There’s no publicity like bad publicity, they say. Who’s “they”? Probably the same people behind the marketing campaigns for these games.
Custer’s Revenge
No list of controversial video games would be complete without Mystique’s edgier-than-the-American-Frontier Custer’s Revenge, a game featuring a totally tasteful trifecta of rape, racism, and pornographic nudity. Released in 1982 for the Atari 2600, the game was marked “NOT FOR SALE TO MINORS”, although the manual suggested that “if the kids catch you and should ask, tell them Custer and the maiden are just dancing.”
They weren’t dancing, of course, unless you count the sexual violence samba – the whole point of the game was to direct a naked and, um, engorged General George Armstrong Custer through a barrage of enemy arrows to a restrained Native American to have his wicked way with her. Classy.
In response to the inevitable public outrage, sales and distribution of the game were consequently prohibited in some states, prompting Mystique to file a $11 million lawsuit against New York on behalf of all the creepy pervs denied their constitutional rights to simulated rape jolly good fun. According to the developer, “our object is not to arouse, our object is to entertain. When people play our games, we want them smiling, we want them laughing.”
Nobody got the joke, apparently, and Mystique went out of business the next year.
“Lol!”
DOOM
While most gamers would probably agree that id’s DOOM is one of the most significant and influential games of all time because it boosted the FPS genre to the frontlines of the industry, very concerned parents and religious groups felt its significance and influence were much more insidious than that. The game was widely criticised for its allegedly “Satanic” imagery (monsters, five-pointed shapes) and dubbed an instant tabloid headline-grabbing “mass murder simulator” by Killology Research Group (yes, it’s a real thing) founder David Grossman.
Six years later, DOOM was back in the news when it was discovered that the Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were fans of the game. Because obviously it’s a video game’s fault that two adolescent psychopaths decided to shoot up a school. All those people who played DOOM and didn’t shoot up a school? Irrelevant.
Kill your parents or whatever.
Manhunt
It’s a game starring a former Death Row inmate who escapes his execution and goes on a murder spree around town with a plastic shopping bag and a crowbar. The ensuing controversy wasn’t exactly unexpected.
Rockstar’s big mistake was not making the lead character a US Army operative.
Grand Theft Auto
The whole series, really, but it’s Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas that gets the prize for the biggest scandal, and it’s for something that wasn’t technically even in the game. Several months after the game launched in 2004, a Dutch modder discovered an unfinished bit of content included in the game’s files that let protagonist Carl “CJ” Johnson have sex with his dates, and released it as the now notorious “Hot Coffee” patch. Badly animated, fully-clothed sex? Absolutely shocking stuff.
Predictably, an 85-year old granny who bought the game for her 14-year old grandson sued Rockstar and publisher Take-Two Interactive for deception, false advertising, fraud and abuse, because that’s much easier than reading the label on the box. The game was recalled all over America, and Rockstar Games was forced to change its age restriction from Mature (18+) to Adults Only, because those two or three years make a huge difference.
“Why is the man screaming, granny?”
Left Behind: Eternal Forces
Based on the Left Behind series of books by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, the basic premise of Eternal Forces is “convert or die”, but not in the very evil Islamic Jihad sort of way, but the very righteous evangelical Christian way, which is obviously totally different. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic Manhattan, and players assume command of a Christian paramilitary organisation, the Tribulation Force. The big idea is to round up Jews, atheists, and other non-believers and save their sinning souls.
Or, you know, shoot them.
“We see it as a beacon of light that could shine in the dark world of video games,” said Jerome Mikulich, then-CEO of publisher Inspired Media Entertainment. “The most important thing is that it helps kids realise there is power in the spirit world, and that by praying they can endure and get through their real-life situations.”
Praying or killing anybody who doesn’t share your beliefs, anyway.
Logically, if she weighs as much as a duck, she must be made out of wood, and therefore a witch.
RapeLay
I’ll just let the game’s Wikipedia description explain itself:
In story mode, the player rapes the three girls in the order of Manaka, Yuuko, and Aoi. The player starts off in the train station. Upon entering the train, the main character gropes the female the main character is currently in the train with. After the main character finishes raping all three girls, the players has the option of free play scenes.
That game was subsequently banned pretty much everywhere.
Seriously, why was it even made?
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