Australia gets irate over House of the Dead: Overkill

Game Politics report an Aussie parents’ group has voiced their anger at the MA15+ rated House of the Dead: Overkill. They are angry the games has such a high level of sexually aggressive violence and aggressively violent language, which they say are unacceptable for that rating.

MA15+ is the highest rating a game can currently get in Australia. If the game was not released at that rating it would have been banned, or significant edited.

Angela Conway, a Pro Family Perspective director comments:

“The gaming industry has been mischievously misrepresenting the classification system on this issue. I feel very distressed that a large number of teenagers and adults would play this game and soak up this amount of sexually aggressive violence and aggressively violent language.

We need to draw a deep breath and look at the research, which will show a need to scale back this level of violence. Given the increasing amount of knowledge now available of the effects of exposure to intense levels of violence on the adolescent brain, we should be reviewing the level of violence the MA15+ classification now allows.”

Sega have responded to the vilification by releasing the following statement:

“House of the Dead: Overkill has been rated as suitable for people over 15. It is not an R-rated game. The swearing in it is very much stylised so it matches the Grindhouse cinema style made famous by director Quentin Tarantino.

In playing the game, players attack zombies or humanoid characters but never humans. This is an important distinction that the classification board makes when it gives a rating.“

We recently awarded House of the Dead: Overkill an 8/10 in our review.