The Classification Board has given the upcoming Mortal Kombat game - the ninth in the lucrative series - a "refused classification" rating, meaning it cannot be sold in Australia. Banned from sale in Australia ... Mortal Kombat. The board said highly detailed violence was the key reason for its decision and took particular exception to the game's "fatalities" - special finishing moves unique to each character performed at the end of a fight. "The game includes over 60 fatalities which contain explicit depictions of dismemberment, decapitation, disembowelment and other brutal forms of slaughter," the board wrote in justifying its decision. "Despite the exaggerated conceptual nature of the fatalities and their context within a fighting game set in a fantasy realm, impact is heightened by the use of graphics which are realistically rendered and very detailed."

Much to the chagrin of the games industry, Australia does not have an R18+ rating for games so any game that is found to be unsuitable for 15 year olds is automatically banned from sale. One of the We Dare mini-games involves simulated "kissing". Meanwhile, the upcoming Nintendo Wii and PS3 game We Dare is due for release in Australia on March 3 and has been rated PG by the Classification Board. The box promises "flirty fun for all", above an image of a plush pink chair draped in lingerie and padded handcuffs. The game has caused an uproar amongst British tabloids which quoted parents accusing it of promoting orgies and lesbian sex to kids as young as 12. A risqué trailer released for the game features two couples engaged in simulated kissing before the women drape themselves over the laps of the males with the Wiimote wedged in the back of their skirts and submit to a spanking.

The couples, who mix and match partners, are later shown performing a striptease, which is also featured as part of the game. The game also aludes to group sex and pole dancing in its 35 "fun and flirtatious" mini-games. We Dare is described as a "sexy, quirky party game that offers a large variety of hilarious, innovative and physical, sometimes kinky, challenges". The more friends invited to the party, "the spicier the play". A spokeswoman for publisher Ubisoft said We Dare would be sold with a "parental discretion advised" sticker. The spokeswoman would not be drawn into a debate on why We Dare was given such a low PG rating when games like Mortal Kombat were banned. In its decision to give We Dare a PG rating the Classification Board acknowledged the "sexual tone" of the game but said its sexual references were "mild", "discreetly implied and justified by context".

It appears that Ubisoft has exploited a loophole in classification guidelines as although the game encourages players to undertake risque behaviour in their living rooms, graphic sexual depictions and nudity are not shown on the screen in the game itself. "There's lots and lots of loopholes," said the former classification board censor who spoke to this website on condition of anonymity. "I don't think it is them being lenient on sex and being hardcore on violence, I just think that the way the title has been done is very very smart on Ubisoft's part." The former censor said the game's developers ensured any sexual behaviour happened in people's living rooms, not on the screen. "They can't classify what people are going to do in their homes, they can only classify what's actually in the game and what's in the game is very very cartoony, maybe a little bit of sexual inuendo but that's about it."

Furthermore, the censor said the Classification Board rarely actually played the games they were classifying, and instead relied on game publishers to be upfront about the content of their games. "Very rarely do people actually play the game when these titles get rated ... what happens is [game publishers] fill in a report and then that goes and gets rubber stamped by the Classification Board," he said. In a recent Senate Estimates hearing, Classification Board senior classifier Greg Scott said the board did in fact play the games but publishers must "provide a CD of the most contentious material". Interestingly, the board's decision noted that Ubisoft had suggested We Dare be given an M rating but the censors decided that PG was adequate. Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment, which was due to publish Mortal Kombat in Australia, said it was extremely disappointed that one of the world's oldest and most successful video game franchises would not be available to "mature Australian gamers".

Some publishers whose games have been banned from sale have successfully reversed the decision by submitting a modified, toned-down version for the Australian market. However, Warner Bros said it would not be toning down this title as "that wouldn't be Mortal Kombat". "WBIE would not market mature content where it is not appropriate for the audience," Warner Bros said. Loading "We understand that not all content is for every audience, but there is an audience for mature gaming content and it would make more sense to have the R18+ classification in Australia". Adding an R18+ rating for games requres the unanimous agreement of all state and federal attorneys-general. The matter was slated for discussion at a meeting of the censorship ministers in December but a vote was delayed.