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00:05Welcome to MojoPlays, and today we're looking at the biggest risks in the early 2000s and
00:11realizing why they wouldn't work today.
00:13Whether they're too cheesy, too violent, or just too easy to cancel, these are 20 PS2
00:18games that would never get made today.
00:20Let's go.
00:21Before we continue, we publish content all week long, so be sure to subscribe and ring
00:26the bell to get notified of our latest videos.
00:30Playboy The Mansion
00:36For a game carrying the Playboy name, Playboy The Mansion spent a surprising amount of time
00:41making you worry about staff, parties, and magazine deadlines.
00:44Players built the business, hired employees, photographed models, managed relationships,
00:49and tried to keep the whole empire running.
00:51In 2005, that was sold as Cheeky Adult Management.
00:54In 2026, the exact same pitch would be much harder to package.
00:58Questions around workplace power, consent, Playboy's legacy, and the fantasy of becoming
01:03Hugh Hefner would dominate the conversation before anyone even reached the gameplay.
01:07Licensing would be another headache, especially if real personalities were involved.
01:11It's just a slam dunk for failure.
01:14At least some of the content for our next issue lined up.
01:16We're back in the roster screen.
01:18Invite at least a couple possibilities.
01:2025 to Life
01:29Before anyone had even played 25 to Life, the controversy was already doing most of the marketing.
01:34Its multiplayer revolved around cops fighting criminals, while the campaign leaned heavily into gangs, drugs, and hostage situations.
01:41Politicians and police groups attacked the game, with Senator Charles Schumer arguing it made Grand Theft Auto look tame.
01:48Dropping that exact concept into 2026 would be even messier.
01:52Conversations around policing, gun violence, and online behaviour would immediately swallow the launch.
01:58Especially with multiplayer built around heavily armed cops and gang members killing each other.
02:03Crime games still exist, obviously, but selling this particular setup as the main attraction without a rockstar reputation would be
02:10a PR nightmare.
02:15America's 10 Most Wanted
02:17I've got a visual on LZ Raven.
02:19We're taking fire! Service to air weapons inbound!
02:22Mayday! Mayday! We've been hit!
02:24In 2003, apparently nobody thought twice about turning the War on Terror into a side quest.
02:31America's 10 Most Wanted, released in the US as fugitive hunter War on Terror, sends generic military guy around the
02:37world,
02:37hunting real figures like Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.
02:41That alone would make a modern publisher sweat.
02:44But the game somehow gets stranger.
02:46Major targets are finished off using a clumsy 3D fighting system that suddenly turns the shooter into Bargain Bin Tekken.
02:53Using real terrorists as villains gave it a bluntness most military games avoided, and for good reason.
02:59As fun as it is to punch Osama in the face, let's leave that out of our escapes from reality.
03:09Got some jewelry for ya!
03:11Ico
03:18Let's try for a weird entry, because Ico, or Ico, is great.
03:23And if you've followed my videos, you know that I love this game.
03:26But, hear me out.
03:27You could explain Ico in about 30 seconds, and that is exactly why it feels so unlikely as a major
03:34Sony release now.
03:35Most of the game is spent exploring a lonely castle, solving simple environmental puzzles, fighting off shadow creatures, and literally
03:42holding Yorta's hand so she can keep up.
03:44There are no skill trees, gear scores, crafting systems, or endless upgrade menus demanding attention every 5 minutes.
03:51The whole thing works because it's quiet, focused, and deliberately small.
03:56A remake could absolutely happen, but as a brand new flagship exclusive, I don't know.
04:02Particularly because the entry made to try and recreate the magic, The Last Guardian, didn't quite get there, and it
04:08already had a legacy behind it.
04:10Imagine something new trying to be Ico today.
04:13Boring.
04:22Def Jam Fight for New York
04:31Try rebuilding the roster of Def Jam Fight for New York today, and the licensing bill would probably arrive before
04:37the game had even had a cast.
04:38The original packed in Snoop Dogg, Method Man, Red Man, Busta Rhymes, Ludicrous, and plenty more.
04:44Then let players beat the absolute hell out of them.
04:46Every artist meant likeness rights, music arrangements, and brand approvals, with Def Jam itself adding another layer.
04:54Former executives explained that the deals were already complicated back then, and would cost vastly more now because hip-hop
05:01and gaming are both bigger businesses.
05:03Fans can keep asking for a remaster, but EA would need an accountant, a lawyer, and probably a wizard.
