10 Most Ridiculously Over-The-Top Examples Of Gaming Censorship

7. Mortal Kombat (SNES)

Mortal Kombat caused such a stir when it released in 1992 that it led to the creation of the ESRB ratings system. The gory fighter was famed for its brutal fatalities that looked frighteningly realistic (well, at the time anyway) thanks to its use of digitised sprites. When the time came to port the successful title to the SNES, several changes had to be made. Nintendo at the time were notorious for censoring violent games on their consoles in order to protect their family-friendly image. Consequently blood was changed to sweat and some fatalities were nowhere near as violent. In the arcade version, Johnny Cage's fatality involves uppercutting his opponents head off. This was replaced with him kicking his opponent in the chest in the SNES version, which may actually be the lamest way to die ever. Similarly, Kano's fatality was changed from ripping out his opponents heart and holding it triumphantly above his head to punching his opponent in the chest and holding absolutely nothing triumphantly above his head. It's worth noting that the Mega Drive version was also censored, but it had a gore cheat that restored the game to its former, wonderfully gory glory. It's sad that the SNES version suffered this fate because it's actually the best console port of the game in every other way. Its sound and graphics are vastly superior to the Mega Drive version and it was also much easier to play thanks to the SNES controller having more buttons.