Games You Were Not Allowed To Play...

orubiru

Christmas of 1992. I was due to get Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and was super, SUPER, excited about it.

Cue some mainstream media assholes whipping up a frenzy about kids having epileptic seizures from playing Sonic 2. Christmas Cancelled.

My poor brother, obsessed with Pokemon on Gameboy. My folks went to the church (evangelist) one Sunday and some clown was banging on about the "evils" of Pokemon. Confiscated. Never to be given back. (The very same thing happened to him with the Harry Potter books)

Of course, these days when some poorly informed dunce criticizes video games I immediately embark on a hateful harassment campaign so that they can't take away my vidyas! :eek:

Anyways, what games were you forbidden to play?

Skerries

kiss chasing

Falthyron

Not exactly sure of my age at the time, but I got my hands on a pirated copy of Resident Evil for the PSOne. A moment's glimpse at the cutscene of your character dying (zombies pulling you to the ground and eating your intestines) and my Dad said enough was enough. Still though, no problems with playing Duke Nukem and giving 5 dollar bills to the strippers and saying 'Your face, your ass, what's the difference?'...!

Retr0gamer

Wasn't allowed a Super Nintendo because of that whole epilepsy bull**** that happened around the launch of the Super nitendo. I kept coming back from my friends house from playing 10+ hour sessions of Street Fighter 2 with big red eyes. My mam said it was epilepsy and therefore wasn't allowed a super nintendo that I wanted but a Megadrive was fine. Also had to hide the fact I was going to a friends house to play SNES for hours on end.

Mortal Kombat wasn't allowed either so that had to be snook in and played when the parents weren't watching. They were bloody awful games in retrospect so maybe they were doing me a favour and getting me to play more street fighter 2.

Still it wasn't as bad as with my dad. He was banned by my mother from playing any games because of his outrageous language trying to play Desert Strike

hots

GTA London. Bought it for £5 when out for the day with my grandparents and convinced them it was ok. Parents decided otherwise, I missed out on the GTA-goodness until Vice City many years later... Would love GTA 6 to be in London.

imitation

I was a teen at an interesting time, when the likes of GTA and carmageddon were whipping everybody into a frenzy. I still managed to play most of them, I had the carmageddon 2 cover disk practically worn out. My parents never paid heed to what I played, but at the same time I had to source the games myself. I don't think GAME were too pushed about age rules.

Games back then were comic compared to the ragdoll physics now, back then it was a sprite splatting comically when you hit it at 25mph, now its ragdoll physics of a dude flying over the bonnet and landing with a crunch, too realistic to be enjoyable in my books, hench why I drive like a granny in gta v.

circadian

My brother and I had our Megadrive confiscated for a week after an on screen EA Hockey fight became a real life one.

circadian

imitation wrote: »

I was a teen at an interesting time, when the likes of GTA and carmageddon were whipping everybody into a frenzy. I still managed to play most of them, I had the carmageddon 2 cover disk practically worn out. My parents never paid heed to what I played, but at the same time I had to source the games myself. I don't think GAME were too pushed about age rules.

Games back then were comic compared to the ragdoll physics now, back then it was a sprite splatting comically when you hit it at 25mph, now its ragdoll physics of a dude flying over the bonnet and landing with a crunch, too realistic to be enjoyable in my books, hench why I drive like a granny in gta v.

Carmageddon 2 +pinball mode

Akrasia

There were periods when street-fighter was banned but that was only because our little brother kept crying whenever he lost and my older brother complained when anyone used a 'cheap' move against him

Stone Deaf 4evr

Akrasia wrote: »

There were periods when street-fighter was banned but that was only because our little brother kept crying whenever he lost and my older brother complained when anyone used a 'cheap' move against him

we had SF2 on the sega megadrive. there was more fights over who had to use the 3 button controller (we only had one 6 button one) than there were fights on screen.

Exclamation Marc

I remember not being allowed play the original GTA by name although my mum had no idea what it was so I happily played it with her blissfully unaware what I was playing.

In fairness though, my folks were always fairly trusting of me in games. I'm sure my mum walked in on me playing Manhunt once and I just had to pause so as not to alarm her!

Oh and I wasn't allowed play Super Mario 64 once because I wouldn't let my cousin play. Ha.

Noxin

Commodore 64 - Pang, due to the rage inducing insanity it brought on me.
Literally picking up the commodore and throwing it across the room. Best system ever. Would always continue to work after it's punishment for cheating me during games.

