Reservoir Dogs video game banned

New Zealand video gamers will not get the chance to relive the violence of 1992 cult movie Reservoir Dogs as censors have banned the game due to the "extreme levels" of violence involved.

"(The game) encourages the player to perform -- and showcases in slow motion -- the most extreme forms of violence and brutality for the purpose of entertainment," the Office of Film and Literature Classification said.

In Reservoir Dogs -- by Blitz Games -- players control six characters with the aim of killing large numbers of police officers.

By taking public and police officers hostage, the player is able to force the police to drop their weapons.

"Players can pistol whip hostages and repeatedly smash their heads onto nearby walls and surfaces. After the police comply, they can be disarmed, or killed in whichever manner the player chooses," Chief Censor Bill Hastings said.

Mr Hastings said the game was "one of the most violent and callously sadistic" he had ever seen.

Players can also choose to set the hostage free, execute the hostage with a single, point blank shot to the head, or kill the hostage using a "signature move".

Signature moves include the ability to burn hostages' eyes out with a lit cigar, chop off their fingers with a cigar cutter, and hack off their ears using a scalpel, all while they plead for their lives and scream in pain.

"Deaths can be replayed in slow motion to show, for example, bullets entering and leaving a person's body with large sprays of blood as he dies, and decapitation by shotgun blast, leaving a headless body lying on the ground spurting blood."

The player is then able to repeat this violence and cruelty without penalty for the purpose of entertainment, Mr Hastings said.

Blitz Games last month told Game Spot website it is possible to make it through the entire game without killing anyone.

The game has also been banned in Australia

- NZPA