I don't think they would ever get sued (or at least scared of losing a suit) but they would still catch a lot of negative attention if M rated games become easily available.  It's pretty known that most parents don't bother with the provided parental controls and they would only use that as an argument saying that the controls aren't good enough.

Splatter House is 'T' for Teen.

To test set your parental controls to only allow 'E' games and try to download a 'T' game from vc...or...if you already have a dl 'T' game try to play it.

 I think the damage control on something like this is easy.  Reggie would be on the news that night basically saying

"Protecting kids from content they shouldn't see is a top priority for us.  Thats is why from day one we have encouraged parents to use our built in parental controls.  If used properly these controls will restrict access to the online store and all materials unsuitable for kids.  We regret that this had to happen, but we hope that all parents will be able to learn from it and in so being educated, we hope they will better be able to protect their children from harmful materials. This is an ongoing process for us and we feel our work is never done when it comes to protecting kids, but we cannot do it alone.  Nintendo is reaching out to parents and asking for their help in protecting their children and with their help we WILL succeed."

 mk3?? cmon mk2 was a much more fun game. the button link kombos killed mk. if they would've just put in the run button wihtout the button link kombos mk3 would've been big. then mk4 wouldn't have died so horribly. that is what i think the problem with the newest 3 mk games is the button link kombos.

 That's only if the media takes the parents' side instead of Nintendo's. Nintendo has also stated well before the launch that the Wii has parental controls, and if people can use all the other features, they can use that.

I think you people are forgetting that the media loves anything negative and people don't read or listen. For years, the ESRB has been doing a fantastic job at rating games and doing anything they can to get people aware of ratings. Does that matter? Of course not, at least not to the media. All they know is that kids are getting their hands on GTAIII and killing hookers, they never bother mentioning the fact that the parents bought it for them because their brat wouldn't stop screaming or that their grandparents bought the game (#1 supplier of M rated games to minors are grandparents BTW) because they oh so want the affection.

It does not matter that Nintendo is doing their darndest to make people aware, the media loves negative attention and will do anything they can to cast anything possible in a negative light. Just look at the today show thread that was up here this morning talking about the 360. I can almost guarantee without even watching it that they made no mention of a new extended 3 year warranty. I'm sure all they talked about was how the consoles break in record numbers and people are angry because they have to buy a new console to play their games. People have the attention span of a gnat and won't care that Nintendo has said time and time again that they have parental controls, all they will see is OMG! my kid can gets the GTA's!!

@LordTheNightKnight
you picture in your avatar still says "to" instead of "too" and you still look like an idiot for having it that way. :-p

putting a game on VC isn't about "having balls", it's about not being stupid. the rewards are slim, the potential backlash is high, no way nintendo is doing this.

The TG-16 version of Splatterhouse is pretty bloody for a T rated game.

 You should watch that video....they go pretty soft on MS and its not nearly as bad as you think.  They made a point of it to point out the 3 year warranty like 5 times, and they covered all three consoles fairly equally except they played like 2 volleys of wii tennis in 8 seconds at the end of the video to show off the Wii.  They mentioned the PS3 selling low, and the Wii selling out and told parents to get Wiis sooner rather than later and expect to wait in line. All in all a harmless run of the mill segment on VGs.