Videogames have a long history of censorship and banning, with at least one notorious Atari title infamously buried in a desert. However, the graphic adventure game Sex Vixens from Space faced a different fate: outright destruction by UK Customs. The 1988 title from Free Spirit Software was never officially released in the UK because the entire shipment was intercepted and destroyed by customs officials.
According to a report in the US Commodore magazine .info in January 1989, 75 copies of Sex Vixens from Space were seized and destroyed as part of a larger shipment. This act led the game's director, Joe Hubbard, to issue a strong statement to The Australian Commodore and Amiga Review. He argued that while the game might be "a bit racy," it was not pornographic, and that the British authorities were either "quite prudish or completely lacking a sense of humour." Hubbard went further, calling the seizure "the act of a fascist government" and a violation of "freedom of artistic expression."
Now playable via abandonware sites, the game casts players as Brad Stallion, captain of the spaceship 'Big Thruster,' which is comically shaped like male genitalia. The premise involves Stallion hunting a colony of women known as the Tribe, who allegedly raid male-dominated planets using a "sex-ray gun" to leave men as "sexless eunuchs."
Despite its explicit premise, the game's execution is surprisingly devoid of sensuality. Early gameplay involves navigating empty rooms and interacting with unsexy robots. The first significant encounter is with Lila, a maid at the Pink Flamingo Hotel, who agrees to a liaison with Stallion. The depiction of this encounter is notably crude, with Lila appearing to fall onto the bed rather than collapsing sensually, her facial expression described as resembling something from The Exorcist.
Stallion's quest leads him to Space Station X, where he learns the Tribe's location is on the planet Mondo. Upon arrival, he is captured and imprisoned with a woman named She-La. She-La aids Stallion's escape, leading him to the secret laboratory containing the fabled "sex-ray gun." The weapon's interface features bizarre controls, including buttons for "two types of herpes" and "nipples up/down," alongside a "DRAIN/INSERT" function.
Following a brief interaction with Queen La-Lust, who boasts about the sex-ray gun's power, Stallion escapes amidst palace explosions. The game culminates in Stallion witnessing the planet Mondo being destroyed by a fireball, an ending interpreted as genocide. This conclusion stands in stark contrast to the game's purported goal and led the author to note the game's unintentional "fascist tendencies," where fear of the "other" leads to annihilation.
The author's assessment is that while UK Customs' actions were misjudged and arguably excessive, the game itself was a poorly executed concept. Sex Vixens from Space is described as ugly, simplistic, and failing both as an adventure game and a "sex game," leading to the conclusion that "nothing of value was lost."