South Park: The Stick of Truth uses crying koala picture to circumvent Australian censors

The Australian release of oft-delayed RPG South Park: The Stick of Truth is said to have been censored in the country, after multiple attempts from Ubisoft and developer Obsidian to appease the ratings board.

Player Attack has reported on the game's struggles with the Australian ratings board. The scenes in question revolve predominantly around an event where characters are probed in their nether regions by aliens, while the probes in question "visually resemble penises". A scene involving an abortion clinic was also problematic.

Volition's Saints Row IV ran into similar problems earlier this year after the game was refused classification in Australia due to an alien anal probe weapon.

After multiple attempts to modify the scene for the censors, the game still failed to pass even at Australia's recently introduced adults-only ratings.

It is now claimed that the Australian version of South Park: The Stick of Truth replaces the scene with a textual description of events--with evocative lines such as "aliens forcibly probe your rectum with a dildo-shaped probe," "probe his ass with violent force," and "causing his anal probe to penetrate him over and over"--with an image of a crying koala in the background.

While this is happening, "censored" is reported to flash up on the screen in big red letters.

The oft-delayed South Park: The Stick of Truth is currently due to be released on March 4, 2014.