Nintendo Is Launching An 18+ N64 Switch Online App In Japan

Huh........this how we're gonna get Conker and Resident Evil 2 64 perhaps?

I don't care what anyone says, the fact that they're willing to make a dedicated 18+ app confirms that Conker's Bad Fur Day is coming. Eventually.

@gamerswereamistake Winback is already on the service. Hybrid Heave isn't, though. But it was rated T, so it doesn't need a new M-rated tier to be on NSO.

@Dyna-Z I think I may just soil myself if that ever gets announced

Glad they figured out a way to keep Japanese gamers from missing out.

Let see…GoldenEye, Jetforce Gemini, Perfect Dark, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, Resident Evil 2, Daikatana, Turok 1, 2, 3 (although they already have proper releases on the eShop),

Jet Force Gemini is considered 18+ in Japan? Really? ...It's no worse than Metroid, though, is it not? Well I guess it has actual bullets and not lasers. Maybe that's the difference?

@EarthboundBenjy : It has the equivalent of a ESRB T rating in Western markets.

Cool, I guess? Wake me up when (and if) Conker's Bad Fur Day makes rt to NSO/N64 in the US.

@Dyna-Z : Funnily enough, Conker was given a mere M rating in Australia, which is the equivalent of a ESRB T or PEGI 12 rating, citing violence and sexual references. "Coarse language" wasn't even flagged because there were no uncensored F words in the game (and our M rating allows for an abundance of them before being bumped to an MA15+).

Conkers Bad Fur Day CONKERS BAD FUR DAY CMON CMON CMON

You take a day off work, do a little grocery shopping, buy a few candles; Come home, prepare dinner, then get yourself all fancied up. Oh yeah, this evening is going to be one to remember.

After a candlelight dinner, it's time to head into the bedroom. Get undressed, turn off lights, hop in bed, and fire up some Goldeneye 64.

It's going to be a long night.

The general handling of these apps, from a parental lock point-of-view, has been a complete mess as ALL games, irrespective of the level of their content, are crammed into a single piece of software.

What's worse though is that the Australian parental controls are an absolute mess as they only allow you to choose an age limit as opposed to restricting games by classification category (like the 3DS/Wii U). Age limits might be useful for imports, but for games classified for Australian audiences, it's utterly pointless as we have no less than three classification categories that are "not recommended for under 15s", even though only one of those three are legally restricted (G, PG, and M ratings are merely advisory and anybody can legally buy/rent/watch them).

Such an app wouldn't be useful for Australia anyway as the only MA15+ rated N64 games that come to mind are DOOM 64 (which was since dropped to M for its recent port), and Goldeneye 007, which, if re-rated today, would receive no higher than an M rating anyway.

I don't think this is necessary. Not sure why they can't just age-restrict individual games within the NSO app. I like seeing all the icons together in one place, not having 2 separate apps.

@Not_Soos On Switch (and the other consoles) the age rating is per application (aka game). The NSO apps are all single apps containing the roms like @RupeeClock said. And then you have 2 choices, make the entire app 18+ or release a separate one for 18+ games.

Instead of doing this they could had just apply the parental setting from the Switch owner so that whenever someone under the age of 18 try to access the games that they must enter a PIN, why they didn't do this and only choose to separate the app is just going to confuse some people.

@Serpenterror Apps don't work like that. Ratings are static. Even if they did what some games did and made a DLC that adds 18 + content, that would make the application 18+, which would especially affect families using the parental controls.
Ratings are static. Rating boards aren't going to give multiple ratings to something when they could easily change the settings themselves.

Nintendo 64

(Whispers)

After Dark

Now do Resident Evil 2!

Funny enough I was just thinking the other day that they should do this. Might open the way to stuff like Conker and Resident Evil.

Might also open the door to doing a standalone Pokemon app at some point to get around Gamefreak's weird obsessive need to keep people from backing up their files like it'd actually meaningfully impact anything.

@Lizuka

I wouldn't mind a separate Pokémon app that disabled save states if they make it compatible with Pokémon Home, now that the 3DS Virtual Console is dead. That'd actually be pretty cool.

I feel like this bodes well for the likes of perfect dark and conker. Parental controls are a lot easier if any higher rated games are scooped up in their own app.

I also had no idea guns were such a controlled subject matter in Japan. Perhaps that's why lasers or swords are used as weapons more often in Japanese games?

I like how Jet Force Gemini is called Star Twins in Japan

If Conker and Perfect Dark appears on this in Japan, that would mean Rareware has an entire Switch app dedicated to them!

Hopefully nobody is willing to pay extra for this service so we can get a mini N64.

here's hoping it leads to a release of Conker's Bad Fur Day

For everyone saying why they don't just add these games to the NSO app they already have.

