CORALINE is a children’s puzzle adventure game for the PlayStation 2, based on the film and book of the same name. The game was passed ‘PG’ on the basis of moderate fantasy threat.

Coraline is a young girl who moves into a new house with her parents, who are too busy to spend time with her. She explores the house and surrounding area and finds a portal into the Other World, where she finds another version of her parents, who have buttons for eyes and at first seem much more attentive than her parents in the normal world. Over the course of the game, however, it becomes increasingly clear that Coraline’s ‘Other Mother’ is in fact a witch in disguise, who traps children in the Other World and replaces their eyes with buttons. The focus of the game is very much on exploring the area and talking to non-player characters, but there is sufficient focus on the unsettling storyline to make the game most appropriate at ‘PG’, where the BBFC Guidelines state ‘Frightening sequences should not be prolonged or intense. Fantasy settings may be a mitigating factor’.

CORALINE also contains sections in which the player must escape from creatures such as rats, bats and spiders, which very young children may find threatening.