History WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids / Videogames

** ''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 [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment 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.]] [[spoiler:Likely the only reason it didn't get rated higher is that no one is KilledOffForReal -- even when characters are ''directly blown up'' or Lan gets exposed to what should be lethal amounts of electromagnetic radiation.]]

* ''VideoGame/CaveStory'' is known for its accessible and engaging gameplay and cutesy visuals. [[spoiler: It also features slavery and [[GreatOffscreenWar war]] themes, four nightmarish final bosses (The Doctor, who loses control and mutates, then him possessing the Core, Sue, and Misery, then the Heavy Press which attacks out of nowhere and is a Kaizo Trap if you don't realize what it is quickly enough, then finally Ballos, who has a horrific backstory and red, dripping, tortured faces in his head), a level with zombie dragons crying blood and [[CharactersDroppingLikeFlies most of the cast dying before your eyes at regular intervals.]] ''And still goes with a rating of E10+''.]]

** To this day, the only games in the series to be rated higher than E10+ are ''Twilight Princess'', ''Link's Crossbow Training'' (which share a darker tone and more realistic aesthetic than most other games in the series), and the ''Hyrule Warriors'' spinoffs (which justify the rating with their heavy emphasis on combat).

** The trope began to be averted with later ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' games, which got higher ESRB ratings so they would be aimed at older audiences. ''Twilight Princess'', ''Link's Crossbow Training'' and both ''Hyrule Warriors'' games are rated T, and nearly every game from ''Spirit Tracks'' onwards, [[SameContentDifferentRating including remakes of previously E-rated entries]], were given [=E10+=].

** ''VideoGame/SonicForces'' has a [[SceneryGorn bleak and warlike atmosphere]] set by [[TheBadGuyWins Eggman]]'s [[TakeOverTheWorld nearly-complete world domination]], [[VileVillainSaccharineShow an outright monstrous villain]] who will not hesitate to kill a few innocent cartoon FunnyAnimals on-screen and much, much more [[KilledOffscreen offscreen]], Sonic being mentioned to have been tortured for 6 months[[note]]this is only mentioned in the English version of the game, the Japanese version mentions no such things[[/note]]. ([[RuleOfThree They get better.]])

** ''VideoGame/SonicForces'' has a [[SceneryGorn bleak and warlike atmosphere]] set by [[TheBadGuyWins Eggman]]'s [[TakeOverTheWorld nearly-complete domination]], [[VileVillainSaccharineShow an outright monstrous villain]] who will not hesitate to kill a few innocent cartoon FunnyAnimals on-screen and much, much more [[KilledOffscreen offscreen]], Sonic being mentioned to have been tortured for 6 months[[note]]this is only mentioned in the English version of the game, the Japanese version mentions no such things[[/note]]. ([[RuleOfThree They get better.]])

** ''VideoGame/SonicForces'' has [[TheBadGuyWins Eggman]] [[TakeOverTheWorld taking over 99% of the world]], SceneryGorn, [[VileVillainSaccharineShow an outright monstrous villain]], Sonic being mentioned to have been tortured for 6 months[[note]]this is only mentioned in the English version of the game, the Japanese version mentions no such things[[/note]], and a few innocent cartoon FunnyAnimals getting killed on-screen briefly in one cutscene and much, much more being KilledOffscreen... ([[RuleOfThree They get better.]])

** ''VideoGame/SonicForces'' has [[TheBadGuyWins Eggman]] [[TakeOverTheWorld taking over 99% of the world]], SceneryGorn, [[VileVillainSaccharineShow a merciless villain]], Sonic mentioned to have been tortured for 6 months[[note]]this is only mentioned in the English version of the game, the Japanese version mentions no such things[[/note]], and a few innocent cartoon FunnyAnimals getting killed on-screen briefly in one cutscene and many more being KilledOffscreen... ([[RuleOfThree They get better.]])

