Australia's Advertising Standards Board has forbidden the showing of a new television ad for a game labelled 'Dead Island: Riptide' which it accused depicted images of suicide.

The ad spot showed a couple who committed suicide by blowing themselves up with the gas on their boat rather than face the zombie horde who were already crawling all over their ship.

"The Board noted that the issue of suicide is a very significant community concern and considered that the use of images which are strongly suggestive of suicide is not appropriate in the context of a television advertisement for a computer game," the board's decision said.

All Interactive Games, the advertiser, had earlier said the depiction of the violence was "contextually relevant."

"All violent themes are presented in the readily identifiable fantasy context of a zombie attack in an animated video game scene," it added in its defense.

Dead Island: Riptide is a spin-off to the original Dead Island, but without much diversity. "The game is set on a brand new island, a new boat for use in water sections, some new hub defense missions, a new weapon proficiency system allows you to make better use of the 4 types of weapons (Bladed, Blunt, Melee and Firearms)," according to a review by Bone-idle.ie, an Irish video game and film news and review site.

Complaints lodged against the ad said it was "too graphic in terms of its depiction of suicide, particularly the final image of the man hanging from a tree."

"I think that this could be very traumatic for people who have experienced the suicide of a family member by hanging (or any other means)," one complaint said.