Many games throughout gaming history have caused controversy and pissed some people off.
Let’s take a trip down memory lane with a cool head and look back at eight of the most offensive AAA games of all time.
Starting off with number eight,we might as well start with the one that started at all,the original “Mortal Kombat.”
“Mortal Kombat” when it
originally released to arcades
in 1992 absolutely took
the world by storm, dude.
It was developed by Midway Games
and of course co-created
by Ed Boon and John Tobias.
And with it becoming such
a hugely popular game
with people practically lining
up at the arcade cabinet
to play it, of course eventually
more scrutinizing eyes
would take a look at it,
and that being the media,
parents, politicians,
anyone, you name it,
specifically around the
game’s intense violence,
with the fact that the characters
on-screen were technically
images of real people,
like digitized images,
but also being depicted
with insanely over-the-top
gore with blood and effects,
and heads getting ripped off,
and skulls and everything.
You know “Mortal Kombat” by now.
That caught the attention
of a lot of people.
Specifically, the main
buzzword was the Fatalities,
the big finishing moves
with the over-the-top
and, like, brutal, obnoxious
ways of killing your opponents
and really humiliating them.
By 1993, a lot of U.S.
politicians were fed up
with this whole thing,
and there was a big old
congressional hearing
hot off the heels of “Mortal Kombat”
and other games like “Night
Trap” really being big
in the media for their gore
and the fact that “Mortal
Kombat” was also popping off
on home console release by that time.
It was on both Nintendo
and Sega platforms,
but Nintendo had it censored at the time.
But still, it didn’t matter.
It led to more media
scrutiny, more angry parents,
and more politicians doing
their hearings and all that,
and it continued over to
“Mortal Kombat II” and beyond.
But the original “Mortal Kombat,”
the home console release
was actually banned
in certain countries.
It was really one of the first games
to go all in on the gore,
and it had to suffer the
consequences for that.
But thankfully, “Mortal Kombat” lived on,
and we’re still really playing
the series to this day.
It is considered one of the games
that heralded the creation
of the ESRB, you know,
an established rating system for games.
And “Mortal Kombat’s” history,
whether people have found
it offensive or not,
is really significant and
left a large footprint
in the gaming world.
Next, over at number seven,
something a little bit more tame
but still worth pointing
out is the controversy
around “Bully.”
Yes, big surprise.
A Rockstar Games game was
not so warmly received
by some people, specifically with “Bully”
and how it was centered around,
you guessed it, bullying.
Really, it was the title
itself for a lot of people,
with the fact that it was
actually given a different name
in certain countries to
kind of tame it down.
A lot of this came down to the fact
that Rockstar Games was
already in a lot of hot water
and had a lot of attention
for the “Grand Theft Auto” series,
so the same people that
criticized those games jumped
on “Bully” before it even released.
Of course, former famous Florida lawyer
and basically anti-video
game crusader, Jack Thompson,
was screaming from the rooftops
that this game was a bad influence
and it was essentially
a Columbine simulator,
which is a pretty wild accusation.
But it wasn’t just the United States.
There were movements
in the U.K. and Brazil
to also get the game banned,
and they all had varying
degrees of success.
But ultimately, in North America,
“Bully” released on time.
It was only rated T for Teen,
and it wasn’t really that big of a deal.
To the point where, in fact,
when the game was proposed to
be banned from certain stores,
a judge ruled that there
wasn’t anything in this game
that you wouldn’t see on TV.
And “Bully” really ultimately just ended
up being a don’t judge a
book by its cover type thing
because there really wasn’t much to it
and it certainly didn’t harm the youth.
In fact, in the game,
half the time, you’re not
even doing the bullying.
– [Karl] You little worm!
You better run to class right now!
(upbeat suspenseful music)
– [Jake] And that reminds us,
we need to make more
videos about bullying.
We’re long overdue, so let
us know in the comments
if you want to see something like that.
Now next, over at number
six, we have “BMX XXX.”
This game definitely
offended a lot of people
because of its crude marketing
and, really, the whole
dumb idea behind it.
Essentially, it was from the people
behind the “Dave Mirra BMX” series,
and they wanted to inject new life
into the franchise for the third game,
and they tried to brand
it into this crazy,
crude humor, gross out, but
also over-sexualized thing
to make BMX more exciting.
