Video Games That Got The Rare Adults Only Rating

Highlights

• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas received an Adults Only rating due to the inclusion of the removed minigame Hot Coffee, which increased the adult content of the game.
• The Punisher originally had an AO rating for its graphic death scenes, but it was later toned down to an M rating by presenting the violence in black and white.
• Manhunt 2 received an AO rating for its incredibly violent and gory content, but it was later modified to meet the requirements for an M rating, except for the uncut PC version.

Controversy has always blighted the gaming industry. Doom, with its roster of ghastly demons, has been criticized for its violence since the franchise began. Then there’s Mortal Kombat and its grisly Fatalities, which didn’t go down particularly well with some parties either.

Needless to say, these sorts of titles and their violent content tend to be locked behind age ratings, determined by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board similarly to movies. Interestingly, there’s a ranking above Mature (17+), dubbed Adults Only (18+). This highest ranking is given out only in rare, extreme cases; Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo do not allow AO games on their platforms and their sale is heavily restricted. From Hatred to GTA, let’s take a look at some of the few games that earned this most dubious of ratings.

Updated December 30, 2023 by Mark Sammut: Adults Only games are nonexistent in this day and age, with the last project to officially receive one happening in 2018. As an AO score is a death sentence for console games, only PC releases can carry the ESRB label, and these titles do not need a rating to be accepted onto Steam. As such, only games that want to wear the rating as a badge of honor are likely to get it, an act that rarely happens since there is very little to gain from it.

8 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

The Infamous Hot Coffee

Now, this one was all but inevitable. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas earns a mention for a certain piece of content by the name of Hot Coffee. This was a removed minigame that, while not officially playable, could be triggered through mods. This dialed up the already adult content of the game to the limit, and so San Andreas was slapped with the AO rating since Hot Coffee was part of the game’s files rather than just an adult-oriented mod created by fans.

Curiously, though, said rating was rescinded later. Rockstar responded by deleting all traces of Hot Coffee from the title, and, in turn, the game’s rating was revised to Mature. Of all the awful things someone can see and do in a GTA title, it’s interesting to think that it was Hot Coffee in particular that pushed a series entry over the edge.

7 The Punisher

Graphic Death Scenes

Hard as it is to believe, a Marvel game once was stamped with the AO rating; that said, anyone remotely familiar with Frank Castle would probably not be too surprised to learn that he stared in an unapologetically violent game. Now, to be clear, 2004’s The Punisher was later toned down to an M rating, so the version on the market is not the one that was considered too much for consoles.

The developers did not change a great deal to get the game over the line, largely opting to present the death and torture scenes in black and white rather than color. Most of the brutality is still on display for the whole world to see, it just looks like an old Hollywood film now. Although far from a masterpiece, The Punisher is a pretty decent game, and one of the more accurate adaptations of the Marvel character.

6 Manhunt 2 (PC Edition)

Blood-Soaked Murder Spree

As many people know, Manhunt 2 is one of the most controversial video games in history. Created by Rockstar (no strangers to this sort of notoriety), the stealth game is filled to the brim with astonishingly gory and brutal content. Players control Daniel Lamb, a guy who escapes from an Asylum and goes on a rampage that involves graphically executing a plethora of people. The game even features a three-tier murder system, with the violence escalating with each level.

Manhunt 2 is an unusual case, as it was rejigged by the team to meet the standards of a Mature rating (executions were changed to be less graphic and the system that glorified more theatrical assassinations was removed). It was the uncut PC release that pulled no punches and was condemned. While the console iteration earned an M rating, the PC iteration went the extra mile and received an AO score, although the content descriptors of all versions are the same.

5 Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude Uncut And Uncensored

Larry’s Wildest PC Adventure

Leisure Suit Larry has always reveled in debauchery and adolescent humor. Debuting in 1987, the series is known for its sexually-charged humor and penchant for irreverence, and it accumulated a fairly respectable following during the ’90s. Sure, the games were not high art, but they did their jobs well. In 2004, Larry needed a makeover, which came in the form of a 3D adventure called Magna Cum Laude.

