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A Survey of Nintendo's Game Censorship Policies
ccnull writes "Found a page which offers a survey of Nintendo's policies on censorship, paying particular attention to how U.S. games differ from their Japanese counterparts. It's not just blood splatters, the author has interesting comparative screen grabs showing "clothed" statues and de-Nazified Hitlers."
incorporate or encourage the use of illegal drugs, smoking materials, and/or alcohol
In the Harvest Moon games (particularly the one for N64), you can go to the bar, buy beer, and get, quite obviously, drunk.
Were these rules still used during the 64 era?
There was a treasure in Pikmin 2 worth 666 Pokos in the Japanese version and changed to 670 in the US. What's far worse is that all new games (only in the US) now have a 5 second health warning EVERY TIME you start them because of that stupid lawsuit earlier this year.
Speed Demos Archive - Lots of speed runs!
Well in the re-released versions of these games from SNES to GBA the game was further edited to remove things like cigarettes, which I think ruins some of the fun.
I believe Nintendo changed these things due to marketing concerns, and certainly not government pressure. So, I'm not quite sure what you're getting at... I want to know more about that Socks the Cat game from the article. Does anyone have more information about it?
Now, if Nintendo tried to sell some of those games in Germany, for example, it would be forced to get rid of some of the offending material by the country's law, not by the marketplace.
So, while they've built up this reputation (imo, undeservedly) as a "kiddie" gaming company--It doesn't sound like this censorship paradigm really carries over to the gamecube.
-- "A chicken is an egg's way of making another egg."
Sony censored BMX XXX more than Nintendo did.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
I recall the end of Bionic Commando used swearing, which is odd considering how much the game was already edited, and how strict nintedo was at that time about those things.
I think Hitler calls the main character a "Damn fool" or something similar to that, right before killing him.
Here is something that is truly bizarre. The Nintendo guidelines state that games must not "include sexually suggestive or explicit content including rape and/or nudity". It is truly bizarre that they place nudity in the same class as an abhorrent action like rape.
Am I going to be the only one to say good job to Nintendo for actually having guidelines? Sure the censorship just got.. weird sometime (grey blood- what on earth?) but for the most part, Nintendo realized their market audience, and realized what would be acceptable in the American mainstream culture. Lets go over these one by one. 1) include sexually suggestive or explicit content including rape and/or nudity; Wow, I have no problem with Nintendo censoring that stuff on my NES- I was only 7 at the time. I certainly wouldn't want my kids playing that either. At the time, THIS was Nintendo's intended audience in america- not teenagers, not 27 year old geeks. 2) contain language or depiction which specifically denigrates members of either sex; Japan has.. a lot of problems as a society- and one of them is that sexist language is usually tolerated- especially in the late 80s and early 90s before the feminist movement caught on in Japan. These references would simply not fit in with todays (or the late 80s early 90s) USA culture. 3) depict random, gratuitous, and/or excessive violence; Meh, looks like you can't kill civilians or blow up hamsters in microwaves; ok. GTA wasn't attempting to publish on the NES; those types of games were long off. 4) depict graphic illustration of death; This is a pretty annoying one- it's why Mortal Kombat was so horrible for the SNES. Of course, this was a time with no rating system; I again ask you- looking back on the time when you were 7; do you think you should have been exposed to graphic illustration of death on a daily basis from your videogames? 5) depict domestic violence and/or abuse; Again, Japanese culture VS the USA culture. If you WANT to see domestic violence and abuse, you're a sicko- go someplace else. 6) depict excessive force in a sports game beyond what is inherent in actual contact sports; uhh. sure. 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; Again, Japan's probably the most racist first world country out there today, and they're native games tend to reflect the stereotypes they feel as a culture- Nintendo Of America knew what they were doing when they decided they should probably edit out refereces to the N word, etc. As for the Gods thing- why piss anyone off? 8) use profanity or obscenity in any form or incorporate language or gestures that could be offensive by prevailing public standards and tastes; Again, 7 year old audience. There's nothign to complain about here. There's no reason for games to use curse words in 8 bits. 9) incorporate or encourage the use of illegal drugs, smoking materials, and/or alcohol (Nintendo does not allow a beer or cigarette ad to be placed on an arena, stadium or playing field wall, or fence in a sports game) This one might seem weird at first- but do you remember the huge anti smoking advertisement dealie that was going on in the US at a time? I wouldn't want my Nintendo of america to come under fire from idiot parents who say NES Solid Snake teachers their kids to smoke- would you? 10) include subliminal political messages or overt political statements Pretty broad What I'm saying is- while there are bad exmaples of the censorship in the games we love; there's been hundreds of cases where Nintendo censorship just caused a bad game with racial/sexual whatever overtones to not be released in the USA- leading to backlash against videogames.
www.GrenadeHop.com
Before 1994 there was no ratings board; there was no higher age catagory;
Nintendo primarily marketed towards younger children; and since there was no way of distinguishing a game for young children at the time from a game for mature audiences..
They don't censor anymore; know you're videogame history
www.GrenadeHop.com
When private individuals or groups of individuals revise materials they created or created at their behest, it is usually referred to as editing and not censorship.
Auto manufacturers in both Japan and the USA change designs between countries to best suit each market. A concept is being muted in the transition; so is that too censorship?
The altering of products to conform to different markets (i.e. what research has led someone to believe different markets will respond best to) is nothing new. I don't see it as particularly evil, either.
The fatality moves were included, but so were several non-violent finishing moves, such as the "friendship" moves in which instead of executing your opponent you could give him a present or do a little dance.
Yes, there were 'Friendship' moves, but, from what I remember, they weren't included at Nintendo's request; they were already present in the arcade version of the game.
