Your mother wouldn’t like ‘em

Video games are an encroaching evil, preying on the impressionable minds of today’s youth, right? Certainly there are plenty of mature-rated games out there for those grown-up enough to distinguish fiction from reality. Nevertheless such software has a habit of finding its way into the hands of precisely the wrong consumers. Parents be wary, then, if little Johnny comes home with any of the following 18-rated titles:

Madworld
Don’t let the cartoony black and white visuals fool you, since the monochrome in Sega’s savage brawler soon gives way to oceans of livid claret. ‘Extreme  violence’ is promised and Madworld truly over-delivers as heads are split with chainsaws, still-beating hearts are torn from chests and bad guys are impaled upon whatever happens to be lying around. All this is on the Wii, remember.
 
Resident Evil 5
Next-gen horror par excellence, and a pleasingly action-oriented step in the right direction for the fifth game in this popular series. The increased pace, two-player co-op gameplay and unrelenting ultraviolence will find much favour with the series’ many fans. It’s kill or be killed in unprecedented levels of realism, but the game’s African setting - with all the native-eviscerating opportunities presented therein - has proved to be a controversial choice. And that’s saying the very least.

Chinatown Wars
Chinatown Wars sit rather incongruously alongside the cute and cuddlesome likes of Nintendogs, Pokemon and My Pet Shop on Nintendo's DS handheld. Bad language, violence, drug dealing and wanton criminality are in order in this tale of vengeance and corruption among the Triad gangs of Liberty City. It’s a fitting and fully-fledged extension to the Grand Theft Auto series but this 18-rated game is most definitely not for kids.

Silent Hill: Homecoming
Alex Shepherd returns to his home town to investigate the disappearance of his brother and father. Alas, his trail leads to the fog-bound settlement of Silent Hill, a town whose populace seems to consist of mutant nurses and other monstrosities that lurch out of the murk when you least expect. Deadly puzzles, a compelling storyline and an enhanced combat system propel the gameplay. The creeping sense of horror will have you waking up in the wee hours, screaming.

Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop
Freelance journalist Frank Williams is trapped in a shopping mall that’s veritably overflowing with flesh-eating zombies. Cue a not especially serious romp, where the Wii Remote is used to chop, blast, saw, bludgeon and even golf Frank’s way through wave after unrelenting wave of the blighters in a bid to escape. Dumb but shlocky fun pretty much sums it up, and the ability to use whatever comes to hand as a weapon should provide much amusement for a mature audience willing to take a pinch of salt with their gaming.

So that’s just a fistful of titles aimed at adult consumers, but all with an appeal that younger gamers might find difficult to resist. TV’s Dr. Tanya Byron is consulting with the government and ratings bodies to ensure that such games don’t fall into the hands of children. The current movie-style ratings system should, in theory, suffice as long as it’s properly policed by parents and responsible retailers. So how is it that kids still manage to get hold of stuff they shouldn't play?

Is it that no rating system can ever really prevent such things from happening, or does the proliferation of horror/violent games say more about a moral decline in our society? Is the whole thing a storm in a teacup and easy currency for attention-seeking politicians? And should Nintendo’s supposedly family-friendly consoles really be a home to such products. Discuss…