The iOS version of id Software's Wolfenstein 3D has been withdrawn from sale in two European countries over its use of the Nazi swastika.
The game has been pulled in both Austria and Switzerland, according to a tweet from id boss John Carmack, "due to the offensive swastikas".
This shouldn't be too big a surprise. Like Germany, Austria has strict laws prohibiting the public display of the Nazi swastika, and while Switzerland has no such law (indeed, recent attempts to bring such a law in were defeated), it won't be the first body to willingly censor the game: Nintendo did just the thing nearly twenty years ago.
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It's a slightly sad quirk of video game history that id Software's Wolfenstein 3D is lauded as a masterpiece of gaming while the title it was heavily inspired by - name and all - is afforded no such honour.
Yet id's comic blaster owes everything to a stealth game released in 1981 called simply Castle Wolfenstein.
The game was developed by now-defunct Muse Software, with much of the work being done by Silas Warner, a literal giant in the field of game development (Warner was 6'9").
Castle Wolfenstein is in many ways a precursor to Metal Gear, in that it was played from a top-down perspective, and emphasised exploration and stealth at the expense of balls-to-the-wall action (though there was still killing to be had if you felt like using some of the game's rarest commodity, ammunition).
You played a prisoner in said Castle Wolfenstein, who upon busting out had to find some Nazi war plans then make your way out to freedom. The castle was made up of around 60 individual rooms, or "levels", with many of them featuring both Nazi guards and, more impressively, destructible environments, with interior walls able to be wiped out by explosive devices.
While Castle Wolfenstein was notable for all of the above, along with the fact it included actual lines of digitised speech (a rare treat in 1981), what's more interesting is how much it influenced the development of id's shooter over ten years later.
Not only did id lift the name (there was no actual Castle Wolfenstein, but because Muse had let the original game's rights lapse, id were free to use it as a title), it paid homage to the overall premise of the game, and even recreated the original's opening: in the 1981 game, you begin in a prison cell with a pistol, just like you do in Wolfenstein 3D.
Castle Wolfenstein was followed in 1984 by Beyond Castle Wolfenstein, which this time works in reverse, as you had to infiltrate a Nazi bunker (as opposed to escaping from one) and kill Adolf Hitler. Aside from the change in setting, gameplay and graphics remained largely the same.
Both games ended up being released on the Apple II, Commodore 64, Atari and PC. Sadly, their creator Silas Warner passed away in 2004 following a long battle with kidney disease.
FUN FACT: Silas Warner, who wrote both games, was also classical music composer. You can download one of his works here.
Total Recall is a look back at the history of video games through their characters, franchises, developers and trends.
id Software's groundbreaking first-person shooter Wolfenstein 3D has been stripped to its core, shedding two dimensions to become playable on a "single, dazzling one-pixel line."
After three decades, the 1992 original has been remade by Wonder Tonic with a graphical underhaul that truly underwhelms. Thrill as you walk to the right, shooting blue and orange lines (Nazis!), opening cyan lines that represent doors and desperately hoping for a magenta line to appear when you're down to your last bullet.
If you truly do not care about graphics, play Wolfenstein 1D.
Sonderkommando Revolt, the video game mod that reimagines an Auschwitz uprising as a bloody, pixelated shooter, may never see release, according to the project's lead creator. He blames the "emotional trauma" of media attention for its demise.
Israeli mod enthusiast Maxim "Doomjedi" Genis says the attention Sonderkommando Revolt has received from those outside the Wolfenstein 3D modding community is responsible for its cancellation. In an interview with Heeb Magazine, Genis says "Despite having no anti-jewish elements or intentions in this free pixelated mod of an 18-year old game, the project is declared cancelled at this point."
"The project is cancelled because I cannot stand media exposure of any kind," a distressed Genis tells the Jewish magazine, saying that he's experienced "very deep" emotional trauma over the scrutiny of his team's game. "I have no internal emotional powers to deal with the press, the violation of my personal privacy and life," he adds.
