Rise of Nightmares awakens to MA15+ Down Under

Thanks to an outdated set of guidelines that the Australian Classification Board is subject to, it's not uncommon for a game to be refused classification in Australia when the MA15+ rating isn't suitable. This has forced many Aussie gamers to speculate which titles will feel the wrath of the Aussie censors.

Thankfully, one of the top contenders for 2011 can now be scratched off the potential censored list, with Sega Australia confirming that its latest survival horror game--Rise of Nightmares--has been rated MA15+. The warning that will accompany the rating on the box art cites "strong horror violence, blood, and gore."

Sega Australia's managing director, Darren MacBeth, told GameSpot AU: "We were asked to do a demonstration for it by the board and we flew Sam Mullen, who is the associate producer on the product, out and got him to do a full run-through of all elements of the game. We showcased everything; the highest level of detail, all the weapons, chainsaw, ice picks, and knives. We [then] demonstrated how you used them in the game; obviously your hands are using them. [Eventually] the actions combined with the graphics were found to be MA15+."

Rise of Nightmares is the first horror game to come out for the Kinect, and little is known about the game's plot, aside from its being about a husband who is trying to find his missing wife. The gameworld is populated with crazy doctors, zombie-like nurses, and haggard-looking creatures who splatter all over the place when attacked by the player.

As for whether or not MacBeth was concerned about the chance of Rise of Nightmares being refused classification, he confessed that he was a bit worried about the game getting banned. However, his fears were not because of the onscreen violence, but because it was the first Kinect game to combine gestures with hardcore violence. "We see it no differently than someone in the street picking up a stick and pretending it's a knife. We were concerned at some of those elements, but not from the graphical side. We thought the issue would be a combination of the graphics and the actions," Macbeth said.

With the Standing Committee of Attorneys General convening in just a few weeks, MacBeth confirmed his support for an R18+ adult rating for video games in Australia. His main reasons were because he believes that people over the age of 18 should be allowed to view whatever content they desire, but he also stands behind the notion that it'll help keep inappropriate content out of the hands of children.

Interestingly, if an R18+ classification were to be introduced tomorrow, MacBeth doesn't believe it would change the way Sega conducts business in Australia. "I don't think it'll change anything that we do. We will view all products as we see them and prepare them for classification as we see them. We're not out to make games more or less [violent] than they are now, we just want to have a level of classification that they should be able to be viewed under," said MacBeth.