What and When was Your First M/16+ Rated Game?

[Moonface]

Thought it'd be interesting to see what everyone's first M/16+ rated game was that they played and how old you were when you did. Also, if you played such a game but it wasn't when you would've been allowed to by your parents, what was the first one you were allowed to own without having to hide it from your parents?

Gotta take a moment to remember mine...

[queenzelda]

My parents never limited me as long as I knew it wasn't real. My first M rated game was Resident Evil 2 on the PS1. I was 20ish around the time it first released. My parents didn't care what games I bought, I grew up reading Stephen King at 12 yrs old. xD

[Dragon Lord]

Uhhhh, gotta think back a long ways for this one... I think it was Duke Nukem 64 when I was like eight or nine years old. I remember playing the N64 South Park game too, but I think Duke Nukem was first.

[Moonface]

My first M rated game was Resident Evil 2 on the PS1. I was 20ish around the time it first released.

I'm surprised you bought the sequel first instead of the first game. Did you have much clue of what was going on due to not really having any of the context of the first game?

Uhhhh, gotta think back a long ways for this one... I think it was Duke Nukem 64 when I was like eight or nine years old. I remember playing the N64 South Park game too, but I think Duke Nukem was first.

Never knew there was a South Park game on the N64.


Hmm, for the first game that I played that was rated M/16+, it's a little hard to say because UK games in the 90's didn't use the PEGI system but instead the ELSPA, which had ratings of 3+, 11+, 15+ and 18+. Tomb Raider (1996) had a 15+ rating from the ELSPA, which is very close to the PEGI 16 rating; however, PEGI and ESRB both rated the game 12 and T respectively, so for that reason I'm on the fence about counting it. Alien Trilogy was the first actual 16+/M rated game that entered my household but my dad bought it and although my parents had no problem with me watching it I never wanted to play it myself at the time. The first game I got/played that was for me would be The Thing on PS2 which came out in 2002, so I would've been 11 or 12.

[Mr EliteL]

Either Resident Evil or Nightmare Creatures. Given the graphics of PS1 era the blood/gore wasn't exactly too much so I guess that's why myself and my siblings were allowed to play them. Just blocky limbs with red on them being separated from it's blocky body. Perhaps there were more...explicitly graphic gore from that time but I guess we managed to avoid such a game.

[queenzelda]

I think my brother played the first game, so I saw him play it first. I played the second one as Jill and I loved playing as the female character. Even if I hadn't played the first resident evil before I played the second one I feel it's a good game without having to play re1 first since the game explains the set up just fine, impo.

[Kyng]

Well... Total War: Shogun 2 was my first 16+-rated game, although since that was only T-rated, I don't think it fully counts for the purposes of this thread . My first M-rated oner would probably have been Fallout: New Vegas, about a year later.

I was already in my 20s by that time... I wasn't playing M-rated games as a kid !

[ShiraNoMai]

Mine was definitely Conker's Bad Fur Day. Came out around the time I was 7? Was definitely not mature enough for a game like that but it was perfectly edgy and topical enough to be funny.

[Moonface]

Perhaps there were more...explicitly graphic gore from that time but I guess we managed to avoid such a game.

The only game I recall from the PS1 era that was explicitly graphic was Carmageddon, only because that game managed to get onto the news for how graphic it was.
Doom likely had a lot of gore too but it certainly isn't the first game that comes to my mind when I think of excessive violence for a PS1 game. XD

I think my brother played the first game, so I saw him play it first. I played the second one as Jill and I loved playing as the female character.  Even if I hadn't played the first resident evil before I played the second one I feel it's a good game without having to play re1 first since the game explains the set up just fine, impo.

Ah. I've only played the RE2 Remake but it was also long after I knew the story of RE1 (despite never playing it) that it was impossible for me to be lost and I didn't need to pay attention to any context the games opening gives (if any, that's how little attention I paid to it) so I was curious how it might've been playing the OG RE2.


And just to give a little more legs to this thread, I was curious what the first M/16+ rated game was per system I've played:

• PlayStation 3 - Resistance: Fall of Man
  
• PlayStation 4 - Doom 2016
  
• PlayStation 5 - Demon's Souls
  
• Wii U - ZombiU
  

[Mr EliteL]

I haven't really played many horror games, think the only other one would be PS3 Resistance: Fall Of Man, the rest being on PS1 really then perhaps the earlier Slenderman games for PC. That's about it. Oh, Dying Light for PS4 but I didn't play it much nor plan to continue.

[Moonface]

I haven't really played many horror games, think the only other one would be PS3 Resistance: Fall Of Man, the rest being on PS1 really then perhaps the earlier Slenderman games for PC. That's about it. Oh, Dying Light for PS4 but I didn't play it much nor plan to continue.

M/16+ doesn't necessarily mean the game is a horror game. Mortal Kombat or GTA would both be examples of M/16+ rated games and neither of those are horror.

[Mr EliteL]

I've played the first GTA with the down/bird's eye view but that could've been after Nightmare Creatures, can't remember which was first, but was borrowed from that shop that used to be in town or as a demo. PS2 would be Mortal Kombat...Armageddon as my sister owned it.
Uncharted also falls into 16 rating so Thief's End I played before Dying Light.

[Moonface]

I've played the first GTA with the down/bird's eye view but that could've been after Nightmare Creatures, can't remember which was first, but was borrowed from that shop that used to be in town or as a demo. PS2 would be Mortal Kombat...Armageddon as my sister owned it.

The store you're thinking of was called Capricorn Video, down in the alley just past CJ's/Fish 'n' Chicken/whatever it's called nowadays. I'll always miss that store. ;n;

Uncharted also falls into 16 rating so Thief's End I played before Dying Light.

Huh, it's funny that Uncharted is a 16 in PAL regions when it only gets a T rating here in the US, but I think a T rating is a younger age than 16 because I see a lot of games here get a T rating.

[Maniakkid25]

Teen is recommended for 13+. E is 7+, E10 is, well, 10+, and M is 17+. So, while the PEGI 16 rating is analogous to M, It's not exact, so there can be some wiggle room. You could probably find a few T games that are PEGI 16. And looking it up, the SMT series actually has the REVERSE situation (M rated and PEGI 12)! So, yeah, anything is possible.

I cannot remember my first M-rated game. I just know it was behind my parent's backs, because they wouldn't let me own M-rated games until I was 15-ish. Hell, I don't even remember the first M-rated game I own! I honestly want to say RE5, but I feel like I'm wrong on that.

[Moonface]

I cannot remember my first M-rated game. I just know it was behind my parent's backs, because they wouldn't let me own M-rated games until I was 15-ish. Hell, I don't even remember the first M-rated game I own! I honestly want to say RE5, but I feel like I'm wrong on that.

I was curious how old you would've been when that game came out and you'd have been like 16/17 (can't be bothered to math enough to get the exact age) so unless another M rated game came out earlier than RE5 there's a good chance that was the first one you owned, assuming you only owned an M rated game after you were old enough for your parents to not be bothered about it.

Also, that's pretty wild that SMT has such a huge gap in the age ratings between ESRB and PEGI. It makes me curious if the sales for the games were better in Europe because of the lower age rating.