"Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus" is a game with a sensitive subject matter, and this was proven again when Bethesda, the game's publisher, refused to distribute the game to the Israeli market.
The Israeli fans of the game, however, have taken the matter into their own hands and created a parody of the game in lieu of the embargo and censorship from Bethesda. The game is called "Wolfenstache: The New Censorship," which takes after how "Wolfenstein II" was recently censored in Germany, where the developers had to remove Swastika symbols, downplaying the protagonist's "Jewishness," and shaving off in-game Hitler's mustache just to comply with German laws.
For reasons unknown, and perhaps due to the severity of the censorship in Germany, Bethesda has opted not to release the game in Israel. No statement was issued by Bethesda, and this made a lot of Israeli players feel disappointed and robbed of the relief of killing Nazis in-game, hence the third-party parody.
"Wolfenstache," was developed by Shalov Moran, Alon Karmi, and Nadav Hekselman in the Unity engine. The parody game is free to play and while short, captures one of the most climactic moments of "Wolfenstein II," which was having a chance to go against Hitler.
Karmi guessed that Bethesda may have been afraid to offend the Israelis with their game, but he was also perplexed since a lot of World War II games are not censored in Israel. They have also claimed that a game about a Jew killing Nazis would not be offensive in a country full of Jews. "Isn't that the most empowering, cathartic plot ever for us?" asked Karmi in a rhetorical manner.
Moran was a little more serious with his sentiment towards Bethesda, protesting the fact that the game studio chose to revise the game and did nothing to fight the censorship. "First and foremost, we're calling out Bethesda for what seems to me like the stupidest act of revisionism in history," said Moran. "When you're censoring Jews from your game, you're doing something wrong."
Bethesda has not responded to the Israeli developers yet. For now, though, Israeli fans of the "Wolfenstein" franchise will have to make do with "Wolfenstache: The New Censorship."
