Topic: NoA Censorship in the past

[Ceric]

Wikipedia Entry

Earthbound: Abuse, Religious references, Alcohol references, Nudity

Earthbound had all that?  I'm surprised... Maybe one day I'll get to play it because what I've heard I didn't think I ever see something like that.

[Smash_Brother]

The blue cult of people accounts for the religious references, but I don't remember the others, especially abuse and NUDITY...

[matt oz]

I think the "abuse" is when Pokey and Picky go upstairs and their father follows them up, and then you hear what sounds like him smacking the boys.

Alcohol is probably the enemies Angry Reveler and Annoying Old Party man.

Nudity, no idea where that came from.


edit: nevermind, check out this Wikipedia entry

[NWR_pap64]

This has me stunned...

"Shigesato Itoi has revealed in interviews that Giygas' dialogue during the final battle was inspired by a traumatic childhood experience wherein he mistakenly walked into an adult movie theatre playing a pornographic film and caught a glimpse of a rape scene."

I've never played the game, but all I have to say is that he must've gotten a lot of therapy in order to overcome that.

[Smash_Brother]

That absolutely blows my mind...

That must have been why Giygas was saying, "Ness, it hurts..." in the end fight.

I always thought that line seemed dramatically out of place for Earthbound...

[Kairon]

Wow... time to replay Earthbound!

~Carmine "Cai" M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[Ceric]

Yeah I'll get the game for VC but who would of thunk.

[segagamer12]

Ah good old Nintendo and htier handing Sega the better MK port cuz of stubborness. Good thing Sega Cd fixed MOST of Gennys flaws so they could claim a Flawless Victory.


Oh and Wolfenstien was censored on SNES but that site didnt mention it. Someone needs to update the info if they know how.

I think there were others but I can't remember them right now.  

[darknight06]

The Genesis game was actually the more accurate arcade port despite the presentation being worse, and it wasn't because of the OMG blood and fatalities either.  Arena actually seemed to be trying to port the arcade game while Sculptured Software was in a way doing it's own thing, which resulted in an infinite in the corner where you could juggle someone with jabs the whole time and your opponent couldn't do a thing about it.  Genesis version and arcade had you back off so that couldn't happen.

[couchmonkey]

I'm pretty sure IGN mentioned that the character Sabotage, from Bio FREAKS, originally had a high-cutoff shirt that showed a lot of "underboob", but Nintendo censored it.  Apparently she was not censored in other versions of the game.

[segagamer12]

hast what I liekd about Genesis versiona nd why I love Sgea cd more because it puts back the stuff left out of the Genny version. It also had Hyper mode to compete with SF and kicked ass.

[ryancoke]

Good thing that MK2 on SNES absolutely owned the Genesis version in all aspects.

[segagamer12]

Not true, they were kind enough to give us the Cheat codes which included unlimited continues, pick yor level, start at any rank, and the mother of them all, the SOAK TEST. Plus the Furgality was hilarious.

The GFx werent THAT bad compared to SNES, what itw as lacking was the voices and a few minor details but the charcater models and movemenst were both pretty close to each other. I liked the SNES versions battle mode or wahtever it was called where you pick 4 players and go through them one at a time. I also liked that it had more of the voices and the battle screan which was removed from the Genesis VS. Oh and Goros lair was replaced with Blue Portal. But Soak Test was what made the Genesis version still worth owning. And the furgality!

[MegaByte]

My colleague, J.J., made a cool page about this several years ago:
http://www.filibustercartoons.com/Nintendo.php
There are some pictorial examples as well.  Also check out the links at the bottom of the page.  The Mother/Earthbound Zero ones are especially interesting because they were backported into the GBA version.

[couchmonkey]

That's a cool site, I wound up checking out practically all of the links at the bottom.  Thanks for the link.

Edit: It's kind of weird how inconsistent some of the changes from Nintendo were.  Red crosses on first aid kits or hospitals are not okay, even though the Red Cross doesn't have much of a religious connotation, but Castlevania's Cross item is okay.

I guess the Cross item is a bit more integral to the game than red crosses decorating objects in the game, but it's still weird.  Oh, and the topless statues in Super Castlevania IV got covered up, but Medusa is still topless.

[segagamer12]

the only error in the entire article I found was the statment MK for SNEs had fatalities remvoed, thast NOT true, they were still there, its just SOME of them were changed, but some were still dead on arcade accurate.

I could be mistaken but I think Rayden, Sonya, Lui Kang, and Scorpion all had the arcade fatalities in tact on SNES, Raydens was actually changed for the Genesis to be MORE Gory than the arcade was. Kano was the same animation but they changed the color of the 'heart' to the same silver color in the Genesis versions without the Blood Code.

