The cartoony style makes it look like a toy more than it being on the DS does.

Come on Nintendo, don't water this down. This game looks like it could be brilliant.

How exactly is this controversial? It is not like it is some secret event. I guess because it is a game people will say 'ZOMG HOLOCAUST GAME' instead of looking at what it actually is.

You earn points for burning Jews.

Watered down? Or rated M, defeating the purpose?

I'll be watching this game closely. It is my belief that the ESRB makes it impossible for any game to have more mature content than a Die Hard movie. If they pull this off and make a meaningful and mature game, it could be a turning point that encourages the ESRB to allow more mature content to be created. Maybe we could get a "Directors Cut" version of Bioshock with more emotionally involved content they didn't include to avoid an AO rating.

I hope it doesn't just end up being another "shoot the Nazis" piece of crap.

Rated HL for Historical Lesson.

I don't understand why it would be censored just because of the swastika. Maybe in Germany yes, but else where i would hope not. Maybe now those who deny the holocaust will believe because theres a game about it

is this fantasy or belief game?

This game without Nazi symbolism would be pointless. Without the swastikas it turns into a platformer with cut scenes informing you about the Holocaust. We don't edit it out of the history books so why would remove it from a game that it attempting to educate? And on that point I don't feel the game, from these albeit early impressions, will possess a narrative engrossing enough to earn the credibility to talk about the Holocaust.

If Luc Bernard wants the credibility of video games as an art form the mastery of a narrative is prioritized above all else.

meh the imagery isnt that bad, ive done worse as jokes, but thats a different story, and the text isnt bad either. but you all must remember im desensitized and nothing i have ever come across has disturbed me. more on topic if this makes it in its pure form could turn out to be a very very interesting game.

Hm...looks and sounds a lot like Pan's Labryinth. I like the concept, and a serious take on the Holocaust is always nice. I love how the Nazis go from being normal-sized humans to demonic shadows in the fantasy word.

If Indiana Jones won't let us beat up cartoony Nazis, we'll have to make do.

Does he have a publisher? If not, the problem is going to be finding a publisher, even if he is allowing it to be 'watered down.'

Pan's labryinth on steroids.

So its basically a Holocaust version of Pan's Labyrinth. As a game. Sounds cool.

this is a mature game, not in rating but in the artistic content, games like this got a great value and should be considered art. the mature games doesn't need gallons of blood, deep sexuality neither brutality to be mature, but a deep well developed writing.

@N15PCA: Haha, great minds think alike.
...But fools seldom differ.

Real world mass genocide, education & entertainment. I don't know, sounds like a strange mix. I definitely agree that is has a respectable vision, I just don't see it doing well.

@N15PCA:

Yeah I was just about to mention the fact that this sounds exactly like Pan's Labyrith just during the German Holocauset instead of in Spain under Franco. I would probably play it, but then again I dont know how much I would want too if it was too depressing :-(

@Floral: Doesn't look any more cartoony than Maus [en.wikipedia.org], which is a fantastic book btw. This is definately something to look out for.

I really hope the esrb doesn't cut this game up, it'd be a real shame

My sole gripe about this game from these initial screens is how closely the main character resembles the one from Eternitys Child

Sounds interesting. I'm not too hopeful, but I'm curious and I'll at least keep watching to see how it turns out.

Many people fail spectacularly when tackling subjects far outside their personal experience, and you can't get much further from modern civilised life than the Holocaust. The very attempt strikes me as arrogant, but if he can weave something more compelling than a platformer where the bad guys wear swastikas and new levels pop up 'helpful facts' I'll buy it. And I don't even have a DS yet :)

I guess I want to see more about the perspective he's bringing to the topic first. Art to me is about the subtle and experiential... factual text and obvious symbolism is just unengaging surface detail.

Wow, this could turn out to be a freaking fantastic game. I hope it doesn't get watered down....

I dont think that this would pressure nintendo. Now, if it was a game about Unit 731...

@yourenzyme: I love Maus. It is a very considered, well drawn and well composed book. Not to mention, Art Spiegelman is a comics master.

This game's characters look like they were designed on a graphing calculator. Combining that with a heavy handed display of brutal facts, does not even approach the tact of Maus.

I am by no means saying this will be a bad game, as we know very little of it. I was responding to the creator wanting it to be taken as seriously in the same way as a great film.

A lot of you are assuming the ESRB would make the cuts and not a publisher of their own volition.

I can see this getting some press...granted any SMART consumer will know what it is, but the people who were raving mad on the wii zapper will be the same people saying that this is inappropriate due to its cartoony style and almost "mature" content.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that read holocaust and child imagining a fantasy land to cope and thus conjured Pan's Labyrinth the game.

It looks intriguing but the insert-random-holocaust-fact bottom screen looks too make me loose interest as a game and detracts from the actual storytelling. At least in my opinion...

@Floral: I agree, I don't think the game needs to be spitting out facts. It seems like something the gamer could do after playing the game. Especially if the subject matter caught their interest. I imagine it'd be a much better game if it told the story well enough to make people, who don't already know about the horrors committed during the holocaust, interested in researching it online themselves. Maybe include this information on the games website and direct the gamers there.

Hopefully this doesn't come off as some "Edutainment" game.

Barge pole time.

I'm sad to say this but no matter how arty this game is the Holocaust is such a sensitive topic that fox news or the sun or both are going to NUKE this game.

I hope it is good but we need to wait a few more years for more public acceptance before we try and broach such issues with games. That said, the developer must have very big balls. Good luck I say.

