Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II
Aksys Games-
Nintendo Switch - 15/02/2024
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PlayStation 5 - 15/02/2024
Advice for consumers
This game has received a PEGI 16 because it features gory images and use of strong language. Not suitable for persons under 16 years of age.
Brief outline of the game
Horror visual novel adventure game, set in a suburb of H City in Tokyo, in which Kazuo Yashiki is hired to investigate supernatural occurrences at Konoehara Academy
Content specific issues
This game features still images showing human characters that have been mutilated or subject to bizarre rituals. There is also use of strong language ('fuck'), as well as milder terms including 'piss' and 'shit'.
Other issues
The game also includes some implied violence against the player's character, although the violence is not visually depicted due to the first-person perspective. There are references to bullying behaviour, including a student being made to place a hose around her neck and stand on a bucket, which is shown using still images, with an implication she was hanged.
Goku’s Next Journey
Bandai Namco Europe S.A.S.-
PlayStation 4 - 19/02/2024
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PlayStation 5 - 21/02/2024
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Xbox One - 20/02/2024
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Xbox Series X|S - 21/02/2024
Advice for consumers
This game has received a PEGI 12 because it features moderate violence and use of bad language. Not suitable for persons under 12 years of age.
Brief outline of the game
DLC for the action fighting game, 'Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot', in which the characters reunite after 10 years, with a new storyline, characters, battles and areas added.
Content specific issues
This game contains depictions of moderate, but non-realistic, violence towards both human and fantasy characters. Players throw punches and kicks, as well as using special abilities and energy blasts to defeat each other. Characters recoil from each blow, with a reduction in health, but return to their fighting stance almost immediately with little to no injury detail. Characters also fall to the ground when defeated. The game also contains use of bad language, including 'shit', 'bastard' and 'piss'.
Planet Cube: Edge
Red Art Games-
PlayStation 5 - 26/04/2024
Advice for consumers
This game has received a PEGI 7 because it features mild violence that lacks any apparent harm or injury to fantasy or mythical beings and creatures. Not suitable for persons under 7 years of age.
Brief outline of the game
Precision platform game with a retro pixel-art style in which players control a cube-shaped character called Edge, whose planet is invaded. Edge must make its way through multiple enemy and obstacle filled levels by running, jumping, shooting and dashing.
Content specific issues
Levels are filled with intentional hazards such as saw blades, laser beams and spikes. When hit, the player's character bursts into pixels and quickly respawns at a checkpoint. Enemies include bats and robots as well as giant mechanical bosses. These flash when hit and simply disappear when defeated. Violence is mild and unrealistic but frequent.
Pacific Drive
Maximum Entertainment Ireland LTD-
PlayStation 5 - 09/04/2024
Advice for consumers
This game has received a PEGI 12 because it features use of bad language. Not suitable for persons under 12 years of age.
Brief outline of the game
Driving survival adventure game, set in an alternative version of 90s America, in which players face supernatural dangers in the unstable 'Olympic Exclusion Zone'. Players make an abandoned garage their base of operations, where you research new parts, customize your station wagon, and chart routes deeper into the Zone.
Content specific issues
This game contains use of bad language, including 'shit', 'goddamn' and 'screw you'.
Other issues
The game also features implied violence against the player's character, who can be harmed by radiation, shockwaves, and storms, as well by crashing their car. The game has a generally dark and unsettling atmosphere as the player must avoid and outrun storms and alien creatures.
High On Life
Squanch Games, Inc.-
Xbox Series X|S - 06/02/2024
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PlayStation 5 - 06/02/2024
Advice for consumers
This game has received a PEGI 18 which restricts availability to ADULTS ONLY and is not suitable for persons under 18 years of age. This rating has been given because it features graphic violence, violence against vulnerable and defenceless characters, sexual threat, and use of strong and discriminatory language.
Brief outline of the game
Comic first-person shooter game, in which an alien cartel invades Earth with the intention of turning humans into recreational drugs. Players take on the role of a human who teams up with an alien to counter the threat, including by rescuing and using living alien weapons.
Content specific issues
This game features the ability to view five horror feature films in full. These films include scenes of graphic violence, including sight of decapitation and dismemberment, and violence against vulnerable and defenceless people, including restrained people’s throats being cut. There are also scenes of sexual threat, including a man undressing a sleeping woman and climbing on top of her. The game itself features scenes of graphic violence towards fantasy characters, including sight of aliens being stabbed and shot, the latter of which may result in decapitation. There is also a sequence in which an alien is encountered that has been bisected but which is still alive, with visible entrails coming from its torso. There is additional gory detail when human corpses are seen, both in the game and in the feature films. Because of the first-person nature of the game, violence against the player’s human character is only implied. Both the game itself and the feature films include use of strong language (‘fuck’, ‘cocksucking’), as well as milder terms. The feature films also include some use of discriminatory terms (‘faggot’, ‘homo’).
