Mortal Kombat Vs. DC to “push the envelope of a T-rated game”
In a recent interview with Gametap, the co-creator of Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe, Ed Boon, revealed that the series’ signature finishing moves, “fatalities”, will exist in some form. The game was announced last month along with the fact that it would receive a T for teen rating as opposed to the M rating that previous Mortal Kombat games have received. This led many people to assume that the violence would have to be toned down, thus fatalities would have to be removed. According to the interview, Boon said he plans on keeping “finishers”, but that the violence will, indeed, be toned down.
The idea of “push[ing] the envelope” of T-rated games just boggles my mind. Excessive violence has been a staple of every game in the Mortal Kombat Universe. Mortal Kombat was one of the first games to garner criticism for the level of violence on display. They have received M ratings since the ESRB was founded. Yet, since the DC universe is involved, DC finds it necessary to censor the amount of violence in this game.
I’m not trying to say that it is completely necessary for a Mortal Kombat game to have over-the-top violence in order to succeed, but I think the T-rating will turn off a lot of the series’ long time fans. Those who grew up with Mortal Kombat are now adults, and the violence is an integral part of the game for them. The T-rating may open up the game to a wider audience, but I think that a lot of long-time fans will stray away from this one simply because they’ve come to expect Midway to deliver a certain style of game. I find the whole idea of MK Vs. DC to be insane in the first place, but this just makes it seem even crazier. A Mortal Kombat game without excessive levels of violence. Who’d have thunk it?
Yeah, I’m generally opposed to the whole deciding what rating you’re aiming for before the game is finished school of thinking. That’s essentially selling out quality for a few more sales(Although, with the average age of the gamer being 33, and the highest selling games all being Mature, I don’t see the logic here). Developers should set out to create their vision of a game without any restrictions to their creativity and let the ESRB determine what audience such a vision is suitable for.