The release of upcoming PS3 collaborative platform game LittleBigPlanet has been delayed (probably for a few weeks), after it emerged that music used in the game featured verses from the Qur’an. But the game is hardly the worst offender of religious sensibilities. Here are the others…
10. LittleBigPlanet (PS3) – Sony has released a statement: “One of the background music tracks licensed in the game contains two expressions that can be found in the Qur’an. We have taken immediate action to rectify this and we sincerely apologise for any offence that this may have caused.”
9. Kakuto Chojin (Xbox) – In 2003, Microsoft recalled the fighting game because it also featured background music that sampled passages of the Qur’an. Wii puzzle adventure Zack & Wiki fared better – Capcom apparently removed the phrase “Allahu akbar” (God is great) to “address Muslim concerns” according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations before release.
8. Spore (PC) – Will Wright’s latest game sees you evolving alien lifeforms from single-celled sea dwellers to space faring civilisations while fighting off and outwitting other life. The game however has so far failed to really get creationists going. And the most widely-publicised anti-Spore campaign turned out to be an elaborate “Rick Roll” prank.
7. Resistance: Fall Of Man (PS3) – Sony’s attempt to take on Halo saw you fighting an alien invasion in a ruined alternative-reality 1950s England. One section of the game sited a shootout inside Manchester Cathedral. The Bishop’s spokesperson labelled the game “sick” and a “desecration”. Sony eventually apologised.
6. God Of War series (PS2) – God Of War 2 was banned in Saudi Arabia (alongside Call Of Duty 4 for featuring Al Mujahadeen fighting forces and Assassin’s Creed for being set in the Crusades). The original got hit in the UAE for the plot being about killing a series of gods.
5. Postal 2 (PC) – The game that set out to offend absolutely everyone sees you “going postal” in Paradise, Arizona. Missions include hunting down Osama Bin Laden in Tora Bora and escaping a burning library set on fire by book protestors. Even the company that makes the town’s goat milk cartons is called “Jihad”!
4. Messiah (PC) – The 1998 videogame saw you as a tiny-winged cherub trying to “earn your wings by saving humanity”. How did you do this? By leaping into people’s bodies to possess them, then generally killing them off by jumping off tall buildings while you jumped to the next body. Predictably, the Christian right in the US campaigned to have it banned.
3. Left Behind: Eternal Forces (PC) – A PC game based on the Christian post “rapture” book series. As a commander of the Christian “Tribulation Force” you have to fight against the forces of the antichrist – essentially UN forces plus rock musicians and “secularists”. Muslim groups and even some moderate Christian groups called for its withdrawal. American Atheists called the game: “a violent Christian videogame that promotes religious bigotry and intolerance.”
2. Hitman 2: Silent Assassin (GameCube, PC, PS2, Xbox) – The anonymous assassin game featured one level set inside a Sikh temple, with the antihero main character killing turbaned Sikhs as terrorists. Worse, the temple resembled the Golden Temple at Amritsar, site of a historical massacre of Sikhs. Eidos agreed to remove these elements of the game.
1. Shin Megami Tensei series (various) – Long-running Japanese role-playing series that seems to have set out to outdo even Postal in controversy stakes. The series has included shotgun suicide as a gameplay mechanic, as well as cannibalism, the return of an undead Adolf Hitler and throughout, Satanism. Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, allowed a Western release, probably is the worst offender. Like the others, much of the gameplay involves collecting a party of demons (one reviewer described it as “Pokemon in hell”). In Nocturne, this is done to a backdrop of the apocalypse and a battle between an uncaring, ruthless God and a rebellious, but noble Satan. Yet… the series seems to have avoided game-burnings or calls for it to be banned. Until now. Ban this sick filth!
Think we’ve missed a game? Then get tapping and let us know!
