Resident Evil 4 will not be censored in Europe
Capcom confirms that it's made some changes to the Japanese version, but insists the PAL version is unchanged.
Capcom Eurosoft has offered assurances that the European version of Resident Evil 4 will not be censored; despite confirming that the Japanese version released this week has had decapitation animations removed.
One of the more gruesome aspects of the American version is the way you could blast the heads clean off your zombie-like adversaries with a well-placed shot. They sometimes get back up after that, but their heads are at least visibly removed. However it seems that the Japanese version known as BioHazard 4 has had that aspect removed so that your enemies are no longer visibly decapitated at any stage.
The move - for which Capcom has yet to offer any explanation - calls to mind the furore over the removal of decapitations from Tecmo Xbox title Ninja Gaiden prior to its arrival in Europe last May, however a Capcom Eurosoft representative today insisted that Resident Evil 4 would not succumb to the same fate.
Resident Evil 4 is due to arrive on GameCube in Europe this 18th March, and will be distributed by Nintendo, for whom the game represents the biggest platform-exclusive release in recent months. A PlayStation 2 version is also in development.
You can read our review of the US Resident Evil 4 here.