Australia’s Classification Review Board has refused to rate the upcoming Mortal Kombat re-boot. Without a rating, the game cannot be sold there, ie, the game is effectively banned down under.
The game, which will be released on April 19 here in North America, contains the usual level of Mortal Kombat violence, judging by the videos I’ve seen online. You’d think we’d be past the thinking that “violent video games” turns everyone in maniacs, but apparently not. Never mind that the average age of a gamer, according to the Entertainment Software Association, is 34-years old.
Australia has a long and storied history of refusing to rate games games, the biggest recent example being Left4Dead 2. Valve was forced to submit a heavily modified version of the game to the classification board, which then approved this version. Valve tried to get the uncensored version approved, but the classification board again refused.
It’s pretty great: think of the thousands and thousands of hours sunk into Left4Dead 2 by gamers all over the world, and I can’t remember one story where someone picked up an axe then started swinging wildly in a circus.