The developers of Wolfenstein 3D recently mentioned that Nintendo “made their lives impossible” with his iron censorship. The publisher even forced them to replace the dogs with rats, among many other changes. Wolfenstein 3D was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in February 1994. The game has long been considered by fans of the franchise to be the worst of its more than a dozen different versions.
The news comes from a trailer for the upcoming documentary known as FPS: First Person Shooter. The film will take viewers on a “nostalgic journey from the genre’s humble beginnings in the 1970s to the present day, exploring the impact and legacy of a wide range of genre-defining classics, from Wolfenstein 3DDoom and GoldenEye to Half-Life, Halo, Call of Duty and beyond”.
FPS: First Person Shooter will feature interviews with dozens of legendary developers including John Carmack, Warren Spector, Scott Miller, John Romero, and Cliff Bleszinski.
“We knew we’d have to get rid of some of the Nazi paraphernalia because they wanted to sell the game in Germany,” said programmer Becky Heineman. “But the most remarkable thing was that in the original version of Wolfenstein 3D we had German shepherds coming forward to bite you and the censors of Nintendo they said ‘you can’t shoot dogs’ so we had to change them to rats“.
The developers followed the instructions they were given, but this was not the end of their problems. “We had to remove the rats’ tongues because it reminded Nintendo of blood.Heineman noted.The censors made our lives impossibleso we had to make several versions before Nintendo said ‘okay’ you can use this“.
FPS: First Person Shooter promises viewers many similar stories. The film was successfully funded on Kickstarter last year and is currently in the final stages of production. The creators have launched a campaign on Indiegogo to help them overcome the latest hurdles.