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** ''[[Final Fantasy VI]] Advance'', however, was noticeable for apparently not being bowdlerised at ''all''. They replaced all the previously removed references to alcohol, sex, and death. The only thing removed was a scene where Celes was repeatedly punched by a prison guard. It was removed from the Japanese version due to being [[Too Soon]] after a murder case in Japan, and they just didn't bother restoring it in the overseas version. Ironically, the punching scene ''was'' present in the heavily censored SNES version.
** There's also the line about Edgar "waiting '''eight''' years" for Relm. Emphasis ours, because he couldn't just say "wait until you grow older". Apparently the USA Age of Consent applies to pseudo-Medieval Europe now.
** In the SNES and [[Play StationPlayStation]] versions, Locke threatens to rip the lungs out of a man who calls him a thief. In the GBA version, he simply tells the guy to shut up, because the "rip your lungs out" was never in the original Japanese version.
** Which finds its way into ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' as the American name for King Mickey's signature spell. With the much lessened level of censorship these days, especially on the Sony side of things, it's more likely a reference to ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' than a strict case of bowdlerization.
** That would be the FFVI localisation of the Holy spell, which first appeared under the name "Pearl" - censorship issues forced it to be renamed, Pearl was selected as the name because the spell looks like a bunch of exploding pearls. In Kingdom Hearts, it releases, well, shiny pearls. Holy also exists, and varies with the game, as does another version called "Faith".
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** ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'' also had a single enemy who unexpectedly [[Jump Scare|pops out of a large oven]] to rush the player [[Infernal Retaliation|while on fire]]. This guy didn't make it into the German version, probably due to [[Moral Event Horizon|unspeakable things the Nazis did]].
*** Oven Man was only the most famous example. The German version of ''Resident Evil 4'' was so badly censored that German gamers largely refused to buy it, importing versions from other countries.
** Censorship of decapitation is somewhat common in Japanese releases. Among others, decapitations aren't possible in the Japanese versions of ''[[Ninja Gaiden]]'' for the [[X BoxXbox]].
** Additionally, at least in the American release of ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'', Ashley exclaims "What's going on?" when being trapped against a wall during the game. However, in the demonstration video played when left idle at the menu, the same scene is shown, with the dialogue being "Oh my God! What's going on?"
** Both localizations of ''[[Resident Evil Code Veronica]]'' lack decapitation animations, although you still hear the sound of a head exploding when you get a headshot.
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** There were also other edits, such as removing the cigarette from Croix (but keeping his victory animation where he takes a smoke from his invisible cigarette).
** The American version's box was also subject to censorship. Instead of the original artwork of Prier standing front and center, the American cover appears to be some kind of fanart piece she's kind of off in the corner while the other characters take prominence. This is a pretty blatant attempt to distract attention away from the fact that she has rather large breasts and thighs.
* Let's not forget about the legendary worst ending of ''[[Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories]]'' and how the audio for the US version is butchered.
* ''[[Shadow Warrior]]'''s UK release had the shrunken weapon replaced with darts. 3D Realms made a patch available online that would patch the game back to the original form. Regardless of which version of the game you have, the graphics for the dart weapon are actually present, even if they're not used because the game isn't the modified version.
* While all other media from ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'' (including the game cover) features a hand with its thumb ripped off, said thumb is present, folded, on the French poster ads.
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** In the PSP remake of ''Persona 2 Innocent Sin'', [[Those Wacky Nazis|Hitler]] was changed to The Fuhrer and given [[Paper-Thin Disguise|Sunglasses and a coat to cover the Nazi uniform]], The Last Battalion (see: Nazis) changed to The Imperial Army, and all Swastikas removed and replaced with the Iron Cross. Note that this is the Japanese version, which was even advertised to be uncensored. It is unknown if they'll change it back in the US release, as it's entirely possible Index Holdings was simply aiming to get as close to the All Ages rating the Persona games generally have (which didn't exist when the original release was out) that they could, while the US releases generally get M ratings anyway.
*** Which it was, fortunately.
* ''Kato & Ken'': a toilet humor-filled [[Turbo Grafx TurboGrafx-16]] game featuring two Japanese comedians, featuring fart attacks, crapping birds, urinating on walls, taking a dump in the bushes, etc., was [[Macekre|Macekred]] into ''JJ and Jeff'' for the US. The other character no longer pisses on walls or craps in bushes, the fart attack was replaced with spray paint/pepper spray, although there were still the dog/bird turds and a few other things.
