Actually, the text may say the Pokemon faint in battle, but the game's story actually says they can die. There's a location in the first games called Pokemon Tower that is a testament to that. A large gang of rogue Pokemon Trainers known as Team Rocket killed a young Pokemon's mother, which haunts Pokemon Tower along with a number of other ghosts. Also worth mentioning is some Pokemon have ominous Pokedex data. Shedinja is one I can name off hand.

True, there are many disturbing things in pokemon. The world is darker than it seems at first glance :)

Still not sure how such a reference, which would go over most kids' heads, is worse than overt, graphic language and sexual jokes.

Edit: typo

Pokémon are basically built to battle each other, and the series tends to treat those who misuse and abuse Pokémon with disdain. Potential spoilers for the 5th generation (Black and White) at the end of this sentence, but said generation's story even features a group that wants to free Pokémon and attempt to steal Pokémon from their trainers in order to do so.

The general point of Pokémon is that they enjoy battling and trainers and their Pokémon work together and are typically improved by doing so.

You don't see Team Rocket kill it, but the NCPs don't have write arounds about what Team Rocket did. It also doesn't help that Lavender Town (the town that Pokemon Tower is located in) has a pretty infamous song that is creepy and made kids sick in Japan.

That's the demographic for that game series ya know.

"What are you, 12?"
"No. I'm 9. I'm just mature for my age."

Hm, never heard about this stuff. Interesting.
...doesn't discount the other stuff about Duke Nukem, though.

What bothers me in this news is parents giving a kid who is still on Santa Claus believable age a 400€ electronic device...

I think if the kid is on Santa Clause to begin with he shouldn't be getting any gifts period.

Lavender Town is one of the things that has inspired a number of Pokemon Creepypastas. Pokemon Colosseum had instances of people using Pokemon to attack people. It might not be as bad a Duke Nukem, but companies can get away with quite a bit of stuff and still get an E-rating if they avoid certain things.

I honestly thought that was just an urban legend, but didn't feel like going down THAT path in the argument.

The best part of the story is, "As for what occurred, Target told the Lundy's that it happens occasionally." It does?!? It happens "occasionally" that when you buy a PlayStation 4, there is a fake, wooden PS4 in the box with a penis drawn on it?!? I would hope it's very rare, much like ordering a sex toy and finding a fully functional PlayStation 4 in the box.

I could point out that country-specific laws may affect the ratings of games.

I'll use Undertale as an example, even though that game wasn't officially rated.

In the US, the game would likely get a Teen rating, especially with the violence on the Genocide route. (There's also the final boss of the Normal route.)

In Russia, however, the game would get whatever the 18+ rating is. Why? There is a lesbian couple in the game, as well as an encounter with two gay guards, and Russia has a law that makes it illegal to "promote homosexuality" to children, which I believe has been interpreted to disallow *any* positive representation of same-sex attraction. (I consider the Russian government, not the game's developer, to be at fault here.)

It's somewhat ironic that it is the Pacifist route that would make the game rated 18+ in Russia, when it's the Genocide route that is the most disturbing and would be responsible for the T rating in the US.

It's the same sort of reason that a small number of games here aren't available in Germany.

I think the kid, his family and the rest of the world were better off with the block of wood as a present.

Most online shooters already have an average player age of about 13, as it is. ( And let's not even talk about the mental age. )

Besides, if the parents had any taste in video games, they would at least have picked a PS4 + Bloodborne combo.