History WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids / Videogames

* ''VideoGame/{{Bugsnax}}'' is a game all about catching and feeding bugs made of food to cute characters that wouldn't look out of place on a puppet show for kids. However, during the climax, it's revealed that Bugsnax are actually [[spoiler: parasites that change the body.]] Furthermore, [[spoiler: If a player doesn't do all of a character's sidequests and completely transforms them, a single Bugsnak will be able to kill them. The quotes they say before they crumble into food and their responses if their companion dies can be disheartening, too]].

** One of the units is [=Merm4id=], known for being a MsFanservice quartet; their card illustrations often have the unit's members wearing skimpy outfits (including their default stage costumes) and having provocative expressions (Rika's "1st Anniversary" card features her on what's obviously a stripper pole, and her "Summer Festival 2022" card shows her and Saori with the game's title written on their breasts) and some of their songs feature unusually naughty lyrics for an "idol" franchise; one of the most notable examples is "LOVE BITE", the title of which is a slang term for a hickey kiss, and the lyrics of which are all about enticing the [[MaleGaze assumed-male]] listener into giving one to the narrator to prove themselves as an ideal boyfriend. Even when their songs aren't about partying or being erotic, they still go into relatively mature themes, such as "I will never die"; given the title, one of the lines being "I don't choose 'give up'," and the dreary and hopeless themes of the lyrics in general, it's strongly implied that the narrator is trying to fight off ''suicidal ideation''.

** One of the units is [=Merm4id=], known for being a MsFanservice quartet; their card illustrations often have the unit's members wearing skimpy outfits (including their default stage costumes) and having provocative expressions (Rika's "1st Anniversary" card features her on what's obviously a stripper pole, and her "Summer Festival 2022" card shows her and Saori with the game's title written on their breasts) and some of their songs feature unusually naughty lyrics for an "idol" franchise; one of the most notable examples is "LOVE BITE", the title of which is a slang term for a hickey kiss, and the lyrics of which are all about enticing the [[MaleGaze assumed-male]] listener into giving one to the narrator to prove themselves as an ideal boyfriend. Even when their songs aren't about partying or being erotic, they still go into relatively mature themes, such as "I will never die" which has lyrics about depression and implied suicidal ideation.

** One of the units is [=Merm4id=], known for being a MsFanservice quartet; their card illustrations often have the unit's members wearing skimpy outfits (including their default stage costumes) and having provocative expressions (Rika's "1st Anniversary" card features her on what's obviously a stripper pole, and her "Summer Festival 2022" card shows her and Saori with the game's title written on their breasts) and some of their songs feature unusually naughty lyrics for an "idol" franchise; one of the most notable examples is "LOVE BITE", the title of which is a slang term for a hickey kiss, and the lyrics of which are all about enticing the [[MaleGaze assumed-male]] listener into giving one to the narrator to prove themselves as an ideal boyfriend.

** One of the units is [=Merm4id=], and their card illustrations often have [[MsFanservice the unit's members]] wearing skimpy outfits (including their default stage costumes) and having provocative expressions (Rika's "1st Anniversary" card features her on what's obviously a stripper pole, and her "Summer Festival 2022" card shows her and Saori with the game's title written on their breasts) and some of their songs feature unusually naughty lyrics for an "idol" franchise; one of the most notable examples is "LOVE BITE", the title of which is a slang term for a hickey kiss, and the lyrics of which are all about enticing the [[MaleGaze assumed-male]] listener into giving one to the narrator to prove themselves as an ideal boyfriend.

** One of the units is [=Merm4id=], and their card illustrations often have [[MsFanservice the unit's members]] wearing skimpy outfits (including their default stage costumes) and having provocative expressions (Rika's "1st Anniversary" card features her on what's obviously a stripper pole, and her "Summer Festival 2022" card shows her and Saori with the game's title written on their breasts) and some of their songs feature unusually naughty lyrics for an "idol" franchise; one of the most notable examples is "LOVE BITE", the title of which is a slang term for a hickey kiss, and the lyrics of which are all about enticing the assumed-male listener into giving one to the narrator to prove themselves as an ideal boyfriend.

** One of the units is [=Merm4id=], and their card illustrations often have [[MsFanservice the unit's members]] wearing skimpy outfits (including their default stage costumes) and having provocative expressions (Rika's "1st Anniversary" card features her on what's obviously a stripper pole, and her "Summer Festival 2022" card shows her and Saori with the game's title written on their breasts) and some of their songs feature unusually naughty lyrics for an "idol" franchise; one of the most notable examples is "LOVE BITE", the title of which is a slang term for a hickey kiss, and the lyrics of which are all about enticing the assumed-male listener into giving one to the narrator to prove themselves as an ideal boyfriend).