There's an article that discusses Nintendo's censorship for Maniac Mansion on NES
...and that's all there is to it.
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The fatality moves were included, but so were several non-violent finishing moves, such as the "friendship" moves in which instead of executing your opponent you could give him a present or do a little dance.
Anyone who's played MK2 in the arcade knows that friendships were in the arcade version; they were NOT added by Nintendo to make the game "nicer".
My Lord, Nintendo is censoring games? Removing sex and violence? How horrible! How awful!
Oh, wait, what's this? A telephone message from 1994? You say they want their fucking news back?
Philip Sandifer's academic website
Blame the very vocal "think of the children" advocates in America.
my password is private, but unchanged.
Quote from the article:
"Games such as the infamous Conker's Bad Fur Day, which include swearing, blood, and sex are now openly published under the Nintendo banner"
Um no. Conker's Bad Fur Day was NOT published by Nintendo. The US version was published by Rare itself and the European version was published by THQ. (Check the US box and the EU box)
These guidelines are well out of date. Nintendo no longer censors games and hasn't done so for about 10 years. These sort of articles really are unnecessary as they only reiterate the common misconception that Nintendo is for kids. This is the type of crap that is hurting Nintendo and may eventually lead them to the same destiny as Sega. If anyone censors games it is Sony. A fairly recent example of this is the game BMX XXX, in which the PS2 version was censored and the GameCube version stayed intact.
Paragraphs.
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WHO ATE MY BREAKFAST PANTS?
They do censor. Look into Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.
Am I going to be the only one to say good job to Nintendo for actually having guidelines? Sure the censorship just got.. weird sometime (grey blood- what on earth?) but for the most part, Nintendo realized their market audience, and realized what would be acceptable in the American mainstream culture.
Lets go over these one by one.
1) include sexually suggestive or explicit content including rape and/or nudity;
Wow, I have no problem with Nintendo censoring that stuff on my NES- I was only 7 at the time. I certainly wouldn't want my kids playing that either. At the time, THIS was Nintendo's intended audience in america- not teenagers, not 27 year old geeks.
2) contain language or depiction which specifically denigrates members of either sex;
Japan has.. a lot of problems as a society- and one of them is that sexist language is usually tolerated- especially in the late 80s and early 90s before the feminist movement caught on in Japan. These references would simply not fit in with todays (or the late 80s early 90s) USA culture.
3) depict random, gratuitous, and/or excessive violence;
Meh, looks like you can't kill civilians or blow up hamsters in microwaves; ok. GTA wasn't attempting to publish on the NES; those types of games were long off.
4) depict graphic illustration of death;
This is a pretty annoying one- it's why Mortal Kombat was so horrible for the SNES. Of course, this was a time with no rating system; I again ask you- looking back on the time when you were 7; do you think you should have been exposed to graphic illustration of death on a daily basis from your videogames?
5) depict domestic violence and/or abuse;
Again, Japanese culture VS the USA culture. If you WANT to see domestic violence and abuse, you're a sicko- go someplace else.
6) depict excessive force in a sports game beyond what is inherent in actual contact sports;
uhh. sure.
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;
Again, Japan's probably the most racist first world country out there today, and they're native games tend to reflect the stereotypes they feel as a culture- Nintendo Of America knew what they were doing when they decided they should probably edit out refereces to the N word, etc. As for the Gods thing- why piss anyone off?
8) use profanity or obscenity in any form or incorporate language or gestures that could be offensive by prevailing public standards and tastes;
Again, 7 year old audience. There's nothign to complain about here. There's no reason for games to use curse words in 8 bits.
9) incorporate or encourage the use of illegal drugs, smoking materials, and/or alcohol (Nintendo does not allow a beer or cigarette ad to be placed on an arena, stadium or playing field wall, or fence in a sports game)
This one might seem weird at first- but do you remember the huge anti smoking advertisement dealie that was going on in the US at a time? I wouldn't want my Nintendo of america to come under fire from idiot parents who say NES Solid Snake teachers their kids to smoke- would you?
10) include subliminal political messages or overt political statements
Pretty broad
What I'm saying is- while there are bad exmaples of the censorship in the games we love; there's been hundreds of cases where Nintendo censorship just caused a bad game with racial/sexual whatever overtones to not be released in the USA- leading to backlash against videogames.
Only a government can censor something.
"broadly, any government restrictions on speech or writing; more precisely, government restrictions on forms of expression before they are disseminated "
Why is my post a troll?
The boxart for Freaky Flyers was changed for the GameCube version. (see below) I don't know if the graphics in the game itself were changed, but the gameplay certainly could have used more time in the oven.
GameCube boxart
Xbox boxart
A little nonsense now and then, is relished by the wisest men... --Willy Wonka
From a formal dictionary definition standpoint, I am sure you are probably correct.
In practice, any entity in a position to exert control over published media can censor that content. Its as simple as a publisher saying "I wont publish this unless you remove that". Since most authors / game developers / musicians end up signing agreements with a publisher in advance, its possible that the publisher may elect to censor the content, and put the author in a position where they are mostly screwed.
Hell, even Walmart is known to refuse to carry songs that have objectionable lyrics, leading to a Walmart version of the song, and the normal version.
END COMMUNICATION
The red cross still contacts game developers and threatens legal action if a red cross on a white background is used.
BioWare was forced to remove the red cross from the "healing kits" in Neverwinter Nights in a patch, if you install the original game unpatched, they are still there.
I was with my parents at a funeral home, scheduling services for my grandfather whom had passed away, and when the director totalled upp the costs it came out to $666 exactly! We added an extra $50 for the priest to "fix" the number and pay for some piece of mind.
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