Horrible news for Australian gamers! The Australian Classification Board has decided to ban the sale of Mortal Kombat (2011). The board claims that the game contains visuals that are "unsuitable for a minor to see or play." Several examples from the game are listed, most notably the fatalities.
In the ACB's summary about the fatalities, several previously unannouced characters are revealed along with a description of their fatalities. Due to the spoiler nature of this new info, I'll leave it up to you to decide to read it.
Spoiler:
Jade explicitly kicks an opponent into the air and plants her fighting stick into the ground. The opponent falls backwards onto the stick and is explicitly impaled, with the stick protruding from their chest. Jade then explicitly tears her opponent's head off, with bloodspray noted, and explicitly plants it on the stick.
Stryker tasers his opponent and then explicitly shoots their head off with his gun. Blood and gore is noted.
Quan Chi explicitly rips his opponent's leg off, accompanied by copious bloodspray. As they lie on the ground, he explicitly beats them with the severed leg for a prolonged period of time.
Kabal uses long hooks to explicitly pull out an opponent's intestines before explicitly impaling the opponent on two spikes.
Shao Kahn uses his hands to explicitly rip an opponent's body vertically in two.
Baraka explicitly lodges a blade (attached to his wrist) in an opponent's stomach and hoists them above his head. He spins them round and explicitly decapitates and dismembers them, accompanied by copious bloodspray.
Kitana uses her 'folding fan' weapon to explicitly dismember then decapitate her opponent, with copious blood flow noted.
Another interesting piece of information in the ACB's official document is that each character will start with only one fatality available with the ability to unlock up to four. Click here to download the official ACB document from FDMK affiliate Kamidogu.
Warner Bros. has also released an official statement regarding this new development.
Fuck!!! This is the same bullshit that happened with Manhunt 2. I swear if they censor this game like they did with Manhunt 2, I'm going to be sooo fucking pissed off.
So this means that Scorpion has more than two generic sword finishers Yes, but we already knew that since people that pre-order at Gamestop get a classic Scorpion skin and fatality. That's a 3rd fatality right there.
But what about those who do not preorder? Or those who buy used? Are they going to be punished for not buying at an earlier date?
I was under the assumption that the preorder fatalities "stack" upon the default fatalities in the game (i.e Scorpion will have 5 while Cyrax might have the planned 4).
It's funny how some will praise war and will encourage violence to other countries but will shun violence simulations. It's hypocrisy actually. They're worried about kids playing it. HELLO?! It rated M FOR MATURE! You're a dumb ass if you let your 8, 9, or 10 yr old play it. People would rather control content than themselves. Oh well, I know we'll be getting the unedited version of this game. You're Australian! Be Australian. Excuse me, Kangaroo Jack!
If they're gonna ban Mortal Kombat, then they need to ban scary movies. If they ban this, then we ban everything Australian. Koalas, kangaroos, Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Paul Hogan, and every Australian-made product. That'll show them. Throw a shrimp on their barbie.
What I found interesting when reading a Wiki article about banned games in Australia is that they do not have a 18+ (M for mature, R18+, etc) for games. The highest they can give video game media is a MA15+, thus anything deemed to be so violent as to warrant an 18+ rating is refused classification, effectively leading to it being banned.
The real kicker is there IS a R18+ rating for movies in Australia. So pretty much the Classification Board in Australia think only 'kids' play games.
What I found interesting when reading a Wiki article about banned games in Australia is that they do not have a 18+ (M for mature, R18+, etc) for games. The highest they can give video game media is a MA15+, thus anything deemed to be so violent as to warrant an 18+ rating is refused classification, effectively leading to it being banned.
The real kicker is there IS a R18+ rating for movies in Australia. So pretty much the Classification Board in Australia think only 'kids' play games.
What the Australians seem to forget is that most of the developers of video games target the ages of 17-35 at the most. Nowadays, there are hardly any kid-friendly video games. Like I said before, don't control the content, control the parents/kids that are involved. You can't ban violence, unfortunately. It's been around since the beginning of time. Might as well ban boxing, wrestling, UFC, wars, famine, pestilence, death, and having a brain. Seriously though, it's up to the "adults" in Australia to teach their children the difference between realism and fiction, or do they not know the difference either?