This could be the game that propells games from 'child's toy' to 'art'.

This is ridiculously ambitious, I hope that it works well and doesn't become a case story on why not to tackle sensitive topics like this. The DS does seem like an interesting platform, as does the idea of filtering the historical events of the Holocaust through a child's imagination, almost like Little Nemo. Again, hope it turns out well, as I hope EC will be good.

@Ninja-Z: One of the best things about Pan's Labyrinth was its juxtaposition of extremely brutal, visceral violence with the fantasy world of Pan. They can't do anything like that in a game thanks to the ESRB. It would be rated AO and no console would boot it.

@Foggynotion: Actually, if they held back a bit with the Nazi symbolism it might be able to be used to amp up the importance of the game. It might help people see what it was actually like to live in Germany during that time. The way it is usually presented, most people have no concept of how normal people could let something like this happen. If they didn't make it look like a circus sideshow with swaztikas plastered EVERYWHERE, they might be able to see how such atrocities happen slowly, by degrees. You know, illustrate how close we are now to something like this. Show the truth of the old addage "All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."

@EdwinJ85: All great works of art are torn apart by the mainstream.

An original game idea that could get controversy NOT made by Rockstar? BLASPHEMY!

Now this looks absolutely incredible, I hope the finished product is a heartfelt narrative. This has the potential to be very powerful.

@Floral: I do not want to imply that cartoons cannot be art.

I should have been more specfic in my first post. I was referring to the specific style used in the above images. The characters, with their fixed 3/4 views and big, googly eyes, seem limited in the amount of meaningful emotion they could convey.

The concept itself is interesting, but that art style makes this game seem like a joke. It just doesn't look very appealing to me. It's tackling the Holocaust, yet the art style seems less childish and more like children did it themselves. Which makes sense since it's supposed to be inside a young boy's head, but... I just can't like the sprites. If they just seemed less like they came out of a Penny Arcade strip, I'd love to at least play a demo of this game.

Hats off to the guy for trying to tackle this, though.

@EdwinJ85: Nearly all fine art is criticized until after the artist dies.

The imagery isn't bad but I can definately still see a publisher demanding the removal or change of the swastika.

Also the actual text is rather brutal and I expect that to be demanded to be toned down.

@Morberis: It's disgusting and sad, but you're probably right.

I know (of) an artist behind this, and the itself game sounds and looks interesting...

@otakucode: I don't think this game needs to go for such imagery. Unlike Pan's Labyrinth, the game makes the fantasy word look a lot more childish and playful rather than gruesome CGI. In what looks to be the real world (the second screenshot), Nazis are shown as shadows. The emphasis seems to be on the imagination, as Luc Bernard seems to be saying, not the real world. That's also a reason why the history facts might occasionally be displayed; in spite of all the fantasy-related imagery, these gruesome details keep us connected to the Holocaust enough that we don't forget it during the imagination segments.

That, and I don't see what's so taboo about Nazi symbols in a video game. World War II shooters have shown it for years, and you can control Nazis in those game. Here is a game that paints the Nazi war crimes as gruesome and immoral, and suddenly their appearance is wrong? The ESRB might make odd decisions every now and then, but we're log past the time when Wolfenstein had all Nazis removed.

If this game is watered down at all, I say we organize a protest to let Nintendo know how the customers feel about it. If they want to release two versions with different ratings or something, go ahead. But I want to experience THIS game, as intended by its designer, not what a board of executives think the game should be.

BTW I love this guys art style. That shadow guy in the last image looks almost EXACTLY like an antagonist I created as a child a while ago. So much that if I didn't know any better I would say he stole the design from me (he obviously didn't).

This isn't exclusive, I read it on CVG yesterday

@Ninja-Z:

Germany has funky ass laws that although are meant to not allow promotion of pro nazi or denial of the holocaust make it very hard to do any game based on that time. Nazi flags for instance are often removed.

Also in the states we have people who want Harry Potter out of school libraries or Tom Sawyer which is anti-white trash and anti-racism book. Look at how many books are challenged. Books such as the Hot Zone which details how Ebola and other such nasty viruses kill people and how diseases like it spread with the potential of it becoming a plague.

School Books in the states are incredibly watered down to not offend supposed Christians. Oh we cannot mention that Christmass was illegal under the Puritans for several decades in the United States and that prior to the late 19th century Churches had their doors closed to prevent people from coming in to worship or that no stores were closed that day. Oh we cannot also mention that the mail was delivered on Sundies till some churches complained that it was hampering their efforts to promote Christianity because people would rather go to the Post Office each week to pick up their mail rather then listen to some nut job preacher.

Really good idea.. this was already used several times on books and movies like Narnia and Life Is Beautiful.. it's good to see people using this kind of approach to games too..

@Yetanotheruninspiredscreename: You're dead on. And don't forget, there are LOADS of games that feature crosses and take place in churches that come out in Japan (where religion is mostly like a cute stupid little superstition some people are into, not taken very seriously even by believers) that get censored when they come to America. There are lots of screenshots out there of crosses disappearing on their trip across the shores. I was a bit surprised at the religious content in Luminous Arc, though it is very good the way it is portrayed with the church lying and duping people and their "soldiers" finally waking up and seeing through their crap. That's just usually the stuff that gets cut out during "localization".

@otakucode:

Well things are somewhat different now that the video game industry is more powerfull. Nintendo's self censorship was an unfortuant necessity at the time otherwise the video game industry would have been destroyed.