Being a teenage Australian gamer in the mid-2000s was a frustrating time if you liked games with a bit of violence or adult content. I grew up playing games like GoldenEye 007, Perfect Dark and Conker’s Bad Fur Day on the Nintendo 64 around the time I was 11 or 12, then later in high school titles like DOOM on PC and Game Boy Advance, Unreal Tournament on PC, and 007 Nightfire and Timesplitters 2 on Nintendo GameCube. These were all games with a bit of bite, some blood, some edgy humour, maybe a cheeky swear word or two. But I also loved the family-friendly stuff like Mario, Donkey Kong, Kirby and Banjo-Kazooie, especially anything with multiplayer or four-player party games.
This was all before the internet was as widely available as it is today, and it used to be incredibly frustrating to hear about all these cool new games coming out overseas, only to discover they were being censored in Australia due to our strict ratings board, or worse, banned entirely. I collected video game magazines for decades and would often read about these cool new games that were in development, only to find that their Australian release had been cancelled.
Whilst I still consider 3D platform adventure games to be my favourite genre (which has luckily had a resurgence in recent years), I’ve always had a curiosity for the more controversial titles, the ones the government didn’t want you to play. There was a certain allure to them, not just because they were violent or edgy, but because the Australian Classification Board (ACB) had decided they were too much for us to handle.
Back then, before the R18+ classification was introduced for video games in 2013, Australia’s highest rating was MA15+. That meant anything deemed too extreme for a 15-year-old was either refused classification (RC), essentially banned from sale or distribution, or heavily edited before it could hit store shelves. It was a time of bizarre double standards, where films could be rated R18+ but games with the same content were refused classification. The logic was that games were “interactive,” and therefore more impactful, leading to stricter scrutiny.
Let’s take a look back at some of the most well-known games that were banned, refused classification, recalled or censored in Australia prior to the R18+ rating, and how that affected a whole generation of gamers.
Manhunt (2003)
One of the most infamous cases, Manhunt, was originally released as MA 15+ in Australia and was recalled after already selling 18,000 units in 2004, at the direction of Attorney General Philip Ruddock. Developed by Rockstar Games, it was a stealth-action horror game where you played a death row inmate forced to perform brutal executions in snuff films. The game’s intense violence and psychological themes pushed it far beyond what the ACB was willing to tolerate. The ban sparked plenty of media outrage, only fuelling the game’s underground legend among Aussie gamers.
Luckily for me, I later found both a PS2 and an Xbox copy of the game at Cash Converters for cheap, yet I never actually got around to playing it.
BMX XXX (2002)
BMX XXX tried to market itself as an edgy, adult take on the extreme sports genre, a blend of Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX gameplay with nudity, crude humour, and strip club sequences. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t sit well with the ACB as in the Guidelines for the Classification of Computer Games, nudity, including genitalia, is only allowable in a game if there is a ‘bona fide’ educational, medical or community health purpose. It was one of the first games that many Australian gamers remember being openly banned, and its reputation quickly grew because of it. Interestingly, other markets like the US got censored versions, but Australia didn’t get a release at all. I recall my cousin from New Zealand trying to find a copy of it in Australia, as it was also banned there. I picked up a copy of this on a family holiday at Video Games New York for GameCube (NTSC) and didn’t play it for more than a few minutes as it wasn’t very good.
Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude (2004)
This raunchy comedy game was banned in Australia for its overt sexual content and crude humour. A reboot of the classic Leisure Suit Larry series, Magna Cum Laude followed Larry Lovage as he tried (and usually failed) to win the hearts of various women on a college campus. Despite its cartoonish presentation, the game’s mini-games and explicit innuendos were deemed too sexually explicit for an MA15+ audience. The ACB refused classification, and the game was effectively banned. Ironically, the humour was tame by American standards, but in Australia, it was treated like an adults-only film with no legal pathway to release. I recall getting a pirated copy of it at a LAN party as a teen and later finding an imported copy from the UK at a Cash Converters store years later.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004)
While earlier GTA titles like GTA III slipped through with MA15+ ratings, San Andreas got pulled from shelves in 2005 after the discovery of the “Hot Coffee” mod, a hidden sex mini-game that was locked away in the code but could be accessed with mods. The ACB didn’t take kindly to it and reclassified the game as RC. Rockstar eventually released a patched version with the content removed to get it back on shelves, so this game is now very easy to obtain and has been released on various platforms, but with this part removed.
