NES games vs. NOA's Censorship

[evildead2099]

What are some NES games that managed to sneak by Nintendo of America's overzealous censorship policies? Only North American NES games shall be considered (No Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti, in effect), and they must be licensed (in effect, Chiller's unlicensed status disqualifies it from consideration).

Early copies of Maniac Mansion kept the microwave incident intact.

Uninvited features very grusome monsters / spirits, and if you find yourself killed by one, you can usually expect a VERY graphic description of the circumstances behind your demise.

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse allows you to use a crucifix as a boomerang-type weapon, despite NOA's policy forbidding the implementation of any sort of religious symbolism (regardless of the context in which it's used).

Bionic Commando's ending is gory, not to mention somewhat offensive as far as a snipit of its dialogue goes.

I'm pretty sure that an item which Link comes across is Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is a large white crucifix.

[Famidrive-16]

The Golgo 13 hotel scene.

[evildead2099]

Ah, yes. I forgot about that one.

[Dr. Morbis]

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse allows you to use a crucifix as a boomerang-type weapon, despite NOA's policy forbidding the implementation of any sort of religious symbolism (regardless of the context in which it's used).
More obvious than that is the scene right at the start of the game. Trevor kneels (and is obviously praying) in front of what can only be a church altar considering the huge cross hanging above.

Konami must have had a lot of sway with (then) mighty NOA.

[mills]

Taboo the sixth sense had full frontal.

[Graham Mitchell]

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse allows you to use a crucifix as a boomerang-type weapon, despite NOA's policy forbidding the implementation of any sort of religious symbolism (regardless of the context in which it's used).
More obvious than that is the scene right at the start of the game. Trevor kneels (and is obviously praying) in front of what can only be a church altar considering the huge cross hanging above.

Konami must have had a lot of sway with (then) mighty NOA.

NOA's crusade against religious icons in games continues today, apparently. I have a friend who worked there testing games for a couple years, and he said that, when looking for objectionable material in games, the most common finding was religious imagery. And it would come it the wierdest places. It's not like seeing crosses in the church in Castlevania. That would make sense. No, it's more like seeing a cross and a Jesus fish on the bottom of somebody's snowboard in 1080 Avalanche.

They were always sending games back to development for this. I guess one of the other employees was this goth girl who would always be the one to spot the little tricks the programmers would use to squeeze in a line about Jesus or a picture of a crucifix or something. Every day he'd hear her start yelling "there's a fucking cross on here. Get this thing the fuck out of here!" It sounded hilarious.

[Zing]

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse allows you to use a crucifix as a boomerang-type weapon, despite NOA's policy forbidding the implementation of any sort of religious symbolism (regardless of the context in which it's used).
More obvious than that is the scene right at the start of the game. Trevor kneels (and is obviously praying) in front of what can only be a church altar considering the huge cross hanging above.

Konami must have had a lot of sway with (then) mighty NOA.

In Super Castlevania IV, Nintendo made them remove the cross from the tombstone in the intro sequence. One theory is that this was only done because lightning strikes the tombstone and NOA didn't want anyone to get offended that a cross was being destroyed.

[jerkov]

I know in Nightshade you can walk in on a woman getting changed in a store, although I can't really remember if you see anything or not. Still, it's more than you would've expected NOA to allow, although maybe Konami did have a good amount of swing with the company after all.

[rxdoga]

Wasn't The Immortal on the nes? Don't remember if it was as graphic as the Genesis version though.

[xaer0knight]

Uninvited features very grusome monsters / spirits, and if you find yourself killed by one, you can usually expect a VERY graphic description of the circumstances behind your demise.


Shadowgate for nintendo has some of the same descriptions, also made by the same company. I'm thinking De Ja Vu had the same. I enjoyed all of the ICOM/Kemco/Seka games.

[NESaholic]

Wasn't The Immortal on the nes? Don't remember if it was as graphic as the Genesis version though.
Yeah it's on the NES too,all the gore is left out there unlike the Genesis version.

[Cmtz]

The Golgo 13 hotel scene.

I've never heard about that one. What happens?

[mills]

double post bah.

[mills]

I've never heard about that one. What happens?

