Nudity in Sonic 2006?

Hackers discover a little too much detail

Nudity in games is a strange issue. In general, a larger percentage of the population seems to be more easily offended by nudity than violence – there are  stories about parents letting a young teen see a mature content involving ultra-violence, only truly protesting when nudity is involved. This is reflected in the videogame space – though Grand Theft Auto‘s Hot Coffee “scandal” is well-known by now, what most people have probably forgotten is what happened shortly after with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. It was discovered, in that game, that underneath all of the clothing female characters could equip (and indeed, under the always-equipped underwear) were fully modeled breasts with nipples. A similar process has been in practice in Hollywood for years, in order to give 3D rendered characters realistic movements and appearances.

Now, as it turns out, this practice extends to even the Sonic franchise. Coming from a post on The Sonic Stadium made by the user HunterTSF, we have learned that Princess Elise from Sonic 2006 is perhaps a little more detailed than most were expecting:

“As of recent, the techno-junkies over at Facepunch Studios and X-Cult have been able to access and extract model data from the 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog video game. One model, that of Princess Elise, is unusual in the fact that her entire body, which is normally covered by her dress in-game, was fully modeled and textured. Compete with belly button and, oddly enough, a modeled and textured set of nipples. Which arises the question – Was she, at one time, set to appear nude in-game? Or, were the graphics development team just having a little fun?“

While the nudity present in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion could not be normally accessed without modifying the game, the ESRB re-rated the “T for Teen” title as being “M For Mature” as a result. Seeing as both the nudity in Oblivion and in Sonic 2006 have many parallels, could Sonic‘s “E10+ for ages 10 and up” ESRB rating be in danger? We have mirrored the images of Elise below. The pictures were taken in Garry’s Mod, which allows users to view and pose 3D models in various ways.

Do you think this is a big deal, or should we simply recognize it as part of the process of modeling a character in 3D? Sound off in the comments.