A lack of standards (The OFLC)

This post is a followup to my last post on boobies in God of War. I felt that a rant about the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) was in order.

I think the fact the OFLC deems God of War fine for consumption by 15 year olds, but Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude and Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure not, indicates that Larry and Getting Up were most likely banned based on their reputation rather than an actual review of their contents. One is know to be about trying to get laid and the other is known to be about graffiti.

Further support for this apparant lack of real content review is the game Mark of Kri. The opening cinematics consist of traditional hand-drawn animation very reminiscent of a Disney animated film. If this was all you saw of the game, you would probably think “Oh, this game is harmless and suitable for small children” and I think that is why Mark of Kri was originally released with a G rating. I know, I have a copy with a G rating symbol printed on the front.

When you actually play the game, you realise that it is at least as violent as God of War and probably more so. Case in point: it has a level in which you slaughter as many enemies as possible with a battle axe that slices and dices limbs, spines, and heads. The enemies that end up with no legs attempt to pull themselves away with their arms until they either bleed to death or you provide the finishing blow.

Well someone must have complained because the G ratings were soon covered with MA rating stickers and later versions of the game came out with MA ratings printed on the packaging. I’ll post a photo of the original G rated packaging sometime.

Conclusion: No respect (For the OFLC)

Note: I personally don’t think that any of these games should be banned. We need an R rating for video games in Australia!