Fighting game Hunter x Hunter Nen x Impact has been denied a rating by the notoriously strict Australian ratings board.
Hunter x Hunter Nen x Impact has been effectively banned by the country’s Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts Classification Board for “implied sexual violence.”
While no specific reason was given on the ratings website (under “reason for rejection of classification”, people are simply invited to contact the organization for more information), a statement from the Board of Australia’s rating said the game “contains a scene from a visual representation.” of implicit sexual violence, when an adult male exposes himself to people under 18 years of age.
Hunter x Hunter’s first full-fledged fighting game is set to release in 2025, featuring 3v3 Nen ability team battles. It’s unclear at this time if publisher Arc System Works will appeal the decision or censor its game accordingly to appease the board.
Last month, PlayStation removed Hotline Miami 2 from sale in Australia and refunded PS5 owners who purchased the game, a decade after the infamous uproar over its Australian release.
In January 2015, designer Jonatan Söderström memorably told Australian fans to simply pirate Hotline Miami 2 after its release was blocked by the Australian Classification Board, due to the inclusion of a skippable scene showing simulated sexual violence.