* ''[[Half-Life]]'' was extensively censored for release in Germany, with all human opponents (Marines, etc.) being turned into robots and NPC "die" animation being changed to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alIBAUO_CUM them simply sitting down and holding their head in their hands.]
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkUuABNnTC0&feature=related Looks even sillier in Counter-Strike:: Source]
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* The GBA port of Doom and Doom 2 had the blood changed to green to maintain a T rating and the Nazi references in the secret levels were replaced, presumably to avoid being banned in Germany. Some things sneaked through, however, such as the status face and blood already existing on Former Sergeants and mostly affects blood the monsters shed. Of course, the Cacodemon isn't censored as it has blue blood and the Baron of Hell and Hell Knight already have green blood.
* The [[Game Boy Color]] ports of the first two ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' games were heavily censored to cater for the handheld's target audience (which is perhaps mostly composed of 8 to 12-year olds or something along the lines of that), removing all references to profanity and gore. ''Grand Theft Auto Advance'' later averted this, as the game was released for the [[Game Boy Advance]] complete with all that you can expect from a typical GTA series game.
* The [[Turbo Grafx TurboGrafx-16]] port of ''[[Splatterhouse]]'' (which was also released on the [[Wii]]'s Virtual Console) was Bowdlerised, but not as badly as people might think. While a fair amount of the violent content remained intact (some of it ''was'' toned down -- but that can partially be blamed on hardware limitations), there was some censorship, most notably in Level 4. The boss of the level in the arcade version is a possessed upside-down cross, surrounded by severed heads, and following its defeat, Rick moves further into the chapel where it resides and kneels before an altar with a crucifix in hand, while a hymnal theme plays and light shines into the chapel; in the console version, the cross is changed to a demonic-looking skull, and the altar is removed from the post-fight scene (though the hymnal and lighting effects inexplicably remain).
** The mobile device release of ''Splatterhouse'' will replace all demons with aliens to make it more family-friendly.
* The SNES release of ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'' removed ALL references to alcohol -- including alcohol drunk by legal adults. In the DS release, they were back.
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* The early console installments of the ''[[Contra]]'' series in Europe and Australia were released under the title of ''Probotector'', replacing the original human characters with robotic counterparts: thus the original heroes of Bill Rizer and Lance Bean became the robots RC011 and RD008, while the cast of ''Contra: Hard Corps'' were replaced by other robots with the generic names of CX1-4 (except for Browny, who was already a robot in the original version, but was still renamed). This was mainly due to a censorship law in Germany that forbade the depiction of human characters killing each other with guns, which affected the rest of the PAL region.
* Inverted with ''[[Double Dragon|Super Double Dragon]]'': a sign in Mission 6 which says "Beer" in the international version was changed to "Books" in the Japanese version. This may be an unintentional example, since ''Super Double Dragon'' was [[Obvious Beta|released incomplete]] and the Japanese version, ''Return of Double Dragon'', uses a more completed (but still unfinished) master build.
* Very sadly, the [[Dept. Heaven]] series has fallen prey to this in [[Atlus]]' translation. In ''[[Riviera: The Promised Land]]'', main character Ein's [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] speech decrying the villain was heavily toned down (the original Japanese version carried strong atheist -- or as some would say, "anti-organized religion" -- undertones) and is considered by many to make the scene very weak and [[Narm]]-filled. In ''[[Yggdra Union]]'', one of the main antagonists is [[Flanderization|Flanderized]] heavily to make him appear less sympathetic to the player, and there were a few lines changed or added for no apparent reason. ''[[Knights in The Nightmare]]'' is more of a [[Cut and Paste Translation]] than anything else, as the translated text is often inconsistent with prior translations or abandons stylistic speech patterns, depriving characters of their individuality. We're not even going into the arbitrary name changes, as that's [[Internet Backdraft|highly touchy territory]].
** One must wonder, though, how much of this is to blame on [[Atlus]] giving the series to their B-team. It's usually pretty apparent when the company puts [[Shin Megami Tensei|real effort into their localizations]].
