It has been confirmed by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) that the upcoming
LEGO Harry Potter video game will recieve a 10 and up rating for the Nintendo DS and PSP
versions of the game, rated so for sequences of animated blood, crude humor, and
mild cartoon violence.
Here is what the ESRB had to say concerning this:
Rating summary:This is an adventure game in which players assume the role of a Lego-version of
Harry Potter as he learns magic spells and defeats enemy creatures at the Hogwarts magic school.
Players use a wand to fire fantastical blasts at enemy monsters, spiders, snakes, etc. Characters sometimes cry out in pain and often break apart into smaller Lego pieces when defeated. In one cutscene, a character's body explodes, and the central character cradles the head piece; another cutscene depicts a dragon impaled through the mouth by a sword. During a potion-mixing mini-game, players can use "salamander blood" or smashed worms as ingredients; pixilated blood appears in both sequences. In one sequence, brown Lego droppings fall out of a creature's posterior; a character scoops up the droppings with a shovel and makes a comical "Pee-ewhh" gesture.
However, the PC, Wii, PS3 and XBOX 360 versions are rated E10+ for only cartoon violence
and crude humor, but does not appearantly contain the animated blood depicted in the PSP
and Nintendo DS versions.
The game is currently scheduled for a June 29th release.