The decision to outlaw video games belongs in the hands of parents and the gamers themselves. Placing video game censorship in the hands of a government has been roundly criticized for infringing on free speech rights -- fostering black markets, stifling business growth, and being largely ineffective. Honestly, it's hard for us to have a different opinion when countries from around the world keep frustrating gamers with baffling, inconsistent policies regarding which games are pulled from shelves. Here are the oddest video game bans in history.


Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure


It is appropriate that we start this horrific tour Down Under, as Australian video game policy has proven to be both draconian and baffling. Games are often banned because they're subjects of political lobbying. Combine this with the difficulty of obtaining overseas goods in the middle of the Outback, and it's easy to see why Australian gamers are up-in-arms.

Marc Ecko's Getting Up is an open-ended game where players use graffiti to rage against a dystopian regime. Originally released with an M15+ rating by the Australian Classification Board, appeals by the Queensland administration led to a reclassification and banning. On the record, the game was outlawed for "glorification of graffiti." But really, we suspect the game's totalitarian government hit too close to home for video game regulatory commissions.


Tender Loving Care


In Australia, movies can be rated up to R18+ (inappropriate for people under 18). However, any video game that would be given this rating is instead banned. This inconsistency led to a hilarious 1999 occurrence involving the interactive film Tender Loving Care, starring Michael Esposito. The DVD has several areas where the user can take part in the storyline -- great for that one guy who has lucid dreams about Michael Esposito (you know who you are).

Hoping to underscore this feature, Tender Loving Care's creators pushed the DVD to be released as a game. The game came out, and was promptly banned in Australia for scenes involving nudity. Not wanting to take a bath on the product, the creators had a cheap idea: They submitted the exact same product as a movie... Australia gave it an R18+ rating, and Tender Loving Care hit the shelves.

This goes to show that when a policy seems profoundly stupid, you can probably find some profoundly stupid loopholes to exploit. But Australia isn't the only nation with a funny video-game-banning story.


Football Manager 2005


In China, video game bans happen more often due to political reasons, rather than due to some sort of perceived moral debauchery. So one can snatch a taxi driver by the hair and throw him into a fountain, as long as one doesn't declare Taiwan to be an independent nation. Chinese officials flipped into a tea-spewing rage when they fired up the 2005 edition of Football Manager and were allowed to select Tibet as a country. Citing "protests by Chinese players," the Chinese government banned the game. A press release claimed Football Manager 2005 "threatened its content harmful to China's sovereignty and territorial integrity," because non-player characters could kick a ball around while wearing the word "Tibet" on their shirts.