Home

 › 

Articles

 › 

Top 7 Banned Games You Gotta See

Top 7 Banned Games You Gotta See

The whole world loves video games. Everybody has their favorite genre and their favorite system to play on. Our likes and dislikes may differ, but in general we don’t let what other people do affect us. This isn’t always the case when it comes to governments. Some take games off their country’s shelves if it doesn’t match up with their ideals. Recently, we’ve seen some indicators that PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds might even be banned in China. These country-wide actions suck, but they do happen from time to time. Here are just a few of those instances.

Mass Effect

Mass Effect

The first item on our list is probably the most benign, as this ban was lifted shortly after it was enacted. Mass Effect was banned ever so briefly in Singapore because of the sex scene between Liara T’Soni and female Shepard. As you can probably well imagine, the general public didn’t take kindly to this ban. After public outrage, Singapore removed the ban, and fans were free to enjoy the lesbian relationship.

Fallout 3

Fallout 3

This entry might actually be familiar to some. When Fallout 3 was working to be rated by all its release countries, it was actually denied a rating in Australia. The officials there didn’t like the use of drugs and chemicals as they thought it would show drug usage in a positive light. Back then, Fallout 3 actually use morphine as a health aid. When Australia said they wouldn’t allow the game to sell, Bethesda switched some things around and morphine became Med-X. The rest is history.

Postal 2

Postal 2

Postal 2 has been banned in a few places for all the same reasons, the violence. New Zealand’s ratings board classified the game as gross and containing abhorrent content. Their reasons for banning Postal 2 included the uses of the following in the game: high impact violence, animal cruelty, homophobia, racial/ethnic stereotypes, and urination. There is actually a fine in place in New Zealand for owning the game. A copy of Postal 2 will set you back $1,400, which frankly isn’t worth the risk.

Football Manager 2005

Football Manager 2005

In a list of banned games there’s bound to be at least one that seems incredibly silly to the rest of the world, right? This is one of those moments. I’m not even going to bother with any flowery language on this one, just gonna come right out and say it. Football Manager 2005 was banned in China for portraying Taiwan and Tibet as independent countries. The only reason the game eventually released was because this was edited. Who knew politics would affect a soccer game, am I right?

EA Sports MMA

EA Sports MMA

Here’s another silly instance of bizarrely tiny things in video games leading to entire bans. This one is mostly the fault of the developer however, quite honestly. EA Sports MMA was banned in Denmark because of its use of energy drink ads within the game. Rockstar energy drink’s logo is on the mat during bouts sometimes, and the logo also appears on the end-match stats screen. This is illegal in Denmark, so the game was banned. EA never bothered to edit the game, so EA Sports MMA just went down in history as a game not sold in Denmark.

The Guy Game

The Guy Game

If you can believe it, there’s actually a game banned in the United States. The Guy Game wasn’t banned because of its risque content, but rather for a single person within the game. I’m sure plenty have never heard of “ The Guy Game ,” so let’s elaborate a bit. This was a simplistic trivia game in which players answered questions and were rewarded with full motion video (FMV) footage of women taking their tops off. As it turns out, one of those females was only 17, thus the game was in violation of child pornography laws and was banned.

Manhunt 2

Manhunt 2

Manhunt 2 makes it to the top of our list because it managed to get itself banned in a whole bunch of countries. The reasoning is pretty much the same everywhere, but according to New Zealand, Manhunt 2 is gross, unrelenting, and contains gratuitous violence. That was enough to get it banned there, as well as in Ireland, Italy, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. The reasons cited for the bans certainly aren’t wrong, but does that still make it all right to cover the eyes of an entire nation? I’ll leave that up to you to decide in the comments below.

To top