Golgo is told to meet a woman at her hotel room. The view is from outside looking through the balacony window. You see a silhouette of a guy and a girl, they move in close to eachother and then the lights go out. Oh and his hit points are refilled in the process ;)

[mills]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7f/Golgo_13_-_ss_3.gif/200px-Golgo_13_-_ss_3.gif





http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b7/Golgo_13_-_ss_4.gif/200px-Golgo_13_-_ss_4.gif

and thats that :):)

[Graham Mitchell]

In Super Castlevania IV, Nintendo made them remove the cross from the tombstone in the intro sequence. One theory is that this was only done because lightning strikes the tombstone and NOA didn't want anyone to get offended that a cross was being destroyed.

There's a lot of differences between the SNES and Super Famicom versions of that game, actually. The SF version has blood dripping into a big red puddle on the title screen (totally absent from the US version). Also, the flying eyeballs that drop a tear that hurts you in the US version let out a big drop of blood in the Japanese incarnation.

[Famidrive-16]

Now that I think of it, the flying eyeball in Kirby's Dream Land 3 had blood fly out and hurt you.

That was weird.

[bazariah]

monster party on the nes, the background changed to show blood and gore

[evildead2099]

Wasn't The Immortal on the nes? Don't remember if it was as graphic as the Genesis version though.

Hmm... You know, The Immortal completely escaped my mind! Can anyone else confirm if the game is anywhere as graphic as its Genesis or PC counterparts?



In Super Castlevania IV, Nintendo made them remove the cross from the tombstone in the intro sequence. One theory is that this was only done because lightning strikes the tombstone and NOA didn't want anyone to get offended that a cross was being destroyed.


There's a lot of differences between the SNES and Super Famicom versions of that game, actually. The SF version has blood dripping into a big red puddle on the title screen (totally absent from the US version). Also, the flying eyeballs that drop a tear that hurts you in the US version let out a big drop of blood in the Japanese incarnation.

Don't forget about the Japanese version's semi-nude statues, which look like John Ashcroft got to them if you're stuck with the lame SNES version of CV IV.

Let's try to keep this topic focused on NES, games, though.

I wonder why NOA cut Konami so much slack with respect to religious icons...

[bazariah]

I wonder why NOA cut Konami so much slack with respect to religious icons...

simply put it's because konami was releasing around 12 games a year, 6 under konami, 6 under their subsidery of ultra... nintendo made profit from konami being a liscencee.. since konami were releasing in the region of twelve games a year and they were generally of pretty good quality/big sellers ninty allowed them to get away with certain things... at the end of the day ninty was probably making so many millions of dollars from konamis nes output alone, i know for a fact that if one company was responsible for a lot of my revenue i'd do my darndest to keep on the good side of them :D

[evildead2099]

Uninvited features very grusome monsters / spirits, and if you find yourself killed by one, you can usually expect a VERY graphic description of the circumstances behind your demise.


Shadowgate for nintendo has some of the same descriptions, also made by the same company. I'm thinking De Ja Vu had the same. I enjoyed all of the ICOM/Kemco/Seka games.

I too love the ICOM Simulation games.

Yes, although Deja Vu is way more graphic than what I expected of an NES game, the effect pales in comparison to that invoked by Uninvited.

One of the major differences between Deja Vu and Uninvited is that you seldom encounter beings (living, dead, or undead) in the former game, whereas they are much more common in the latter. Most of the gore you encounter in Deja Vu is descriptive, not represented on your graphical outlook of the scene (One major - and hilarous - exception being that of the mugger whom you can take on by intuitively channeling into your subconscious boxing skills!).

I'm not too sure how Shadowgate compares, given the fact that I have barely had time to start the game.

[evildead2099]

I wonder why NOA cut Konami so much slack with respect to religious icons...

simply put it's because konami was releasing around 12 games a year, 6 under konami, 6 under their subsidery of ultra... nintendo made profit from konami being a liscencee.. since konami were releasing in the region of twelve games a year and they were generally of pretty good quality/big sellers ninty allowed them to get away with certain things... at the end of the day ninty was probably making so many millions of dollars from konamis nes output alone, i know for a fact that if one company was responsible for a lot of my revenue i'd do my darndest to keep on the good side of them :D

I figured as much. Makes me wonder why the big N has been so reluctant to get Rockstar Games and the Silent Hill series on board with the Nintendo Gamecube.