Presenting quite a bit of freedom compared to its predecessors, this release drops players on campus and allows them to mingle and take part in minigames. There is not all that much depth here, and the jokes are the definition of immature, but some fun can be had if a player is in the right mindset. As with most multi-platform releases, Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude‘s AO version is only available on PC, with the PS2 and Xbox receiving an edited version. If someone wants to try out the unfiltered Leisure Suit Larry experience, the Uncut and Uncensored! edition is the one players will want to pick up.

4 Hatred

Mass Murder Sim

Most typical games try to avoid getting the AO rating, but Hatred looks like it was specifically designed with that goal in mind. This release is basically Postal without anything resembling a story or much in the way of nuance; it is a murder simulator, a game that unleashes players onto society and tells them to kill everyone.

Unsurprisingly, Hatred garnered a pretty terrible reception upon release, but ultimately that hardly seemed to be the point of the game. This is a title that appeared to want people to be outraged and to react as loudly as possible. More often than not, the AO rating is given out to games that are obviously targeting adults, especially in the form of sexual content; amidst projects like Seduce Me and Wet: The Sexy Empire, Hatred stands out since it shares far more similarities with traditional games that one might find on most store shelves.

3 Agony

An Unapologetically Nasty Trip Hell

Born out of a Kickstarter campaign, Agony drops players in hell and challenges them to make their way to the Queen in pursuit of salvation. Along the way, they will see plenty of horrifying visuals, all the while engaging in first-person gameplay revolving around stealth and possessing other inhabitants of hell.

Agony has a bit of a unique history in relation to the ESRB rating. Initially, the game earned itself an AO score, prompting Madmind Studio to tweak the project so that it could receive an M rating. The latter version is the one found on PC and consoles. However, towards the end of 2018, the studio released Agony Unrated on Steam, a version presumably closer to the one that garnered the infamous AO. Currently, this iteration is not available to purchase.

Agony is not generally considered to be that great, but its spin-off Succubus is vastly better. Although it does not have a profile on ESRB, this side game could probably earn an AO, or at least an M rating.

2 Thrill Kill

Vicious Fighter

One of the earliest games to be given an AO rating for violent content, Thrill Kill, ultimately never saw release at all as a result of its notoriety.

Paradox Development’s fighter revolved around the idea of a group of damned individuals, who had been vicious killers, battling for a chance to be reincarnated by the Goddess Marukka. Thrill Kill promised four players could hop in simultaneously, but bad press ultimately led to the title being canceled. For an idea of how the experience may have been, imagine Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style with demonic characters and some of the most hideously brutal execution moves imaginable, and that’s basically Thrill Kill.

1 Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy Director’s Cut

An AO Version That Might Or Might Not Exist

Now, this is a special case since this rendition of Quantic Dream’s game seems impossible to find in the wild, at least not with this specific subtitle. Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy Director’s Cut does, however, have a dedicated ESRB page, so it was clearly submitted at one point or another. It seems like the Director’s Cut is basically the original game’s European iteration, which included scenes that were cut from the North American version to allow for a Mature rating. It should be noted that ESRB only lists PC as a platform, so if this cut was made public, it was not on consoles.

Therefore, is it impossible to play the uncensored version of Indigo Prophecy? Thankfully, the answer is “no.” In 2015, the game was remastered by Aspyr, and this version of Fahrenheit is based on the international release. Consequently, it is uncut. Funnily enough, the remaster only received an M17+ rating from the ESRB board, despite having nearly the same content descriptors as the Director’s Cut.

Special Mention: Outlast 2

Red Barrels’ Outlast 2 is an intense and uncomfortable horror game that threads into some rather deranged places. As far as ESRB’s site is concerned, the title did not register an AO rating; however, the developer did preemptively remove some content to ensure Outlast 2 landed a Mature score. These scenes were eventually added back to the Steam version, as Valve’s platform is generally more lenient in what projects it accepts. While an Adult Only tag would stop a game from showing up on the PlayStation, Nintendo, or Xbox stores, that is not an issue with Steam.

Even if technically censored, Outlast 2‘s console versions are still horrifying and designed with an older audience in mind. Still, if someone wishes to experience this release without restrictions or omissions, they will need to boot up Steam.

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