Seeing an M rating on a video game says a lot of things. A brief summary on the rating says that “it may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content, and/or strong language.” Note one very important word in there. may. As in you can have a mature game, but you don’t necessarily need to have all of those components in there. It is possible to actually make a mature game, without having to go to see someone get their head cut off for the sake of saying that they are mature.

I’ve been reading many news articles about developers wanting to make more mature games for the Wii. This is something I’m fine with, as it does give a chance for the developers to try and aim their focus at a separate audience. However, I think they’re taking a really bad approach to doing something like this.

Everyone already knows about the news that flew around when games like House of the Dead: Overkill and MadWorld hit the Wii, and caused a frenzy among all mothers and certain other people in the casual audience. My first impression with the news was thinking that a large portion of Wii owners are first time gamers, so seeing games like those appear would probably cause a ruckus to the audience, and I don’t blame them. But then things changed when I did get a chance to see what the games were about.



The first game I looked at was HotD:O, and I wasn’t expecting more than an update to the previous entries in the series. Playing it, it was pretty much redone as an exploitation film, so I was blown away. But as I went on, I noticed that there was a constant onslaught of F-bombs and lewd jokes. Those were the only things that warranted the M rating on the game, so it was no wonder that this game got a bunch of news coverage from angry mothers.

MadWorld was a different story, as it was a title I was looking forward to, and it was another title that received criticism from a good portion of the casual audience. Still, I pressed forward to see how the game plays, as well as seeing why there were so many news stories about this game. There was actually a decent plot in this one, though it wasn’t as deep as I would have liked it, and by the time I got around to halfway through the game, I felt myself losing interest.



I just noticed that throughout most of the game, I’m just doing through one motion of “see bad guys, find way to kill bad guys, do this a zillion times throughout the entire game.” I felt like this and HotD:O were just made for the sole purpose of the developers going out and saying “Hey, let’s put this stuff in our game and slap an M rating on it, so we can get away with it.” Anyone can make something where it’s nothing but blood and sex, and turn it into a game. But just because you can doesn’t mean it’ll be a good game.

I understand that people are trying to aim for another audience with the Wii with these games, but they’re taking an entirely wrong approach to it. I couldn’t care less with how much gore, sex, and drugs you want to place in the game, make the game actually worth playing. Why brag about how much of that stuff you can put in the game and say you can get away with it, thanks to the magical power of the M rating?

Some developers need to take notes from Rockstar with GTA4. Was it lewd? Often. Was it violent? When it had to be. But the M rating for it made sense, it had a deep plot that kids probably wouldn’t understand, and the tone and setting was aimed toward a mature audience. But hey, don’t take my word for it, just keep filling those games with blood, you’ll probably get it right eventually.