Parents don't look at the ratings anyway, so it won't matter.

Seriously, as long as the game isn't rated M or above, no one (relatively) really cares what the rating is.

that M doesnt even matter if the news is any indication of how the world views games as a whole anyway. "this new game Grand Theft Auto is aimed at kids and rewards them points for killing cops and hookers!" i dont even have to remind anybody how many times we've all heard that. if 8 year old John-boy tells his mommy he wants that new Grand Theft Auto game enough, his mom will almost certainly buy it just to shut him up.

that said, the Teen rating it got makes absolutely no difference what so ever.

That's because they have yet to play Mario Bros: Murderiffic Killtastic Land.

You would think they would like to keep sequels in line like that, but they didn't for Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance to Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn

PoR was rated T, and was at the tail-end of the period before they introduced the e-10 rating. Radiant Dawn was rated E-10, however

Hm, I would think that a Fire Emblem game would get a T rating before a Smash Bros game, since it's relatively more realistic.

Sorry Patrick, but I have to disagree on that one. If they went back and re-rated everything according to today's "standards", I think a lot of movies would jump down from an R to a PG-13. Do you really believe that our society is stricter about crap like that now? Politically correct? Sure. But there is no way that sex, violence, and language aren't more acceptable now than in 1976.

@WRE

Movies that earned a G rating back in the day that would earn a PG now:
Treasure Island, Darby O'Gill and the Little People, and most other live action Disney films (especially ones with drinking and swordplay).
Movies that earn a PG rating now that would have earned a G rating back in the day:
The Incredibles, and any other kiddie movie with cartoony violence.
Movies that earned a PG rating back in the day that would earn a PG-13 now:
The Superman movies, the original Star Wars Trilogy, and just about any other good movie that we older gamers grew up with. Probably E.T., too.
Movies that earn a PG-13 now that would have earned a PG back in the day:
Transformers, the Bourne trilogy, and just about any decent PG-13 action movie now.
And those are just the examples that popped into my head.

I think that you're misunderstanding what I'm saying. I'm not saying in every case, I just think that movies like 3 Days of the Condor, The Godfather and maybe Part 2, and some other oldies but goodies would merit a PG-13 if they were re-rated. I can't see the Bourne trilogy rating a PG, though. Can you think of any earlier movies with the same kind of action that were rated less than a PG-13? I'm not being sarcastic, I'd really like to know.

I disagree with that entire statement. Films that 20 years ago received an R, now get a PG13.

Even if they didn't "merit" it, if they were being released today, the filmmakers would most likely make whatever minor edits were necessary to bring the rating down to PG-13 for the sake of the box office.

Godfather probably not. FFC would probably kick the violence up a notch to get an R rating if it came back PG-13 :D

It's got Snake in it. It was going to get a T rating.

The only reason current PG-13 movies would have been PG back in the day is because the PG-13 rating wasn't added until the mid-80s.

Overall, I think the trend has definitely been toward the middle classifications (PG, PG-13) over the extremes (G, R). You're kidding yourself though if you don't think that sex, violence, and language aren't much more acceptable than they used to be.

In response to grog: Yeah, most movies are rated PG or PG-13 now, because the largest demographic, by far, that actually GOES to a theater is teenagers. They can't get in R's and most of them aren't going to go to a G. Most adults are smart enough to wait for the disc release to avoid the fucking assholes in theaters. I think I've actually been in a theather maybe 3 times in the last 5 years.

You kidding? The first Bond film, Dr No, had full frontal Female Nudity and that was rated PG.

Quoted from wiki referring to the 70's/early 80's: "In retrospect, some ratings are culturally odd, though it must be remembered that the rating standards then were more liberal; violence, sexually suggestive speech and action, naked men, and mild cursing were acceptable in the lower ratings, while sexual intercourse (either implicit or explicit) and naked women were not."

Rating are definitely more strict now than they used to be.

There were plenty of movies in the 70s and 80s with nude scenes and F-bombs that were rated PG. These days, that would get an instant "R" rating.

For example, "Sheena" was PG in 1984. It features a nice, long, very nude scene where we get a very good look at Tanya Roberts... In fact, a few of Ms. Roberts' movies have been strangely rated PG when they contain elements that would be a definite R-rating today; "Beastmaster" comes to mind (more nudity).

"Dragonslayer" had a full nude scene, too. Rating? PG.

"Barbarella" was rated PG as well. Again, the same nudity, sexuality, and language today would warrant an R from the MPAA.

However, all this is moot. The ESRB and the MPAA are two different groups with different goals. The MPAA's business is to rate movies to determine what demographic it should be marketed to. The ESRB's purpose is to give overprotective parents a little information about the games their kids are playing, and to provide the gaming industry with a "See? We're policing ourselves" card whenever Governors and legislators get on the "video games are violent and they're destroying society" bandwagon.