** Even ''more'' pathetically, Riviera actually Bowdlerised ''itself'' once -- in order to keep the game's rating at CERO-A, Sting was forced to remove the bath scenes from the PSP remake. The "special edition" rerelease of the remake put them back in, but clad all the girls in bathing suits -- they were going ''swimming'', not getting naked! The fandom (and even the [[Fan Dumb]]) found this hilarious, as CGs are still included of the girls panicking when Ein arrives, leading to the meme "OH NOES! EIN SAW MY CLEAVAGE!" It's actually even more funny when you think that it is a remake from a Nintendo platform to a Sony platform.
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** 'Firebreather Dick' in Gold/Silver, who was renamed Firebreather Richard in the [[Heart Gold]] and [[Soul Silver]] remake.
* The NES and "US Set 1" arcade versions of ''[[Legendary Wings]]'' had the [[Stripperific]] Michelle Hart and Kevin Walker replaced by two generic guys with golden mechanical wings, as opposed to angelic feathered wings.
* Rare example of a game being censored in it's own country: in the original PC version of ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'', there are shots of a red blood splatter on screen occasionally. When the time came for the [[Play StationPlayStation 2]] remake, the color of the blood was censored into blue/dark colors (due to the Japanese rating system undergoing a change at the time, this was done to avoid an 18+ rating.). The blood is red again in the DS remakes.
* ''[[Drakengard]]'' was slammed pretty heavily by this. In the Japanese release, the main character's sister was incestuously in love with him, the supporting character Leonard was a pedophile, and another supporting character Arioch was an insane infertile child murderer. In the Amercian release, the only thing kept out of that was that Arioch is batty.
* In ''[[In the Groove]]'', two of the [[Marathon Level|Marathon Courses]] were originally titled "Drunk" and "Pure Hell"; these were later changed to "Drift" and "Breaking Point".
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{{quote|"Alvis! ''YOU DASTARD!''"}}
** That line is frm a fan translation, and thus a fandom in-joke. Besides, "dastard" is an old insult meaning "coward" and it fits with the ambientation of the games, just not with this specific line's context.
* Because of the unfortunate timing of its release (9/11 unfortunate), ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]'' had several scenes from the game removed, such as Vamp explicitly stating that his and Dead Cell's intentions of using the hydrogen bomb are actually quite different than Solidus: specifically, they planned to nuke NYC itself rather than simply cause an EMP wave over Wall Street (the latter of which was Solidus's plan), Liquid Ocelot stating that he set Arsenal Gear's course to Manhattan, the actual crash sequence for Arsenal Gear, Raiden cutting the American Flag and having it drop on Solidus's corpse after he is defeated, and a news report mentioning the Statue of Liberty's new resting place at Ellis Island.
* The original versions of "Fever for the Flava" and "Goin' Down On It" by Hot Action Cop had [[Intercourse with You|extremely naughty lyrics]], so they were heavily censored when they appeared in ''[[Need for Speed]]: Hot Pursuit 2''. Surprisingly, the clean versions were actually better than the dirty versions.
* ''[[Dance Dance Revolution]]'': "After The Game of Love", due to its [[Intercourse with You]] lyrics, was made an instrumental in the US series. Same with "Injection of Love".
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* The [[Updated Rerelease]] of ''[[Conkers Bad Fur Day]]'', ''Conker Live and Reloaded'' was heavily censored for some unfathomable reason. The foul language was half the reason the game was appealing. However, upon finishing the game, you do get the option to hear the swears uncensored.
* The US version of the MMORPG [[TERA]] censored the Elin models. Compare the differences [http://my.mmosite.com/1cd10251c16a43d090e2399862b464a2/blog/item/1c8e968e01d15c1fdfee5b36fccf123e.html here].
* With ''[http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/exile/exile3.htm Exile]'', many items that were drugs in the original ''XZR II'' were already censored in the Japanese console versions. However, the [[Turbo Grafx TurboGrafx-16]] translation by [[Working Designs]] also obscured the religious themes, at NEC's insistence: Christians, for instance, became "Klispins."
* The German release of ''[[Team Fortress Classic]]'' replaces all classes with a generic robot model, making it incredibly hard to tell who's on your team and who's on the opposing team.
** The German release of ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' has the original models intact, but all gore has been replaced with the "Silly Gibs" mod, which causes the characters to turn into toys, mechanical objects, food, and other items upon being blown up. In the German language [[Team Fortress 2/Supplemental Material|Meet The Team]] shorts, they explode into just the mechanical parts, blood is now entirely oil black and the spines seen protruding from the necks of the disembodied heads in Meet The Soldier are now screws, implying they're all robots!
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