** ''Kitten Squad'', an original PETA game, is supposed to be for children, with its ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog''-esque premise of {{Ridiculously Cute|Critter}} kittens shooting [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals animal-abusing]] MechaMook, happy-go-lucky music, and cute character designs. Besides the unintentional SurpriseDifficulty as a result of bad design and PETA's usual {{Anvilicious}} AuthorTract advocating animal rights, the highly disturbing storyline and cutscenes won't hesitate to use [[MoodWhiplash sad music]], blood, and [[FamilyUnfriendlyViolence graphic descriptions of animal abuse]] to carry out the AuthorTract even more. An orca is separated from her family at sea, stuffed into a small tank at a {{Straw|man Fallacy}} BlandNameProduct version of Ride/SeaWorld, forcefully impregnated six times, and DrivenToSuicide after witnessing her orca friend committing one. A sheep is castrated, forced to live under harsh weather conditions and in a crowded pen, sees other sheep painfully and bloodily sheared, and is nearly beaten to death when he faces this fate. The T rating ESRB gave isn't probably enough...

* ''VideoGame/SilhouetteMirage'' has plenty of biblical references, minor swearing, alcohol use, and takes place in a post-apocalyptic world caused by a biological holocaust. It's rating? E for Everyone.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'''s Battle Royal mode often gets hit with this. Sure, it looks like an afternoon cartoon, but behind the facade it's still a shooter where the only goal is to murder everyone else until only one player is left standing, leaving many people (parents in particular) wondering how it managed to get a kid-friendly rating despite its premise.

** ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion''. You begin with the story being that Samus was ''nearly killed'' by a parasite called the X, and you're dropped right into the BSL Research Station, which is, as far as you know, completely devoid of human life thanks to the X. Early on you have to navigate a series of eerie unlit corridors because there's been an ''explosion'' in the quarantine room. Turns out it's just a Hornoad-X, but if you explore a bit you find a room completely frozen. If you decide to continue further inside, despite the damage you take from the cold (you've been injected with Metroid DNA) you see [[spoiler:'''Ridley''' (Who was supposed to be '''dead''') frozen in a block of ice.]] Play farther into the game, go down the Main Elevator, and what appears to be [[spoiler:Samus]] bursts into the shaft. [[spoiler:Then it zooms ''right'' in on 'her' face, revealing that it's some kind of mimic.]] You later find out that this mysterious entity is called the [[spoiler:SA-X, and that ''it's tracking you.'' You also can't even hope to kill it yet. You are told to ''run'' if you encounter it.]] And it '''does''' catch up with you. Then there's a boss called the [[spoiler:Nightmare]]. It's been flying through the background of the damaged area of the ARC Sector, startling you the first few times it happens. Then you [[spoiler:fight it]]. It has [[spoiler:a creepy mask, and when you damage it enough the mask breaks, revealing its disgusting alien face that, as you damage it further, begins ''dripping'']].
* ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER 3}}'' 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.

[[caption-width-right:350: Rated [=E10+=] for everyone 10 and up.]]

* Some attribute the commercial failure of ''VideoGame/{{Shantae}}'' to this, among other factors. ''Shantae'''s cutesy, colorful graphics, goofy humor, being on the kid-friendly UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor leading to the assumption that it's a kid's game. The problem is, it's also strangely... [[ParentService sexy]] for something aimed at kids, and also more difficult than your average kid's game. Later games avert this more and more by adding some darker humor, among other content, to the point that ''Half-Genie Hero'' is given the ESRB of T for Teen in North America.

** The trope began to be averted with later ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' games, which got higher ESRB ratings so they would be aimed at older audiences. ''Twilight Princess'' and both ''Hyrule Warriors'' are rated T, and nearly every game from ''Spirit Tracks'' onwards, [[SameContentDifferentRating including remakes of previously E-rated entries]], were given [=E10+=].

** The trope began to be averted with later ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' games, which got higher ESRB ratings so they would be aimed at older audiences. ''Twilight Princess'' was rated T, and nearly every game from ''Spirit Tracks'' onwards, [[SameContentDifferentRating including remakes of previously E-rated entries]], were given [=E10+=].
*** Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity was the most recent game in the canonical Zelda timeline to receive a T rating for its high levels of violence.

** With constant references to tobacco, alcohol, gambling, and rather disturbing imagery, as well as ''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/RType Delta'' is rated E. The final stage [[spoiler:features depictions of fetuses as enemies to shoot.]] The ending for the R-13 [[spoiler:is a DownerEnding and features it becoming captured by the Bydo, with the final shot after the credits [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie being of the ship enveloped by Bydo matter.]]]]

