Censorship and video games have always shared an uneasy relationship. By and large, the industry has successfully  self-regulated, with a few notable exceptions. Any controversy relating to graphic violence or sexually explicit content has been generated by fabricated moral outrage through mainstream media. Japan, on the other hand, still suffers from a more stringent policy of censorship relating to games, something that might surprise those who are familiar with the graphic depictions of sex and violence that can be found in manga and anime.

In 2006 there was an overhaul of the rating system, which led to the current CERO rating system of A, B, C, D and Z. An A rating means that the game is acceptable to any age, B is roughly equivalent to 12+, C to 15+ and D to 17+, with the Z rating, the only rating regulated by law, reserved for the over 18s. While the ratings system itself seems quite similar to that of other countries, the way in which each country rates games is wildly different. Persona 3 and 4 both received a B rating in Japan, making them suitable for ages 12 and up, whilst in Europe and America the games were deemed only for 16 and 17 years old respectively. This is likely due to cultural sensitivities over the use of firearms and the perceived image of suicide, especially in America, but this is a rare case. Japan’s rating certification organization is more stringent than its Western counterparts. Infamous is a particularly curious example of a Z rating, putting it alongside games such as MadWorld and Gears of War.

It isn’t so much the rating system which is curious but rather the censorship of certain titles. In an effort to keep away from a Z rating, games often either have the blood removed or altered in some manner. Uncharted and No More Heroes are two examples of games that are oddly bloodless in the Japanese versions. And for those who savored the rather macabre sight of Chris or Sheva being decapitated by a chainsaw wielding maniac in Resident Evil 5, be grateful that you didn’t pick up a Japanese copy of the game. Just before the deed is about to be done the camera tastefully pans down to focus on the lower back and legs of the character as their body goes limp. Because of cuts and censorship, all three games avoided the dreaded Z rating.

As did Heavy Rain, which had its already tasteful and tame sex scene rendered ridiculously tasteful and incredibly tame. Due to the amount it was cut it was very much a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scene which left me slightly confused as to whether it had actually occurred, or whether the two characters had simply brushed their bare shoulders together as they lay on the bed. In Japan suggestion rather than graphic depiction of sex seems to be the key. This is often reflected in the games which are misleading labeled as ‘erotic’ by Western audiences. Three such examples were evident at the Tokyo Game Show this year, and if you had kept yourself informed about the games on display, you may have heard of The Idolm@ster 2, Dream Club Zero and GalGun. They differ greatly in the extent of the suggestive content in the game, but none feature anything more graphic than a flash of exposed underwear.

That’s not to say that there isn’t content that many would baulk at. Of the three, The Idolm@aster 2 is certainly the most famous. The game revolves around managing a Japanese all-girl pop group, although it will also feature a male group, and is essentially a rhythm action game with a strong emphasis on choosing costumes, venues and camera angles in order to create your own concerts. Your character, an unnamed rookie producer, chats to the group and members of the production company. What will make some pause for thought is that your dialogue options range from very sweet and caring to openly perverted. As the girls are as young as 12, this suggestive dialogue is rather inappropriate. The Idolm@aster is rated C.

Dream Club Zero, the sequel to Dream Club, is a love simulation game in which the protagonist is a patron of a maid themed hostess club. Money can be earned through part time jobs and can be spent at the titular hostess club to buy drinks, food, and presents for the maids. By answering and asking questions, giving gifts, completing mini games and ordering food, you attempt to win favor with the staff and eventually to form a romantic relationship. This relationship is never depicted in a graphic manner and the game is surprisingly tame in that respect, but there are still enough suggestive elements to ensure that it would likely get a higher rating than the C with which it is classified in Japan. Even leaving aside the already infamous first person perspective banana feeding scene, the fact that an important way to curry favour is through consuming alcohol and getting a girl drunk would likely boost the age rating to something closer to the legal age of the country.

Galgun is the game which really garnered the most foreign interest at the show. A new intellectual property, the game is essentially an on-rails shooter. As you go around a school, dozens of female students run at you trying to give you love letters. By shooting them you seem to make them fall more deeply in love with you and their reaction is, to put it rather indelicately, clearly orgasmic. There was also a mini game sequence in which you rotate the camera around a girl and shoot her in erogenous areas in order to progress. The demo finished with a boss battle against a tentacle monster that had captured a girl. The game is obviously very tongue-in-cheek about its subject matter and is an effective parody of the erotic anime genre, but that doesn’t really stop it from being slightly disturbing to those unaware of this particular subculture. Though it has yet to be released I would suspect that, barring the inclusion of anything more explicit than was in the demo I played, it will be classified as a C or D. Doki Doki Majo Shinpan only got a C rating after all, and that involved using the DS stylus to examine female characters.

My point isn’t to make fun of Japanese culture at all, but instead to highlight some of the cultural differences Japanese and Western games and how the perceptions of what is appropriate differ. It isn’t simply that Western games aren’t suggestive rather than explicit in their content. Leisure Suit Larry is a classic example of a game which is suggestive rather than explicitly erotic, but even in that game whilst the content isn’t explicit, the suggestiveness is. It is about a character who wants to have sex. None of the three games mentioned above fall into the same category and, barring games made specifically as erotic games, this is true of most Japanese games.

The rating system in every country stems from the culture of the country itself. Through either censorship or design, games in Japan tend to suggest rather than depict, whether it be a decapitation or oral sex.

