Not only films based on superheroes can be mistaken for kids, but also video games based on superheroes as well.
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DC Comics
- Batman: Arkham Series is notable in this regard as fans, video game industry insiders, and journalists were perplexed on how the first two games in the series escaped being rated M, compared to something like the games of the Halo series; while the Halo games feature blood and foul language, they are much lighter in tone.
- Batman: Arkham Asylum may be a superhero game, but it was only the lack of gore and stronger language that kept it from getting an M rating. The game is so dark, that many are still shocked that it didn't get an M rating.
- Batman: Arkham City is even worse - granted, there is only one scene containing blood, but the game features Victor Zsasz telling of why he carves his own skin to keep count of murders, the Penguin audibly freezing a cop's hand and shattering it with a hammer and Hush slicing people's faces off before killing them so he can look like Bruce Wayne to name a few.
- The prequel Batman: Arkham Origins, likewise, is chock full of not-kid-friendly content. Near the beginning of the game, Joker, disguised as Black Mask, murders the police Commissioner via gas chamber during a prison riot, and it only gets worse from there. Highlights include Mad Hatter kidnapping a young girl, who, even after being rescued by Batman, is clearly emotionally damaged for life, Shiva murdering/attempting to murder police officers to draw Batman's attention, the bank manager laughing to death with a permanent smile plastered on her face from Joker's toxin, Bane almost murdering Alfred, and an entire sequence played from The Joker's point of view, complete with a picture of how he sees Batman.
- It doesn't help that you play the game as a much less refined and experienced Batman than usual, who is much more brutal than his ten-year-older-version you play in the other games. Bats has several Jerkass moments throughout the game and he has a few moments that even approach Sociopathic Hero levels. Luckily, he goes through some Character Development as the story goes on.
- The fourth game, Batman: Arkham Knight, actually got an M rating from the ESRB. Why, you ask? There's two suicides, several torture scenes, and the player can actually shoot hostages and certain members of Batman's rogues gallery in a hallucination near the end of the game. And that's just the main game, without the Season of Infamy DLC which is notably Bloodier and Gorier. No doubt, however, uninformed parents will still buy it for young, easily-scared children, because it stars Batman and comics can't be that bad, right?
- Then there's the playable Red Hood, whose primary gadget is always an instant kill, and who breaks his enemies necks to silently take them out. While the player could kill his enemies as Joker in Arkham Asylum, his kills were limited to one handgun shot and takedowns still had some humor value.
- The next (and so far final) game, Batman: Arkham VR, also received an M rating. Guess solving a murder in virtual reality doesn't go over well with the parents.
- Injustice: Gods Among Us is another superhero game with incredibly heavy mature content that our heroes have to confront. However, that doesn't stop younger gamers from getting actively involved with the gritty story anyway. In the main campaign, Superman of all characters pulls a Face–Heel Turn and goes on a killing spree, becoming an Evil Overlord conquering the entire universe. For bonus points, the story opens up with the man in blue shoving his arm into the Joker to avenge his murdered wife Lois Lane and Metropolis. The game features an abundance of blood, morality issues, sexual innuendos frequently dropped between certain characters, and naturally violent moves to act as finishes. It should say a lot that the game was developed by the creators of Mortal Kombat.
- Injustice 2: As with the first game, it is a fighting game featuring the beloved superheroes that kids look up to, but it was clearly not made for kids in mind. There's brutal violence, several Family Unfriendly Deaths, references to murder and rape, sexual themes and innuendos, surprisingly prominent swearing, complex morality issues, and to top it all off it takes place in the Darker and Edgier Injustice Universe, which means the upstanding good guy counterparts are nowhere in sight. It also contains Hellboy and Mortal Kombat characters Raiden and Sub-Zero as guest characters. In terms of tone, think less DC Animated Universe and more DC Universe Animated Original Movies.
Marvel Comics
- Spider-Man (PS4) is not a game for little children, and even a few older children may be shocked at some of the stuff in the game. While the game is still very colorful and has a T-rating and isn't anywhere close to the Batman: Arkham Series (which had a borderline nihilistic attitude to superheroics), it is much darker and has more realistic violence compared to all the previous Spider-Man games, and the most recent movies and cartoons. There's a city hall meeting ambushed by suicide bombers with a fairly grim portrayal of the aftermath complete with terrorists summarily executing helpless citizens as a small child searches for his father's body. There's an endgame plot centered around releasing a poisonous bioweapon, swearing, illegal drug deals, and an onscreen suicide by gunshot with no Gory Discretion Shot. Yes, a Spider-Man game with an uncensored suicide. Needless to say, there's quite a few dark moments in this one. The DLC likewise is a kind of adult romantic comedy with a lot of teasing jokes about Peter's love-life and specifically his sex-life, which is still mild but certainly meant for the age-group old enough to have relationships.
- Xmen Origins Wolverine is typical PG-13 superhero fare; so you wouldn't expect it's video game adaptation to be an extremely brutal and gory hack-and-slash that would make Mortal Kombat blush.