Marc Ecko’s Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure (2006)
This one was banned not for violence, gore or sex, but because it “promoted graffiti.” The ACB deemed that Getting Up glorified vandalism and refused classification. It was a surprising decision that highlighted the system’s conservatism and out-of-touchness, especially since similar themes in film or TV were permitted under the R18+ film classification.
Fallout 3 (2008)
When Fallout 3 landed on the ACB’s desk, the issue wasn’t the extreme violence or decapitations; it was the use of real-world drug names. The game allowed players to use “morphine” to boost stats, and the board argued this promoted drug use. Bethesda responded by changing the drug’s name to “Med-X” and similar fictional alternatives, allowing the game to be classified MA15+. It was an odd workaround, but it worked. However, the publishers ultimately changed this for all countries. So good, one ACB, you ruined it for everyone.
Silent Hill: Homecoming (2008)
Known for its disturbing imagery and psychological horror, Silent Hill: Homecoming was refused classification in Australia due to scenes of torture and graphic violence, including detailed dismemberment. Konami later released a censored version with the most extreme content removed to satisfy the ACB.
Left 4 Dead 2 (2009)
This was a favourite of mine when it came out. This co-op zombie shooter was refused classification in its original form due to “realistic, frenetic and unrelenting violence.” The Australian release was censored to an absurd degree: dismemberment was removed, blood was reduced, and zombie corpses simply faded away instead of falling to the ground. The censored version was so unpopular that many gamers imported the uncensored version from overseas or used VPNs to get the proper version on Steam. I imported the Xbox 360 version from Singapore (I think) and also picked up a PC version on a trip to India, although that didn’t work with my Australian Steam account, so that was a waste of money.
Mortal Kombat (2011)
By 2011, Mortal Kombat’s signature fatalities had evolved into some of the most brutal animations in gaming. The ACB refused to classify the reboot of the series, citing excessive violence and “impact” well beyond the MA15+ limit. Australian gamers were again forced to import or wait, and the game was only officially released once the R18+ classification became available two years later. I bought a copy from the USA on a work trip, ironically, that version is still refused classification, despite the later Australian release having the same stuff in it with additional content.
The Push for R18+ in Games
Years of mounting frustration led to a sustained public campaign for an R18+ rating. Industry groups, developers, parents and politicians all argued that adult players deserved access to games with mature content, just like they did with films. After over a decade of public debate, the R18+ classification for games was finally introduced on 1 January 2013. It was a huge step forward, and titles like Mortal Kombat, The Witcher 2, and Outlast were among the first to benefit.
However, censorship hasn’t disappeared completely. Games like DayZ (banned for in-game drug use) and We Happy Few (initially refused classification) have demonstrated that the ACB continues to monitor content closely. However, the standards have relaxed somewhat with the introduction of the new rating system.
Conclusion
For Australian gamers who came of age in the pre-R18+ era, censorship wasn’t just annoying — it shaped our relationship with games. It turned playing certain titles into acts of rebellion. It taught us how to import, modify, patch, and circumvent the system. While younger gamers today can legally buy games like The Last of Us Part II or Cyberpunk 2077 without issue, those of us who grew up in the mid-2000s will never forget the strange, censored landscape we had to navigate.
Whether it was modding Left 4 Dead 2, finding a copy of Manhunt in a second-hand shop, or feeling the thrill of booting up an imported Mortal Kombat disc, we were part of a uniquely Australian chapter in gaming history, one that I hope never to repeat, but which I will never forget.
