The difference between an ESRB rating of "T" and a rating of "M" might result in several hundred thousands in sales figures; but is it reasonable to tone down the violence in a game that achieved its status by coining the term "fatality" into the minds of gamers?
Unfortunately, that seems to be what Midway believes. According to Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon, Midway sent "at least" three different versions of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe to the ESRB, each less violent than the other, in order to achieve the "T" rating.
Of course, most of the foregone content are fatalities (a gruesome attack that the winner gets to exercise on the helpless loser). Mr. Ed Boon detailed two of those. The first is The Joker's fake gun fatality, where the Joker pulls a pistol, fires at his victim, and has a "Bang!" flag pop out. After a bit of gleeful cackling, The Joker suddenly pulls a second gun and fires again, shooting the victim right in the face. The second half of the fatality had to be pulled off for the game to get a "T", so Midway decided to change the camera's angle so that it won't show the victim's face while being blown off.
Another fatality that got nixed is Kitana's. In the original version of the fatality, Kitana used to impale her victim through the torso with one fan, and through the forehead with the other. To accommodate for the ESRB's rules against head injuries, both fans ended up impaling through the loser's torso.
For some reason, ESRB believes that a fan through the torso is ok for teens, but having the same fan in the head isn't.