** One of the units is [=Merm4id=], and their card illustrations often have [[MsFanservice the unit's members]] wearing skimpy outfits (including their default stage costumes) and having provocative expressions (Rika's "1st Anniversary" card features her on what's obviously a stripper pole, and her "Summer Festival 2022" card shows her and Saori with the game's title written on their breasts) and some of their songs feature unusually naughty lyrics for an "idol" franchise (most notably "LOVE BITE", the title of which is a slang term for a hickey kiss, and the lyrics of which are all about enticing the assumed-male listener into giving one to the narrator to prove themselves as an ideal boyfriend).

* ''VideoGame/D4DJGroovyMix'' is rated 4+ on the iOS App Store and "E" for Everyone on the Google Play Store. While the game's overall themes are not particularly explicit, being a game centered around four-member DJ idol units who produce and perform music and half of which are high schoolers who produce cute and cheerful songs (not unlike those of more traditional high school idol franchises), there are several elements that throw those classifications into question:

* ''VideoGame/D4DJGroovyMix'' is rated 4+ on the iOS App Store and "E" for Everyone on the Google Play Store. While the game's overall themes are not particularly explicit, being a game centered around four-member DJ idol units who produce and perform music and half of which are high schoolers who produce cute and cheerful songs, there are several elements that throw those classifications into question:

* ''VideoGame/MagicalStarsign'' starts as a cute, fluffy game but once the second act starts things swiftly go downhill. There's too much horrible stuff going on here to list it all without taking up pages, but to sum it up: [[spoiler:The main plot is about bringing mages to a planet where just being there turns them into into gummy-like inanimate blobs to be used as fuel for a space worm]].

* ''The Dog Island'' is a 2008 action-adventure game for the Nintendo Wii and Playstation 2, based on ''Artist Collection: The Dog and Friends''. For a licensed game based on cute, goofy pictures of dogs taken with a FishEyeLens, it has a surprisingly deep and dark plot-line involving the main character having to get a rare flower to cure their sick sibling, helping a town full of talking dogs with their personal demons, and ''having to avert TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt'' by fighting with a reanimated dinosaur skeleton to get a magic artifact.

** There's the whole issue with Vivi the {{vampires|AreSexGods}}s and her ''[[{{Pun}} titillating]]'' appearance, [[BuxomIsBetter figures]] and MaleGaze, and one suggestive magazine in the FreezeFrameBonus that can be too suggestive for children, yet we may never understand why all of these are ''totally safe for kids'' with a K-A rating. What's even stranger is that Japan's game rating organization (pre-CERO) slapped each box of the game (exported from America) with an "all ages" (全年齢, ''zen nenrei'') rating on a green sticker, hoping that its audience of children would be less sensitive to mind-numbing bloodless violence and sexuality than America's children (due to cultural differences). The proof is in the pudding [[http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/scale_small/0/2579/1662326-brain_dead_13_box_front.jpg here]].

** ''VideoGame/KirbyAndTheForgottenLand'' throws more of this into the mix. Besides being set on what seems to be an [[AfterTheEnd abandoned]] [[GhostPlanet Earth]], the last bosses in the game resemble something out of a Resident Evil game. From possessed lions than can shoot laser beams, to a giant glob of goo with ''partially digested faces all over it''.

* ''VideoGame/YoshisCraftedWorld'' is a rare example of a children's video game that fits the [[spoiler:OurSlashersAreDifferent trope generally found in [[{{RatedMForMoney}} works intended for mature audiences]], thereby serving as a ParentalBonus with one SurpriseCreepy late-game level containing murderous demonic [[{{InvincibleMinorMinion}} invincible]] [[{{AnAxeToGrind}} axe-wielding]] [[{{CreepyDoll}} ragdoll]] [[{{MonsterClown}} clowns]] who make [[{{HellIsThatNoise}} loud annoying screeching sounds]] chasing after the player character [[{{RidiculouslyCuteCritter}} Yoshi]]]], despite the game being otherwise bright and cheery.