In such cases, at least in Japan, CERO (the organization that rates games in Japan) would probably request Nintendo to have the app re-rated, most likely taking it down during the process. Right now the CERO rating of the N64 app is C (15 and up, sorta like Mexico's B15).
So to avoid the case of people not having access to the N64 games already available they're doing the 18+ app, as redundant as it may sound in hindsight.

I'm guessing the same would've happened in other territories and with other console apps as well.

At least this ensures that Perfect Dark and Conker's Bad Fur Day do have a chance of being on Switch eventually

Both there games are Z rated so no shock Nintendo is putting them in an age gated launcher. At the time, you could only buy these games in 18+ sections and they required the vendor to ask for ID.

This is perhaps the silliest part of game ratings ... they don't update over time. This happens in Australia as well, were a game will have an 18+ rating based on sensibilities when the came out, even though you can buy much more violent games today at lower ratings.

And in the US it's fun to note that when you look at the games that were so insanely awful, so much of a threat to society as a whole that they required millions to be spent on a congressional hearing that ended up in the founding of the ESRB ...

All of them have seen rereleases that were rated T for Teen.

@SpeedRunRocks I assume you meant Perfect Dark, otherwise I might have completely misunderstood the "After Dark" there

It would be interesting if this soft confirmed Conker's Bad Fur Day as there can't be THAT many N64 games that would call for a high age rating.

18+? Samus and zelda onlyfans.

I wonder if AO is the actual equivalent of the CERO Z rating in the ESRB rather than Mature, like some have said.

If this is what it takes to get Conker's Bad Fur Day so be it.
I do find it odd that Jet Force Gemini gets this treatment though, Goldeneye I understand but why JFG? Maybe I have to double check because its been so long but I don't recall it being a very particular 'explicit' game.

If this ever comes to the west, then we could finally get a port of one of my favourite childhood games, Conker's Bad Fur Day! I know, that shouldn't be a game I enjoyed as a kid LOL. Besides that, I can't think of any games from the N64 rated over 18. Maybe one of the old South Park games.

Killer Instinct Gold PLEASE.

@kalosn

More or less.

Z is the only "official" rating. A, B, C and D ratings are often included by the publisher as a guidelines to help people make smarter buying decisions, and were pretty subjective. It's not like the ESRB where 100% of games are subject to a full review ... or at least wasn't until the industry changed to the much more import / export focused beast it is today.

Outside of sex, Z mans the games runs afoul of Japan's laws against depictions of violence, and in almost all cases it's the specific law "NO NUCULAR WEAPONS". For some reason they are really sensitive about that.

So you end up with a system where "Mortal Kombat" for the Mega Drive, blood and all, got a D or even a C rating and wasn't regulated in any way, but Golden Eye could not be displayed in a public area and you had to show ID to buy it.

The big difference is that stores that sell Z games generally make further distention between Z for sexual content. You'll often see one section that is "marked off" for violent Z games in stores that do not sell any sex games (or now-a-days they will just be in boxes with the name of the game and a sticker saying it requires ID to buy right beside normal titles). You can generally only get Z for sex games in stores that primarily sell porn, or in an area completely closed off by a divider.

@Coolmusic @EarthboundBenjy @AJWolfTill

if I remember correctly, the plot to smash a asteroid into earth ran afoul of "no nuclear weapons", because the way that clause was worded meant that any depictions of indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction would earn you a Z rating.

Same with Golden Eye, btw. It has nothing to do with shooting all them people in the head. That's fine! Teach that to children! Kids LOVE murder. It's the fact that there are nukes in the game.

@RupeeClock

Japan has strict WEAPON laws, period. The law banning guns is literally the "Firearm and Sword Possession Control Law". But one of the big culture shocks you'll get after spending time in Japan is that they do not equate depictions of something to being equivent to that thing ... so making a movie or game where you have a sword or a gun isn't a big deal.

@EarthboundBenjy

There is a game mechanic around collecting heads you can shoot off. Certain guns cause enemies to ... rupture/detonate?
You can do this to certain allied NPC characters as well. Some of the boss fights use dismemberment as a mechanic as well.

It would't explain an 18 rating by modern standards but it is more gory than Metroid for sure.

@Neilson98 I don't see Netflix having a separate app for R-rated movies. Maybe Nintendo should start sorting these games by ratings.

@Serpenterror

Netflix Service

4.1. You must be at least 18 years of age, or the age of majority in your province, territory or country, to become a member of the Netflix service. Minors may only use the service under the supervision of an adult.

