Topic: Can a game be both "kiddy" and "mature"?

Make it two people.

Pretty much all of the Zelda games are kiddy and mature at the same time. Shows like Doctor Who and Adventure time are like that too. Doctor Who is sometimes childish and "bloody" is considered a swear word in it, yet one of the episodes deals with putting foreigners in concentration camps ("Turn Left") and even a whole episode is a metaphor for abortion ("Kill the Moon").

The fact a lot of kid's shows now a days can be considered "kiddie" (childish enough to appeal to children) and "mature" (containing content or subject matter pretty heavy or dark in nature), makes the answer yes.
(On a side note, am I the only one who rolls their eyes every time they see terms like "kiddie" and "mature" being applied to something?)

Make it three.

Kiddy and mature?

Not in my opinion.

I believe if a game is able to tackle mature topics (like death, loneliness, looming darkness, etc) with a bright atmosphere, colors, and a cartoon-like art style, then it is a mature game...not ratings wise, of course. (Conker's Bad Fur Day, Majora's Mask, a bunch of JRPGs).

If a game is just all around childish and bouncy without even the concept of a Game Over or losing, then it's "kiddy". Personally, I don't feel as though I've played a kiddy game for a long while. I do recall playing one Sesame Street game on the N64 where I took control of Elmo and was unable to cross the street.

I roll my eyes...

Very few people would see swearing as mature. But a lot of people, myself included, also don't see it as immature either. The idea that some words are inherently bad and should not be used is incredibly hard to arrive at from first principles (which is how I try to determine my opinions, and I'd recommend everyone else do the same)

No, obviously not. I roll my eyes at both that and the sentence structure 'am I the only one...?' when we live on a planet with 7+ BILLION other ones. You are not special because no one is.

And The Wind Waker was both sillily cartoony and seriously grim. It opens with children in a silly art style and progresses to an end where a man breaks down, saying he had failed the next generation (with heavy metaphoric tones of climate change) before killing himself. So yeah, obviously things can have whatever tonal clashes they want if they execute them correctly.

I actually view swearing as immature if the person is using it constantly as if swearing is the only way to talk, but judging from the responses here, I guess I am the only one who thinks so.

Windwaker

@Donjwolf I only find swearing to be immature if, like you said, the character swearing swears constantly.

If it's an occasional swear that fits with the moment, it's fine by me.

Majora's Mask says hi.

I'd put it this way. The way I see it "kiddie" means something that I would have enjoyed when I was under 10. It doesn't say anything about it's quality or lack of it it just means that a kid that age would enjoy it. Then when you say "mature" I think of content that touches on "adult" topics in a way that's interesting to someone who's an adult. Death, war, politics, drugs, illness and so on. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's not suitable for kids.

So yeah, things can be both. As others have said a lot of Zelda games are "mature" in that sense. Then I think outside of games and I think a lot of Pixar's stuff deals with pretty heavy material. Certainly more than some content that receives higher age ratings because of violence and language. But the reverse isn't necessarily true either. It makes sense that by dealing with adult content that content will tend to be less suitable for kids. Just as it makes sense that by making the story interesting and maybe boring kids the content gets better. There's a correlation, it's just not one and the same.

SNES Final Fantasy III (VI) especially in its uncensored form. (Stuff like Edgar being an alcoholic was taken out by NoA).

If it is stuff I enjoyed when I was under 10 it includes the whole 8 bit generation. (Is e.g Master System - R-Type kiddie because I finished it then but don't have the reactions to play it any more - or the willpower to practice perhaps).