Rated T for Toeing the line: MK vs. DC most violent Teen game you’ll probably ever see
Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe is surely taking measures to deliver some brutality (or fatality, whatever) to those who want it, and yet still somewhat stay safe from going overboard and getting an M-rating – oh, never mind an AO rating, at that. See, the Midway team handled the fine, fine line between the T and M ratings by having close talks with the ratings boards. To say that they’re toeing the line grasps the entirety of it all. Check out a quote from senior producer Hans Lo about their strategy in designing this game.
Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe is surely taking measures to deliver some brutality (or fatality, whatever) to those who want it, and yet still somewhat stay safe from going overboard and getting an M-rating – oh, never mind an AO rating, at that.
See, the Midway team handled the fine, fine line between the T and M ratings by having close talks with the ratings boards. Their goal: a game that doesn’t go over the T rating. To say that they’re toeing the line grasps the entirety of it all.
Here’s senior producer Hans Lo talking to CVG in an interview:
There were times when we went over the edge and had to say, ‘That definitely isn’t Teen, let’s bring it back a little bit. Is that Teen? No, not quite. Is that Teen? That might be Teen. Let’s bring it back a little more.’
We sat down with a lot of the ratings boards and said, ‘This is what we’re thinking. This is what we want to do. In all honesty, is this the kind of thing you will give us a Teen rating or a 15 rating for? Is this something that would be considered way out of line?’ They were very helpful in giving us feedback.
We basically tried to push it to the very limit, within reason, and I think we did a pretty good job. Some people are going to say, ‘There’s not going to be any blood, you can’t have any kind of fatalities,’ but you can have fatalities and I think we’ve got some pretty unique ones, or in the case of the DC heroes we’ve got heroic brutalities, some of which could have been featured in an original MK game, no question.
Midway Games‘ Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe gets released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 come November 16 in North America, and the 21st in Europe.
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