17 Video Games Banned For Absurd Reasons

1.

KZ Manager was banned in Germany and won the award for the Most Unnecessary Game of the Year at the 2001 IGN Awards. To play this game you have to become a Nazi concentration camp manager where the resources to be managed include prisoners who are either Jews or Gypsies. What the hell was the developer thinking?

2.

RapeLay-First off, lets make it clear that RapeLay was appropriately banned in several countries worldwide since its one of the sickest video games in history. To get an idea how disturbing this game is, the gamers mission is to stalk and rape a mother and her two daughters.However, what shocked us even more is the reason it was banned for good in Argentina: apparently the main issue according to the Argentinian authorities was that one of the two daughters appeared to be underage. So the question is: If all the women in the game were over eighteen then it would be legit to sell it on the open market?

3.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow--This game was banned in Indonesia because it includes a fictional terrorist group that the country's president considered a direct threat to him and his people.

4.

Postal 2 was banned in both Brazil and New Zealand for gross, abhorrent content such as urination, animal cruelty, homophobia, racism, and ethnic stereotyping among other issues. However, the game's developers took the whole thing lightheartedly and assured that a careful gamer could play the game without conforming to any of its sick possibilities.

5.

In Homefront the gamer has to fight against a fictional North Korean military occupation of the US. The reason this game was banned in South Korea might sound crazy to most of us in the West, but we all have to admit that living below North Korea is no joke, and allowing such a game on the market might upset Kim Jong-un.

6.

What we have learned from Saints Row 4 is how incredibly conservative Australia can be, at least when it comes to video games. The game was banned because it features a weapon with the name "alien anal probe," which Australian authorities believe promotes sexual violence.

7.

Far Cry 3 is by far the best game of the series, but if you live in Indonesia, don't go looking for it because you won't find it. The game portrays life in Indonesia as unpleasant, and so it is banned there.

8.

God of War--Saudi Arabia holds its theocracy in extremely high regard, and this state-religion will not stand for competition, which apparently includes any game with the word, "God" in the title. This is why God of War is banned for blasphemy in Saudi Arabia and why the game's developers are permanently prohibited from ever entering the country.

9.

Mass Effect--Oddly, the fact that an alien was having sex with a human wasn't the reason for its ban in Singapore, but rather that the sex participants were both female and were therefore engaging in hot lesbian action, which Singapore hates. Singapore has no laws against intergalactic bestiality.

10.

Counter Strike--In 2008 the Brazilian federal court ordered the prohibition of all sales of the game because, in their opinion, the game brings imminent stimulus to the subversion of the social order, attempting against the democratic and rightful state and against the public safety. Basically, they consider Counter Strike a rebellious threat to the country.

11.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas--Ironically, the fact that this game is filled with graphic violence, drugs, and guns didn't bother the Indonesian authorities at all, but the protagonist CJ's no pants dance with his girlfriend did, and that is why the game was banned there.

12.

Manhunt 2--Both IGN and UGO Entertainment included this game in their top 10 lists of The Most Controversial Video Games Ever, while it was ranked first in Gameranx's list of the Top 25 Goriest Games of all Time. The uncut version became the first and only game that the British Board of Film Classification refused to classify due to excessive violence. The decision shocked and disappointed the vast majority of British gamers.

13.

BlazBlue: Continuum Shift--Let's get things straight here, 'BlazBlue: Continuum Shift' is just another fighting game (a la Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat), but its copies were pulled off store shelves in the United Arab Emirates and several other Middle Eastern countries because the local authorities felt that the game's characters were too raunchy and that their costumes revealed too much flesh.

14.

The Guy Game made history when it became one of the very few games in American history to get banned. The reason? Much of the game involves watching live-action video footage of sexy women in bikinis, and--as the player succeeds in the game--the women eventually expose their breasts, which is strangely against existing pornography laws in the US.

15.

Football Manager 2005--You're probably wondering how soccer, in video game form no less, could ever be banned. Well, in China, recognizing Tibet as an independent nation--even in a sporting event--is a very bad thing, so the game was banned as soon as the Chinese authorities found out about it. An edited version was later released worldwide where Tibet wasn't included as an independent nation, and China rescinded the ban.

16.

Battlefield 4--The Pakistani army is portrayed as the bad guys at some stage of the game, and--as expected under such circumstances--the game was banned there. However, the surprise here wasn't that the game was banned, but that the consequences for selling or playing the game include jail time and community service.

17.

The Pokemon Trading Card Game was banned in Saudi Arabia because they believe Pokemon cards include hidden Stars of David and support Zionism.

18.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2--Well this game wasn't technically banned, but it was edited to the point that the original version doesn't look much like the Russian version. See, there's a Russian mission in the original game that was removed from the Russian version because Putin doesn't want Russian gamers shooting other Russians, even in a fictional, digital reality.

19.

Command Conquer: Generals--This is one of the weirdest cases... It's still unknown why China banned this game. The official excuse was that 'Command Conquer: Generals' portrayed the country in a negative light which, to be honest, is even more confusing since anyone who has played the game knows that China is portrayed as the good guys and one of the world's great superpowers. Maybe the Chinese interpreter couldn't get past the first level and then he lied to the Chinese Government about? We may never know.

20.

The Darkness--The Xbox 360 version of this game was originally banned in Singapore because it was thought to be excessively violent. There's mysteriously no ban on PlayStation 3 version of the game.

21.

BlazBlue: Continuum Shift--Let's get things straight here, 'BlazBlue: Continuum Shift' is just another fighting game a la Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, but its copies were pulled off store shelves in the United Arab Emirates and several other countries in the Middle East because the local authorities felt that the games characters were too raunchy and that their costumes revealed too much flesh.

22.

EA Sports MMA--Scandinavian countries are known for being really progressive and socially open-minded, but they showed no tolerance for this game and banned it for the most ridiculous reason you could imagine--NOT for excessive, bloody violence, but for marketing specific energy drinks.

23.

In November 2009, the government of Venezuela announced that it would ban all video games in which the objective was to shoot people, and they made sure to keep their promise a few months later. The ban was due to widespread violence in the country, and Venezuela is the first country to ban all violent video games. Too bad for Venezuelan gamers.

24.

Three Sisters Story--This Japanese visual novel for your PC, which looks more like a digital manga than a traditional video game, was banned in New Zealand because it supposedly promoted and supported the use of violence to compel a person to submit to sexual conduct, and the exploitation of young persons for sexual purposes.

25.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2--It seems like the Tom Clancy series knows how to get attention, and 'Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2' was banned in Mexico for the offensive, stereotypical portrayal of Mexican rebels who are depicted as the antagonists. Furthermore, the game negatively stereotyped the city of Chihuahua, which was what led to the ban in the first place. However, the game can be found in the stores of other Mexican states, which means that the ban was only local.

26.

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City--This game was banned in Brazil because it apparently uses music by a Brazilian composer, Hamilton da Silva Loureno, without permission.