What’s the first M-rated game you ever owned?

[SanAndreasX]

LegitHyperbole said:

Leynos said:

I have no idea. ESRB didn't exist yet. Might be MK3U? I played games like Splatterhouse in arcades and MK1-2 in arcades and on SNES/Genesis and played Bionic Commando on the NES, where Hitler's head exploded, but I was also watching a lot of gory, R-rated 80s horror films as a kid. I was allowed to rent them with my dad.

There was age ratings though, little stickers they would put on films and games. Here in Ireland there would be an age rating on games as early as Time Crisis released on PS1. 

Not consistently in the USA. NES games and pre-ESRB SNES games didn’t have warning labels (excepting MK2, as mentioned previously.) Bionic Commando didn’t have any warnings, and since it was a cut scene at the end of the game, it got past Nintendo’s censors as well. 

Sega and a consortium of PC game companies did release their own ratings labels in response to increasing threats from Congress, but the ESRB was the industry’s last-ditch attempt to appease the U.S. government.