If you ask me,
I don’t think BMX needs
anything to be exciting.
It’s already pretty awesome.
But apparently, the absolutely
crazy video game executives
at Acclaim at the time thought
that topless girls was
really going to be the thing
to sell the next big
BMX extreme sports game.
If anything, it seemed to
offend Dave Mirra the most,
you know, the late, famous BMX champion,
because he distanced
himself from the project
and ultimately still ended
up suing the publisher
specifically because of the
damage it did to his name.
I don’t think it really
harmed his name that much,
although things did heat up,
because there were reports
that toy stores like Toys R Us,
big retailers like Walmart
and places like that were
refusing to sell the game.
And ultimately, some of
that may have impacted some
of its success.
I played this game as like a
gross, little creepy teenager
back in the day,
and I think the most offensive thing
of the game was like its
really bad attempts at humor.
A lot of the jokes were
just totally cringey.
They were trying to go
for like a “Jackass,”
“American Pie” thing when
that was the big thing,
but it definitely didn’t land.
I think “BMX XXX” is an example of a game
that was offensive in the
news for a period of time,
but ultimately not offensive enough
because it just ended up
being completely forgotten
by modern gamers.
Next down at number five,
we gotta talk “Conker’s Bad Fur Day.”
A game that I think is
really just offensive
to older, more uptight people
who never enjoyed a cartoon
or really anything vaguely raunchy.
“Conker’s Bad Fur Day”
was one of the swan songs
of the Nintendo 64.
In fact, I think it’s one of
the best Nintendo 64 games.
And it was almost like at that point,
Nintendo, interestingly
enough, didn’t allow a ton
of, like, really gross M-rated
games on their platform.
There was “Doom” and, you know,
like the “Resident Evil” port,
but “Conker’s Bad Fur Day” kind
of felt like Nintendo had
moved on to the next console
and kind of let the youngest
sibling do whatever it wanted
and get away with anything.
And that youngest sibling happened
to be “Conker’s Bad Fur Day.”
Do you get the analogy
I’m trying to get at here?
It was a Rare game,
and on the surface, it looked
like another “Banjo-Kazooie,”
fun, cartoony type game.
But this cartoony squirrel
loved to get drunk.
He loved boobs.
He said a lot of bad words,
and there was tons of over-the-top gore.
And it ultimately ended up
being absolutely hilarious
and an incredibly memorable game.
It’s hard to find a ton
of information on it,
but controversial at the time.
Nintendo of Europe didn’t
want to publish it,
and the “L.A. Times” did
publish a piece talking
to some parents about the game
with quotes like, “This is
disgusting, sophomoric humor.”
“I’m disappointed in Nintendo.”
“It’s like Disney releasing pornography.”
Apparently, KB Toys didn’t
want to carry the game.
And to be fair to Nintendo,
they did slap an extra big
warning on the game’s box art.
There was of course the M
rating on the bottom corner,
but there was also a big, long white label
on the bottom of the box
that kind of looked like a
cigarette health warning label.
It says, “Advisory: The game is not
for anyone under age 17.”
You know, as if like the
over-sexualized squirrel girl
and the drunk cartoon
squirrel guy holding a beer
on the box wasn’t enough for you. (laughs)
(jaunty music)
(Conker hiccups)
– Don’t mind if I do.
– [Jake] Ultimately, where I’m at is
that they remade this game
for the original Xbox,
but they need to remake it again
because more people still need to play it.
It’s really funny and dumb in a good way.
Next, over at number
four, we have “Postal.”
Now, the “Postal” series
started off controversial,
and now, I think, in modern day,
it’s trying to chase that controversy,
like it wants that attention again.
But back in the day,
“Postal 2,” specifically,
in 2003, the one to switch
from an isometric shooter
over to a first-person shooter was the one
that definitely got a lot of attention,
specifically because you were
just kind of like a guy going
around murdering everyone.
You pee on stuff, you murder people,
you brutalize people with
weapons, guns, explosions,
everything.
And people weren’t happy about that.
It was banned in New Zealand,
with possibly having a
fine for keeping the game.
