14 DAY TRIAL // History is a strange thing - there are people who would like to forget things that happened in the past, or, better said, would like everybody to forget about them. Indeed, some horrible things took place, actually most of the history of the human kind is based on violence and judging on what happens in the world nowadays, it's not something that's going to change too soon. One of the most sensitive pieces of relatively recent history is the Holocaust and it seems natural to be a hard to talk about this topic, since killing innocent people was involved.
However, these things did happen and, as much as we'd like to, we can't just forget them and try to ignore the facts. When a video game developer comes and presents a Holocaust-themed game for the Nintendo DS which seems that will describe how the Nazis tortured children, it's definitely a shocker and two sides will arise immediately: the "let it be" side and the "can it NOW" one. And it is quite a hard fact to judge, having in mind the lack of actual details about this game - still, this doesn't seem to have people and even Nintendo making up their mind.
"At this time, there are no plans for this game to be released for any Nintendo platforms in North America," Nintendo said, according to The New York Times. Indeed, it seems a bit strange to create such a "heavy" game for a console like the Nintendo DS which is focusing more on a casual, younger audience. However, it seems that the game will not be an ode to violence, a thing that would eventually make us think that torturing people would be a good idea and such.
According to Luc Bernard, the game's developer, Imagination Is the Only Escape (this is the game's name) casts the player in the role of a young boy in eastern France during the German occupation who seeks escape from real-life horror by creating his own fantasy world. The game will get its share of dark illustrations and bad for the stomach historical facts but, I must repeat it - it's most likely we'll see things that really happened, even if we would've liked them to be different. That is why I consider (at least) strange this decision.
Mr. Bernard said, in the end: "There will be no on-screen violence in this product. I don't see war as a game. I don't find that amusing," and wrote in a blog entry: "I hope that young children will play it," claiming that the game is meant to be educational.