CrunchGear

Nintendo always seemed to have had an unspoken policy of non-violent, family friendly games. Remember when Mortal Kombat first came out for the home console? The SNES version didn’t have the blood and gore which the Sega version had.

Uh, Golgo 13 (I and II) was somewhat like GTA.

You were Golgo 13, an assassin that works for the CIA (those glorious days of the Cold War era). You walked around killing “enemy spies”, got a first person experience against ninjas, snipers and helicopters, and your health bar went up once you “got lucky” with a female character.

Spies, assassination, an exploding helicopter over the Statue of Liberty, trips to behind the iron curtain, fast girls and loud bullets… And that’s just the first episode (there was a sequel)

So, yes, there were some violent games for the NES. Contra comes to mind too.