscure banned videogames, but haven't had much luck in finding a good resource in listing these games.

Does anyone know of a place listing these games?

[omnedon]

Banned where?

By whom?

This is something that could be done, but I think 3/4 of the battle would be figuring out what qualifies a game as having been banned.

Banned by municipal/ state/ federal gov't?
Banned by secular/ religious groups?
Not really banned, but a big stink made about?

Mortal Kombat comes to mind, and so does Night Trap. Custer's Revenge? I don't think any of those I just mentioned were ever actually "banned" in North America, but a big stink was made about some of them by whatever busybody group of the day decided it was better to demonize the games, as opposed to actually addressing the real roots of evil in society.

Scapegoats are always popular for whipping up the masses.

*ahem*

:hmm:

[maxlords]

There were VERY few games that were ever banned anywhere. The only one I can think of in the US is Thrill Kill for the PSX, but it never even made it to a pressing. Almost nothing gets banned. Cancelled, yes...banned..never.

[gmyers31]

Banned by municipal/ state/ federal gov't?
Banned by secular/ religious groups?
Not really banned, but a big stink made about?

Good point, well basically I'm more interested in games banned via municipal/ state/ federal gov't.

I am interested in games that developed a name for themselves (mortal combat, doom) but that's not an easy task either. It'd have to be something that was a national 'stink' not just Podunk Iowa complaining about SmashTV.

But most national games that get noticed are the ones we all know about (Doom, Mortal Combat).

There has been quite a few games where I'm not really sure if they were banned or just pulled from the shelves or publication of the game was cancelled.

There was game that was an arcade that was pulled a few weeks after it was released, i only remember you could be a chainsaw guy and could cut limbs off your opponents. But then I'm not sure if it was acutally banned or just cut. I've never seen that game in any arcade since so I just assumed it was pulled everywhere.

Another game is Harvester, but I really don't know if that game was banned, people just complained about it, or if the producers were actually forced to stop creating the game.

So let me revise: Games that were banned or pretty much forced to stop printing due to public outcry.

[Tetsu]

I don't think there has ever been a "public outcry" to ban a game. Even in the early days of the video game violence censorship ordeal, the "outcry" was manufactured so Joel Lieberman could have something to rant about. Games that have been scrapped, delayed, or pulled from shelves because of controversy that I can think of:

City Crisis - pulled from shelves (post 9-11 sensitivity to fires and explosions in urban settings)
Propeller Arena - cancelled (planes can crash into buildings 'realistically')
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 (ditto)

Metal Gear Solid 2 - (WTC removed from skyline)
Spiderman 2 (ditto)

There are a few others that I have probably forgotten, but in each of these cases, the games were delayed, modified, or cancelled by the developers/publishers/retailers pre-emptively, without any registered complaints from consumers. In short, businesses were protecting their bottom line. Oh, and the game with the "chainsaw" you spoke of was probably Time Killers, a crappy game that was offensive to gamers because it sucked, not because you could cut characters' limbs off.

[buttasuperb]

Propeller Arena - cancelled

It sucked that this game got pulled off the shelves, it looked like a fun game and would have been a great addition to the DC library. Wasn't it supposed to possibly get a later release on the PS2?

[Mayhem]

Well I can think of 2 offhand: "Katakis" and "Great Giana Sisters" for C64. Blocked and banned due to being too similar to "R-Type" and "Super Mario Brothers"...

[YoshiM]

Tetsu:

Microsoft didn't pull Flight Simulator off of the shelves, SOME retailers did. MS said that it was pretty much folly to think that the terrorists honed their skills using Flight Simulator. Microsoft DID release a patch for Flight Sim 2000 to remove the WTC from the New York maps. At the time, Flight Sim 2002 wasn't even released yet but Microsoft did make sure the towers didn't appear in this version either. Fight Sim 2K is available and should be on the shelves.

[RJ]

I got City Crisis off a store shelf too, post 9/11. Not a bad little game...

[digitalpress]

Night Trap for Sega CD: The original version comes in the old style cardboard box and has an animated woman screaming on the cover. This game was "banned" but later turned up in the re-released version. The game is legendary as one of those government targets that ultimately led to ESRB ratings for video games, but quite frankly it's a poor game whose novelty and shock value wore off many years ago.

[dogbert]

Grand Theft Auto & Duke Nukem 3D were both banned from sale in Brazil by the Brazilian government.

A French parents' group caused retailers to pull GTA in France.