Scare mongering is never very far away from the world of videogames, and it probably never will be. The latest title to draw attention to itself is the soon-to-be-published Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure from Atari, which has seen a raft of protest from several US town halls due to their fear that the game will encourage youngsters to graffiti their local neighbourhoods.

According to several newspaper sources including the Orlando Sentinel and The Miami Herald, representatives from local governments in Hollywood, Florida and New York City have tried to encourage people to boycott Atari products and even stop the game from being published at all; according to the Miami Herald, Australia tried to ban the game back in August 2005, although conservative Aussies have always had an aversion to mature titles...

Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure follows the story of one man's crusade against oppressive local authorities by tagging the streets of the fictitious city New Radius - only to see himself gather support through the course of the game.

Though the game is rated M for Mature by the ratings board in the US, the fact remains that those under the age of 17 will still get their hands on the title and 'recreate' the actions seen in Getting Up; we wouldn't mind quite so much if it wasn't just limply scrawling an indecipherable bit of paint onto a wall - surely Banksy's videogame would be far more artistic and capable of holding off the criticism...

We'll gave more news shortly...