Singapore’s authorities have relented and reversed their decision to ban Xbox 360 game Mass Effect because it contains a steamy girl-on-girl love scene.

The country’s Media Development Authority (MDA) originally banned the game because it felt that a scene where a human woman and female alien kiss and caress each other was too raunchy for local gamers.

Local newspaper the Straits Times reported this weekend that the game will now carry an M18 label in Singapore, banning it from sale to anyone under 18 years old.

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Currently, Singapore doesn’t have an age-based games rating system, but the MDA’s about-face comes two months before the country was expected to implement just such a classification system.

It could also add weight to the argument that the decision made by the UK's equivalent of the MDA, the British Board of Film Classification, to refuse Manhunt 2 a UK sales certificate because of the game’s ultra-violent content, should also be reversed.

The game is available on 23 November in the UK, where it carries a 12 rating. It costs around £50 (€70/$100).

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