New Zealand has banned gory first-person shooter Postal 2, declaring the game not only illegal to sell but to own.

Get caught with Running with Scissors' title in your possession and you could face a NZD2000 (£756) fine, GamesIndustry.biz reports. Small retailers risk a NZD20,000 (£7562) fine and up to a year in the clink for merely displaying the game, larger outlets face a NZD50,000 (£18,905) for the same offence.

RwS founder Vince Desi wondered why a variety of humanoid beings can be hacked to bits in a movie series like Lord of the Rings, filmed and shown in New Zealand, but his similarly violent game gets a ban. Perhaps, but at least Aragorn and co. don't pass water over each other, which is apparently a feature of Desi's software.

Last Christmas, New Zealand selected Rockstar Games' Manhunt to be banned from sale, a move recently undertaken by the Australian government too. ®

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