Nintendo's Maniac Mansion Censorship Explored

Thanks to Video-Fenky for a new feature illustrating the Nintendo censorship affecting the NES version of Maniac Mansion. These comments were originally written up in a 1993 issue of Wired, and an unedited prototype NES cart of the classic point n' click adventure has been found to show the changes - though "Nintendo didn't catch the old 'blow up the hamster in the microwave' trick (it was removed in the European version)", changes include editing Nurse Edna's suggestive speeches ("I should have tied you to my bed, cutie!"), and switching graffiti in the bathroom from "For a good time EDNA 3444" to "Call EDNA 3444".

Comments

Nintendo is in denial concerning adult content

[Tragedy4u]

Nintendo thinks its perfectly acceptable for kids to play a game with short, fat Italians run and jump around a hallucinogenic fantasy world eating MAGIC mushrooms to aquire bizzare super powers. But kids calling a toothless old hag for a "good time" is wrong compared to gross rampant drug use in the Mario franchise?

Time to come clean Nintendo or all these kids will send their Betty Ford clinic bills to you!

On ./ Games Why?

[skermit]

(This comment isn't intended as a flame, or troll, but a suggestive criticism question aimed at editors)

Why is this news now, when the game came out 13 years ago, and the wired article came out 11 years ago? Is there nothing else in the queue worth publishing? (I'm not a ./ subscriber)

Albeit interesting, it's not "news" but if this is what's getting posted, maybe I should start submitting more articles to generate traffic. The ./ games section receives about 30 comments an article (roughly 1/5th to 1/20th of normal articles) so if nobody responds, I understand, but I'd like some feedback from the editors please.

Re:On ./ Games Why?

[simoniker]

It's news, imho, because it's a newly posted article (as of last night), which, I believe, is the first time someone has taken screenshots from a prototype ROM to illustrate the changes originally discussed in the Wired article. I certainly haven't seen it before.

But we'd love people to submit as many games-specific posts as possible, yes. Please do!

Re:Maniac Mansion Remake

[Crockerboy]

I have to agree. Reading this article makes me want to dig my NES out of the closet and load up a game of Maniac Mansion. MM is the only Adventure game that I really got into as the problems presented had solutions that were't that far fetched, unlike some of the stuff in the Police quest games. Plus, the sense of humor (the Edsel spaceship in the garage) was clevor and the ability to use multiple characters to complete the story in multiple ways made the game have huge replay value. I usually hate sequels with a passion, but I would welcome a Maniac Mansion Sequel.

Re:Nintendo will always be known as kid-friendly

[Incoherent07]

And this is a problem... why? Nintendo has "adult" games for Gamecube... Resident Evil and Eternal Darkness come to mind. It's just that not everything in gaming has to be "shoot people and/or watch jiggling polygonal boobs". If you can't enjoy a game that's based on such BRAND NEW concepts as gameplay and adventure and... God forbid... FUN for all ages, then how did you ever get into gaming in the first place?

The reason Nintendo is in such a hole right now is not as much because of their "kiddy" games as it is several bad business decisions. *coughSQUAREcough*

Re:How do you.....

[cordsie]

I don't remember the exact details, but it's something like this (I'm basing it on my memory of the C64 version):

Have Bernard fix the radio in the cabinet in the same room. You use a radio tube or something on it (I don't remember from where exactly).

In the green tentacle's room, there's a record, that plays a high-pitched tone. (It's a recording of the tentacle mating call!) If you play it in the green tentacle's room, you'll end up with a dead kid, (one of the few ways to truly die in the game, but it's funny). However, you can safely play it in the victorola in the TV room. As you're playing the record, record the sound onto a tape (from where I don't remember) using the recording deck. Then take the tape and play it in the chandelier room. The high-pitched noise will shatter the chandelier and drop the key onto the floor.

And it is indeed for the dungeon, as far as I can recall.

Maybe I should have gotten out more as a kid. Sigh.

tsr's back!

[Schnapple]

Apparently this article is part of the return of tsr, which rocks. tsr did tsr's NES Archive until he put it on hiatus in January 2000. He hasn't touched it since and it looks like this site is like the second coming. Very cool.

You live in the bush for 15 years?

[Inoshiro]

Nintendo stopped censoring after the Mortal Kombat 1 debacle. Sega created the Video Game Rating Comission and marked Mortal Kombat as adult, while Nintendo censored it. MK on the SNES sold very poorly compared to the Genesis version.

When MK 2 was ported, Nintendo didn't censor it in the slightest. They let the ESRB ratings (the renamed VRC that would rate all games on all platforms) Ever since then, Nintendo's policy has been to let things through unaltered, and let the ESRB ratings tell the tale.

I'm surprised you're so ignorant of it. Or maybe I'm not, if you think Nintendo only makes "kids" games.

Re:You live in the bush for 15 years?

[Spleener12]

Oh, it continued after MK1. Perhaps they stopped censoring blood and guts, but in the US version of Final Fantasy 6(Called Final Fantasy 3 here in the US) they turned every single pub into a "cafe." They changed the name of the magic spell "Holy" to "Pearl" (not much of an improvement over the name it had in FF4/2, "White.") Some monster designs that contained partial nudity were covered up. They also got rid of Cyan's porno magazine. Chrono Trigger did the same pub-cafe conversion, plus they changed Toma's sake to soda pop. Both of these games came AFTER Mortal Kombat.

They did some more censoring in the N64 era as well. The original Zelda 64 US cartriges were unaltered (I think,) but later 'prints' of the game changed the music in the Fire Temple because it was a Muslim chant (or at least it sounded like one,) changed the design on the Mirror Shield because that was a muslim symbol, and in one scene where Ganan coughs up blood, they changed the color of the blood from red to green. Yes, they changed the color of the blood, the EXACT same thing that they did to censor Mortal Kombat.

So, in conclusion, Nintendo DOES still censor their games. They leave violence alone (for the most part,) but cursing, religion, sex, and booze were still big no-nos for a long time after the ratings were introduced. Perhaps they still are; it's been a while since I've played a game on a Nintendo system. The MK1 debacle, along with getting their asses kicked around by Sony has made them shape up a lot, but old habits die hard.