The decade of video nasties,The A-Team,Boy George and Ronald Reagan.
In fact, the first ever controversial videogame was probablyDeath Race,which appeared way back in 1976.
One of those companies was Wizard Video, an indie movie distributor owned by filmmaker Charles Band.
Gore quotient:Surprisingly low.
Were really not sure.
Gore quotient:Moderately high.
Understandably, Wizard Videos experiments in horror gaming ended here.
Other screens contained flickering crosses, rivers of blood and bodies stretched out on racks.
For a generation raised on stuff likeJet Set WillyandSabre Wulf,it was pretty ominous stuff.
Gore Quotient:Extraordinarily high.
Actually, the crude graphics and jerky animation makeChillerlook like a grislySouth Parkepisode.
Gore Quotient:Controversially high.
Wait, youre probably thinking.
What kind of name for a developer is that?
It was all very, very strange.
Gore Quotient:Very high.
Although its side-scrolling, beat-em-up gameplay was typical of the period,Splatterhouses gore and violence were relatively unusual.
Gore Quotient:Astronomical.
What madeTecmo Knightstand out, however, was the design of its graphics.
Gore Quotient:Dizzying.
In fact, flying heads appeared to be one ofTecmo Knights major additions to the scrolling beat-em-up subgenre.
Gore Quotient:Stratospheric.
Absolutely everything exploded in showers of gore and meat.
In a 1988 issue of ACE Magazine, a feature titled Are these games illegal?
Thanks toGoosenman,RetroRemakes,FlexibleHeadandJonLyusfor their gory videogame suggestions.
