Source: Bushiroad Inc.
HunterxHunter’s first full-fledged fighting game receives no age rating in Australia, effectively being banned before its release.
Popular anime HunterxHunter’s fighting game adaptation, HunterxHunter NenxImpact was refused an age rating by Australia’s Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, and the Arts on November 18, 2024, essentially banning the upcoming game from a release in the country.
Once a product is refused classification in Australia, according to the official Australian classification website, it means that it cannot be sold, hired, advertised, or legally imported. As such, materials that have been refused classification may contain content that is ‘outside generally-accepted community standards’, and also ‘exceeds what can be included in the R 18+ and X 18+ ratings.’
Although no reason was listed on the website for HunterxHunter NenxImpact being given a Refused Classification status, Polygon has reported that a spokesperson from the Australian Classification Board noted that the game contains “a scene of a visual depiction of implied sexual violence, where an adult male exposes himself to persons under the age of 18 years.”
The adult male that the spokesperson mentioned may point towards HunterxHunter’s polarising character Hisoka Morow, who has rather problematic characterisation thanks to his role as one of the series’ antagonists. Hisoka isn’t exactly known for his morals, and is a generally creepy character all around due to his sadomasochistic tendencies.
The mention of an adult male who “exposes himself” may point towards a certain episode in HunterxHunter’s Greed Island Arc, where main characters Killua and Gon (who are canonically 12 years old in the show) are transported to a lake where a naked Hisoka is bathing, and who faces them full-frontal upon being called. It’s possible that this scene is included in the game.
Australia is notoriously known for its strict classifications and censorship laws regarding media and games that may contain some unsavory details; some notable titles that have been slapped with the Refused Classification rating are: Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, South Park: The Stick of Truth, and even Silent Hill: Homecoming. These games were later censored and re-released to abide by Australia’s classification standards.
In that regard, HunterxHunter NenxImpact still has time to revise the scene that got it banned for, since the game has been delayed from its original 2024 release date just this September. HunterxHunter NenxImpact is now set to launch sometime in 2025 for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
