Ninja Gaiden 2 rated 18 a first for the series

The BBFC has rated the upcoming release of Ninja Gaiden 2, and have decided to tag the game with an 18 rating. This is the highest rating the series has got since its debut. According to the BBFC the work was passed with no cuts made.

In the past the board chose to give both Ninja Gaiden Black and Ninja Gaiden Sigma a 15 when they rated those games. PEGI also gave the original Xbox title a ‘16′ back in 2004, but they work on a different scale.

So what does this mean for the content of the game then? Well, according to the BBFC it means the game “contains strong, bloody violence,” although I guess that revelation is not news to most. To tell the truth we could not find a header image for this news item that did not have blood!

Conversely, the last three Ninja Gaiden games have all being rated “M” by the ESRB in the US, so this one is likely to follow suit. However, the OFLC in Australia still only rate games up to a maximum of MA15+, which means Ninja Gaiden 2 could very well get banned or heavily edited down under if their board sees the same rise in violence the BBFC did. They previously blocked Ninja Gaiden Black getting a release in the country.