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Joker toning it down for teens
Way back in the day of Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis (when I was dead broke, man I couldn't picture this) Mortal Kombat hit home. And it was bloody. Well, not on SNES. And not even on Sega Genesis unless you put in the blood code. But after that, it was all blood all the time. Which meant a rating of "Mature" by the ESRB. Which is fine when you're looking at the Mortal Kombat universe. But what about when the DC Universe shows up? Well then you have to make it a bit more user friendly. And by user friendly I mean tone down some of the fatalities, including the Joker's.
Kotaku has gotten their hands on the game and are sad to report that one of the more unique fatalities in the game (courtesy of the Joker of course) was eschewed in favor of a "Teen" rating from the ESRB.
"In the latest build, Joker still whips out his prank gun, a "BANG!" flag unfurling. Unfortunately, you won't see the follow up of Joker shooting someone in the face; that actually happens off screen now, the headshot safely out of sight."
So yeah. The Joker, quite possibly one of the best incarnations of pure anarchy and chaos still pulls out the coveted prank gun, but the following massive gunshot wound to the head is implied and not seen. Which means that what Midway was trying to avoid all along in a Mortal Kombat game watered down for more mainstream appeal may actually be happening. Sure, you'll still get plenty of other bloody endings to battles. But what kind of world do we live in if we can't witness the Joker having the last laugh in a gunfire way? Why so serious?
Joker toning it down for teens
Way back in the day of Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis (when I was dead broke, man I couldn't picture this) Mortal Kombat hit home. And it was bloody. Well, not on SNES. And not even on Sega Genesis unless you put in the blood code. But after that, it was all blood all the time. Which meant a rating of "Mature" by the ESRB. Which is fine when you're looking at the Mortal Kombat universe. But what about when the DC Universe shows up? Well then you have to make it a bit more user friendly. And by user friendly I mean tone down some of the fatalities, including the Joker's.
Kotaku has gotten their hands on the game and are sad to report that one of the more unique fatalities in the game (courtesy of the Joker of course) was eschewed in favor of a "Teen" rating from the ESRB.
"In the latest build, Joker still whips out his prank gun, a "BANG!" flag unfurling. Unfortunately, you won't see the follow up of Joker shooting someone in the face; that actually happens off screen now, the headshot safely out of sight."
So yeah. The Joker, quite possibly one of the best incarnations of pure anarchy and chaos still pulls out the coveted prank gun, but the following massive gunshot wound to the head is implied and not seen. Which means that what Midway was trying to avoid all along in a Mortal Kombat game watered down for more mainstream appeal may actually be happening. Sure, you'll still get plenty of other bloody endings to battles. But what kind of world do we live in if we can't witness the Joker having the last laugh in a gunfire way? Why so serious?
Joker toning it down for teens
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