05:16Whiplash
05:26A rabbit being used as a blunt weapon was apparently enough to cause a minor national incident.
05:30Whiplash follows Spanx, a weasel change to the unstoppable Redmond, as the pair escape an animal testing facility.
05:37The joke is that Spanx solves most problems by swinging, throwing, and generally abusing his rabbit companion like a furry
05:43wrecking ball.
05:44Groups, including the RSPCA, criticized the game before release, arguing that its cartoon violence encouraged animal cruelty, despite the story
05:52being explicitly anti-animal testing.
05:55The contradiction is exactly what made the controversy so ridiculous.
05:59A game this silly could still exist now, but the publishers would probably see a guaranteed backlash from animal rights
06:05groups and decide, nah, just give him a sword.
06:09So that's your whole plan. Mindless destruction.
06:12Bessie.
06:12Mr. Mosquito
06:21Some ideas age gracefully.
06:23Mr. Mosquito includes a mission where you drink blood from a teenage girl while she's in the bath.
06:27So not this one.
06:29Across 12 stages, you play as a mosquito harvesting enough blood from the Yamada family to survive winter,
06:34sneaking around rooms and triggering frantic battles whenever someone notices you.
06:38It was bizarre, it was inventive, and it was exactly the kind of experiment Sony was once willing to support
06:43through Japan's studio.
06:45These days, PlayStation is far more interested in polished blockbusters, remasters, and safe prestige releases.
06:52A concept this strange would almost certainly end up as a small Steam indie instead.
06:57Left to the bottom end of Steam. Released? Sure. Released by a major publisher? Nah.
07:0950 Cent Bulletproof
07:10Hey, I got nothing but that bum Booker knows everything about this city. Try him.
07:1850 Cent Bulletproof treated celebrity branding like a full-scale military operation.
07:2350 Cent played himself. G-Unit came along for the ride, and Eminem and Dr. Dre also contributed performances,
07:29all wrapped around a soundtrack stuffed with licensed music.
07:33Then there was the actual game, which involved drugs, organized crime, and 50 surviving a shooting before launching into a
07:38revenge spree.
07:39Australia even refused classification for the original version because of its violence, forcing changes for release.
07:45None of that makes a modern remake impossible, but recreating the same lineup of artists, songs, likeness rights, and performances
07:51would be so expensive it really wouldn't be worth making.
07:54Particularly because young gamers think Snoop Dogg is just that skinny old dude who says shizzle.
08:00For a f***ing skateboard, kids got expensive taste.
08:04Tony Hawk's Underground
08:11A proper return of Tony Hawk's Underground would be a licensing nightmare disguised as a skateboarding game.
08:18The original pulled together professional skaters, board companies, clothing brands, real-world spots, and a soundtrack packed with licensed artists,
08:26all while giving Bam Majera a major role in the story.
08:30That combination captured early 2000s skate culture perfectly, but recreating it now would mean renegotiating a mountain of separate deals.
08:39Swap out too many songs, brands, or personalities, and the game starts losing the exact identity people want preserved.
08:45You could absolutely remake the levels and mechanics, but restoring the whole culture package would be a major pain.
08:52A Majera pain.
08:55God, I hate myself.
08:56God, I hate myself.
09:02Buzz the Music Quiz.
09:10Four enormous wired buzzers sitting around the lounge made perfect sense in the PS2 era, which tells you a lot
09:16about how different gaming used to be.
09:18Buzz the Music Quiz bundled those chunky controllers with a trivia game built around licensed songs, artists, and music questions.
09:25Releasing that exact package now would be ridiculous.
09:29Sony would have to manufacture dedicated hardware for one quiz series,
09:33while also renegotiating music rights secured for a physical game from decades ago.
09:37The obvious modern version would simply use phones as controllers
09:40and stream most of the content digitally.
09:43That would work fine, but some of the charm disappears
09:45when the giant red button becomes a turd of an app.
09:48Does anybody even play Jackbox anymore?
09:51They're on the board. An empty board.
09:54But that's not the point.
09:56Mark Echo's Getting Up Contents Under Pressure.
09:59How I end up in this mess?
10:00I just wanted to get up, get my name out.
10:06Grandma used to say, grey hair is God's graffiti.
10:10My Beautiful Nation of Australia actually banned Mark Echo's Getting Up Contents Under Pressure
10:15after deciding its graffiti mechanics crossed from entertainment into instruction.
10:21Boo Australia.
