July 20th, 2013 | EarthBound

EarthBound for the Wii U Virtual Console was released out of the blue the other day, but that wasn’t the only surprise! The game, which was originally rated “K-A” (Kids to Adults) back in the old days, was rated as “E for Everyone” back in 2007 before the Wii VC version was canceled. But this recent release for the Wii U has it rated as “T for Teens”, which is a bit of a jump up the ratings scale.

So what’s different this time around that warranted the higher rating? The Wii U ESRB rating also says the game includes:

Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Suggestive Themes, Crude Humor

The violence in the game is almost entirely in text format, the only blood I can think of is a few pixels on the Kraken’s teeth, I’m not sure what could be “suggestive” aside from maaaaybe the lady in Threed, and okay EarthBound has fart and poop jokes I’ll give them that. Still, am I missing something? Is there blood in the game I’m not thinking of? If anything, I’m surprised they didn’t include gambling in the list, since that seems to be one of the things the ESRB looks for.

This actually reminds me of a few months ago when EarthBound was rated by the Australian ratings board. That rating of the game was kind of confusing too, in the same way as this.

I wonder if the ESRB and other ratings boards have been getting stricter these past few years or something. In the end, I doubt it matters much for EarthBound since it sounds like it’s doing really well on the Wii U VC right now, but it’s a strange little mystery I can’t figure out. Have any other re-released games gotten this same “heightened rating” treatment?