The Revolution Will Be Kid-Friendly

Not that there was any doubt it would be, but it's nice to see that Nintendo is keen to give parents a hand when it comes to restricting access to what their children play.

The recent uproar over hidden sexual content in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has brought game age ratings into focus again. To show that it only has parents' best interests in mind, Nintendo has revealed a new age restriction system that will be included with the Revolution.

All Revolution games will come with an age rating coded into them. The console will recognize this rating and, if a parent has set it up to disallow games of a certain rating, it will stop kids from getting access to things they shouldn't be playing.

"Even though most Nintendo games are appropriate for all ages and the game ratings are clearly displayed on the front of every game package, this added feature encourages parents to take responsibility for the games their children play," Nintendo's Jim Merrick said of the new system.

It's worth noting that this age restriction system is not only going to be applied to Revolution games.

Sources at Nintendo confirmed to Kikizo that the company will retrofit the age-limitation code into all its own NES, SNES and Nintendo 64 games, which will be available via download for play on the Revolution's so-called Virtual Console.

Since Revolution will also play GameCube games, which were pressed before this technology was developed, the age restriction system will not work with Game Cube games.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games