Yeah, that's what I remember reading about it. That's a shame. But don't worry, we had (and to a degree still have) our own "somebody think of the children!" stuff over here in Germany.
Our media rating people from USK are very, very allergic to anything violent and even games with a age rating of 18 got censored. And that rating means, it could only be purchased by adults! I guess, somebody got a stroke when playing the first God of War for the rating

The German version of a lot of older games has green blood or smoke instead of blood to circumvent restrictions...
But I hadn't thought so many people still remember that game

For me it was the first game I bought myself, had to plunder my piggy bank for it. When our local wholesale was clearing their video game section, it was heavily discounted and I paid 50 D-Mark (about 25 Euro) for it. Still a lot of money for a kid, but since the normal price would have been 150 D-Mark it was a bargain.
If you think about it, at least here in Germany, although everything got way more expensive over the years, video games stayed relativly stable if you compare the prices from the 90s to today.
*yikes* Now I feel old >.<