Multi-facted BMX XXX rant

The BBQ Pit
1

For the non-gamers: BMX XXX is a bicycle stunt game where, among other things, you can play as a topless woman. You can also unlock videos of topless dancers by completing levels.

Anyway, this game is set to come out for X-Box, GameCube, and PS2 on November 19th. Recently, Toys R Us, Wal-Mart, and K-B announced that they will refuse to sell it. Best Buy says they will only sell it if the censor some things.

Here’s my first rant. WTF? This game is rated M for Mature, meaning that people under 17 shouldn’t buy it or play it. The above stores all sell M rated games. But all of sudden, because of some pixilated boobies, this one won’t hit shelves?

Best Buy and Wal-Mart have some glaring hypocrisies here. Both stores sell R-rated movies, many of which feature topless women, bad language, gratuitous violence, or any/all of the above. What on earth is the difference? Especially Wal-Mart, who is infamous for refusing to sell “explicit” CDs.

Do you think they would pull Grand Theft Auto 3 from shelves? The best selling game of 2001? Do you think they would refuse to sell Vice City, the follow-up that has presold in the area of 4 million copies? While those games didn’t have anyone taking off their clothes, they did have quite a bit of violence in them. Oh, but in America guns are great and the human body is shameful.

However, I must lay some of my invective at the makers of the game itself. I think this game should really me rated IMmature. Does the thought of making a topless video game woman do bicycle tricks appeal to anyone besides 12 to 17 year olds? What possible place could this have in the game other than to make a controversy?

As much as the mainstream media likes to think otherwise, gamers are smart. If this game has nothing for it gameplay-wise, it will tank. A couple years ago there was an FPS game called “Kingpin” that caused a minor stir because its characters swore like proverbial sailors. But underneath all that, the game was panned by critics and gamers alike, and tanked. After some of Acclaim’s latest marketing ploys (offering people money to: change their name to Turok, place advertising on their gravestone, or offering to pay for speeding tickets issued the day a racing game comes out), I have to suspect that they are just trying to draw attention to an average (at best game). The previews of the game I have read seem to back me up on this. But then again, no such thing as bad publicity, huh?

To sum up: Retailers–get over it. Acclaim–wise up.

2

My feeling: Wal-Mart can sell whatever the hell they want to. If you don’t like it don’t shop there.

Regarding the apparent hypocracy in selling “R” rated movies and not this game - I can see both sides of this one. You make a reasonable point, but Wal-Mart may think that parents, for better or worse, don’t scrutinize their kids’ video game purchases as closely as they do their movie selections. They may just feel like avoiding the inevatible angry reactions from parents once they figure out what their kids are playing (not that I absolve parents of much responsibility in this area, but we’re working in conjecture here).

Oh, and incidentally, I think a lot of people (in the US at least) find violence much more tolerable for their children than nudity. I would assume that parents that had no problems with GTA3 will not be picking up XXX for their kids.

I think the main issue here is the fact that it’s a game, it has nudity, and it has XXX in the title.

3

Like any gamer with a half a brain would waste money on this cack when Tony Hawk 4 is coming out soon.

4

Aw, man, it’s not coming out on PC?

5

Could be a fun party game.

Marc

6

It depends on where that half-of-a-brain is located. :smiley:

7

Like it will be able to hold a candle to Vice City…

8

Well, I’m 32 so my standards may be a bit higher, but if she’s got nice knockers, and knows her way around a bike, then yeah! :smiley:

9

Reviews I’ve read, and previews I’ve seen, make this look like a real piece of shit game anyway. Walmart supposedly also will sell a censored version provided by the company, which is what they do with music CDs that they find too objectionable. I coped with that music decision by not buying CDs there; this sounds like a good reason to not buy games there too.

10

Acclaim has a history of doing silly things for the free advertising.

For their game, “Shadowman” (I think), they offered money to anyone who would let them put an ad for the game on their tombstone. The media got all outraged by this and reported on it, calling it tasteless and such.

Then came “Turok”. Acclaim was offering people money if they’d name their child Turok. Once again, the media played along with shock and outrage.

Now comes “BMX XXX”. And once again, the outrage.

Meanwhile, Acclaim’s advertising budget drops to zero, since everyone else is doing the job for them, for free. Which is good, because nobody’s buying these dumb-ass games in the first place. Acclaim’s sales have plummeted. There is no reason to believe that “BMX XXX” is going to make even a small dent in the market.

11

I’m all for nakedness in video games. I think there should be more games where you get points for “shagging” instead of “fragging”.

But BMX XXX looks STUPID!

I don’t shop at wal-mart but if I did I wouldn’t buy it even if they carried it.

12

I’ll just keep waiting for DOA: Beach Volleyball. BMX XXX looks TERRIBLE from the screen shots I’ve been seeing. Besides, Team Ninja (creators of DOA) stated they wanted to first make a decent game, then just add the modified character models.

13

BMX XXX looks lamer than a bunch of lame lames laming in a lame convention with an electrified laming machine.