It's all propaganda, but for different purposes.

The ESRB exists to keep Congress from passing censorship laws regarding video games. As such, they're EXTREMELY sensitive to violence and sex in games.

The ESRB also makes the assumption that "games are perceived as being for kids" in their ratings and is thus ultra-sensitive, while the MPAA assumes that there's a specific audience for each movie and seems to rate a little more broadly because of it.

I mean, let's be honest: The "Hot Coffee" version of GTA San Andreas wouldn't have gotten any more than an 'R' rating if the MPAA were rating it as a movie, and the 'R' would be based on the violence and language (F-bombs everywhere) and not on the mostly-clothed sex scene in the Hot Coffee sections.

But what did the ESRB do? FREAKED OUT! OMFG! There are people RUBBING AGAINST EACH OTHER WITH THEIR CLOTHES ON and they're insinuating it's sex! We've got to protect the children (who shouldn't be buying this with an M rating anyway) and pull it from store shelves where it sits just an aisle away from "Boogie Nights" and "Showgirls" on DVD! Quick! Give it an AO rating! It's practically pornography!!!

Give me a break.

The ESRB exists to placate oversensitive adults. That's IT.

And you guys forget, All Dogs Go To Heaven nowadays would be an instant R. Smoking and all that....

Scandalous!

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z46/pabloshong/24kyy4l.jpg

Thats exactly what I was thinking.

Honestly, I thought that this game was a little more mature than Melee. Yes, Melee had lasers, but like people mentioned look at Snake. The guys attacks are grenades, remote explosives,and his charged A shoots a rocket. Not to mention his final smash being shooting people from a helicopter ladder.

Also, I don't if this would qualify as being more "mature", but Wario's fart attack would be controversial for an E rating. Plus, anyone see Luigi's final smash? He's clearly on acid.

Yeah, there's nothing stopping people from buying T rated games, like there is with M rated games. If a kid has the money he'll buy it, and most parents don't actually worry about a T rated game unless it seems like a bad game.

You don't know my sister, then. She wouldn't let her kids play 'T' rated games until they were 13 or 14 years old. She took it quite seriously.

Of course, she also had a device that blanked out "bad" words on broadcast television and replaced them (in closed captioning) with "safe" words, so her kids wouldn't hear any swearing.

It was annoying to watch a TV show at her place, and have the sound drop out and the word "behind" appear whenever the word "ass" or "butt" was spoken, let alone harsher words...

And it ruined lines, too. "You're the [BEHIND] of the joke!" or "Now wait a [GOOD GOSH] minute!" just weren't as cool.

And movies-- Ugh! Utterly ruined: "I've come here to chew bubblegum and kick [BEHIND]. . . And I'm all out of bubblegum."

LOL @ ZeroCorpse. I have a friend whose parents bought one of those boxes to "protect" their youngest child as well. It uses a flash drive as a key so that the parents can watch their shows uncensored. Off topic, isn't it strange that when the word, "Asshole", is said on tv, they bleep out "hole". Wouldn't you think that they'd block out "ass" instead? I guess "ass" could be interpreted as a donkey, but still.

Phi ^_^

Its funny how much people will "protect" their kids from swearing, and then send them to public school in the morning.

I'll have to look into those boxes whenever I'm going to have really young kids.


It's not that I think that my kids would be offended by the language, it's just really annoying when they repeat those words, especially when they don't know when it is or isn't appropriate (like during dinner with guests).

@ThornedVenom

Or, you could just do what I do. Teach your kids which words are not OK for them to use or repeat. "Those words are not OK for you to use, only adults. And even adults shouldn't use them so I definitely don't want to hear you repeat any of them."

My son has never sworn.

In front of you. lolz.

Wow, I don't know whether to + you for the wit or - you for the blatant url whoring.

Both?

You're kidding right, every kid's cartoon features good guys wailing on bad guys. I don't know the names of any of them, but I've seen commercials that feature that in spades.

I hope that was sarcasm. Last I checked, the number cartoon in america was Naruto...

Violence has always been a part of cartoons, and always will be. The violence shown in American versions of Anime shows is no worse than that you'd encounter in Looney Toons, etc.

The Subspace Emissary makes sense in a non-sensical way. Almost too much sense...

Really... the enemies in the Subspace game are creppy. A flying fish with a giant eye, a guy with a bom head, a satanic roster witha chicken inside.

There are some creppy creatures in there.

i would have never seen the SSE like that before, but it is that dark

(Spoilers)To get the story, read Ancient Minister's trophy. It said Tabuu took his robot friends away by order and made him and them place Subspace Bombs(end spoiling)

I agree completely. Better safe than sorry. Who needs to hear people moaning about it having an E rating? It's not like T rating stops many parents. I think M is the only rating (some) people pay attention to.