They tried to ban it in Sweden.
Some German versions of it
were taken down digitally.
And really, ultimately, from
“Postal 1” to “Postal 2,”
I don’t really think it amounted to much.
It was kind of trying to be satirical,
holding a mirror up to how gross
everything is in the world.
It was structured around days
where you, as the Postal Dude, will go out
and do random everyday tasks,
but also just murder everyone.
To be honest, if you talk to some gamers,
the most offensive thing
about the “Postal” games was
that they were never really
that much fun to play
to begin with.
Controversy, things in games
that just, like, piss
people off, all that aside,
if a game isn’t that fun
to play, that’s it, man.
(fire roaring)
(Postal Dude grunting)
Next, down at number three,
we have yet another headline-grabbing
Rockstar Games game,
“Manhunt.”
“Manhunt” originally released in 2003,
back in the day when
Rockstar was riding high
from all that “GTA” money
and just making a bunch
of weird, quirky projects.
This was a little bit more of, like,
a third-person stealth adventure game
in a really dark and
gritty, gross universe,
kind of stylized as a sort of snuff film.
Now in this game, you
played as James Earl Cash,
who is a death row inmate
who is thrust into this place
where he is forced to kill to survive,
but it gets much, much darker than that.
But the whole thing
was really just gritty,
and icky, and gross
and centered very much around
murdering enemies gruesomely
and brutally
and really intimately with small
weapons from, like, knives,
down to stuff like strangling
a dude with a plastic bag.
This game grabbed attention
of some politicians
who then went to sponsor
special legislation
to find people who would
sell adult-oriented games
to people under the age of 17.
U.S. Rep Joe Baca is quoted as saying,
“It’s telling kids how to kill someone,
and it uses vicious, sadistic
and cruel methods to kill.”
“Manhunt” received tons of media coverage.
Parents obviously flipped out.
There’s tons of quotes
from parents out there
that you can find.
And we’re not really
gonna go into it too deep
because we don’t like to do
the whole true crime thing,
but it was loosely attached
to an unfortunate murder
in the U.K. where a 17-year-old
murdered a 14-year-old.
The game was blamed.
And regardless of that case,
still, the controversy
around the game led to bans
in certain countries, like
of course, New Zealand,
Australia, and some issues in Canada,
and of course tons of
scrutiny in the United States
by none other than good old Jack Thompson,
who said, and I quote,
“We have had dozens of
killings in the United States
by children who had played
these types of games.
These types of games are
basically murder simulators.”
Look, I’m not a parent.
The game is rated M for a reason.
I don’t think I would
let a kid play this game.
But “Manhunt” definitely went
on to have a cult following.
And if you’re into, like,
gritty, gruesome horror,
this definitely is
something that you’ve seen
in movies before, sure, but
not quite in video games.
The game did manage to go
on and have a sequel, too,
where people got riled up again.
(suspenseful music)
– [The Director] Break him!
(enemy grunts)
– [Jake] Next, over at number two,
we talked about Rockstar Games a ton,
so of course we have to
mention “Grand Theft Auto.”
The “Grand Theft Auto” series
existed for years, sure,
but things really turned around
when “Grand Theft Auto III” released.
This was the game’s big,
full shift to open-world 3D,
and it was the first time
players really saw something
like that where you
were free to run around,
crash into whoever you wanted,
murder whoever you want,
do whatever you want,
and it was also the first time parents got
to see their kids play
something like this.
And they were subsequently horrified.
You know, from committing mass murder,
to mowing down police, to
beating up prostitutes,
the game certainly earned its M rating
and we didn’t really see
anything else like that
at the time, so of course
people flipped out.
This was really, for me,
the other big footnote
in video game history
where it kind of leapfrogged
from “Mortal Kombat,” “Night
Trap” days over to this.
“Grand Theft Auto” was and
continues to be the scapegoat.
And it went on for years.
It wasn’t just just with “III,” of course.
There’s the whole “Hot Coffee” thing,
the game depicting sex thing
that we’ve talked about in many videos
that made headlines and
caught the eye of politicians,
to more modern stuff
like “Grand Theft Auto V”
having some racy torture scenes
that bothered some people.
