ShareThis
Oh, how we love the ESRB, PEGI, and Australia’s fascist protectors of their nation’s decency. Not only do you try to keep customers informed about the content of games so they know what is appropriate, but sometimes you also give games journalists a heads up about upcoming releases. Publishers generally don’t submit things to be rated until they know they will be releasing them, so whenever a new rating comes out, you might as well consider it a tacit announcement.
First up, from Australia, we have a rating for Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures which was released back in 1994 for Sega Genesis and SNES. While you might expect a game called Pac-Man 2 to be like the original game, or maybe even a platformer like many other Pac-Man games from over the years, you’d be wrong. Pac-Man 2 actually has a lot more in common with a point-and-click adventure game that has you interacting with the environment rather than controlling Pac-Man himself. The game’s reception was mixed to decent, with praise going to the game’s bright, cartoonish visuals, but while the gameplay was frequently innovative, some parts were more frustrating or annoying.
On the newer side of things, there is also Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, which has been rated E for Everyone by the ESRB for Wii U. Friends of Mineral Town was originally released on Game Boy Advance in 2004 to positive reviews. In terms of gameplay, Friends of Mineral Town is very much a traditional Harvest Moon title; your main character takes over a run down farm and has to return it to its former glory while exploring the surrounding world and befriending the local townsfolk, possibly even finding a spouse in the process. Later entries have added more layers of complexity onto the formula, but Friends of Mineral Town still remains one of the best reviewed titles in the franchise and still has plenty of admirers among the fan base.
The fact these games are rated means we’ll be seeing them on Wii U’s Virtual Console at some point, we just don’t know when. So, be sure to remain on the lookout for when they will be hitting virtual shelves near you.
