Posted in: Games, Video Games | Tagged: dc comics, dc entertainment, injustice, injustice 2, Nether Realm, Nether Realm Studios, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

Injustice 2 Is Rated T Despite The ESRB's Summary Of The Game

The ESRB just might be the bane of your existence, or maybe you just don't bother to check ratings because you are now an adult even though you get carded every time you try to buy an 'M' rated game. Either way, you probably know that games get rated on a scale for the minimum age of the player, much like how movies get rated as G, PG, PG-13, etc. The ESRB's ratings system is a bit more complex than that, but it functions in much the same capacity. A T rating, much like a PG-13 rating, is usually about the highest most major companies are willing to go because of monetary interests. Movies with R ratings do much worse in the box office, on average, than their PG-13 counterparts. There was a major controversy about Deadpool's R rating, and after it's success, we've seen more R-rated comic movies spring up.

Similarly, most AAA games try for that T rating or below for similar reasons. That Injustice 2 is on the high end of that isn't surprising. Despite the somewhat antiquated notion that comic books are for kids, DC characters are often very recognizable to kids due to their animated series. But Injustice isn't even close to being Teen Titans Go! for a variety of reasons, but mostly because the world of Injustice and Injustice 2 is filled with the sort of human rights abuses, moral quandaries, and straight up spine-wrecking violence that would get the series pretty solidly in that 'M for Mature' tag. But somehow, Warner Brothers Interactive and Nether Realm were able to deliver Injustice 2 to the ESRB in a way that granted it a tamer 'T for Teen.'

The ESRB's full rundown of the contents of Injustice 2 are pretty telling,

"This is a fighting game in which players engage in one-on-one battles with popular heroes and villains from the DC Comics universe. Players punch, kick, and use a variety of weapons (e.g., knives, swords, machine guns, laser blasters) to drain opponents' health meters in melee-style combat.

Matches are highlighted by impact sounds, splashes of blood, and colorful light effects as fighters are hurled across the screen or to the ground. As players engage in fantasy combat, they can trigger super attacks and transitional attacks that propel opponents from different levels of fighting arenas. Some super attacks depict blood-splatter effects as characters are injured by creatures and/or impaled with swords. Cutscenes depict additional instances of violence and blood: a character impaled with a sword; a prisoner lying in a small pool of blood; a character stabbed with a trident; a villain's throat slashed off-screen.

The game's dialogue contains brief sexual references ('They're thieves. Rapists. Murderers.'), and some female characters wear revealing outfits (deep cleavage, tight-fitting clothing) and/or perform suggestive poses. One fight setting takes place in a bar with several alcohol references: signs that read 'Beer'; drunk patrons in the background; kegs of beer that can be thrown at opponents. The word 's**t' is heard in dialogue."

And yet it's still a T-rated game? How? WWG speculated that perhaps Nether Realm showed the ESRB the most recent Mortal Kombat first, and so Injustice seemed tamer by comparison. Or maybe they took some notes from the film side of Warner Bros. and gave the ESRB a more gore-tastic Injustice 2 before scaling it back to get a "tamer" rating.

Either way you look at it, Injustice 2 is pushing the boundaries of what we consider acceptable for the ESRB's ratings system. Plenty of games with less violence, sexy posing, and alcohol use have wound up with an 'M' rating. So, depending on how this goes, we might actually see some loosening of the ESRB's ratings. Or maybe this was just a fluke.

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