GTA: Chinatown Wars Will Be Adults Only In Japan

@riffleraffle:

16 and up, my friend.

Stavvy

Practically every US M-rated game gets an 18+ rating in Europe.

18+ games are obviously accepted here, as neither Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo has issued statements that they wouldn't allow AO games on their platforms ;)

@domhnall: Careful. I tried that once and blood started shooting out of my eyes.
True story.

Reikson

@Cheater87: When Obama was elected, I can see you saying "We've had other presidents before, why is this news???"

landonkun

@NitroAML: Trying... Trying... Must... read... HARDER!!

@5p.: If Japan is anything like America, I'm guessing the "extremely gory and violent" label was more advertising than anything.

hurpdurp

@astronautcowboy:

Where did I say this is not news?

Mario takes boomers and all is well.

/wink

@bobtheduck: Beg to differ. It's *partial* xenophobia.

(1) Higurashi's violent images are stills, not animated 3D images.
(2) I do suspect there's something about blood and gore which doesn't sit well with the Japanese mainstream. IIRC, the Japanese version of Monster Hunter (PSP) carries a warning label saying that it has "extremely gory and violent" content, but it's really really tame compared to e.g. Fallout 3.
(3) That being said, I wouldn't discount the possibility of xenophobia being involved. This is Japan we're talking about, after all.

@ShadowOdin isn't american:

tl;dr: it's bad if adults touch kids, but it's not so bad if kids touch kids. Ergo games about touching kids should be kids-only.

-_-;;;;;;

@riffleraffle: Technically, they're adults. They just look exactly like 11 year old girls.

hurpdurp

@bobtheduck: sorry, I meant to say Dark Sector got a Z rating.

It's funny how people are all like "Japan's got their priorities straight (this is a crock of shit, and the pedophile games are only PART of this)" but the reality is, foreign games are rated more strongly than native ones...

Case-in-point: Higurashi got a D rating, Dark Sector got an AO... Both for violence, but Higurashi is a bit more violent than Dark Sector... It's pure xenophobia.

@EnigmaNemesis: Drugs are a huge deal here in Japan. Marijuana = Meth = Cocaine in the eyes of the law. And this game has a a drug dealing mini-game. AND it's on the DS. That's why this is news.

astronautcowboy

@jellyfish: It's also funny when the reverse happens.

Just got this at Amazon's Gold Box for 19.98 :P

I rarely ever buy games new, but this game really deserves support. But whatever, it's going to PSP now, where it'll sell a bajillion copies.

cutmaclass

@Koda89: That I can't disagree with. Except those countries where people walk around with no shirt would be african tribes where breasts are not considered sexual by their culture, not because they are more lax about it.

But the US is extremely prude, on a hypocritical manner due to the huge amount or porn and such over there. But you still go bazonkers over a nipple at the superbowl while we over here laugh at those who do.
And those who want to censure statues.
I love the people who want to cover them up.

So it's not hard for us to be more lax when the US has taken it to the extreme.

pedophilia in japan are mostly geeks who fantasize about those kind of wierd thoughts, once satified their desire thru anime/games, they rarely act out molesting child or kidnapps like we have in north america. crime rate is any sort is very low in jp compare to here. that's why this game is not developed by a japanese company, and the series has never been like top3 in japan.

jellyfish

@Brav1:
It means the game does not cater to kids and thus make it awesome. Period.

That's all you need to know.

rp0

@ShadowOdin isn't american: But the point still remains that Europe and the rest of the world is more lax about sexuality. There are some countries where the natives walk around with everything in the open.

America was founded by prudes, as a result, some prudish ideals have trickled down into American society, namely naked boobs = bad, exploding heads = good.

@Cheater87:
Funny lots of ppl can type but can't read.

jellyfish

@EnigmaNemesis: I am not sure either. Mostly because I didn't get his point.

Translate, Old Man Enigma!

Put simply, maybe GTA is not such a great game. There is so much more to do on a DS than bump your way through an essentially empty labyrinth, unwillingly killing people, being punished because vehicles handle like soapy hams on retarded wheels. Plus "pigeonning" (going here and there and back and again) is annoying enough when it's real life... Well not liking GTA is one reason not to buy it at least.

Jean-François L'Her

@Koda89: Yeah I saw that commercial. Sorry to burst your bubble, but those are really exceptions. And they are very few. Not common at all.

@mwoody:

I ... I dont know what to say to that!

I guess that makes sense. If you're going to keep kids from playing something, a game where you sell drugs to make tremendous amounts of money really quickly would be pretty much the top of the bad list.

And for those who point out other creepy touch-based ecchi games on the DS without a Z-rating: Japanese games about sex are usually about sex with kids, so making those adults-only just promotes pedophilia. Won't someone not think of the children?

mwoody

@Ryūkot: Well I image if they had dragonballs then they'd have already wished for the game to sell well

@riffleraffle: Let's get it straight. I think that regardless of either title's unimplyed mission statement, neither type of game "advocates" actual crime. But if you think that offing people in a criminal underworld while you rake in the dough doing the same criminal acts in a real world is somehow less morally reprehensible than a "touching" game, then yeah, I do think that's twisted.

