Following the 1983 video game crash many considered the North American video game market dead,
but a Japanese company named Nintendo managed to work its way into the mainstream using
clever marketing tactics and innovative quality control.
The result was the Nintendo Entertainment System which launched in North America October
18th, 1985.
The system in its various forms would come to sell over 60 million units worldwide.
But, with Nintendo’s quality control came a strict censorship policy enforced by Nintendo
of America.
Today we will explore Nintendo’s so called “Family Friendly” policy, the ways it
influenced gaming and how Nintendo eventually discarded it for a more liberal policy.
Many of Nintendo’s systems feature lock out technology which at first made it difficult
to make games without Nintendo's approval.
The original Japanese Famicom lacked such a chip, and thus had a wide variety of bootleg
games, but, by the time Nintendo released the Western NES, they had developed a chip
which could block 3rd party cartridges.
While developers eventually found workaround technology, the chip did help Nintendo to
impose their rules on 3rd parties.
With this leverage Nintendo of America set strict standards for developers, which they
had to follow in order to have games published on the NES.
3rd party publishers were restricted to five games a year, which had to remain NES exclusives
for at least two years.
These policies also included rules meant to keep all game content 'family friendly' in
regards to what Nintendo of America referred to as the “norms of society”.
Over time Nintendo expanded and fine-tuned their policies.
While there is no definitive list of all these changes and developments, authors Steven and
Janet Schartz obtained a letter from Nintendo describing the policies for their 1994 book:
The Parent’s Guide To Video Games.
The bans were extensive and included, to quote: 1: "Include sexually suggestive or explicit
content including rape and/or nudity" 2: "Contain language or depiction which specifically
denigrates members of either sex" 3: "Depict random, gratuitous, and/or excessive
violence" 4: "Depict graphic illustration of death"
5: "Depict domestic violence and/or abuse" 6: "Depict excessive force in a sports game
beyond what is inherent in actual contact sports"
7: "Reflect ethnic, religious, nationalistic, or sexual stereotypes of language; this includes
symbols that are related to any type of racial, religious, nationalistic, or ethnic group,
such as crosses, pentagrams, God, Gods (Roman mythological gods are acceptable), Satan,
hell, Buddha" 8: "Use profanity or obscenity in any form
or incorporate language or gestures that could be offensive by prevailing public standards
and tastes" 9: "Incorporate or encourage the use of illegal
drugs, smoking materials, and/or alcohol" 10: "Include subliminal political messages
or overt political statements" Nintendo's letter also speaks about why these
rules were created, saying: "Since 1988 we have consistently tested the
content of all games developed for Nintendo systems against our evolving game standards.
As our business has matured, we have adapted our guidelines to meet the concerns of the
members of our target age group and their parents.
Although we realize that definitions of social, cultural and political views are highly subjective,
we will continue to provide consumers with entertainment that reflects the acceptable
norms of society."
The effects of this policy also reached beyond the US Nintendo market.
Through European releases and ports, a lot of the changes made reached other continents
and even non-Nintendo systems.
Many games were changed in both minor and dramatic ways to comply with Nintendo's policy
and you can find plenty of examples of how games were toned down over on the channel
already.
However, it's hard to address Nintendo’s family friendly policy without touching upon
Mortal Kombat.
Famous for its over the top violence, the original game thus suffered severely under
the hands of censors.
While the arcade and Sega Genesis versions of Mortal Kombat featured fatal finishing
moves known as “Fatalities”, the SNES version strictly toned these down.
All of the gameplay's blood was also removed and replaced with a grayish sweat.
Interestingly, because of the Nintendo version's poor sales, the Western SNES port of 1994's
Mortal Kombat 2 would then be released uncensored despite Nintendo's policies.
To add to this, Nintendo curiously released a censored version in Japan that turned all
blood to green and changed the screen black and white during Fatalities.
A game being censored in Japan and uncensored in the West during this time period was virtually
unheard off.
This era of censorship had a profound effect on the industry but, beginning with games
such as Mortal Kombat II, Nintendo began to slowly allow the family friendly policy to
lapse as they licensed increasingly mature titles.
Among the most notable of these was the 1997 Golden Eye 007, a first person shooter based
on the James Bond movie from two years prior.
The level of violence in the game actually offended the developer of Mario, and Nintendo
executive, Shigeru Miyamoto who felt the game was too violent and tragic.
Golden Eye would not be developer Rare’s last attempt to push the envelope.
The company developed several mature titles for the Nintendo 64.
Perhaps the most notorious of these is Conker’s Bad Fur Day.
The game, released in 2001—late in the Nintendo 64’s life cycle-- features cursing, violence
and sexual humor.
While Nintendo objected to some scenes such as a portrayal of a vivisection and a Klu
Klux Klan reference, according to director Chris Seavor, the game was largely left intact.
The Nintendo 64 also featured ports of several Resident Evil games with their blood and gore
intact, such as Resident Evil 2.
While the N64 version allowed players to adjust the level of violence players could still
play the game with the blood and gore intact While Nintendo still somewhat maintains their
family friendly image, perhaps the best symbol for the current state of Nintendo’s policies
is Night Trap: the interactive movie which controversially featured scantily clad actresses
and a plot revolving around vampiric beings known as augers
During the 1993 congressional hearings on video game violence, Nintendo senior vice
president Howard Lincoln stated that Night Trap would never be on a Nintendo console.
Lincoln’s statement has been challenged on the grounds that due to hardware and licensing
reasons Night Trap couldn't even be adapted to the Nintendo systems available at the time.
And some have also criticized Lincoln as using the game to unfairly stigmatize Sega.
But, regardless of his intentions, Nintendo overturned Lincoln’s statement 25 years
later, in an iconic move which has saw Night Trap: 25th Anniversary Edition being announced
for the Nintendo Switch in 2018.
Furthermore Nintendo seems determined to expand its market to a more adult audience with entries
like Gal Gun 2, which combines risqué shots of girls with rail shooter mechanics, and
DOOM, the legendary FPS known for its extreme violence.
Nintendo’s family friendly policy remains a touch stone in video game history and Censored
Gaming is committed to covering gaming's past, as well as its present and future.
How do you feel about the policy and what games would you like to see us cover next?
Please let us know in the comments below and, until next time, thank you for watching.