10:22The game follows Train, an aspiring street artist fighting gangs,
10:25and an authoritarian government while covering new radius and increasingly elaborate tags.
10:30That focus caused backlash elsewhere too, not just Australia,
10:33including criticism from UK's Anti-Graffiti Association.
10:36What really upset Australia classifiers was the inclusion of real graffiti artists,
10:42practical techniques, and rewards for tagging public spaces.
10:45The game had originally received an MA15 Plus rating before that decision was overturned.
10:50Today, teaching the player how to do graffiti in recognisable detail would invite exactly the same argument all over again.
11:01Leisure Suit Larry, Magna C*** Loud.
11:06Hey baby, don't I know you from somewhere?
11:10By the time this particular entry, which I don't want to repeat again because bleeping it is annoying,
11:14arrived, the series had traded cheeky innuendo for the energy of a particularly desperate college comedy.
11:20You play as Larry Lavage, who needs to seduce enough women and collect affection tokens to earn a place on
11:26a dating show,
11:27mostly through repetitive minigames and increasingly explicit jokes.
11:30The marketing somehow pushed things even further, with review copies reportedly accompanied by pornography and flavoured condoms.
11:37Guess who was not impressed?
11:39I promise we don't usually suck, but it was Australia.
11:42Even after edits were made, the game was still refused classification,
11:45while Europe received it uncensored and the US eventually followed.
11:49A modern version would face the same problem.
11:51The premise could survive, but the exact tone would probably ignite a thousand tweets.
11:55You just told me you got it for 28 cents.
11:58Larry, this here ain't no corn, it's no cognac, you hear?
12:04Reservoir Dogs
12:12Reservoir Dogs arrived with controversy already packed in thanks to the reputation of Tarantino's 1992 film,
12:17and the game did little to calm things down.
12:20Released in 2006, it brought back Michael Madsen as Mr. Blonde
12:23and filled in what happened to the gang after the failed robbery.
12:26Despite being a third-person shooter, the game actually rewarded restraint,
12:31ranking players from psychopath to professional,
12:34and encouraging hostage-taking and crowd control over mindless killing.
12:38That nuance didn't save it from classification troubles.
12:41Australia, Germany and Japan all rejected it,
12:44while New Zealand went further and made possession illegal after classifying it as objectionable.
12:50Whoa.
12:50I don't think we got set up. I know we got set up.
12:52I mean, really, seriously, where'd all those cops come from, huh?
12:55One minute they're not there, the next minute they're there.
12:57I didn't hear any sirens.
12:58The Guy Game
13:06There is no version of The Guy Game that gets anywhere near a modern storefront.
13:11The PS2 trivia title mixed quiz questions with live-action spring break footage,
13:15rewarding correct answers by showing women flashing the camera.
13:19That alone would make it a hard sell today,
13:21but the real disaster came afterwards when it emerged that one participant had been 17 during filming.
13:28Because she was legally a minor, the footage created a far more serious problem
13:32than the game's deliberately sleazy presentation.
13:35The title was effectively dead as a normal release,
13:38though the developers later repackaged material as the interactive DVD The Guy Game Game Over.
13:43This is one of those cases where controversial feels wildly too gentle of a title.
13:49It's just illegal.
13:50The game that challenges you to compete against one another for the top spot
13:55while working together as a team for the tops off.
13:59NARC
13:59Evidence from the Eddie Jackson crime scene's missing, Jack.
14:03A vial suddenly disappeared from the evidence locker.
14:06Without that residue, we can't ID what he was high on.
14:09One of the strangest ideas in NARC is that the police can confiscate drugs
14:13and then immediately use them for gameplay bonuses.
14:15Different substances provide temporary effects,
14:18turning an anti-drug shooter into something where evidence suddenly becomes a power-up.
14:22Australia refused classification, of course we did,
14:25largely because that drug use was tied directly to rewards,
14:28and it's easy to see why the mechanic would cause problems again today.
14:32The rest of the game is pure mid-2000s excess.
14:35Corrupt cops, heavy violence, grimy presentation,
14:38and the kind of soundtrack design to make every concerned parent sigh loudly.
14:42A remake is technically possible,
14:44but convincing a major publisher to proudly revive this exact tone
14:48would be a pretty hard sell today.
14:54Manhunt 2
15:07Manant 2 arrived carrying the reputation of the first game like a loaded weapon.
15:11Playing as escaped asylum patient Daniel Lamb,
15:14you spend much of the game stalking enemies from the shadows
15:16before carrying out executions designed to be as unpleasant as possible.
