Introduction

Every rose has its thorn, or so the saying goes. Rule of Rose, a psychological thriller from Sony and game developer Punchline, became a hit earlier this year in Japan, but it's a source of controversy here in North America. The PlayStation 2 title tells the story of a 19-year-old girl (hey, they made her legal, so that's a start!) who is taken to an evil orphanage called the Rose Garden after her parents die. Once there, Jennifer discovers that the place is run by demented, sadistic children that call themselves - and I'm not making this up - the "Aristocracy of the Red Crayon." (I thought it was a typo, but I swear to you that I've checked it thrice.) Anyway, weird things start to happen at the orphanage, and Jennifer's only ally at Rose Garden is a dog named Brown.

Sounds totally innocent, of course, but Sony America decided not to publish the title, even though Sony had released the same PS2 game in Japan. Why? Apparently, Sony officials in the U.S. felt that Rose's sadism, torture and erotic themes were bound to cause a stir with the moral majority here in the States.

I heard about this game at E3 but didn't really think anything of it. Game publisher Atlus showed off Rule of Rose during the big event, but I had no idea what the controversy was about (Atlus picked up the publishing rights after Sony bailed). So I watched the game trailer, which can be found on YouTube here, and I was fully prepared to see some type of perverted hybrid of "Flowers in the Attic" and "Basic Instinct." All I really saw, however - aside from a bunch of girls running around acting crazy - was a big fat double standard.

Rule of Rose

I started thinking about Rose a bit more, and began to wonder if Sony was in fact making the right call. After all, I had only seen a trailer; maybe Rose really is a bit too touchy. And maybe audiences here in North America are too timid when it comes to sexual themes and extreme content. After watching films like the Japanese horror flick "Audition" - the only movie ever that even came close to making me physically ill - I can't help but think that perhaps Asian folk have a bit higher thresholds than Americans.

That said, I look forward to putting Rose to the test when it's released this fall. Read on for more examples of games that are pushing buttons, so to speak.

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