Bad news for any Australian gamer hoping to play the updated version of Sega’s House of the Dead: Overkill. The title has been refused classification in Australia, which means it is banned from being sold in the country. The R18+ rating which has been approved by legislation has not been applied and will be done so later this year, but unfortunately not soon enough for House of the Dead: Overkill Extended Edition.
The game has been banned for “high impact violence” which is strange considering the Wii version of the title was left alone and released without censorship. This banning is a bit strange considering other games with more intense violence are given MA15+ ratings and slide by without a hitch. You can find the full description below as provided by Gamespot, though perhaps this ban won’t last long as SEGA has already stated they will appeal this decision.
The game contains very frequent, unrelenting and detailed violence accompanied by copious blood and gore detail inflicted on zombies and mutant beings. The player can use a variety of weapons including a crossbow that causes the zombies/mutants to explode on impact as well as handguns, hand cannons, machine guns, mini guns and assault rifles that may cause decapitations, dismemberment and blood spray.
The “Hardcore” game mode allows the player to play in a manner that exceeds strong in impact engaging a headshot-only mode which results in frequent, detailed blood and gore as the zombies and mutants heads explode into bloody pieces that spread around the environment and onto the screen. The game also contains an “Extra mutants mode” which increases the amount of mutants the player must kill to proceed, resulting in an increased intensity and frequency of violence. In addition the game contains a baby mutant that jumps onto the screen and explodes into bloody chunks when killed.
