Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00Welcome to Mojo Plays, and today we'll be counting down our picks for the top 10 video
00:07games with the wrong rating.
00:08For this list, we'll be going over the video games whose ESRB rating does not match its
00:13content either because it's too high or too low.
00:15If there's a game you think needs re-rating, please give your own grades in the comments.
00:24Before we begin, we publish new content all week long, so be sure to subscribe and ring
00:29the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
00:42Portal is a simple and straightforward landmark of a puzzle game, in which a malevolent AI
00:46named GLaDOS puts you through a series of tests involving using a portal gun to solve
00:50various problems.
00:51While there are gun turrets and some blood effects if you get hit by them or other obstacles,
00:55that's hardly worth the T rating that Portal has.
00:58Granted, GLaDOS has a dark sense of humor, but kids are exposed to much harsher content
01:02elsewhere, even back when the game was first released.
01:05Its rating, much like the cake, is a lie.
01:23This is a hack and slash game in which you take on hordes of enemies in a rip-off of
01:27in the vein of Dynasty Warriors.
01:2999 Nights has roughly the same level of violence as its inspiration.
01:33However, while most Dynasty Warriors games are rated T for Teen, 99 Nights got slapped
01:38with an M for Mature.
01:40While there are a few risque outfits, some impalement, and there are some moments where
01:43you kill civilians, the vast majority of gameplay is no more violent than the games they're
01:48imitating.
01:49Fighting through huge armies in an over-the-top way is something teens can definitely handle.
02:05Batman Arkham Knight
02:12The Batman Arkham games are quite dark in general and are some of the most mature Batman
02:16stories out there.
02:17Even so, M is a bit too high for the degree of content involved.
02:21Most of the violence is Batman beating up bad guys, and there are similar superhero
02:24games with similar combat systems, which are rated T.
02:27We'll grant that Arkham Knight goes to some pretty grim places, but coddling teenagers
02:31rarely works out well.
02:32Besides, it's Batman.
02:33Teens and kids are going to play it regardless of the rating.
02:41The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask
02:49The Legend of Zelda franchise has featured a few games whose ratings many disagree with.
02:53As tempting as it was to discuss how unnecessary it was to give Twilight Princess a T rating,
02:57nightmare fuel aside, Majora's Mask is arguably darker, and it got an E for Everyone rating.
03:02The specter of death looms over the entire game in the form of a terrifying moon ready
03:06to crash into the world and end everyone's lives.
03:09For every quirky and lovable character, there's a horrifying enemy or grim side quest that
03:13will keep you up at night.
03:15Thankfully, the ESRB re-rated it upon its 3DS remake to E10+.
03:24Donkey Kong Jungle Beat
03:32Speaking of E10+, the very first game to receive that rating was Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, and
03:37right from the inception of this new rating, the ESRB got it wrong.
03:40Jungle Beat is a platformer where you defeat enemies using the DK bongos, a peripheral
03:44controller that uses rhythm strikes in the shape of, naturally, a pair of bongo drums.
03:49Aside from the unusual controller, Jungle Beat isn't that different to most other Donkey
03:52Kong platformers.
03:53It was the bongos, wasn't it?
03:55This kind of backwards thinking has us believing that some of the folks at the ESRB have heads
03:59as hollow as these drums.
04:07Halo Combat Evolved
04:15Even among most other first-person shooters at the time, Halo Combat Evolved is fairly
04:20tame.
04:21Sure, there's blood, but it's usually blink and you'll miss it or it's green from an
04:24alien.
04:25Admittedly, the introduction of the flood is legitimately terrifying and has elements
04:28of body horror.
04:29Yeah, we probably shouldn't have played that part when we were kids, but a full-on
04:32M rating?
04:33For Halo?
04:34We could see them giving it a stronger T rating, but even that's a little much, at least
04:37by today's standards.
04:38There are more graphic moments in later games that got away with a T rating.
04:49Super Smash Bros.
04:50Melee and Super Smash Bros.
04:51Brawl
04:57Both of these games in the crossover fighting series Super Smash Bros. have the same rating,
05:01a T, and both of them are wrong.
05:03The franchise may feature cartoonish and realistic video game characters beating each other up
05:07and using fantastical violence to knock one another off stages, but that hardly warrants
05:11targeting them towards everyone 13 and up.
05:14If there's Pikachu for crying out loud.
05:16Later games in the series have E10 Plus ratings, and while Melee is somewhat understandable
05:21given that the E10 Plus rating hadn't been invented yet when it was released, Brawl has
05:25no such excuse.
05:26We'd still skew more towards E than towards T if it were up to us.
05:37Star Fox Adventures
05:45The odd duck in the Star Fox franchise, Star Fox Adventures, is an adventure game made
05:49by Rare.
05:50Naturally, there are a lot of things to collect, cute animal characters, and a T rating.
05:53Wait, what?
05:54There may be another instance of E10 Plus not existing yet being the culprit behind
05:57an inaccurate rating, but it doesn't make it any easier to understand.
06:01Still, even if it had a rating that reflected its gameplay, it probably wouldn't be able
06:04to escape its reputation as a subpar game with Star Fox stapled on.
06:15Shadow the Hedgehog
06:21Shadow the Hedgehog, just like its titular character, is the darker, edgier counterpart
06:25to the Sonic the Hedgehog games.
06:27To that end, it has more violence, including realistic guns, mild profanity, and a protagonist
06:31who looks like he's the hedgehog equivalent of a god.
06:34Now, all that seems like it'd probably be worth a T rating, though it would be borderline,
06:38and that's exactly what the folks at Sega thought, because they trimmed some of the
06:41more extreme content, like a girl getting gunned down, so that the planned T rating
06:45wouldn't get passed as the newly created E10 Plus instead.
06:53Snatcher
06:54A cyberpunk adventure game made by Hideo Kojima, Snatcher features graphic imagery from severed
07:06heads to maggot-ridden corpses to dead animals.
07:08It's also set in a dystopian future and features a lot of mature subject matter, including
07:12murder and prostitution.
07:14Naturally, it's rated T for teen, and visual adventure games have often been able to deal
07:18with more mature subject matter with less scrutiny, and Snatcher is no exception.
07:22Or maybe the ESRB didn't look closely enough at it.
07:24To be fair, they weren't the only ones, since Snatcher's biggest release outside
07:28of Japan was on the Sega CD, and we all know how well that console did.
07:31If you've never heard of it, you're only proving the point harder.
07:41Check out these other great clips from Mojo Plays, and be sure to subscribe and ring the
07:45bell to get notified about our latest videos.