I think it was in the year 95 my mother hid my copy of Wario Land for my gameboy

Never forget it. The day previous I was playing it for hours with no homework done. Never got to play it again until about 6 months later because she forgot where she hid it... Grrr

Accidentally found it while cleaning my room, those memories don't leave you, the happy head on me

RobertFoster

M!Ck^ wrote: »

I think it was in the year 95 my mother hid my copy of Wario Land for my gameboy

Never forget it. The day previous I was playing it for hours with no homework done. Never got to play it again until about 6 months later because she forgot where she hid it... Grrr

Accidentally found it while cleaning my room, those memories don't leave you, the happy head on me

That could have been her plan all along!


I don't think I was ever not allowed to play anything. The length of time I was playing was more of an issue than the content, though that didn't bother me. Even now I sometimes get bored or restless playing the same thing for hours on end.

CiDeRmAn

I came to gaming in the mid eighties as a teenager, so nothing was off limits.
She Who Must Be Obeyed has taken issue with the mere existence of Bloodborne in the house and had me delete Abe's Oddyssee from the PS4 on discovering the rather from story underneath the visuals.
I'm just glad she hasn't spotted Manhunt or House of the Dead Overkill....

Retr0gamer

There's a hell of a lot worse than Bloodborne. What does she find offensive about it or is it just the creepy atmosphere?

orubiru

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Wasn't allowed a Super Nintendo because of that whole epilepsy bull**** that happened around the launch of the Super nitendo. I kept coming back from my friends house from playing 10+ hour sessions of Street Fighter 2 with big red eyes. My mam said it was epilepsy and therefore wasn't allowed a super nintendo that I wanted but a Megadrive was fine. Also had to hide the fact I was going to a friends house to play SNES for hours on end.

Mortal Kombat wasn't allowed either so that had to be snook in and played when the parents weren't watching. They were bloody awful games in retrospect so maybe they were doing me a favour and getting me to play more street fighter 2.

Still it wasn't as bad as with my dad. He was banned by my mother from playing any games because of his outrageous language trying to play Desert Strike

Yeah, Mortal Kombat 2 was another big release that was banned around our house.

I suppose it was one of the first to have an age rating on it? So maybe my folks were right to ban it. I don't remember.

Looking back now it seems so ridiculous. The violence was way more comical than realistic. No doubt it was just controversy whipped up by the media that led to my parents deciding we couldn't play that stuff.

Reading up on the controversy around MK and games being banned in general is fascinating though.

"In 1999, Brazil banned Mortal Kombat, Postal, Carmageddon, and four violent first-person shooters for allegedly inspiring twenty-four-year-old medical student Mateus da Costa Meira's deadly shooting rampage in a cinema in São Paulo, which was primarily blamed on Duke Nukem 3D."

Retr0gamer

Mortal Kombat was the first game with an age rating. It was MK and Night Trap that lead the the congressional hearings on videogame violence, it's very interesting to read up on. Basically Nintendo threw the whole industry under the bus at the hearings and it eventually lead to the Pegi age rating system.

Mr E

Something more current. My niece and nephew aren't allowed play co-op Yoshi's Woolly World on Wii U any more. One Yoshi would swallow the other in heated moments and it would lead to fists flying, shouting and tears (seriously). Good job, Nintendo.

Single player only from now on, taking turns!

kunst nugget

Just went to buy Manhunt 2 for the Vita/PSP and couldn't find it on the store before I copped that it's still banned. So I guess I'm still not allowed to play Manhunt 2.

(I know I could buy it on a UK account but I couldn't be bothered going through the minor hassle of changing accounts on the Vita for a €1.60 game)

Retr0gamer

kunst nugget wrote: »

Just went to buy Manhunt 2 for the Vita/PSP and couldn't find it on the store before I copped that it's still banned. So I guess I'm still not allowed to play Manhunt 2.

In this case they are doing you a favour.

pablomakaveli

Wasnt allowed to get GTA till i was around 11 or 12. Finally convinced my mam to let me get it. She never minded buying me over 18 games after that. She bought me Vice City and San Andreas in the preceding years. Even pre-ordered SA and picked it up on launch day for me.

brianregan09

I seen Manhunt 2 on sale in Xtra Vision in Limerick for a fiver it was there for ages , went in one day to actually buy it and it was gone oh well

CiDeRmAn

Retr0gamer wrote: »

There's a hell of a lot worse than Bloodborne. What does she find offensive about it or is it just the creepy atmosphere?

Blood, blades, horror, more blood and the fact I had Cidonalad watching me play.

um7y1h83ge06nx

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Cidonalad

Class!

kunst nugget

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Blood, blades, horror, more blood and the fact I had Cidonalad watching me play.

