When Rockstar Games announced that Manhunt 2 would be released on the Nintendo Wii all adults rejoiced that they could play an adult game on their Wii machine. However the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), the body that determines the classification of video games in the UK, has denied rating to Manhunt 2 which makes it illegal for the game to be sold in the UK and effectively banning it.

Here’s a quote taken from Joystiq.com

MCV quotes the BBFC’s director David Cooke as saying, “Rejecting a work is a very serious action and one which we do not take lightly. Where possible we try to consider cuts or, in the case of games, modifications which remove the material which contravenes the Board’s published Guidelines.” With the game already filled with all manner of cuts, slashes and eviscerations, the BBFC could simply not see a way around the game’s “unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone” and its “sustained and cumulative casual sadism.”

This is a sad time for the game’s industry. The British Government telling the industry that the UK adults are not able to determine if a game is suitable for themselves is a pure example of a ‘Nanny State’. I agree that games need to be rated; the ratings are there to protect people from images that aren’t suitable for their age and this is why we have the different age classification. Deciding a game is not suitable for anyone is ridiculous when a 16 year old can join the army and be in Iraq 3 months later seeing and acting out things 100 times worse. There is no question that the game needs a BBFC 18 rating or even an R18 rating. An R18 rating means that stores wouldn’t be able to put the game on the shelves but can sell it to people, over 18 that ask for it. So why hasn’t this rating been used? Could it do with all the political controversy surrounding the game and the fact the UK government is too scared to release the game as fear it could be supplied to people under the age of 18? If that is the case, is the British Government admitting that the BBFC ratings don’t actually work and the law that prevents the supply of age rated games to minors is not effective?

The views of arcticWii do not necessarily represent the views of WiiDS.co.uk