* Franchise/BatmanArkhamSeries: The series' first three games were rated T for Teen (parents strongly cautioned for kids under the age of 13). The games have very minimal blood/gore, but is full of brutal death, intense violence, psychological horror, sexual content, corruption, and of course Batman and his villains acting more nightmarish than ever before, all packaged along with extremely dark themes and storylines that can be chilling from their concepts alone. There's a very good argument to be made that they are '''the''' darkest ''Batman'' adaptations ever made. There was quite a lot of video game industry chatter on the effectiveness of the [=ESRB=] rating system when both ''Arkham Asylum'' and ''Arkham City'' were released and were not rated M for Mature. Finally rectified with ''Arkham Knight'', which was rated M.

* ''Blam! Machine Head'' was inexplicably rated K-A[[note]](Kids to Adults, the mid-90's equivalent to the Everyone rating)[[/note]] despite its cutscenes featuring a beavy of violent and sexual content (the first 20 seconds of the opening feature a [[{{Gorn}} man being turned into chunky salsa]] while the ending has the villain's head being blown off by a pistol, with bits of his head flying toward the screen). The actual gameplay is more tame, largely owing to the early [=PS1=]/Saturn-era primitive 3D, but still features enough graphic violence against organic beings that T rating would've probably been more fitting. In comparison, the same developer's far more tame ''VideoGame/TombRaider'', which was released a month later, was rated T.

** It's practically a RunningGag for the ''Kirby'' series that it will feature pretty dark elements and SurpriseCreepy moments. ''VideoGame/KirbyPlanetRobobot'' is probably one of the darkest games in the entire franchise, with the penultimate boss being a grieving father who slowly has the memories of his (unbeknownst to him, still living) daughter erased by the supercomputer he’s using. Then during the final battle with said supercomputer, he progressively has his [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul ''soul erased from existence'']]. Rated E for Everyone!

* ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'':

** It's practically a RunningGag for the ''Kirby'' series that it will feature pretty dark elements and SurpriseCreepy moments. ''VideoGame/KirbyPlanetRobobot'' is probably one of the darkest games in the entire franchise, only to still be rated E for Everyone!

* ''VideoGame/NightmareNed'' is a dark, hauntingly beautiful PC game released by Disney in 1997, at a time when Disney was most known for their more child-friendly PC games such as ''The Lion King'' and ''101 Dalmatians.'' Unfortunately, this game is somewhat infamous for its FamilyUnfriendlyViolence and its many examples of {{Nightmare Fuel}}, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin obviously]].

* ''VideoGame/Mother3'' may have very cutesy cartoony-looking graphics like the first two games, and with a predecessor as lighthearted as ''VideoGame/EarthBound'', and how kid-oriented it looks on the surface, most people don't expect a game like this to have things such as [[spoiler:multiple incidents of FamilyUnfriendlyDeath, most enemies featuring serious amounts of BodyHorror, characters going through realistic emotional issues and very deep rooted psychological trauma as a result, a scene where a 12-year-old boy and his friends [[MushroomSamba go on a terrifying hallucinogenic drug trip]], a villain who represents [[AllegoricalCharacter the sins of humanity]] and also runs what is basically a dictatorship over the protagonists' home, animal abuse with an electric collar, a child committing suicide by electrocuting himself due to the psychological trauma he's experienced]], etc.

** With constant references to tobacco, alcohol, gambling, and rather disturbing imagery, as well as ''[[{{Satan}} the Devil himself]]'' along with a few mentions of Hell, would you believe that this game is rated E10+ by the ESRB? It's almost as if they're applying the ValuesDissonance of the time period this game is paying homage to.

** With constant references to tobacco, alcohol, gambling, and rather disturbing imagery, as well as ''[[{{Satan}} the Devil himself]]'' along with a few mentions of Hell, would you believe that this game is rated E by the ESRB? It's almost as if they're applying the ValuesDissonance of the time period this game is paying homage to.

** ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork2'' is the darkest of the main series of games, entirely because it was borderline uncensored in its content. So cue Lan, an actual child, occasionally throwing out an expletive, the main antagonists of the [=NetMafia=] "Gospel" trying to get numerous people outright killed off and explicitly injuring or even ''burning'' people who get in their way, the entire [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext whiskey rap]], the innuendo-laden Ms. Millions encounter, and so forth. The game's rating is the same as the rest of the Battle Network games: [[BlatantLies E for Everyone, six and up.]] Likely the only reason it didn't get rated higher is that [[spoiler:no one is KilledOffForReal -- even when characters are ''directly blown up'' or Lan gets exposed to what should be lethal amounts of electromagnetic radiation.]] All the other games are much more in line with the age rating, to say the least.