15:20Predictably, the backlash started almost immediately after the announcement it existed.
15:25Rockstar had to make major changes for the US and UK,
15:28including blurring executions and removing the scoring system tied to kills,
15:33with the UK version arriving a year later.
15:35Germany, Malaysia, and South Korea banned it outright,
15:38while Australia never even got a classification submission.
15:41A modern publisher could still make an extreme horror game,
15:43but a Manhunt game?
15:45I think there's a reason the series is dead.
15:52Shellshock Nam 67
15:54So all you cherries, no heroics, okay?
15:58Just follow Lieutenant O'Brien's orders.
16:00He's your officer out here, so do whatever he says.
16:04Okay, 15 seconds.
16:06Get ready and give him hell out there.
16:08Most Vietnam games eventually find room for helicopters, machine guns, and fortunate sun.
16:13Shellshock Nam 67 was far more interested in showing how ugly the conflict could get.
16:19Guerrilla games filled it with fear, drugs, prostitution, and generally miserable soldiers,
16:24instead of presenting the war as one long heroic shooting gallery.
16:28Not all of it has aged gracefully, especially some of the dialogue,
16:31but the willingness to make the player uncomfortable still stands out.
16:34Modern military shooters often smooth over the nastier political edges of real conflicts,
16:39which makes this one feel unusual now.
16:42A re-release would be rough.
16:44It's not as accurate as Hell Let Loose Vietnam,
16:46so you can't even debate its historical content as a defense.
17:01You can almost hear the early 2000s marketing meeting that created BMXXXX.
17:06Take an extreme sports game, add nudity strippers, prostitutes,
17:10and enough bad jokes to make everyone uncomfortable.
17:13Great job.
17:14The result let players create topless female riders,
17:17and unlocked live-action footage of real dancers,
17:20which was far more shocking at the time than it would be now.
17:23The bigger problem was what happened around the game.
17:26BMX rider Dave Meera sued a claim,
17:29arguing that his name had been dragged into a direction he never agreed to.
17:32The PS2 version was censored, while Australia removed the nudity entirely.
17:37A modern game could certainly be raunchier,
17:39but tying all of this to a licensed sports brand would be asking for trouble.
17:43I also just think we don't really need this anymore.
17:46It's just not that interesting.
17:48I see weirder stuff on Netflix every day.
17:50I don't need boobs and BMX combined on my PS5.
17:58Bully.
17:59James?
18:00What? Who are you?
18:01Mom, I thought you told me never to talk to strangers.
18:03Like I said before, Jimmy, please be nice to your new stepfather.
18:07Back in the PS2 era, Rockstar could release something as weirdly specific as Bully
18:11and trust people to show up.
18:12Jimmy Hopkins spends the game surviving boarding school,
18:16pulling pranks, fighting students, and dealing with teenage drama,
18:19instead of taking over a criminal empire.
18:21That smaller scale is exactly why it feels special.
18:24A proper remaster would be very welcome,
18:26but modern Rockstar barely releases anything outside Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption,
18:31so a risky schoolyard game seems unlikely to make the cut.
18:35There is also the baggage from the original launch,
18:37when even the title caused controversy and the UK renamed it Canis Canem Edit.
18:41Today, stuffing kids into lockers would probably trigger the PR department.
18:45Violence and children doesn't really mix like it used to.
18:48I'd like to reword that, because I don't like how it sounds.
18:51Violence and children is bad.
18:53Unless they deserve it.
18:55Moving on.
18:56Keep paying attention.
18:58Satisfactory work, James.
19:00I'll see you next class.
19:02The Punisher.
19:03Welcome to Riker's, Mr. Castle.
19:06Accommodations to your liking?
19:09I'm Detective Soap.
19:11This is Lieutenant Richthofen.
19:13Volition somehow managed to make The Punisher too violent for a character whose entire personality
19:18is basically violence.
19:21Frank Castle spends the game hunting mobsters, Yakuza members, and other criminals,
19:25with cameos from Black Widow, Iron Man, Daredevil, and Nick Fury along the way.
19:29The real controversy came from the interrogation system,
19:32which let players torture enemies using everything from power tools to sharks before finishing them off.
19:37The ESRB originally handed the game an adults-only rating,
19:41forcing changes so it could actually release on consoles.
19:44The UK demanded additional cuts, while Germany restricted it heavily.
19:48A modern Punisher game could absolutely exist,
19:51but bringing back those exact interrogation sequences would be a little harder today.
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