Really, I think at this point it’s like
what “Grand Theft Auto” is gonna do.
“GTA” is just gonna offend people.
I mean, most recently,
the “GTA Trilogy Definitive
Edition” remaster
or rerelease thing
of the original games
definitely offended gamers
by just coming out in poor quality.
But hey, let’s move on.
Down to number one, we
have “Modern Warfare 2.”
No, not the new “Modern Warfare,”
the other “Modern Warfare 2” from 2009.
Are we in a time machine?
Are things just coming back around?
Anyway, the original “Modern Warfare 2”
had a pretty spicy campaign sequence
that you’ve probably heard
of called “No Russian.”
This was a mission
where you were essentially a CIA operative
in deep undercover with Russian terrorists
and the Russian terrorists’
leader, Makarov,
and they had this complex
plan to kick something off,
but ultimately a lot of that started
with them going into a public airport
and essentially committing
mass murder, mass shooting.
So you as the player would
follow all these other terrorists
around this airport shooting
up innocent civilians.
Interestingly enough, you
could skip this sequence,
and you also didn’t necessarily
have to fire your gun
at civilians.
It was less of a gameplay thing
and more of a storytelling thing.
A lot of different types of people
from all walks of life were
not really happy about this.
It was a game where you
essentially committed a terrorist attack,
and countries were not happy with that.
The level was removed from
Russian versions of the game.
It was rated to high hell
and totally disclaimed
as a super mature-rated game in Australia,
the United States.
And ultimately, you can say
that it was a bold story choice.
They tried to do something here.
I don’t know what it really accomplished.
There’s not enough time in this video
to really dig into that,
but it was yet another thing
that definitely brought
some heat onto video games
as a medium.
So those are some games
throughout gaming history
that offended some people
for various reasons.
We covered a lot in this video,
but we tried to keep
it pretty even-keeled,
so we’d love to hear what
you think in the comments.
Please don’t freak out. (chuckles)
But if you like really just talking
about video game history
more than anything,
let us know what you’re thinking.
And if you enjoyed
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But if you’re new, consider subscribing
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Either way, thanks for watching,
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The most aggressive AAA video game
Many games throughout gaming history have caused controversy and pissed some people off.
Let’s take a trip down memory lane with a cool head and look back at eight of the most offensive AAA games of all time.
Starting off with number eight,we might as well start with the one that started at all,the original “Mortal Kombat.”
“Mortal Kombat” when it
originally released to arcades
in 1992 absolutely took
the world by storm, dude.
It was developed by Midway Games
and of course co-created
by Ed Boon and John Tobias.
And with it becoming such
a hugely popular game
with people practically lining
up at the arcade cabinet
to play it, of course eventually
more scrutinizing eyes
would take a look at it,
and that being the media,
parents, politicians,
anyone, you name it,
specifically around the
game’s intense violence,
with the fact that the characters
on-screen were technically
images of real people,
like digitized images,
but also being depicted
with insanely over-the-top
gore with blood and effects,
and heads getting ripped off,
and skulls and everything.
You know “Mortal Kombat” by now.
That caught the attention
of a lot of people.
Specifically, the main
buzzword was the Fatalities,
the big finishing moves
with the over-the-top
and, like, brutal, obnoxious
ways of killing your opponents
and really humiliating them.
By 1993, a lot of U.S.
politicians were fed up
with this whole thing,
and there was a big old
congressional hearing
hot off the heels of “Mortal Kombat”
and other games like “Night
Trap” really being big
in the media for their gore
and the fact that “Mortal
Kombat” was also popping off
on home console release by that time.
It was on both Nintendo
and Sega platforms,
but Nintendo had it censored at the time.
But still, it didn’t matter.
It led to more media
scrutiny, more angry parents,
and more politicians doing
their hearings and all that,
and it continued over to
“Mortal Kombat II” and beyond.
But the original “Mortal Kombat,”
the home console release
was actually banned
in certain countries.
It was really one of the first games
to go all in on the gore,
and it had to suffer the
consequences for that.
But thankfully, “Mortal Kombat” lived on,
and we’re still really playing
the series to this day.
It is considered one of the games
that heralded the creation
of the ESRB, you know,
an established rating system for games.