Genis told Kotaku earlier this month that Sonderkommando Revolt was not designed as political or social commentary, but simply as a game meant to be enjoyed by a tight-knit group of Wolf3D mod enthusiasts. He later said he regretted using the word "fun" to describe the game.
Sonderkommando Revolt was originally planned to be released on January 1, 2011. Right now, it looks like that may not happen.
An Israeli modder has turned a 1992 first-person shooter into a bloody tale of revenge set in a Nazi concentration camp with Sonderkommando Revolt, putting players in the role of an Auschwitz death camp prisoner on a killing rampage.
Sonderkommando Revolt is based on the real-world uprising at Auschwitz in October 1944—with some obvious Nazi exploitation as entertainment—and built on the foundation of classic shooter Wolfenstein 3D. The actual event in Auschwitz resulted in the deaths of just three German Schutzstaffel soldiers and the murder of 451 Sonderkommandos, a "special unit" of primarily Jewish concentration camp workers who aided in the killing process during the Holocaust.
In the video game version of the Sonderkommando Revolt, the tables are clearly turned, with protagonist and actual Auschwitz prisoner Zalmen Gradowski tearing through Nazi soldiers.
"Graphically it'll feature many themes," write its creators, "including Crematoriums, Block 11, Gas Chambers, execution, interrogation and torture areas...most of which are ripped/based off real pic from the real site."
Video game modder "Doomjedi" has been working on Sonderkommando Revolt with the group Team Raycast since 2007. The developer describes the Nazi revenge tale as "very realistic, moody, challenging and detailed." The game is part one of a planned trilogy, with Sonder 2 - Warsaw Uprising and Sonder 3 - Mission: Treblinka currently in the works.
The makers of Sonderkommando Revolt say they will release their mod for Wolf4SDL, a Wolfenstein 3D port, on January 1, 2011.
Kotaku has reached out to the Anti-Defamation League seeking reaction to the game.
Sega's video game tie-in for the Captain America movie features the star-spangled avenger infiltrating Hydra's mysterious castle during the darkest days of World War II. Sounds like a What If Captain America Infiltrated Castle Wolfenstein, doesn't it?
I've trained myself to not get excited over the games spawning from Sega's deal with Marvel over its movie properties. After two bad Iron Man games and a so-so attempt at a Hulk title I have to curb my enthusiasm. It's not so easy in the case of Captain America: Super Soldier, the video game tie-in for next year's Captain America: The First Avenger movie.
Why? First off, it's set in World War II. Like the movie, Captain America: Super Soldier focuses on Cap's early years, before he became a Capsicle bobbing in the middle of the ocean somewhere. We get to see Steve Rogers in his element, before his rude awakening in the present day.
Secondly, the story is being written by Christos Gage, once the writer of Avengers: The Initiative and the current scribe of Avengers Academy, one of my current favorite Marvel books.
Of course there's still some aspects of the game that have me worried. Sega has tapped Next Level Games to handle development, for instance. Next Level did produce Spider-Man: Friend or Foe, which was a passable Spider-Man game. They also developed Transformers: Cybertron Adventures for the Wii, which was a horrible little game.
And it is a Sega Marvel game. None of them have been particularly amazing.
Perhaps I'm just being lulled into a false sense of security by the parallels to Castle Wolfenstein. It's set in World War II. There is a large, mysterious castle. Hell, check out the Arnim Zola concept art in the gallery. A Nazi mastermind encased in the body of a mech? Where have we seen this before?
All you really need to do to make a good Captain America game set in World War II is take one of the better games in the Wolfenstein series and put Captain America in it.
Hopefully Next Level Games will give us something like that when Captain America: Super Soldier comes out next year for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PSP, Wii, and DS.
The iOS version of id Software's Wolfenstein 3D has been withdrawn from sale in two European countries over its use of the Nazi swastika.
