10 Controversial Board Games That Got BANNED

9. Serial Killer: The Board Game

Death is a common subject matter in gaming, it is after all the ultimate loss condition we all must face, spoilers, and board games deal their fair share, from the constant spectre of starvation and disease in survival games like This War of Mine or Dead of Winter, or the Jack The Ripper-em-up killer on the loose games like Letters from Whitechapel or Last Friday.

But few games seem to revel in death as much as Serial Killer: The Board Game did, which had a brief sales run in the early 90s and saw players compete to go on the biggest spree and featured such grim presentation as the board and cards coming not in a box, but a body bag, the rulebook having an actual rendering of corpse’s face on the front.

It had cards that blamed the victims for being alone at night and even coming with a bag… are they… babies, they’re- they’re babies, I think, edge stuff, game, you won’t clean your room when your mum tells you to.

The game drew outrage in the media, which was almost certainly the point, which is bleak, but eventually leading it to being banned in Canada before fading from sight, back into the shadows.