Original: MS-DOS · 1992
Nintendo's content policy turned id's Nazi-shooting landmark into a game where you fight the "Staatmeister" and his mutant rats, in a country called the Master State, with almost no blood.
Wolfenstein 3D established the first-person shooter, and its SNES conversion — released in Japan in February 1994 and the United States that March — is the most instructive censorship case in console history. Nintendo's content policies at the time prohibited blood, gore and, in practice, Nazi imagery, so the port was rebuilt to comply. Every swastika and item of Nazi symbolism was removed. Hitler was renamed the "Staatmeister", and stripped of both his moustache and his armband. Nazi Germany itself became "the Master State". Enemies, who shout in German in the original, speak English instead. Blood was eliminated almost entirely — the only remaining blood in the game appears on B.J.'s own face on the status bar, once his health drops to 25 or below. And the attack dogs, which the player must shoot, were replaced with mutated giant rats, on the grounds that Nintendo could not be seen to let players kill dogs. id's developers have said the Nintendo censors made their lives miserable. The result is a game with the same architecture and none of the transgression — a Wolfenstein whose entire subject matter has been carefully negotiated out of it.
The original. Nazi imagery, German speech, blood and attack dogs all intact.
Swastikas removed, Hitler renamed "Staatmeister", dogs replaced with rats, blood almost entirely eliminated, enemies speak English.
Uncensored, higher resolution, new textures and additional levels — the best console version by a wide margin.
Widely criticised for a low frame rate despite the hardware's capability.
Higher resolution and improved art over the DOS original.