The missus gave me awful guff for letting the little kunsts watch me skinning animals in Far Cry 3.

The_Valeyard

Lucky for me, my parents had no idea about game rating or how violent they really were.


Nothing was off limits, because they hadn't a breeze.

Clankatron

The_Valeyard wrote: »

Lucky for me, my parents had no idea about game rating or how violent they really were.


Nothing was off limits, because they hadn't a breeze.

Lucky bastard!

Took a hell of a lot of convincing to get my old pair on board with Mortal Kombat 2, Doom and Resident Evil 1.

Asked for Doom on the Snes at Xmas and got Super Metroid instead. Realised later that they'd unwittingly done me a favour, as Metroid turned out to be class. ha

The_Valeyard

Clankatron wrote: »

Lucky bastard!

Took a hell of a lot of convincing to get my old pair on board with Mortal Kombat 2, Doom and Resident Evil 1.

Asked for Doom on the Snes at Xmas and got Super Metroid instead. Realised later that they'd unwittingly done me a favour, as Metroid turned out to be class. ha

I honestly think they were just happy it kept me quiet and out of trouble for a while.

CiDeRmAn

My folks never checked on me either, though I was playing a Spectrum at the time so not much unpleasantness there to speak of, aside from a poorly rendered Sam Fox Strip Poker!

Skerries

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

My folks never checked on me either, though I was playing a Spectrum at the time so not much unpleasantness there to speak of, aside from a poorly rendered Sam Fox Strip Poker!

yeah we didn't have Hot Coffee mods for the Dizzy games

CiDeRmAn

Skerries wrote: »

yeah we didn't have Hot Coffee mods for the Dizzy games

I hated those games, though they came just a tad late for me on the format, I never liked the obtuse nature of the puzzles, no logic, I had had enough of that with the Spellbound/Knight Tyme games!

folamh

When I was eleven I tried to buy GTA3 while on a scouting trip. I was refused.

Thargor

I never had to ask someone to buy me alcohol outside a shop because we always had people with easy access in our group but I did have to shuffle up to people in Smyths and ask them to buy me GTA and Carmageddon back in the day, parents hadn't a clue what we were playing at home though.

Gamer Bhoy 89

I can vaguely remember not being allowed to rent MegaDrive games if they had "Three red ticks" on the back but it wasn't a very persistent thing - I think it depended on which parent/guardian was with me when I went into Blockbuster. I had played Mortal Kombat and the likes so I don't think I was ever restricted.

I've been playing video games since the age of 3 and my first violent game outside of MK was Thrill Kill for the PS1..... Now, I think that may have been the only game me and my cousin played when my auntie wasn't minding us.

If you don't know Thrill Kill, I suggest you look it up. Imagine a 10 year old gettin stuck into that. My god it was amazing back then - horrible by today's standards but it's fairly rare, I think.

My brother was introduced to GTA 3 at the age of 3 and he loved it :P

Games are not restricted in my family at all

Retr0gamer

Thrill Kill isn't so much rare since it never got released. It was a load of arse from what I played of it. It eventually got made into a Wu Tang fighting game that wasn't too bad.

Gamer Bhoy 89

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Thrill Kill isn't so much rare since it never got released. It was a load of arse from what I played of it. It eventually got made into a Wu Tang fighting game that wasn't too bad.

Well I suppose it was a pirate copy after all, I never seen the real game anywhere since.

Retr0gamer

Gamer Bhoy 89 wrote: »

Well I suppose it was a pirate copy after all, I never seen the real game anywhere since.

The original publisher was bought out by EA who decided not to publish the game. The developers were so annoyed by it they released the near complete game online.

Gamer Bhoy 89

Retr0gamer wrote: »

The original publisher was bought out by EA who decided not to publish the game. The developers were so annoyed by it they released the near complete game online.

I'd say emulators would be the quickest way nowadays

I've always been allowed to watch or play anything I want.

Apparently when I was really young (4-6), I used to watch parts of Robocop in slow motion. You know that part where his hand is blown off near the start. Yeah that in slow motion. No problem my dad said.

Strangely I've gotten more squeamish as I've gotten older.

