Video games, either pre-ESRB or E-rated, that made you go "WTF?"

[WelcomeToTheNextLevel]

Many of today's video games are meant for adults. Go into any GameStop and many of the games lining the shelves are M-rated. A majority are at least T-rated. But in the past, especially in the NES-era and earlier, video games were primarily targeted at children. Obviously, many of today's T and M rated games will have WTF moments in them. Some games were targeted at adults back then, like the Atari porn games (and games with obvious pornographic themes) and Night Trap, so those don't count. I am looking for video games that had mass-market appeal to an all-ages audience.

What games, either pre-ESRB or E-rated, have moments that made you think "WTF?"

My answer is Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars. This came out on Master System in 1988, and was an Alex Kidd game - this was supposed to be Sega's answer to Mario. Some of the Alex Kidd games were good. I think that Miracle World, for instance, is a better game than Super Mario Bros. 1. (3 is a totally different story, that game kicked Alex Kidd's ass). But Lost Stars was a very WTF experience all around. From the psychedelic colors that looked like a hippy's dream to the section inside a monster's body, it was an oddity all around. Then there was the rocker that was naked and shitting blue things... Don't believe me? Look at this video, around 4:52 in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU226PphCxk

WHAT THE FUCK?

[celerystalker]

There's always the obvious stuff like Toilet Kids or the mighty and ultra manly Choaniki games, but I can think of a few other goofballs.

Rising Zan on PS1 was... not a spaghetti western, but maybe a sushi western? Oh, and he was Super Ultra Sexy. Goa goa goa.

JJ and Jeff on Turbografx, especially the PCE Kato and Ken version, had all kinds of farting, urination, and poop in it.

Monster Party has become somewhat notorious these days for its dark imagery and ill-behaved bosses.

Cyber Lip on Neo Geo... the first boss has a face coming off of basically a giant dick protruding from a giant melty corpse.

Enemy Zero had some nudity in a time when that sort of thing didn't happen here.

If I recall, the Saturn version of D somehow got a Teen rating.

I'm sure more will spring to mind.

[sfchakan]

Ring King. Infamous ring-side support!

[WelcomeToTheNextLevel]

Cho Aniki actually came out the same exact day I was born. Yes, I know my profile says Dec. 3, 1992, but I was 15 back then and embarrassed of being born on Christmas. My real birthday is December 25, 1992 . The first Cho Aniki came out for the PC Engine Super CD-ROM 2 on that exact day. Keep in mind that in Japan Christmas is not a major holiday like it is in the Western world.

I've never played Cho Aniki. I don't have any real interest in playing it. It looks like a generic shooter. I could play a similar game without it having any ribaldness. But maybe I should track down a copy and get it... even though I don't have a PC Engine Super CD-ROM 2. I don't even have a PC Engine, but I do have a Turbo Grafx 16.

[Tanooki]

I didn't play this one until after 1995 when I bought it used, but it is an NES game in the good days of no ESRB, Golgo-13. Given what Nintendo did for censorship I'm surprised it passed. You have a flight sequence dodging some stuff and blowing it up to approach the top of a tower from a distance. You pull out a rifle, line up and take a shot and bam red splat off the head as the body silhouette drops. In the game also you have him in shadow during a between the acts type scene bed a woman. Censored but not on the Famicom 'Cherry' an operative around the Brandenburg Gate in a hotel talks about how it's such a good night not to waste going to a place, and she leans into you, cuts to silhouette from a distance outside window shot of her starting to get it on with Golgo-13 (in Famicom, she strips naked to be seen in the room during the scene which is removed.)

I still can't figure out how uptight NOA was how that one ever got sold or not had that stuff hacked out of it.

It's cartoon comical, but I do believe the sauna in the NES version of River City Ransom has some bare ass bath time in it.

[BlastProcessing402]

To me the biggest WTF of this sort was in the manual for Kid Icarus, where the Syren enemy was drawn topless with the nipples quite visible. Yes, the boobs were blue, but still, how'd NOA let that nip slip past?

Speaking of WTF in manuals, that whole description of Birdo in the SMB2 manual was pretty weird as well.

[SparTonberry]

I think Link is fighting Jabu-Jabu's three penises in Ocarina of Time. That was what I saw the first time I played the game and I can't unsee it.

[celerystalker]

Ring King. Infamous ring-side support!

Yes! All time classic.

A couple more- the infamous code for the NES Metal Gear, "FUCKY OURMO MMAAN DYOUR DADDY" and NES Volleyball, where I swear they are just pelvic thrusting. It looks like they are humping the ball before service. Pulirula from Taito on arcade and Saturn... just... the whole game.

[sfchakan]

I've just read that referred to as Arcade Gears before. Definitely a quirky game.

Panic! or Switch belongs here in spirit with some of it's peers but it was rated by ESRB as Teen.

[celerystalker]

Arcade Gears was intended to be a line of Arcade to console ports, and Pulirula was an early entry. It's pretty awesome.

I remember being shocked at the scene in Panic! where nude breasts start popping out of you all over the place. That game is nuts.

Medusa's naked top in Super Castlevania IV surprised me, too.