A New Fighting Game Has Been Banned In Australia, And We Only Have Guesses As To Why

Australia has built a reputation as having one of the strictest video game rating systems on the planet, and it appears as though another highly anticipated game won’t reach the country’s shores when it’s released next year.

Hunter x Hunter Nen x Impact, the fighting game based on the popular anime, has been refused classification by the Australian Classification Board (ACB), officially preventing the game from being sold in the country. The group listed no reason for the decision, but with the ACB having set a precedent with other games with similar ratings, and the reasoning behind them, it could be a few possibilities.

The main suspected reason is how drug use has a gameplay benefit, like granting speed or strength, or portraying drug use in a positive light. For example, if a character even gets health restored from narcotics, that game would likely be refused classification (RC). Disco Elysium: The Final Cut was originally banned because of this, but that decision was later overturned after the ACB agreed that player performance actually showed “negative impacts from depictions of drug use.”

Other potential reasons include on-screen depictions of sexual violence and sexualized depictions of characters who appear to be under 18. South Park: The Stick of Truth was banned for the same reasons as the game involves an underaged main character getting anally probed by aliens. A censored version was released replacing those scenes with a card of a koala crying explaining what has been cut out.

Hunter x Hunter Nen x Impact is being developed by Eighting, a close collaborator with Nintendo, having contributed to Pikmin 3 Deluxe, Pikmin 4, and Nintendo Switch Sports. The game is scheduled to be released on PS5, Nintendo Switch, and PC, but unless publisher Arc System Works decides to appeal, Australian fans will sadly miss out.