As Sony and Microsoft scramble to release their motion controllers, it’s becoming clear that both are trying to build upon Nintendo’s original offering, take it further and expanding their respective customer bases.

I was recently discussing the whole Natal ‘revolution’ with someone who is associated with the technology’s history. He was trying to convince me how it will change the nature of the industry and become a ‘game changer’.

Sony too, are already in full PR mode explaining to the gaming press how their motion control will offer an unparalleled level of precision. Now I’m not going to tell you Natal or Sony’s won’t be as good as is being suggested, because I think they will be excellent. The technology behind them seems robust and its performance superb. We have seen video examples of people using them and they seem fast, responsive and accurate.

However, that alone doesn’t make them an industry changer. The idea that everyone is going to suddenly buy one is fanciful. Will it drive Xbox 360 sales? Perhaps, especially to some people who have not got a Wii. However the marketing will be complex, as they would need to rebrand the console to be able to move whole-heartedly into the casual space. Sony and Microsoft have both had casual games with alternative controllers out for some time, and neither have allowed them to cut into the mass market as Nintendo have been able to.

Just as the Wii suffers from not being perceived as a hardcore console (and that’s with more hardcore games being produced for it) so the 360 and PS3 suffer from being perceived as being hardcore and adult. Indeed, Scene It, Lips, Singstar and Buzz have so far failed to change this perception amongst the wider public.

Another issue of course is that not every existing or future PS3 or 360 user will actually buy the new controllers and that means developers still have to make games that won’t work with or take into account the new technology. It splits the platform, which can make it more expensive to develop for. Alternatively developers will add functionality in most games to support the controller, but it will rarely be key to gameplay, except for a few first party or key third party titles. If it’s not key to the gaming experience then many users will conclude that they can get along without it just fine. Sixaxis controller anyone?

I was chatting to an RTS fan the other day that was new to the whole console experience. He was taken aback at seeing Halo Wars on a big TV in my living room, but couldn’t understand why it didn’t have mouse and keyboard support. Clearly it can, but the developers know not all players will have one and then it creates two sets of players thereby making the gameplay experience harder to manage.

One of the other issues my friend, close to the ‘history of the Natal tech’, was trying to sell me on was that people don’t want to have to hold a device like a Wiimote. I had news for him. They do. That’s why there is a whole industry of bits of useless plastic which sticks onto your Wiimote. If you are playing tennis, you have a plastic tennis racket whilst golf benefits from a club or just the Wiimote in your hand. Now clearly Natal could be used with bits of plastic, but at that point you have then managed to undermine your USP for being controller free!

Sport games, shooting games, in fact lots of games all benefit from some tactile control over something physical in the real world. Additionally the Wiimote (along with the Motion Plus for argument’s sake) has buttons on it and an adapter with a traditional analogue stick. This means you can have motion and traditional gameplay at once. The guys at Nintendo knew what they were doing when they created the Wii. Sony’s device I believe has a button on it, but from what we have seen so far I’m yet to work out how players can have traditional character movement alongside ‘point and shoot’ dynamics. The latest preview was for the ‘upgraded’ version of Resident Evil 5 being produced for the new Sony technology. In the video we see a player holding one handed a traditional dualshock with the other handling the pointing. If proof is needed of why a ‘point and shoot’ device needs multiple buttons (and a comfortable nunchuk style analogue stick), then watching that video is it! I cannot imagine that being the preferred control scheme as it looks uncomfortable and tiring. Perhaps, nearer to release, Sony will announce a nunchuk style product; they certainly need to look into this.

Natal has no buttons, as it has no device to hold. However there is no reason why you can’t use a standard controller whilst moving your head or lobbing a grenade at the screen. Yet as most FPS games require you to be ‘hands on’ at all times (how many times have you thrown a grenade whilst strafing in Halo 3 or CoD?) it will be interesting to see how much extra interaction these traditional games can have with the motion technologies being offered. One area of real interest with Natal will be added viewing data via head movement – i.e. looking around corners.

There is of course one other major factor. Nintendo are hard at work with that massive R&D investment they are currently making. If we assume that they too are able to backwards engineer their Wiimote technology as countless other individuals have now done on YouTube, it would seem that the next step is for them to stick a camera on the sensor bar (which at present is just two led lights), resulting in camera based technology similar to Sony’s and Microsoft’s. If this can be used in addition to or with the current Wiimote tech (depending on the gameplay) then their experience will only become even more accurate and interactive. However it will be built on top of existing technology. Here, you see, is the killer point. If this new and improved Wii (whether it be HD or not) is 100% backwards compatible with the rather large existing Wii market, then it could be game over for Sony and Microsoft just as they start to catch up.

The Wii consumer is not accustomed to buying new consoles and new software every 2-3 years. This market owns multiple remotes, lots of games, a WiiBalance board and lots of plastic attachments. Are they all going to jump ship?

I’ll definitely have Natal, possibly also the Sony system. Fable 3 players will get Natal, as we assume it will use it. In theory these new controllers should continue the expansion of the gaming experience and also of the market in general. On the other hand, Microsoft and Sony might find that the launch of their new motion technologies becomes a distraction to their hardcore experience.

I would be surprised if it will be a game changer in this or the .5-generation that everyone is assuming we are moving into. Nintendo started this game with the Wii and will decide whether it’s a 2, 3 or 5 set match.