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Shocking Game Content Slipped Past NES Censors!
30 Jul
Summary
- NES games faced strict censorship bans on swearing and violence.
- Some games featured nudity, hellfire, and even exploding heads.
- Nintendo's strict content policy had several notable loopholes.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Nintendo of America implemented stringent censorship for NES games, forbidding profanity, smoking, and mature content to protect the industry's reputation post-crash. Despite these strict rules, numerous games contained elements that bypassed the censors.
Titles like Kid Icarus featured statues with nudity, while Friday the 13th included the term 'Hellfire' in its item descriptions. Total Recall displayed a crude slang word on its walls, and Metal Gear and Vice: Project Doom showed characters smoking. Bionic Commando's Western release removed Nazi imagery, but a violent boss death remained.
NARC pushed boundaries with its anti-drug theme juxtaposed with extreme violence and drug references. Maniac Mansion controversially allowed players to microwave and explode a hamster, a detail missed by censors. Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode included implied intimacy and graphic violence, and Taboo: The Sixth Sense featured occult imagery and nudity.