And “Mortal Kombat’s” history,
whether people have found
it offensive or not,
is really significant and
left a large footprint
in the gaming world.
Next, over at number seven,
something a little bit more tame
but still worth pointing
out is the controversy
around “Bully.”
Yes, big surprise.
A Rockstar Games game was
not so warmly received
by some people, specifically with “Bully”
and how it was centered around,
you guessed it, bullying.
Really, it was the title
itself for a lot of people,
with the fact that it was
actually given a different name
in certain countries to
kind of tame it down.
A lot of this came down to the fact
that Rockstar Games was
already in a lot of hot water
and had a lot of attention
for the “Grand Theft Auto” series,
so the same people that
criticized those games jumped
on “Bully” before it even released.
Of course, former famous Florida lawyer
and basically anti-video
game crusader, Jack Thompson,
was screaming from the rooftops
that this game was a bad influence
and it was essentially
a Columbine simulator,
which is a pretty wild accusation.
But it wasn’t just the United States.
There were movements
in the U.K. and Brazil
to also get the game banned,
and they all had varying
degrees of success.
But ultimately, in North America,
“Bully” released on time.
It was only rated T for Teen,
and it wasn’t really that big of a deal.
To the point where, in fact,
when the game was proposed to
be banned from certain stores,
a judge ruled that there
wasn’t anything in this game
that you wouldn’t see on TV.
And “Bully” really ultimately just ended
up being a don’t judge a
book by its cover type thing
because there really wasn’t much to it
and it certainly didn’t harm the youth.
In fact, in the game,
half the time, you’re not
even doing the bullying.
– [Karl] You little worm!
You better run to class right now!
(upbeat suspenseful music)
– [Jake] And that reminds us,
we need to make more
videos about bullying.
We’re long overdue, so let
us know in the comments
if you want to see something like that.
Now next, over at number
six, we have “BMX XXX.”
This game definitely
offended a lot of people
because of its crude marketing
and, really, the whole
dumb idea behind it.
Essentially, it was from the people
behind the “Dave Mirra BMX” series,
and they wanted to inject new life
into the franchise for the third game,
and they tried to brand
it into this crazy,
crude humor, gross out, but
also over-sexualized thing
to make BMX more exciting.
If you ask me,
I don’t think BMX needs
anything to be exciting.
It’s already pretty awesome.
But apparently, the absolutely
crazy video game executives
at Acclaim at the time thought
that topless girls was
really going to be the thing
to sell the next big
BMX extreme sports game.
If anything, it seemed to
offend Dave Mirra the most,
you know, the late, famous BMX champion,
because he distanced
himself from the project
and ultimately still ended
up suing the publisher
specifically because of the
damage it did to his name.
I don’t think it really
harmed his name that much,
although things did heat up,
because there were reports
that toy stores like Toys R Us,
big retailers like Walmart
and places like that were
refusing to sell the game.
And ultimately, some of
that may have impacted some
of its success.
I played this game as like a
gross, little creepy teenager
back in the day,
and I think the most offensive thing
of the game was like its
really bad attempts at humor.
A lot of the jokes were
just totally cringey.
They were trying to go
for like a “Jackass,”
“American Pie” thing when
that was the big thing,
but it definitely didn’t land.
I think “BMX XXX” is an example of a game
that was offensive in the
news for a period of time,
but ultimately not offensive enough
because it just ended up
being completely forgotten
by modern gamers.
Next down at number five,
we gotta talk “Conker’s Bad Fur Day.”
A game that I think is
really just offensive
to older, more uptight people
who never enjoyed a cartoon
or really anything vaguely raunchy.
“Conker’s Bad Fur Day”
was one of the swan songs
of the Nintendo 64.
In fact, I think it’s one of
the best Nintendo 64 games.
And it was almost like at that point,
Nintendo, interestingly
enough, didn’t allow a ton
of, like, really gross M-rated
games on their platform.
There was “Doom” and, you know,
like the “Resident Evil” port,
but “Conker’s Bad Fur Day” kind
of felt like Nintendo had
moved on to the next console
and kind of let the youngest
sibling do whatever it wanted
and get away with anything.
