The
original Mass Effect game was banned in Singapore due to a love scene that can occur between
a female human (if the player has chosen a female main character) and an alien "woman."
During the scene, Shepard and Liara can be seen kissing on top of one another in bed.
But in the eyes of the Singapore officials, this was seen as “gratuitous sex” so they
banned the game in their country. However, the ban was soon uplifted due to a major backlash
and officials used the country's movie rating system to rate Mass Effect an M18 as the nation
didn't have a proper video game rating system. However, that didn’t stop the United Arab
Emirates from banning the sequels of Mass Effect in their country. This is most likely
due to the homosexual relationships the player can have in the games.
All I need to say is one word and that is “Fatality.”
You know, those insanely gory killing moves one can do after defeating your opponent.
The extreme gore that is present in Mortal Kombat was met with great controversy as politicians
from various countries campaigned to ban the game. This saw Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat
(2011) being originally banned in Australia due to the graphic realistic depictions of
mutilations and gore performed by the fatalities and high impact gory violence respectively.
The ban on the original Mortal Kombat was upheld in 2011 and Mortal Kombat (2011) was
later rated R18+ after The Komplete Edition of the game was released. Mortal Kombat (2011)
was also banned in Germany and South Korea. But the original Mortal Kombat is still banned
in Brazil because of high impact violence.
Once you hear what you can do in Postal 2, you will understand why the game has been
banned in New Zealand, Australia and Malaysia. The aim of Postal 2 is to finish all of the
tasks throughout the week, and the player can accomplish these tasks in any way he or
she wishes, be it as peacefully and civilly as possible, or as violently and chaotically
as possible. I’ve actually played the game myself and I can tell you that there is so
much controversy within the game such as: a murderous toy mascot named Krotchy, an eccentric
religious cult, cannibalistic butcher shop workers and fanatical Al-Qaeda terrorists.
Heck, you are even given a task to get treatment for gonorrhoea for yourself after you discover
you have the infection. As a result, New Zealand banned Postal 2 due to "gross, abhorrent content"
and Australia banned the game due to "excessive abhorrent content". Malaysia took the same
approach and banned the game due to "very high impact violence & offensive depictions
of cruelty".
Just hearing the name, RapeLay really does not get this game to a good start. This insanely
controversial game was released in 2006, and was developed by Japanese studio, Illusion.
The game features a sexual predator whose aim is to stalk and rape a mother and her
two daughters. After the main character finishes raping all three women, the players have the
option of playing with all three women at once. Needless to say, the game was banned
in several countries after its release. It is illegal to sell the game in Argentina,
Indonesia, and New Zealand. However, in the United States, it received an AO rating which
means that most retailers would not stock it, but you can still get it online.
The game Manhunt 2 was brought by Rockstar Games (the publisher best known for their
Grand Theft Auto series) and is pretty much banned everywhere in the world. The game has
seen bans or rating refusals in: Germany, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia,
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. The game follows the role
of Daniel Lamb, a mental patient suffering from amnesia as he tries to uncover his identity.
It uses a stealth mechanic where users must approach enemies from behind to carry out
over the top executions with excessive amounts of gore. Rockstar Games ended up censoring
the game by blurring the screen during the game's executions and removing the scoring
system, where players were awarded for particularly brutal killings. This edited version was given
an “M” rating in America but it was still refused classification in the UK. However,
Rockstar Games appealed this decision
and won, therefore releasing their game in the UK with an 18 certificate.