Even though these games were controversial when they came out, they have lost their edge and are now just cute.
Video games have always been a source of debate, with people worried about everything from the risk of becoming addicted to the effects of violent games on players. The end result of these arguments was the creation of the ESRB rating system, which helps parents and players decide which games are right for them. As a result of these debates, issues like censorship in video games have come up. For example, some countries have strict rules about what can and can’t be shown in games.
But as the modern gaming world has changed, parents and politicians no longer use games as a way to push their own ideas. Most of the time, violent scenes, sexual material, and other controversial topics are shown in games today in a tasteful way that won’t really offend anyone, with a few exceptions. Because of this, past controversies in the business look like they were nothing to laugh at.
Doom
Doom is a famous first-person shooter that doesn’t need to be explained. The easy loop of walking around tightly built levels and killing demons is a great way to unwind.
Due to its violent content and satanic images, the game caused a lot of controversy. Extremist groups accused it of making people do violent things in real life. In the new Doom games, on the other hand, players tear monsters to pieces without a care in the world, and no one bats an eye at these “glory kills.”
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was a huge hit when it came out, and until Grand Theft Auto 5, many people thought it was Rockstar’s best game. The game was already controversial because of its graphic violence, sexual material, and depictions of drug use, but that was pretty much the case with every GTA game.
The thing that really stirred up trouble with this game was its Hot Coffee mod, which gave players access to secret sexual content in the game files. It was a huge source of ridicule that the mainstream media focused on, even though players will just laugh at how funny this “controversy” is when they see ugly virtual bodies in their clothes fighting each other in a pretty basic minigame.
Mass Effect 2
Mass Effect 2 was a huge hit in both reviews and sales, and many people still think it’s the best game in the series. Out of all the arguments about video games, the one about Mass Effect 2 made the least sense.
Mainstream media sources picked on the game unfairly because it had explicit sexual content, but the proof they used to do so was completely bogus. Now, this scandal is just a footnote in history, but it’s still amazing that so many people believed this story.
Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat was one of the most talked-about games in the early 1990s. It and another game led to the creation of the ESRB rating system, which is still in use today. The deaths in the game were so gory that they had to be cut more than once because they upset people.
The vivid violence and descriptions of blood and gore in this book almost make it seem like a cartoon at times. Modern Mortal Kombat games, on the other hand, have horrifying amounts of blood and gore that can be hard to stomach at times.
Night Trap
Night Trap is a bad FMV game in which players had to keep a group of girls from getting kidnapped while they were having a sleepover. At the time, the scenes were pretty controversial, and many people said the game was glamorizing sexual abuse.
The only thing that should have been controversial about Night Trap at the time was that it was becoming so famous even though it was such a bad game. The game is so unfairly hard that you can’t even play it unless you have a lot of patience or a guide that tells you what to do to keep from losing.
Resident Evil 5
Resident Evil 5 got into trouble because it showed black zombies and some people thought it was racist. Some reviewers said that the game reinforced negative ideas about people of African descent, which couldn’t be further from the truth.
In fact, many people said that it was racist to keep African figures from being bad guys and enemies. In reflection, the controversy was pretty silly, and players thought the game should have been mocked at least for being so far away from the Resident Evil formula.
Manhunt
Rockstar is a company that uses the controversy that surrounds its games as a sort of marketing tool. This golden rule isn’t broken by Manhunt, which is a very violent game that caused a lot of debate and was called a “murder simulator” by many.
Even though killing people as violently as possible was a big part of Manhunt, there are now a lot more violent games that take this level of violence up a notch. Players should check out Manhunt because of how violent and weird it is. If players don’t sneak around well enough, Geometry Dash Subzero is very hard.
Wolfenstein 3D
It was inevitable that a game from the 1990s that let people shoot Nazis would cause trouble. So it was with Wolfenstein 3D, a famous first-person shooter that most gamers know well.
In current times, Nazis are one of the most common targets in first-person shooter games. In retrospect, all the fuss about Wolfenstein 3D is nothing but funny.
Carmageddon
Carmageddon is a vehicle battle game that came out in the late 1990s. At the time, it was pretty violent. People didn’t like that the game let players run over people and animals, which made it a target for people who didn’t like games that are cruel.
This caused the game to be censored, and zombies with green blood were put in place of the people walking around. Now, this argument seems pretty silly, since most current open-world games let players run over innocent people without any limits at all.
Soldier Of Fortune
Soldier of Fortune is a good first-person shooter that not many people remember, which is a shame. The game got into trouble because it showed blood and gore in a realistic way, which made people worry that it could make people less sensitive to violence.
From a technical point of view, the way players could hurt and cut off different parts of an enemy’s body was pretty cool, even if it did cause a few arguments about the game. Of course, in most violent FPS games today, dismemberment is the standard, which makes Soldier of Fortune look pretty tame.