* ''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]].

* The ''VideoGame/ProfessorLayton'' series makes you think it's rated E+10 because kids can exercise their minds with fun puzzles, has cartoon-ish style characters, and has white humour, so [[FridgeLogic why they dont make it E instead of E+10]]? Because there are various types of crimes, as well as political subjects, some murder cases [[spoiler:which turn out to be fake]], [[spoiler:an OmnicidalManiac who used an HumongousMecha to [[MoralEventHorizon destroy and kill people]]]], surreal and paranormal events, a connnection with the devil [[spoiler:which turns out to be just the herzen family heraldic shield]], and HIGH amounts of NightmareFuel.

* The two ''VideoGame/TalesOfXillia'' games are this trope in Australia, where they somehow managed to get PG ratings despite the first game having violent deaths and occasional blood in cutscenes and pretty explicit sexual references (there's jokes about bondage kinks) and the second game being BloodierAndGorier, featuring huge amounts of blood in death cutscenes, terrorist attacks complete with masses of bloody civilian bodies (in one of the first areas of the game, at that), sexual references as normal and ''incredibly'' dark themes towards the end of the game. (The main character has to [[spoiler:murder his brother to save the world]].)

* The ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games fall under this, as the plot of every game in the series runs surprisingly deep and dark, the villains are often terrifying and vile, and many Pokemon have dark backstories. Some games, however, fall under this trope more than others:
** ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' feature many moral questions, a grieving, disillusioned champion, and a little girl literally killed in her sleep by nightmares, as well as [[spoiler:the implied mental abuse and brainwashing of a young man, manipulated all his life and kept in an emotionally immature state (with a creepy theme and childlike "playroom" to show it, itself accompanied by creepy music) by the BigBad Ghetsis, with said BigBad being quite possibly the most vile villain the main series has ever seen.]]
** The [[VideoGame/PokemonColosseum Orre]] [[VideoGame/PokemonXDGaleOfDarkness games]] were one of the first instances where the games truly started exploring darker territory, albeit ''Colosseum'' more so than ''XD'' featuring, among other things, a gritty, bleak CrapsackWorld of a region and a deadly practical, vile, ruthless evil team that would give [[spoiler:Ghetsis]] a run for his money. It shows that ''Colosseum'''s protagonist, Wes, being 17, is practically ancient by Pokemon protagonist standards back then, and even now is still quite old.
** In ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonRescueTeam'', you have to save the world from an impending comet while fighting against a Gengar that accuses you of being a cruel traitor that was cursed for selling out his own Pokemon. In ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonExplorers of Time and Darkness'', the plot is that you have to change the future because, as it is, [[spoiler:it is a world of ''complete'' and ''utter darkness'', where the sun never rises and the wind never blows.]] Besides that, innocent Pokemon get kidnapped, you have extremely freaky visions and, above all else, this whole game is a [[spoiler:''suicide'' mission. That's right. You ''die'' at the end and you ''know'' you're going to die.]] Chew on that. Finally, in the re-release of ''Time and Darkness'', ''Explorers of Sky'', they have mini-stories. And each one of those has a bad part, but the worst is probably in the last one, when one of the antagonists plans to [[spoiler:''suck your soul out of your body (think [[Franchise/HarryPotter dementors]]), possess you, and go to the past in your body to convince people he is you.'']] In the post-credits story, [[spoiler:the BigBad disguises himself as a good guy, visits you in your dreams, and tells you that the world is going to end, that it's all your fault, and that ''you and your partner should kill yourselves.'']]
** ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonGatesToInfinity'' appears to be LighterAndSofter... until [[spoiler:you get betrayed by a fake damsel in distress, learn that the BigBad is an homicidal nihilist who has murdered potentially ''dozens'' of other humans summoned to stop him, see one of your allies ''frozen into a block of ice and shattered into pieces'' and fight a non-Pokemon EldritchAbomination composed of hopelessness, mistrust and despair]]. [[SarcasmMode Definitely kid-friendly.]]

* ''[[VideoGame/Bugsnax 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].

* ''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].

* ''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 repsonses if their companion dies can be disheartening, too].

* ''VideoGame/TheSnackWorld'' 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 repsonses if their companion dies can be disheartening, too].