Homefront cuts everyone's favourite cuddly dictator Kim Jong II from its Japanese version

Kim Jong-il. What a guy, eh? If he's not banning North Koreans from using the internet, he's changing his country's constitution so that he's referred to as the Supreme Leader. The second most evil puppet in the history of guys sticking their hands up Muppets asses (after Big Bird, of course) doesn't always get his own way, though. Why, just this week the dictator has seen himself cut from the Japanese version of THQ's upcoming shooter Homefront.

In the Western version of the fictionalised shooter, Kim Jong-il has died, leaving his son Kim Jong-un to rule North Korea… and invade the shit out of the States. The opening cutscene shows a newspaper detailing the dictator’s death, while footage of a hearse can then be seen at his funeral.

In the Japanese version, however, the clip of the paper has been removed and the video of the funeral no longer includes a voice-over saying “… the Great Leader’s hearse is approaching.” These are justa small exampleof a raft of changes Spike (the publisher of the game in Japan) has had to make to secure the game’s release.

Other changes include all references to Kim Jong-il beingaltered to “Northern Leader” and the country itself being labelled as “A Certain Country to the North”. Though Japan does not support the North Korean regime, the two nations are neighbouring countries. With relations already in the rockiest of places, the Japanese rating board forced Spike to make the alterations. The publisher has since explained the changes: “To use their real names would have been "malicious" to an "existing person" and an "existing country".

It’s been quite the 12 months for digital versions of dictators, eh? It seems like only yesterday we were introducing Black Ops’ version of Castro to the business end of our democracy-enforcing make-believe bullets.

Source:EurogamerviaAndriasang

Got a news tip? Share it with us at tips@gamesradar.com.

Feb 7, 2011