commonsensemedia

Published 16.11.2019 02:00

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Metal Gear Solid Touch

A lot or a little?

Parents need to know that Metal Gear Solid Touch is a somewhat violent third-person military shooter for iPhones and iPod Touch. It follows the story of the highly popular PlayStation 3 game Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, but contains almost none of its sophisticated philosophical dialogue on the morality of war. It also lacks its precursor's sexual themes, strong language, and graphic visuals, though its military theme and near-constant violence still makes it inappropriate for pre-teens. Players spend all of their time targeting pop-up-style human targets, some of which flash red when hit. The whole screen flashes crimson if the player's character gets shot. There is no blood, though these red flashes are clearly meant to evoke it. The developers have self-rated this game 9+ for "Infrequent/Mild Realistic Violence." The PlayStation 3 game is rated Mature by the ESRB. Even though the content of the app game is less gory, it's still like training wheels for a game that no kid under 17 should play. So parents, if you let your 14-year-olds play this, be prepared for an argument about why they then can't play the full-on version.