They're on equal footing, and it's time for those of us that like violent games to stick up for those that like sexualized games otherwise we won't have any of the former before too long.

Don't make me get all Niemoller on you.

@Koda89: i think its just because parents know their kids aren't gunna jerk it to Rambo, but if theres porn on the tele, very good chance they're gunna walk in on that. and no one ever wants to walk in on that. ever.

pandafresh

@Phydeaux: If by priority's straight you mean the acceptance of games in which your goal is to feel up 11 year olds using the stylus as opposed to a violent, darkly comic mob story, then wellp, color me twisted.

@Hindesite: if anything, it might do worse.

pandafresh

@ShadowOdin isn't american: Hey someone got the film reference I was making.

But in all seriousness, Europe does have a lot of naked ads. One of the Juice games, either Juice or Juice 2 has an advert in Europe that has a pair of guys playing the game and they are customizing a car and they notice whatever they do to the car, it happens to a hot lady near by, such as changing the color of the car changes the color of her clothes. Anyways, the ad ends with her being topless.

@riffleraffle:

Sex ed.

WorfoSAUR

@Brav1: The "Z" rating is just Japan's way of giving out an 18 certification (if you live in the UK you should be familiar with this)

if not..

Japan's Z rating is similar to the American "AO" rating where only persons over the age of 18 can purchase it but unlike in the US the game can still go on sale, it just cannot be displayed on store shelf's I believe

@EnigmaNemesis: GTA 4 wasn't AO, was it? This can't be much worse than that . . . maybe it's so people won't be fooled by it's "younger audience-looking" cell shading? I really don't understand the rationale here.

bangbangblah

A "Z" rating for as awesome as watching and owning some Dragonballz

@Koda89: The movie Eurotrip =/= actual image of Europe.

You'll find that the very american "Naked News" are the only newscasters that strip.

Don't think everything you hear. Whenever there's something like that it's only played for comedic effect, like in this add [www.iqads.ro]

Well,such games quickly (and usually) get an adults only rating in Germany so this news itself isn´t that exciting or surprising to me. What´s more interesting to me is thinking about whether after the psp port the psp version gets ported over to the ps2 (as was the case with the other gtas´psp versions before). That could be kinda nice.

@(Zombie) Goldwings:

I hear ya.

Im gonna take a guess and say they're doing this because they dont want the little kids learning how to do be drug dealers

So many little Japanese kids will be Disappointed

@[i7.photobucket.com]

@Brav1: he has a strong German accent and meant "the rating"

@Uhyve: That is how most of the world is. Go to Eastern Europe and you can see ads on TV that have naked women pouring orange juice. Plus let's not forget a few European countries have those newscasters that regularly strip to their birthday suits while delivering the news.

America is one of the few countries where violence is ok, but sex is bad.

Then again, America is weird like that. We are also one of the few nations that doesn't use the Metric System as our official measurements system.

Wasn't it rated 18+ everywhere else?

@Brav1: In many dialects of English, the letter's name is zed, pronounced /zɛd/, reflecting its derivation from the Greek zeta (see below). In American English, its name is zee /ziː/, deriving from a late 17th-century English dialectal form.[1] Another English dialectal form is izzard /ˈɪzərd/, which dates from the mid-18th century and probably derives from the French et zède "and z".[2] In Canadian English, zed is the more common name; zee is not unknown, but it is often stigmatized.[3]
Other Indo-European languages pronounce the letter's name in a similar fashion, such as zet in Dutch, German, Romanian and Czech, zède in French, zæt in Danish, zäta in Swedish, zeta in Italian and in Spanish dialects with seseo, and zê in Portuguese.
In Chinese (Mandarin) pinyin the name of the letter Z is pronounced [tsÉ›], although the English zed and zee have become very common.

Or

It means "for adults only" in Japan.

@riffleraffle: Because the Japanese seem to have their priorities straight in the war of Sex vs. Violence?

@anyone else: It has to do with the platform, aka the DS(i). Unlike your tentacle games for the PC and whatnot, you have to look at the basic targeted, demograph of who the DS(i) audience is.

What do you mean by "Z" rating?

Brav1

@Uhyve:

Because the Japanese dont make violent games?

Can't say I'm surprised, but I also can't say I'm not.

Raspberyl's Lover

@EnigmaNemesis: Yeah, weird, they must think that violence is... worse than sexual themes and adult language...

Uhyve

@Trygle12 is FREE!... and waiting for Disgaea 2: Probably not. The Japanese love the DS. :D

Well, actually yeah... with a Z rating it will probably bomb there too, honestly. XD

@EnigmaNemesis: From what I am told they are a bit more worried about violence and crime than they are about tentacle's running amok in the city.

Unless of course GTA somehow manages to incorporate tentacles into it's gameplay.

Then that will be on the floor of the DIET.

@Cheater87: It is the FIRST DS GAME RATED "Z."

Careful where you flaunt that "why is this news?" line. It can get you banned here.

What about all of those super creepy pedo titty feelup stylus games?

@Cheater87: "But no other DS game has managed to secure that behind-the-counter letter rating."

Read harder.

This is a bit odd considering what some other games they have there that dont get that rating.

Every other GTA game has been Z rated so far why is this news???

Cheater87

Should we expect the same dismally low sales over there as well?