All Games Should Have Censorship Options Like Dispatch, Here's Why

Dispatch has officially landed on both the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2, but has been heavily censored.

Last week I played through the game for the first time and was very excited. I’d heard a lot of good things about Dispatch and managed to avoid spoilers so I was eager to see what all the fuss was about.

The opening was strong and I was already vibing with our hero Robert Robertson, AKA Mecha-Man but the tone quickly shifted when the supervillain Toxic showed off their powers, melting their clothes away with an acidic aura.

Robert cracked a joke about the villain’s exposed member, but it was covered up by a solid, black censor bar.

I knew Dispatch wasn’t afraid of crude gags and nudity so I assumed I had a censorship setting switched on, but after perusing the game’s settings I discovered the Nintendo Switch version forces censorship on the game.

Why All Games Should Have Censorship Options

There should be censorship options in games. Whether it be changing the colour of blood, bleeping out swear words or, yes, censoring nudity.

We've all had the fear of a parent or friend walking in at exactly the wrong moment, whether it's film, TV or games. There's nothing wrong with wanting to avoid that awkward conversation.

Now it’s hard to complain about this without sounding like a massive gooner but hear me out.

I don't hate the idea of censorship, but Dispatch suffers from the method of censorship, the black censor bars.

In fact, it's the worst example of it in gaming I've ever experienced.

Too many times was my immersion broken by a censor bar obscuring the screen, crudely sliding around like it’s just come out of a Jamiroquai music video to keep up with whatever’s happening in the scene.

AdHoc Studios

At one point in the story a love-scene played out and I’m not exaggerating when I say the censorship bar covered about 50% of my screen at one point and muted the audio.

Again I’m not bothered that I didn’t get to see animated breasts or Robert Robertson’s schmeat but I am bothered by the lack of grace used when obscuring them.

Pixelation or blurring would have been just as effective and far less obtuse.

Dispatch has so much personality too, AdHoc Studio could have leaned into that more and stuck a png of Water Boy over more lewd content.

Just anything but a solid colour.

I’m not blaming AdHoc Studio though. The team had to work with the hand it was dealt and I did still enjoy my first playthrough of Dispatch.

I’ll be grabbing a copy on the PlayStation Store for my next one though.