8 Times Censorship Almost Ruined Your Favourite Video Games

2. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker's Tickling Torture

Showing up in every major game released so far, torture scenes are a staple of the Metal Gear Solid franchise. With each game including at least one sequence that sees the protagonist bound and beaten, it's no surprise MGS has become familiar with international censors over the years.

While these scenes resulted in some of the more extreme moments of violence being cut or obscured in some territories however, after multiple sequels the MGS team decided to get creative for the Japanese release of the PSP spin-off, Peace Walker.

Instead of removing gore or toning down the violence to avoid the censors, the developers opted to change the scene entirely. While he was originally being tortured for information by lightning rods, in the Japanese version Snake's gets punished by... tickle rods.

Completely changing the tone, in this new scene Snake is effectively being tickled to death, and it's hard to take the whole torture seriously as a result. Then again, if Snake is into this kind of stuff, then who am I to say it's wrong or weird?

Contributor

Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.