And that youngest sibling happened
to be “Conker’s Bad Fur Day.”
Do you get the analogy
I’m trying to get at here?
It was a Rare game,
and on the surface, it looked
like another “Banjo-Kazooie,”
fun, cartoony type game.
But this cartoony squirrel
loved to get drunk.
He loved boobs.
He said a lot of bad words,
and there was tons of over-the-top gore.
And it ultimately ended up
being absolutely hilarious
and an incredibly memorable game.
It’s hard to find a ton
of information on it,
but controversial at the time.
Nintendo of Europe didn’t
want to publish it,
and the “L.A. Times” did
publish a piece talking
to some parents about the game
with quotes like, “This is
disgusting, sophomoric humor.”
“I’m disappointed in Nintendo.”
“It’s like Disney releasing pornography.”
Apparently, KB Toys didn’t
want to carry the game.
And to be fair to Nintendo,
they did slap an extra big
warning on the game’s box art.
There was of course the M
rating on the bottom corner,
but there was also a big, long white label
on the bottom of the box
that kind of looked like a
cigarette health warning label.
It says, “Advisory: The game is not
for anyone under age 17.”
You know, as if like the
over-sexualized squirrel girl
and the drunk cartoon
squirrel guy holding a beer
on the box wasn’t enough for you. (laughs)
(jaunty music)
(Conker hiccups)
– Don’t mind if I do.
– [Jake] Ultimately, where I’m at is
that they remade this game
for the original Xbox,
but they need to remake it again
because more people still need to play it.
It’s really funny and dumb in a good way.
Next, over at number
four, we have “Postal.”
Now, the “Postal” series
started off controversial,
and now, I think, in modern day,
it’s trying to chase that controversy,
like it wants that attention again.
But back in the day,
“Postal 2,” specifically,
in 2003, the one to switch
from an isometric shooter
over to a first-person shooter was the one
that definitely got a lot of attention,
specifically because you were
just kind of like a guy going
around murdering everyone.
You pee on stuff, you murder people,
you brutalize people with
weapons, guns, explosions,
everything.
And people weren’t happy about that.
It was banned in New Zealand,
with possibly having a
fine for keeping the game.
They tried to ban it in Sweden.
Some German versions of it
were taken down digitally.
And really, ultimately, from
“Postal 1” to “Postal 2,”
I don’t really think it amounted to much.
It was kind of trying to be satirical,
holding a mirror up to how gross
everything is in the world.
It was structured around days
where you, as the Postal Dude, will go out
and do random everyday tasks,
but also just murder everyone.
To be honest, if you talk to some gamers,
the most offensive thing
about the “Postal” games was
that they were never really
that much fun to play
to begin with.
Controversy, things in games
that just, like, piss
people off, all that aside,
if a game isn’t that fun
to play, that’s it, man.
(fire roaring)
(Postal Dude grunting)
Next, down at number three,
we have yet another headline-grabbing
Rockstar Games game,
“Manhunt.”
“Manhunt” originally released in 2003,
back in the day when
Rockstar was riding high
from all that “GTA” money
and just making a bunch
of weird, quirky projects.
This was a little bit more of, like,
a third-person stealth adventure game
in a really dark and
gritty, gross universe,
kind of stylized as a sort of snuff film.
Now in this game, you
played as James Earl Cash,
who is a death row inmate
who is thrust into this place
where he is forced to kill to survive,
but it gets much, much darker than that.
But the whole thing
was really just gritty,
and icky, and gross
and centered very much around
murdering enemies gruesomely
and brutally
and really intimately with small
weapons from, like, knives,
down to stuff like strangling
a dude with a plastic bag.
This game grabbed attention
of some politicians
who then went to sponsor
special legislation
to find people who would
sell adult-oriented games
to people under the age of 17.
U.S. Rep Joe Baca is quoted as saying,
“It’s telling kids how to kill someone,
and it uses vicious, sadistic
and cruel methods to kill.”
“Manhunt” received tons of media coverage.
Parents obviously flipped out.
There’s tons of quotes
from parents out there
that you can find.