Other issues
The game also includes sight of drug misuse, such as a powder being snorted, and both the game and the films include visual and verbal sex references. The feature films include scenes of sexual activity, sometimes with breast and buttock nudity, as well as other sexualised nudity. One of the feature films features a scene of suicide, while others feature visual and verbal references to suicide.
Hubris
Perpetual - Europe-
PlayStation 5 - 23/02/2024
Advice for consumers
This game has received a PEGI 12 because it features moderate violence. Not suitable for persons under 12 years of age.
Brief outline of the game
VR action-adventure shooter in which players control an employee of the OOO Corporation who must complete an intergalactic mission, accompanied by a crewmate, while defending yourself from aliens and a hostile corporation.
Content specific issues
This game features non-realistic violence towards human characters using fantastical weapons. When hit, these characters make grunting noises and then evaporate into purple particles. When alien characters are hit, they explode and disappear, leaving behind only a trace of green blood-like stains.
A Space for the Unbound
Tesura Games-
Nintendo Switch - 26/01/2024
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PlayStation 4 - 26/01/2024
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PlayStation 5 - 26/01/2024
Advice for consumers
This game has received a PEGI 16 because it features prominent use of tobacco. Not suitable for persons under 16 years of age.
Brief outline of the game
Point-and-click adventure game, set in rural Indonesia in the late 1990s, in which a high school boy develops a relationship with a girl with supernatural powers.
Content specific issues
Part of the gameplay involves a high school student obtaining tobacco products for another student, in order to trade for an item to progress the storyline. Once traded, the other student is then depicted smoking. Later scenes also shown other students and adults smoking.
Other issues
The plot touches on a range of sensitive issues, including depression, anxiety, bullying, domestic abuse and attempted suicide. However, the focus in on overcoming these issues. Violence is generally only implied, with characters taking up fighting postures and making gestures towards each other without making clear physical contact. Any implied contact is covered by flash effects. There is a reference to a cat being accidentally run over, although this is not shown. The cat's body can be seen lying on the road after the event. Dialogue includes use of bad language, including 'prick', 'bitch', 'shit', 'bastard', 'screw' and 'ass'. There are references to alcohol.
Rise of the Ronin
Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe-
PlayStation 5 - 22/03/2024
Advice for consumers
This game has received a PEGI 18 which restricts availability to ADULTS ONLY and is not suitable for persons under 18 years of age. This rating has been given because it features graphic violence, violence against vulnerable and defenceless characters, and encouragement of gambling.
Brief outline of the game
Role-playing game, set in 1850s Japan, in which players create either male or female Ronin protagonists. Players choose who they ally with and forge bonds with various characters as they take part in several key battles and historical events.
Content specific issues
This game contains depictions of graphic violence towards human characters. When characters are hit, they can be dismembered or decapitated, with high levels of blood. The game also allows players to visit gambling dens where they can play the game Odds and Evens, making bets on their choices by purchasing tokens with an in-game currency. Tokens you have won can then be exchanged for prizes.
Other issues
This game contains depictions of suicide and references to suicide.
Disney Dreamlight Valley: A Rift in Time
Gameloft S.A.-
Nintendo Switch - 05/12/2023
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PC - 05/12/2023
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PlayStation 4 - 05/12/2023
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PlayStation 5 - 05/12/2023
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Xbox One - 05/12/2023
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Xbox Series X|S - 05/12/2023
Advice for consumers
This game has received a PEGI 3. Suitable for all ages.
Brief outline of the game
Expansion for 'Disney Dreamlight Valley' in which players can explore a new map, meet new characters, and use new tools.
Content specific issues
No rating issues.
Other issues
Players are able to purchase an in-game currency, with which they can buy various cosmetic items.
SOUTH PARK: SNOW DAY!
THQ Nordic-
PC - 26/03/2024
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PlayStation 5 - 26/03/2024
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Xbox Series X|S - 26/03/2024
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Nintendo Switch - 26/03/2024
Advice for consumers
This game has received a PEGI 16 because it features use of strong language. Not suitable for persons under 16 years of age.
Brief outline of the game
Comedy adventure game in which players join with up to three friends, in a four player co-op, and battle their way through the snow-piled town of South Park on a quest to save the world and enjoy a day without school.
Content specific issues
Dialogue includes frequent use of strong language ('fuck'), as well as milder terms, including 'shit', 'pussy', 'asshole', 'bastard', 'bitch', 'piss' and 'dick'. There is also use of discriminatory terms, including the word 'gaylord' and a slogan on a T-shirt which says "Pray the gay away”.
Other issues
The game also features scenes of moderate violence. Physical reactions are unrealistic, with flashing effects on impacts and damage indicated using numbers. Once a character's life meter is exhausted, they lie on the ground. There is no sight of wounds, although some blood is shown. Cinematic scenes include sight of townspeople who have frozen to death, although the images are in the usual simple animated style of South Park. The game also includes some verbal sexual references, non-sexual nudity, and references to alcohol and drugs.