The only thing I am not sure of because I never seen it performed in an Arcade was Raydens fatality, I have seen both animations and I can't rememebr for sure which was the actual arcade animation. I know Sub-Zero and Johnny Cage were both changed dramatically.

Anyways just wanted to point that out because I am VERy nitpicky when it comes to MK games.

I loved the whole site other wise and I agree some of the changes make perfect sense and otehrs are just plain crazy.

[Myxtika1 Azn]

Rayden's fatality was actually supposed to make the head blow up.  In the SNES version, it was modified to just electrocute your opponent.

Therefore, the only fatalities left unchanged were Liu Kang's, Sonya's, and Scorpion's.  Some could argue that the same was for Kano because the animation's the same, except that he doesn't pull out the heart.

[JonLeung]

Before Mortal Kombat II made the distinction that the Sub-Zero in Mortal Kombat is the older brother who is more brutal than the younger Sub-Zero featured in II onwards, I thought Sub-Zero's Fatality on the Super NES of freezing (and then smashing, I think) the opponent made more sense because of his power rather than the head-and-spine-ripping-out that he originally had.  And even with characters meant to be evil, you'd think they'd use their own unique abilities...tearing of someone's head, besides the brutality of it, seems like something anybody in the MK universe should be able to physically do.

[segagamer12]

see raydens I wasnt sure about, I KNOW he destroyed thier head on the genesis verisons, BUT I thougth that in the arcade he torched them like SNES and the genesis was made more graphic to make a point. I will check around and see if I can find the video fo the acrade fatality because I could be wrong but thats how I always understood it to be.  

[couchmonkey]

This debate is beginning to embody everything that I hated about Mortal Kombat when it was new.  The focus was all on violence with little attention to game design.

[JonLeung]

I love Mortal Kombat, but boy do I remember the idiotic debates (which weren't really) when the first one came out on the Super NES and Genesis.

Me: *talks about MK*
Them: Which MK?
Me: The Super NES one.
Them: The Super NES one SUCKS!

It's almost funny how the blood and gore were so controversial then.  Shock value then was so potent that many of us, being young teens at the time, thought the Genesis version was "better" simply because of it.  At that point I felt the logic was flawed, but couldn't really defend NoA's censorship decisions.

I love MK and I love Nintendo, but the first MK really pointed out and perpetuated the "Nintendo is for kids" garbage.

[segagamer12]

well to be fair couchmonkey, the Genesis version was still more faithuf to the arcade even witht he blood turned off.

and not everyone played MK for the blood, in all honesty I didnt even knwo it HAD blood when I first played it in the arcade, the place  I played it in had the blood turned off and the violence toned down. What drew me to MK, and continues to bring me back, IS the game desgin, and the story.

What caught my attention was the FMV sequences and th Digitized Graphics, and thats the TRUTH. When I started playing it I found I liked the Rayden character the most as he could fly and shoot lighting, as time went by I found I like Scorpion the most but that was because I got into his character and story.

When if irst played MK I thought it was a Streets of Rage/Final Fight type game and figured you ahd to defeat the boss to get to the levels. When if oudn out all it was was one on one boss fighintg I was turned off but kept coming back cuz of the digitized grfx. I was messmerized by it. and I would read all the bios when the attract mode was on and learn the story and characters and thats we ultimatly drew me to the game.

I found out about the blood latter on after playing Mk II at the arcade where my mom worked.

I still was more into the story and look of the game, not jsut the digitized charatcers but the backrgounds the art the music, everything. Even to this day when I play Deadly Allience I turn the blood off and enjoy the game without it. Sure once I learned there was blood and foudn out it was a big deal to so many people I bragged about having the Genesis version, but I didnt know the blood code for a whoole year after getting it so I still didnt miss anything.


Sure I was 12 when I first played MK and yes once I discovered it ws bloody I showed it off and thought it was entertaining, but nto what drew me to the game.

I wish it HADNT ever had blood so that people could enjoy it without it but it seams thats impossible for too many people and violence is all that matters anymore.

So its not always about the blood and viloence, MK has a lot going for it besides all that and its one of the few really challeneging figting gaems, even if the cobos suck compred to most others, the diffiuclty level and skill rewuire to beat it is far and beyond what it taeks top beat soul calibur or street fighter, games I have seen 3 and 4 yer olds beat botton massing.

Not to bash those games asn I love them a lot as well but you get the point I hope.

So play it with the blood off and just get intot he story and characters and the fighitng styles and its a lot more fun.

The newer ones arent as special as theolder ones but I still like them all. Oh and for those who didnt know you DID have to enter a blood code to get the violence even on Genesis, so if you didnt knwo the code you still had the same stuff SNES had, just less colors and fewer voices.