Video Game Nasties

Mass Effect

Alien sex. Let’s face it, we’ve all thought about it at some point in our life. Be it the scene in 1980’s Flash Gordon where the title character is getting seduced by Princess Aura, or Kim Basinger in My Stepmother is an Alien, interplanetary eroticism has always held a strange fascination for some of us. Microsoft Studio’s Mass Effect carries on this freaky mantle, with a promise of ‘graphic sexual intercourse’ between human and alien, both straight and lesbian. Surely this is every geek’s wet dream?

Before its release, television stations and newspapers, particularly across America, latched onto this. Parents were warned of the risqué scenes in the game, even though the title was recommended for a mature audience only, and much debate and hot air ensured. Was this the end for society as we knew it?

When the game was finally released, the scenes in question didn’t live up to the hype, and turned out to be at best vague scenes of caressing and touching. There was nothing of note to be seen. I guess these censors must have good imaginations.

Hearing the pre-release hype, Singapore went a step further and at first refused to let the game be put on sale. Gamers the land over were up in arms and protested before the board came to their senses and granted the game a M18 rating. And then life carried on as usual.