Live Magazine February Issue February 2014 | Page 69

MORTAL KOMBAT (MIDWAY GAMES ARCADE 1992)
I’ll never forget laying my eyes on the game for the
first time at a local Fish ’n Chip shop and how much
blood there was in the game. Mortal Kombat was not
the first game of its genre, but definitely one of the
first to push graphic and (at the time) realistic visual
content to a video game.
The main factor of controversy in this game was in
fact the Fatalities which were finishing moves performed at the end of the round entails mutilating the
opponent in the most violent way possible.
In fact this is one of the first games that pushed governments around the world to implement classification ratings systems for home video game systems.
It also was one of the most infamous for censorship
with home console ports.
For example, the SNES version had the blood replaced with sweat, and the Mega Drive version had
the blood and fatalities hidden which was unlockable
with a code. That code was plastered later on TV
commercials from SEGA and gaming magazines.
Good ol’ A,B,A,C,A,B,B at the Kombat Kode dialog
screen.. Whoops!

DOOM (ID SOFTWARE DOS 1993) NIGHT TRAP (DIGITAL PICTURES MEGA CD 1992)
Ahh yes, this game has been ported on
so many platforms and devices like digital
cameras and calculators, and also caused
a large stir with the general populace. Being one of the buzz words used in mainstream media and also a title blamed for
the Columbine Massacre among other
shootings around that time.
For those of you who don’t know, Doom is
a 1st person shooter made by id Software
who created Wolfenstein 3D which gets an
honourable mention. You play as a marine
sent to a facility on Mars where demons
have broken loose and are causing major
havoc on the planet.
As mentioned above, this game has been
ported on just about every gaming platform
you can think of so finding a copy will not
be hard.

One of the more ‘well known unknowns’ in video game history was the
Full-Motion Adventure (or FMV) game Night Trap which was released as a
launch title for the SEGA Mega CD add-on for the Mega Drive.
Night Trap is about a group of friends having a sleep over in a huge house
which is covered with surveillance cameras which you, an agent of the
SEGA Control Attack Team must survey and lay traps down. The content in
the game was deemed controversial due to the violent imagery rather than
visible violence or sexual scenes filmed. Thankfully the controversies only
lasted a year, then forgotten and later ported to 3DO, Mac, and DOS.