[Graham Mitchell]

I have the Immortal for both the NES and the Genesis. The NES version has no blood or gore at all, and it's actually missing the spider level completely. That could be because they didn't have enough room in the cartridge for it, or because the spider level is really horrible and gorey and instead of trying to censor it, they opted to remove it altogether.

[evildead2099]

Unless someone says otherwise, I guess The Immortal will be stricken from consideration (unless there actually is some factor about the game which escaped NOA's censorship).

Doesn't one of the early NES Simpsons quite Bart as saying, "I'm Bart Simpson. Who the HELL are you?"?

[adaml]

Like bazariah said, a little ways into Stage 1 of Monster Party the background immediately changes to a bloodbath type scene. It's like they figured the censors wouldn't play 15 seconds into the game to see the blood and gore...

[evildead2099]

If Monster Party came out in this day and age, do you think the said gore factor would warrant a Teen rating, or a Mature rating?

.... GOOD GOD, I SPOTTED A NIPPLE! THAT GAME DESERVES AN A.O. RATING! :evil: :angry: :P

[evildead2099]

The NES port of NARC features text which is suggestive of pornography ("ADULT BOOKS XXX"). See...

http://zanyvg.overclocked.org/narc/narckinky.gif

[Graham Mitchell]

The NES port of NARC features text which is suggestive of pornography ("ADULT BOOKS XXX"). See...

http://zanyvg.overclocked.org/narc/narckinky.gif

The game is also bloody as hell. You can still blow people into little pieces! :evil:

[adaml]

The NES port of NARC features text which is suggestive of pornography ("ADULT BOOKS XXX"). See...

http://zanyvg.overclocked.org/narc/narckinky.gif

The game is also bloody as hell. You can still blow people into little pieces! :evil:

That's one powerful hummer!

[evildead2099]

The NES port of NARC features text which is suggestive of pornography ("ADULT BOOKS XXX"). See...

http://zanyvg.overclocked.org/narc/narckinky.gif

The game is also bloody as hell. You can still blow people into little pieces! :evil:

I thought the NES port had all of the blood edited out. Nevertheless, the game contains very dehumanizing portrayals of people who have ever sought enjoyment out of drugs or pornography. NARC is slanderous propaganda; it doesn't even attempt to distinguish between those who use drugs / porn responsibly and those who are full-on addicts. :roll:

[Milk]

NARC also advocates animal cruelty. My god, those dogs just keep coming.

[Graham Mitchell]

I thought the NES port had all of the blood edited out. Nevertheless, the game contains very dehumanizing portrayals of people who have ever sought enjoyment out of drugs or pornography. NARC is slanderous propaganda; it doesn't even attempt to distinguish between those who use drugs / porn responsibly and those who are full-on addicts. :roll:

Blood does in fact spray out in little droplets when you shot people, but that's minutiae.

You've brought up an interesting point here, though, which is kind of off-topic, but I'm going to take the time to say it anyway. Eugene Jarvis is kind of a pro-military redneck or something. It's been bugging me lately. It started coming across with Total Carnage (totally racist depiction of the enemy general, and US flags replace the cash and gold from Smash TV). I'm scared to even try his latest game, Target Terror, since I don't need to be reminded of current nasty politics while I play games.

Anyway, NARC seems to portray some of those same uber-right-winged ideals. It didn't really bug me until I got old enough to pick up on it.

Still, he is a talented game designer, and always has been. That's the most important thing, I guess.

Okay, back on topic.

[Slimedog]

It seems like the Mafat Conspiracy had a similar hotel situation with higher res graphics. If I remember, they kind of bumped into each other and sank down to the floor. Blew my mind as a kid.

[dieourumov]

there's a "butt" in river city ransom.

[evildead2099]

there's a "butt" in river city ransom.

Not to mention BARF (Well, text referring to barf, that is)

[Graham Mitchell]

there's a "butt" in river city ransom.

Not to mention BARF (Well, text referring to barf, that is)

"This really BLOWS my day". It does what to his day?