And we’re not really
gonna go into it too deep
because we don’t like to do
the whole true crime thing,
but it was loosely attached
to an unfortunate murder
in the U.K. where a 17-year-old
murdered a 14-year-old.
The game was blamed.
And regardless of that case,
still, the controversy
around the game led to bans
in certain countries, like
of course, New Zealand,
Australia, and some issues in Canada,
and of course tons of
scrutiny in the United States
by none other than good old Jack Thompson,
who said, and I quote,
“We have had dozens of
killings in the United States
by children who had played
these types of games.
These types of games are
basically murder simulators.”
Look, I’m not a parent.
The game is rated M for a reason.
I don’t think I would
let a kid play this game.
But “Manhunt” definitely went
on to have a cult following.
And if you’re into, like,
gritty, gruesome horror,
this definitely is
something that you’ve seen
in movies before, sure, but
not quite in video games.
The game did manage to go
on and have a sequel, too,
where people got riled up again.
(suspenseful music)
– [The Director] Break him!
(enemy grunts)
– [Jake] Next, over at number two,
we talked about Rockstar Games a ton,
so of course we have to
mention “Grand Theft Auto.”
The “Grand Theft Auto” series
existed for years, sure,
but things really turned around
when “Grand Theft Auto III” released.
This was the game’s big,
full shift to open-world 3D,
and it was the first time
players really saw something
like that where you
were free to run around,
crash into whoever you wanted,
murder whoever you want,
do whatever you want,
and it was also the first time parents got
to see their kids play
something like this.
And they were subsequently horrified.
You know, from committing mass murder,
to mowing down police, to
beating up prostitutes,
the game certainly earned its M rating
and we didn’t really see
anything else like that
at the time, so of course
people flipped out.
This was really, for me,
the other big footnote
in video game history
where it kind of leapfrogged
from “Mortal Kombat,” “Night
Trap” days over to this.
“Grand Theft Auto” was and
continues to be the scapegoat.
And it went on for years.
It wasn’t just just with “III,” of course.
There’s the whole “Hot Coffee” thing,
the game depicting sex thing
that we’ve talked about in many videos
that made headlines and
caught the eye of politicians,
to more modern stuff
like “Grand Theft Auto V”
having some racy torture scenes
that bothered some people.
Really, I think at this point it’s like
what “Grand Theft Auto” is gonna do.
“GTA” is just gonna offend people.
I mean, most recently,
the “GTA Trilogy Definitive
Edition” remaster
or rerelease thing
of the original games
definitely offended gamers
by just coming out in poor quality.
But hey, let’s move on.
Down to number one, we
have “Modern Warfare 2.”
No, not the new “Modern Warfare,”
the other “Modern Warfare 2” from 2009.
Are we in a time machine?
Are things just coming back around?
Anyway, the original “Modern Warfare 2”
had a pretty spicy campaign sequence
that you’ve probably heard
of called “No Russian.”
This was a mission
where you were essentially a CIA operative
in deep undercover with Russian terrorists
and the Russian terrorists’
leader, Makarov,
and they had this complex
plan to kick something off,
but ultimately a lot of that started
with them going into a public airport
and essentially committing
mass murder, mass shooting.
So you as the player would
follow all these other terrorists
around this airport shooting
up innocent civilians.
Interestingly enough, you
could skip this sequence,
and you also didn’t necessarily
have to fire your gun
at civilians.
It was less of a gameplay thing
and more of a storytelling thing.
A lot of different types of people
from all walks of life were
not really happy about this.
It was a game where you
essentially committed a terrorist attack,
and countries were not happy with that.
The level was removed from
Russian versions of the game.
It was rated to high hell
and totally disclaimed
as a super mature-rated game in Australia,
the United States.
And ultimately, you can say
that it was a bold story choice.
They tried to do something here.
I don’t know what it really accomplished.
There’s not enough time in this video
to really dig into that,
but it was yet another thing
that definitely brought
some heat onto video games
as a medium.
So those are some games
throughout gaming history
that offended some people
for various reasons.
We covered a lot in this video,
but we tried to keep
it pretty even-keeled,
so we’d love to hear what
you think in the comments.
Please don’t freak out. (chuckles)
But if you like really just talking
about video game history
more than anything,
let us know what you’re thinking.
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