Author Topic: Soul Calibur II - Why is it rated Teen? (age advice) (Read 4864 times)

davidctaylor · « **on:** August 28, 2003, 04:09:12 AM »

I have a 7 year old girl and a 4 year old boy. I try not to get any titles that are mature. We usually stick to things like Super Mario Sunshine, Zelda, Mario Golf, SSB, etc. However, they both love SSB as well as some other old fighting games that I had for my old PS1. I'm curious if anyone has played this and can tell me if this game is unsuitable for small children. Are the characters overly scary? Are the graphics too gorey? I don't want to warp the kids any more than I already am :-)

Thanks!
David

rpglover · « **Reply #1 on:** August 28, 2003, 04:20:48 AM »

soul calibur is not gory at all- there is not blood in the game- it basically is just fighting
on the back of the box it is rated teen for violence and suggestive themes-
the characters themselves are not too scary- there are a few exceptions, but in all they look fine
the game is a lot of fun too- so if you were worrying about the blood and gore for your children- dont fret- there is no blood splatter at all and no gore either- if you have any other q's just ask- hope this helps a little

davidctaylor · « **Reply #2 on:** August 28, 2003, 05:24:47 AM »

Thanks dude. That eases my mind. I'm glad there is no blood. So I suppose there are no be-headings or anything like that, right?

What do they mean by "suggestive themes"? Any idea? It sounds like it'll be fine for the kids, but I just wonder why they saw fit to rate it Teen.

They love games where they can compete head-to-head and against me, so this sounds pretty good.

Grey Ninja · « **Reply #3 on:** August 28, 2003, 05:36:21 AM »

Heh... I am suddenly reminded of Mortal Kombat SNES which everyone mocked because Nintendo took out the blood. Soul Calibur II is proof that the greatest fighter ever can make a very good go of itself without advertising their new boob bouncing engine, or putting in blood.

But yeah, Soul Calibur II is fine for kids if they can handle realistic CG characters beating the crap out of eachother with melee weapons.

There are no fatalities, no blood, and no overly violent scenes. When I was 5 though, some of my favorite movies included Highlander and Conan the Barbarian, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

joshnickerson · « **Reply #4 on:** August 28, 2003, 05:41:06 AM »

My guess is the "suggestive themes" rating comes from the fact that a couple of the female characters are, um, 'gifted' in more than their fighting skills...
but otherwise, the violence is pretty tame compared to other fighting tournament games.

aoi tsuki · « **Reply #5 on:** August 28, 2003, 05:42:36 AM »

i'd suggest checking out http://www.esrb.org/ to get the lowdown on their ratings.

According to their site, "suggestive themes" contain "mild provocative references or materials." This might include seductive poses, usually from female characters, or revealing attire. There's nothing overtly gory about the game as you'd see in Mortal Kombat.

S-U-P-E-R · « **Reply #6 on:** August 28, 2003, 11:02:49 AM »

There are a couple of moves that impale other characters, but there's no blood and they usually just get up like "oh, I'm fine" a second later. Also, there's a bit of cleavage 'n stuff, and oooerrr I think you can almost kind of see Taki's nipples.

I think in the XBox one, Spawn says stuff like "damn" and "pissed off" ... but he's not in the GameCube one, so don't sweat it.

Although you should buy it for your kids anyway, you'd be the coolest dad ever

mouse_clicker · « **Reply #7 on:** August 28, 2003, 02:57:11 PM »

Beyond the violence, though, which is generally unrealistic and exaggerated, some of the costumes on the female characetrs are a bit, eh, suggestive, if I may be so bold.

Ms.Pikmin · « **Reply #8 on:** August 28, 2003, 03:48:26 PM »

Suggestive is an understatement.

I do like this game though. My son and I played earlier today. One thing I did was out there was when I was playing as Taki (I think it was her) and I was suddenly putting my opponent in a headlock using my LEG. And yeah, there is cleavage that would make Pamela Anderson jealous.

Griffin · « **Reply #9 on:** August 28, 2003, 05:37:03 PM »

I got shot in the calf by Link! The little punk stuck me to the floor! Whassapwitdat?!?! Heh, I love this game, too bad my tv mysteriously stopped turning on a week ago, so I'm forced to play in my sister's room on a paultry 14" tv. Anyways, it's a great game, and you shouldn't really have any problems with it, just a few of the throws look a little painful, but there's absolutely no blood in the game. And of course the girls almost all have a "sexy" costume, and usually one other that covers them up pretty good (Ivy's second costume comes to mind), but the jiggle factor is pretty minimum...no DOA flotation devices in this one.

