8 Times Censorship Almost Ruined Your Favourite Video Games
6. Resident Evil's Most Iconic Moments Weren't In The Original Version
The first major mainstream survival horror hit, Resident Evil pushed the boundaries of gore and violence when it released back in 1996.
One of the rare instances of the Japanese edition of a game being the true uncensored version, the original FMV intro was massively changed when it came over to America. With most of the gory effects replaced with newspaper clippings, the colour flipped to black and white to hide the blood and even a shot of Chris Redfield smoking being cut, the censors were strict on what Capcom could and couldn't show in this opening sequence.
Just as significantly, the iconic first appearance of a zombie was also different in the Japanese version. Instead of the slow reveal of the shambler looking over his shoulder, in the original version he also dropped the half-devoured head of his victim. The censored USA take is so iconic however, that it's completely overshadowed the original, to the point where a lot of fans don't even know that there was something cut from the original scene.
Lacking the edge of the uncensored version and making the story even more convoluted, Capcom planned to release a director's cut to put the missing material back in, but a mix up ended up with the cut version being sent to retailers instead.