Mortal Kombat appeal fails in Australia

The new Mortal Kombat reboot has lost its appeal for a MA15+ age rating in Australia, effectively banning the game from release in the country.

As is the case with most mature-rated titles in Australia the game was initially denied a MA15+ rating by the Australian Classification Review Board. Since Australia has no equivalent of an 18-rating for games this means the title cannot be legally released.

Publisher Warner Bros attempted to appeal the initial decision, but this has now been rejected.

The reboot sees the series return to its most violent roots, with the signature fatalities being of greatest concern to the Review Board.

"Despite the exaggerated conceptual nature of the fatalities and their context within a fighting game set in a fantasy realm, impact is heightened by the use of graphics which are realistically rendered and very detailed," said the Board in an earlier report.

According to GameSpot the Board's new report commented: "In the Review Board's opinion, Mortal Kombat could not be accommodated within the MA15+ classification as the level of violence in the game has an impact which is higher than strong.

"As MA15+ is the highest classification category available to computer games under the Australian Classification Scheme, the Classification Review Board must refuse classification to Mortal Kombat."

Despite a high profile campaign last year to institute a mature-rating for games, still no decision has been taken on the issue and games continue to be either heavily-censored or denied release in the country.