Baron McBoomBoom

Duke Nukem 3d My mother happened into the room as I was paying a stripper to flash me. Got my father to delete the game and I was too young and inexperienced to reinstall. I got to play it eventually though and all was well with the world again Then Duke Nukem Forever happened >:(

BeerWolf

I had zero restrictions when it came to gaming while growing up...

spiritcrusher

Only bother I had was when Syphon Filter 3 came out my Dad walked by as I was carefully lining up a sniper head shot and copped that a 13 year old possibly shouldn't be playing that.
"But I've already played Syphon Filter 2 and haven't killed anyone..."
"Hmm... I suppose."
That was all that was said.

ancapailldorcha

The mother managed to get a copy of this when I was young. She constantly refused to buy me a Game Boy so I probably would never have gotten to play Pokémon anyway. I don't think she ever read the book though as I'd have had my Harry Potter books confiscated as well.

SureYWouldntYa

BeerWolf wrote: »

I had zero restrictions when it came to gaming while growing up...

I got GTA Vice City for my 10th birthday

My brother got his GTA San Andreas for his 6th birthday

Direct quote from my parents to every other parent who wondered why we had the games, "Sure the age things are only a guideline"

My brother has quite a few anger issues 10 years later, scored a fluke in Rocket League, and he got up and stamped on the remote. Probably wasn't the best idea giving us them games mam

Vojera

I was off school for a few days with a bad cold when I was about 13. Once I was feeling a bit better and not sleeping all day I was allowed to turn on the TV in my room, so I had myself wrapped up in a duvet playing FF VII. I was in the middle of fighting the boss in the lift of Shinra Tower when I felt something tickling my hand. I looked down and my hand and the controller were getting spattered with blood. I was having the worst nosebleed I've ever had in my life, it took ages to get it stopped. I now know that that sometimes happens at the end of a cold, but my mother flipped and banned me from FF VII, saying that was after causing it. After a week or so she had forgotten, though.

And it's not that I wasn't allowed to play Tekken, but my mum loved the Galaxia game on the loading screen at the start so she'd go "Oh, let me have a go of that" and an hour later she'd still be going "yeah, yeah, one more game."

I think she considered banning me and my sister from GTA but then we told her we got bonus points for running over all the Hare Krishnas and she thought that was funny so she let us be. In hindsight she seems a little crazy.

orubiru

SureYWouldntYa wrote: »

I got GTA Vice City for my 10th birthday

My brother got his GTA San Andreas for his 6th birthday

Direct quote from my parents to every other parent who wondered why we had the games, "Sure the age things are only a guideline"

My brother has quite a few anger issues 10 years later, scored a fluke in Rocket League, and he got up and stamped on the remote. Probably wasn't the best idea giving us them games mam

Haha. Maybe your folks should have made you write an essay like this kid below!

http://theheathermcnamara.tumblr.com/post/131267075353/theheathermcnamara-theheathermcnamara-a-few

kunst nugget

orubiru wrote: »

Haha. Maybe your folks should have made you write an essay like this kid below!

http://theheathermcnamara.tumblr.com/post/131267075353/theheathermcnamara-theheathermcnamara-a-few

So it's only bad to kill in videogames if you kill women?

How many mainstream games out there containing the ability to rape characters? I haven't come across any myself…

Potential-Monke

kunst nugget wrote: »

How many mainstream games out there containing the ability to rape characters? I haven't come across any myself…

Well in Japan...

I was never banned from anything that i can recall, but the weather back in 1997 on Christmas eve "banned" me from playing. After spending 4 hours in the mothers car unpacking an packing my brand new PS1 and Destruction Derby 2, the 1/2 hour drive home was intense, as i watched the electricity go off house by house on the drive home. Got home, still have power, set everything up, turned on, just getting that glorious start up sound (which is now my pc start up sound), then poof. Electricity gone. For 5 days. The longest 5 days of my life!!!

kunst nugget

I am on the other side of this now as a father of two girls and there are a couple of games I'd be sketchy about letting my kids play but thankfully they seem to show little interest in them. I was letting my 11 year old watch as I played through Life is Strange during the initial episodes but I knocked that on the head as it handled themes, while never explicitly, that were quite dark and I really didn't think she needed to be dealing with them.

orubiru

kunst nugget wrote: »

I am on the other side of this now as a father of two girls and there are a couple of games I'd be sketchy about letting my kids play but thankfully they seem to show little interest in them. I was letting my 11 year old watch as I played through Life is Strange during the initial episodes but I knocked that on the head as it handled themes, while never explicitly, that were quite dark and I really didn't think she needed to be dealing with them.

As games are becoming more like movies or TV shows in the way that they deal with themes, I think that it's definitely appropriate nowadays for parents to regulate what games their kids can view and/or participate in.

I think if a parent wouldn't, for example, let their kids watch Game of Thrones then why would they turn round and let them play GTA V or something like that?