10 Controversial Video Games That Are Insanely Tame Today

10. Doom (1993)

Id Software's 1993 hallmark FPS title Doom is recognized as one of the pioneering games of its genre, and many respect it today for boldly going where no game had gone before. Sure, it doesn't look like much today, but it was a big deal 25 years ago.

Disgustingly realistic in that it forced the player into a first-person view, Doom quite literally shoved the violence right in the faces of those who booted it up. Those blocky, pixelated imps and gruff, unrefined gore effects may look beyond tame today, but lots of kids in 1993 had to take great care to ensure that their parents never caught them playing this game.

The outcry was, to a point, understandable, as a game of such dark and mature subject matter had never been so fully realized up until that time, and, compared to most PC games of the era, it was downright true-to-life in terms of visual fidelity.

Clunky MIDI files and red and pink pixel meshes don't make for realistic violence, however, and it's doubtful that Doom was ever the cause of most of the issues for which it was blamed.