The ESRB is over two decades old, and has been affecting the sale of games. And it is nice to have a non-governmental body in charge of this, iin order to reduce the need for censorship. But sometimes, they have given some bizzare ratings. These can be both surprisingly acessible and unfairly restrictive.

Revelations: Persona (1996)

Basics: The first in Atlus's Persona series of JRPG's, released on the PlayStation. Fight off demon hordes as a high school student!

Highlights: This is a spinoff of Shin Megami Tensei. The Final Boss is Pandora,a sort of avatar of character Mary's Nihilism, who wishes to destroy reality. Her first form when you fight her is that of Mary's head connected to a dozen limbs by a phallic lump of flesh. That's just the phallic tip of the iceburg.

Rating: Everyone, with warnings about Comic Mischief and Mild Animated Violence.

Street Fighter II Turbo Revival (2001)

Basics: The GBA version of Street Fighter II.

Highlights: It's just another version of Street Fighter !!, with a stage or two from the Alpha series for good measure. Which is nice and consistent. The original game got a Teen rating on PC, the Alpha and EX series got Teen ratings, Street Fighter 3 got a Teen rating, and later on, the older games would be given Teen ratings on the Virtual Console, along with Street Fighter 4 and 5.

Rating: Everyone, with a Violence warning. Which was the only warning those other Street Fighter games had around that same era.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004)

Basics: The fifth main entry in the GTA series. Which gives GTAIV a confusing title in retrospect.

Highlights: Mostly the usual depictions of violence, blood, gore, naughty words, sexual themes, drugs, and so forth. There is also a minigame buried in the game's code with a crudely animated sex scene, but not only is it inacessible, it's not even particularly sexual. The characters involved are fully clothed the entire time, and if anything, it is less overt than games like God of War or Ride to Hell: Retribution, which got M ratings.

Rating: Adults Only.

Scribblenauts series (2009 to 2013)

Basics: Solve puzzles by writing words, conjuring corresponding objects into existence.

Highlights: Since these games have so many options, here's what the ESRB has to say about these games. "a club can be used to hit an animal; steak can be attached to a baby to attract lions; rockets can be lobbed at a man" "...a 'flaming snowman' that can set a Christmas tree on fire; a 'homicidal house' that can attack a man; and a 'carnivorous bike' that can eat a corpse..." "...a bat can be used to club a skydiver; guns can be fired at smelly zombies; a knife can be given to a murderous computer..." "...a 'suicidal house' that attacks itself with a knife..." Well darn. This series of baby murder simulators has got to be rated Mature at least!

Rating: E10, with warnings about Cartoon Violence and Comic Mischief. Which I am fine with, except that it puts every Teen and Mature rating in a bad light. On account of having content worse than bady murder.

Any others come to mind?

I think it was a little strange that Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies got a Mature rating.

I'd add spoiler stuff to the Persona 1 desc

I have nothing to contribute. Tagging for curiosity. There WAS one game in Japan that was rated 5 and up, a Sega Saturn game where an octopus demon kept taking dumps on the heads of schoolgirls, but I can't remember the name of it.

I remember thinking that Spider-Man for the PS1 was pretty hardcore for a rated E game. You have terrorists that blow up a building with a bomb if you're not quick enough, you have a police officer in a copter shot down to his doom, you have Monster-Ock who is pretty scary chasing you at the end, there are also pictures of girls and bikinis and I believe there's smoking in it, too.

Parasite Eve...I forget the actual rating, but the warnings on the box included "sexual themes." There is nothing overtly sexual in the game, though - unless you consider discussing reproduction in a 'grade school sex ed' sort of fashion a qualifier. Oh noes, you can't say 'sperm' in a vidya game!

Ocarina of Time is G for Gives Little Children Nightmares.
Seriously who thought that game was OK for little children, definitely shouldn't ha e been a G or in the US E rating.

Also Atelier Rorona Plus got an R18 rating in Aus

The original release of EarthBound was rated E even though there's lots of messed up stuff in that game (Especially the final boss). Luckily the Virtual Console release is now rated T instead, which makes more sense.

ktay95 said: Also Atelier Rorona Plus got an R18 rating in Aus

The fact that series goes "E10" or "T" depending if the themse are "suggestive" or "sexual" is always a bit odd to me.