AdHoc’s superhero sim Dispatch has made its debut on Nintendo Switch consoles, although the title has unfortunately been censored on the platform, with all its more explicit content being removed.
As reported by Eurogamer, the in-game option for players to toggle the censorship of explicit scenes, such as nudity or sexual content, which is present in all other platforms, is completely missing for Dispatch’s Nintendo Switch versions, meaning censorship is implemented by default on the consoles.
“Different platforms have different content criteria, and submissions are evaluated individually,” said AdHoc in a statement. “We worked with Nintendo to ensure the content within the title met the criteria to release on their platforms, but the core narrative and gameplay experience remain identical to the original release.”
While this censorship does make sense on Nintendo’s platforms, considering their stricter criteria when it comes to ports on the Switch and its whole notion of being a “family-friendly” console, this decision might come as a disappointment to many eager to get their hands on a handheld version of the game.
While it is true that the removal of such explicit scenes does not technically affect the game’s overall narrative, the romance between the protagonist and either Invisigirl or Blonde Blazer played a huge role in humanising the characters, and was a major selling point to many players, so removing the more intimate scenes might lead to players considering other versions of the title instead, as they will not be getting the full experience on the Switch.
This marks an unfortunate bump in what has so far been a flawless run for Dispatch, with the game beloved by many, so much so that it sold a staggering three million copies within three months. The studio is also considering making a second season, but let’s hope that if it does come to fruition, the game will continue to give players the choice to toggle explicit content, at least on non-Nintendo consoles.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
