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."

Comments

Re:Remind me how the US is the free'est country

[NetDanzr]

None of the changed material is illegal in the US; the worst the publisher can suffer is a higher age category rating or poorer reviews (or a combination). Nintendo changes the offending material just to sell more titles, not because it would run into legal troubles.

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.

Re:Another example

[Mekabyte]

Yep, it has to be newer than that. I've seen it in the Metroid Prime 2: Echos demo disc and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. It's even featured on the Nintendo DS boot screen now :-/

Re:Another example

[Zangief]

I don't know about Pikmin 2, but on Paper Mario 2, you just press any button to skip the f*cking warning.

It is still annoying. Light sensitive epilepsia is not caused by videogames, just triggered. If you have it, though luck, go find another hobby, and don't screw up mine.

Mortal Kombat 2

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

maniac mansion

[nuggetman]

There's an article that discusses Nintendo's censorship for Maniac Mansion on NES

Re:maniac mansion

[cgenman]

I would like to point out that contrary to what the first linked article states, it is actually possible to microwave the hampster in the NES version of Maniac Mansion. They changed this in code for the second printing, which never happened as Maniac Mansion didn't sell well enough.

Re:This example is cited too often:

[Anonymous Coward]

The best part is:

GC BMX XXX: Fully topless available at start
XBox: must unlock nudity
PS2: no nudity period

And yet Nintendo is the kiddie-company that supposedly censors things

Mortal Kombat II

[CoreyGH]

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".

Conker's Bad Fur Day

[KAMiKAZOW]

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)

Re:Conker's Bad Fur Day

[StocDred]

Yeah, but the Nintendo logo is all over box, including the famous Nintendo Seal of Quality, showing their implicit consent of the game. "published under the Nintendo banner" doesn't necessarily mean "published by Nintendo." I think the author was just making a point that Nintendo approved that game for creation and distribution on Nintendo hardware. I don't call that a factual error.

This isn't like the days of those un-approved Tengen NES carts, where Nintendo definitely did not approve the publication of those games.