It's easy to forget, especially when you're an adult who can buy anything, but every video game goes through the process of being rated by the ESRB, and each game's rating makes it intended for a specific audience. For example, Final Fantasy 16 received an M rating with an eye toward exploring mature themes.
Taking to Reddit, one brave user wanted to know — What (was) the first M-rated video game you played?
I don't think Grand Theft Auto 6 will be GOTY 2026
Success is not guaranteed.
The answers are a trip down memory lane, where players young and old share the first time their parents let them move past the E-rated and T-rated games to the ultra-exciting M-rated side of things.
Do you remember the first M-rated game you played?
“Halo 1,” the post's top commenter wrote, referring to Halo: Combat Evolved, which turns 25 in 2026 and will get a remake in the form of Halo: Campaign Evolved.
“My mom wouldn't let me play rated M games until I was 13 and before that I would always play them at a friend's house down the alley,” wrote one commenter. “Halo: Combat Evolved was my first too. Good times.”
Of course, no M-rated games thread would be complete without a reference to Grand Theft Auto, and either Vice City or San Andreas was a popular choice among commenters.
“I've always thought it was funny how San Andreas was everyone's childhood game when it was rated M,” one commenter wrote.
Others cited Conker's Bad Fur Day, because how else would unsuspecting parents know that the same Rare that made Banjo was also behind this?
“Late night Blockbuster drive with my dad, I wanted the game with the orange squirrel on the cover, and the rest is history,” one player wrote. “Life has been different since then.”
We also can't forget about Mortal Kombat, any version.
“I accidentally rented it when I was like 7 or 8 because it looked like a normal fighting game (I don't know how I could do that), but my mom was (upset) when she realized,” one happy player wrote in response.
In perhaps the most recent example of a parent letting their child play an M-rated game, someone said they could get Elden Ring this year.
“Enjoy your trip mate,” someone wrote.
Personally, like many kids, I somehow got to play Mortal Kombat in all its gory glory, but my parents drew the line at Grand Theft Auto. It wasn't until 2012 (!) that I got to play GTA when GTA IV came with Max Payne 3 at Target, for some epic reason. The first M-rated game I bought for myself was Advanced Warfare. Yes, I know. What a choice.
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