GoldShadow1 · « **Reply #10 on:** August 29, 2003, 04:18:36 PM »

Remember, SSBM was rated T as well. That sure is a broad category, isn't it? I mean, compare SSBM to, say, GoldenEye, which was also rated T... there's a world of difference. GoldenEye could get quite bloody in multiplayer, and the death throes of your enemies were rather disturbing. SSBM was virtually unchanged from SSB, which was rated T. Also odd is that strategy games like StarCraft can be rated T simply because it does not have as much detail as it would in FPS form (StarCaft is astonishingly violent - Try killing a medic some time. You can see the separate scattered limbs and head. Not to mention the site of dozens of marines being slaughtered at the same time with blood everywhere... fun.)

dafunkk12 · « **Reply #11 on:** August 29, 2003, 04:39:47 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Grey Ninja
Soul Calibur II is proof that the greatest fighter ever can make a very good go of itself without advertising their new boob bouncing engine...

Hah. Sure, it's not advertised, but it's noticably there.

Grey Ninja · « **Reply #12 on:** August 29, 2003, 05:02:56 PM »

It's there, but it's not the selling point, ala BMX XXX and DOA.

ThePerm · « **Reply #13 on:** August 29, 2003, 06:44:16 PM »

mitsurugi says damn...astaroth says bastard! their is some swearing..but seriously i played way mroe violent games as a kid.

Caliban · « **Reply #14 on:** August 29, 2003, 07:41:25 PM »

If parents are preocupied with the language that characters use and don't want there children to here such words in SC2, then switch dialogues to Japanese and turn off the subtitles.

PIAC · « **Reply #15 on:** August 30, 2003, 02:13:20 AM »

THERE IS JAPANESE DIALOGUE IN SC2? OMG AWSOME

that was one of my pet hates with DOA2 on PS2 over the DC version, the crappy english voice acting, something about japanese sounds cooler while fighting etc.

S-U-P-E-R · « **Reply #16 on:** August 30, 2003, 04:28:34 AM »

They did awesome voice acting for most of the doods in SC2, though, especially my buddies Astaroth and Nightmare.

joshnickerson · « **Reply #17 on:** August 30, 2003, 06:07:59 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: GoldShadow1
Remember, SSBM was rated T as well. That sure is a broad category, isn't it?

I agree. I've long thought that there should be a "PG" rating to be between an "E" and a "T" rating. I mean, look at the Star Wars games. The movies were all rated PG, but the games are rated "T", which is the same as a PG-13 rating.

mouse_clicker · « **Reply #18 on:** August 30, 2003, 01:40:30 PM »

They used to have a K-A (kids to adults) rating back in the early N64 days which was the equivalent of a PG rating, but for some reason they dropped it from use.

joshnickerson · « **Reply #19 on:** August 30, 2003, 02:58:36 PM »

No, the K-A rating was the same as the current "E" rating, as they both imply the game is for ages six and up. And from what I can remember, the ESRB wanted to use the "E" rating the whole time, but for one reason or another, they couldn't use it until fairly recently (about halfway through the n64's life)

WindyMan · « **Reply #20 on:** August 30, 2003, 04:06:05 PM »

Turn the voice to Japanese and the subtitles off, and you're set for any possible foulmouthedness that might occur, to which there really isn't any.

Caliban · « **Reply #21 on:** August 30, 2003, 05:34:04 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: WindyMan
Turn the voice to Japanese and the subtitles off, and you're set for any possible foulmouthedness that might occur, to which there really isn't any.

That's exactly what I said to do on my post on the first page. Doesn't anyone read my posts? Are you afraid of reading what the big red eye has written?

aoi tsuki · « **Reply #22 on:** August 30, 2003, 06:24:18 PM »

Obviously, Caliban, they're afraid you'll copy their jutsu. Duh. [/naruto]

Quote
I agree. I've long thought that there should be a "PG" rating to be between an "E" and a "T" rating. I mean, look at the Star Wars games. The movies were all rated PG, but the games are rated "T", which is the same as a PG-13 rating.

i dunno, if you look at PG-13 movies within the past few years, they've moved closer to R movies. i think the all encompassing T rating works pretty well as a P-PG rating equivalent. Content descriptors tell you why they received the rating they did. Off the top of my head, i think the ESRB's descriptors for T-rated games is close the MPAA's descriptors for PG to PG-13-rated movies. i just wish we could decide on one simple system for everything. It must be confusing for parents who have to juggle rating schemes for movies, games, and tv.

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Author Topic: Soul Calibur II - Why is it rated Teen? (age advice) (Read 4864 times)