Nintendo TOS in the US
1. Eligibility.

The Services may not be used by anyone under the age of 18 without the supervision of a parent or legal guardian who agrees to be bound by these Terms. You represent and warrant that you are at least 18 years of age (or the age of legal majority under applicable law), or, if not, that you have reviewed these Terms with your parent or legal guardian and that he or she has agreed to be bound by these Terms.

However, in Japan, you can sign up for an use NSO if you are 13 (although you have to be 18 for automatic renewal).

So, what is unique about NSO in Japan is that the terms of service allow people from 13-17 to sign up for, pay for, and use the service without audit supervision ... but they need to be blocked from seeing Z rated games.

Parental controls obviously don't work here because you can have a 13 year old using an account that is not in any way connected to a "parent" or adult account. Instead, they use restrictions on the e-shop to lock out apps that require you have an age verified account.

Nintendo has no horse in this race. They used to make porn and own love hotels. There is no "moral" issue here, they are just doing exactly what is required by law.

Why not hide certain games with the parental control feature instead of making a whole seperate app?

Maybe Shadow Man?

If not, Conker's Bad Fur Day could be cool, it's the best N64 game.

I wonder if it will need a registered credit card as well. I had PS+ for a Japanese PSN profile and while I could get many games through the service, any Z-rated games required a registered credit card on that PSN account. The logic being that only adults can get credit cards. I’m not against proper ratings and these sorts of efforts, but it was bizarre to me to be unable to access a game in a subscription library for a subscription I had paid for.

Nintend-AO Switch Online.

Bring on BMX XXX!

@TotalHenshin If it's like the other NSO apps and the NSO in general, I imagine you can download the 18+ app from the Japanese eShop without issues (provided you're using an adult account) and play it with your foreign account.

It has never been a problem with the other NSO apps, but then again they weren't rated 18+, so maybe the Japanese law requires something else for this one.

And for that matter, has anyone bought a CERO Z game from the Japanese eShop? Are there any hurdles to do so?

@HammerGalladeBro I feel like what you’re saying would have been true for my experience with PS+ though. Everything was okay until it was a Z-rated game.

I looked through my JPN eShop library and to my surprise, I didn’t have any Z-rated games. I would have thought games like Resident Evil or Fatal Frame would meet that threshold, but they didn’t. They were D or C, surprisingly.

I can say however that I recall attempting to purchase a Japanese Z-rated game on PSN once, and it asked me for a credit card then as well.

It could just be a Sony thing, but that doesn’t seem likely to me. There really are relatively very few Z-games in Japan. Mostly Western-made ones.

I'm hoping we actually get one of the good wrestling games, like WWF No Mercy or Wrestlemania 2000.

@HeadPirate Hmm, interesting info worthy of an insight article. That explains why the Z rating has unique treatment.

I hope this means we get Conker’s Bad Fur Day and Mortal Kombat Trilogy (or MK4, both preferably) added someday!!!!

Wait, I'm confused...when did two Teen-rated games deserve the 18+ treatment?

@Danipooo

Naw, it was just a reference to a sketch from the Dana Carvey Show from the 90s

@HeadPirate Hold up. I know of the love hotels, but porn?! Did they actually do porn in the past or are you referring to those two 90's porn parodies of Mario that Nintendo bought the rights to and threw them in the deepest part of the Nintendo vault, ala Song of the South?

@IceDomino Because of nukes. Japan is very anti-nuke, for some reason.

@NatiaAdamo

When they were founded in 1889 they basically only had one client ... the Yakuza (The word "Nintendo" basically means "Illegal gambling"). As such, much of the playing cards and other gambling products they sold were porn. In 1907 they scaled it back due to censorship laws, but by the 1930s they were distributing adult themed products in the West. It looks like they never returned to hardcore (but they could have, this period is not fully preserved), but they did have a long standing partnership with Playboy and sold products with full nudity. This continued until at least the late 70s.

There is a deck of nude playing cards from 1979, censored for Japan, in an official Nintendo archive in Tokyo. So they were making "porn" until at least 4 years before the NES was released, for perspective.

Also for perspective ... they made porn for 90 years and have only been NOT making porn for about 40 years.

In the 50s they did a lot of adult themed toys. It was actually a (pretty tame) adult themed toy they made in 1969, the "love tester", that is the reason they made video games in the first place.

So ... Nintendo. Founded by organized crime, sustained though porn, and molded into what it is today by sex toys!

@HeadPirate Suddenly Bayonetta makes sense with Nintendo.

I really hope we get a separate app for M-rated/PEGI 18 rated games so we can get stuff like Conker, Resident Evil, Perfect Dark, Mortal Kombat, etc.