Kakuto Chojin and the Banned Game Blues

Does the name ‘Kakuto Chojin’ ring a bell? No? A forgettable, banned, dereritive 3D Xbox fighter doesn’t come to mind? Wait, forgettable… oh, that’s it. If not for its questionable content that led Microsoft to take Kakuto Chojin (pronounced cock-toe-choe-gin…yes, really) store shelves, we wouldn’t even be bringing this laughable 2002 fighter up today.

So, why was this third-rate Tekken clone banned from retail stores? Was it because of the generic character designs? The lifeless stages? The overly shiny, unrealistic visuals? Nope, none of that – a controversial religious chant found in Kakuto Chojin was the reason Microsoft rushed to rid this title off of every game store shelf a few months after it was released. Kakuto Chojin featured a level with a background sound effect featuring a passage from the Quran being repeated over and over.

Due to generally poor reception and inadequate original sales, Kaktuo Chojin was never re-released back onto the market. All copies of this game were ordered to be destroyed or returned to Microsoft. Despite being an extremely rare find in the B&M market outside of flea markets, Kakuto Chojin is readily available online for under $5 on auction sites like Amazon. Not even game collectors want anything to do with what is one of the bottom-tier fighters of the last generation, despite its cancellation and limited print run.