Hotline Miami Collection drops onto Switch eShop today (and somehow on sale in Australia)
Update: Somehow the Hotline Miami Collection is actually on sale in Australia right now for $37.50. But it probably shouldn’t be, unless the Australian Classification Board has changed its mind the second game should still be Refused Classification and unable to be sold in Australia. Even more bizarre is that the game is allegedly rated MA15+.
When you look up the classification listing for the game too, the most recent rating is for what appears to be the original game only – and it’s been refused classification. That classification was from June 2019. Hotline Miami 2’s original 2015 classification is still here and still RC’d.
We’re not sure if this will stay on sale, or the Board doesn’t care anymore. Either way, get it while it’s… hot?
Original Story: There’s a double dose of Hotline Miami hitting the Switch today with Hotline Miami Collection dropping on the eShop very soon.
That unless of course you live in Australia, which if you’re reading this means you probably do. The second game Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number was Refused Classification over four years ago and hasn’t been resubmitted or altered to be released since – which means we aren’t getting it.
Shame you can’t just switch to another account and buy games from another region – oh wait.
We’ll let you know if anything changes with a local release, but don’t bet on it.
The title of this story originally was “Hotline Miami Collection drops onto Switch eShop today (but probably not for Australia)”
They’ll probably (briefly) get away with it by submitting Hotline Miami Collection via IARC (which, for argument’s sake, can be considered its own separate game, as opposed to being bound by the RC classification given to the standalone Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number); this is of course assuming that IARC spits out a rating that is no higher than R18+ and no-one rats them out to the ACB. Remember, dobbers wear nappies, people.
It’s stupid that the game was ever banned in the first place, and the change in guidelines has actually made it so that certain games that would have been just fine at the M and MA15+ categories prior to the introduction of the R18+ rating for games would now be banned completely (not even depictions of “implied sexual violence” is permitted for games at the R18+ level, while it’s fine at the M rating and above for film/TV, and was also permitted pre-2013 for games). And it has also resulted in some other ridiculous restrictions, which had left previously PG-rated games being slapped with R18+ ratings when reclassified (namely those in the Atelier series), which was precisely what I had feared when I had reviewed the revised guidelines back in 2012, which suggested that any depiction of something even vaguely “rapey” (though the ACB can be trusted to articulate this in laughably verbose terms) can be slapped with an R18+ classification.
And what did I say?
It slid past IARC unscathed with an MA15+. Unfortunately, all this publicity will reach the ACB before long and will be taken down, I imagine, within 24 hours.
Ironically, the first game was rated MA15+ by the ACB, but when rated via the automated IARC scheme, it was RC’d.
More reforms at the ACB are needed.
I bought it just incase. I do find the ratings to be a joke, what’s the point of the 18+ rating if the moral police is there to refuse it on my behalf? I really hate the ratings board, it’s a bunch of bollocks.