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Topic: Nintendo is kiddy, yet most of their franchises are very neutral

Posts 21 to 40 of 138

Amateur

I gotta say , I honestly don't know why people say Nintendo is kiddie. Not all games have to be like some of the games on the Playstation or Xbox systems.

The Megaman Battle Network series is underrated... I think, don't quote me on this.

Ralizah

I've never met an adult who worried about the "maturity" of a game experience. Once you're paying bills, working, and generally immersed in adult life, it's nice to play something like Pikmin or Mario at the end of the day that is almost completely disconnected from that kind of world, something that you can also safely share with your kids.

Currently Playing: Fields of Mistria (PC); Cookie Clicker (PC); Metaphor: ReFantazio (PC); Overboard! (PC)

Ugh. Men.

ogo79

this board...i just dont know

the_shpydar wrote:
As @ogo79 said, the SNS-RZ-USA is a prime giveaway that it's not a legit retail cart.
And yes, he is (usually) always right, and he is (almost) the sexiest gamer out there (not counting me) ;)

TheMisterManGuy

19Robb92 wrote:

Only people who don't play Nintendo games would say they only do "kiddie" stuff. And I don't blame them, because Nintendo has that image. Mario is their biggest mascot and they emphasize their colorful "E for Everyone" games way more than the games rated higher or those aimed towards other demographics than everybody or kids (e.g. Xenoblade, Metroid etc.).

The ESRB rating doesn't indicate your target demographic. Sports games are rated E, but they're typically aimed at young adult males. Hell, I saw a Power Rangers game get a Teen rating. What 15 year old is going to buy that? Also, in Japan, the two games you mentioned (Xenoblade and Metroid) are actually kid-friendly according to the CERO. both games are rated B for ages 12 and up (equivalent to an E10+). Not that they're not mature in terms of themes or content. So while they may seem more adult, they're actually appropriate for tweens in Japan. Different country, different standards. Nintendo rarely makes anything inappropriate for gamers under 15.

[Edited by TheMisterManGuy]

TheMisterManGuy

Ryno

ogo79 wrote:

this board...i just dont know

Probably my favorite one going on right now.

To blessed to be stressed.
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Rynoggery

Ralek85

I think the point about graphics, artistically and technically, is well taken, and is certainly in part responsible for the 'kiddy' image, if you want to call it that.
A big part, and I think an at least equally important one, is the content ifself and not just it's presentation. Nintendo's (developed) content is child-friendly, since it lacks, by design, any emotional punch, any narrative complexity, honestly, any story or atmosphhere at all, most of the time. Almost all the games listed here, are about function only, about gameplay. I think it's not right to argue, that mature equals violence, sex, war and photo-realistic graphics, to many peole it is more about ... let's call it sophistication. Nintendo characters are iconic, but they lack personality, if they have any to speak off at all. The games are enjoyable, but lack any narrative or emotional investment. In a way, it is all rather superficial - simple and clean fun.
Again, I want to point out, that this no criticism and that I'm certain, that these are all intentional design choices. The fact remains, if you go by standards of narrative/emotional/atmospheric sophistication and visual fidelity for the 'maturity' of the medium - videogames - than Nintendo errs on the side of caution, that is, close to it's root, and open to anyone, the mind of child as well as the mind of a senior.

[Edited by Ralek85]

Switch: 3355-6459-9982 | 3DS: 2809-7989-1816 | NNID: Ralek85

TheMisterManGuy

Ralek85 wrote:

I think the point about graphics, artistically and technically, is well taken, and is certainly in part responsible for the 'kiddy' image, if you want to call it that.
A big part, and I think an at least equally important one, is the content ifself and not just it's presentation. Nintendo's (developed) content is child-friendly, since it lacks, by design, any emotional punch, any narrative complexity, honestly, any story or atmosphhere at all, most of the time. Almost all the games listed here, are about function only, about gameplay. I think it's not right to argue, that mature equals violence, sex, war and photo-realistic graphics, to many peole it is more about ... let's call it sophistication. Nintendo characters are iconic, but they lack personality, if they have any to speak off at all. The games are enjoyable, but lack any narrative or emotional investment. In a way, it is all rather superficial - simple and clean fun.

Uh have you played The Mario RPGs, Golden Sun, Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, Fire Emblem, Kid Icarus: Uprising, Sin & Punishment, Metroid Prime trilogy (Story is told through scanning), Xenoblade, Earthbound, Mother 3, WarioWare (It may not have a story, but the characters have personality), Golden Sun, Advance Wars, Elite Beat Agents, or Hotel Dusk? Also if Nintendo games are kiddy because of the lack of story, then fighting games, platformers, racing games, sports games, rhythm games, and arcade games in general are all kiddy as well since they lack story too.

TheMisterManGuy

Ralek85

@TheMisterManGuy First, you mixed up a few things, you threw a bunch of 2nd as well as 3rd parties games into the mix I think. Also, these are not the games, that make or break Nintendo's image. It doesn't get much more obscure than Earthbound for example.
The other aspect, I would argue, is that those games are, on the hand, few and far between, also mostly published with little to no fanfare, and, on ther other hand, they are also still very much in the Nintendo vain of light-hearted and easy-to-grasp entertainment.
Mind you, I'm not talking about gameplay here. Kid Icarus is a lot of fun, but it is best described as a Saturday Morning cartoon, with pretty darn great banter ;-D I think the closest you could come are games like Golden Sun or Fire Emblem for story-telling, or MP or Majoras Mask for the kind of mood and atmosphere, still, I could not, in good conscience, point anyone towards those games, for those 'features'.
As much as I adore those games, esp. FE and Zelda, when it comes to the kind of 'sophistication' I refered to, I would much rather play and therefore recommend games like Baldur's Gate or even Mass Effect, for telling a pretty great and meaningful story, with plenty of depth and complexity to it's characters, as well interesting themes like moral ambiguity. Or games like Alan Wake or Shadow Of The Colossus for an atmosphere, actually worthy of being called an "experience".
Nintendo games simply can't thouch that in my opinion, at least none I have played so far. If you look beyond the actual gameplay, it becomes rather barren rather quickly.

EDIT: Sorry, I forgot to address your last point, I agree about these kinds of sports or arcade games, in the broadest sense. I think that is why, sports games pride themselves on graphics as well as the simulation aspect (think about physics for example). It is a different kind of sophistication. The same is true for many arcade games, like beat'em'ups, they pride themselves on deep and complex fighting systems, which take a long time to master. Honestly though, I played Streetfighter as a kid, and I don't know if I would call those, 'mature' game by any stretch. Aside from the complexity involved with the input, and the reliance on quick reactions, it is a shallow game.

[Edited by Ralek85]

Switch: 3355-6459-9982 | 3DS: 2809-7989-1816 | NNID: Ralek85

TheMisterManGuy

Ralek85 wrote:

@TheMisterManGuy First, you mixed up a few things, you threw a bunch of 2nd as well as 3rd parties games into the mix I think. Also, these are not the games, that make or break Nintendo's image. It doesn't get much more obscure than Earthbound for example.
The other aspect, I would argue, is that those games are, on the hand, few and far between, also mostly published with little to no fanfare, and, on ther other hand, they are also still very much in the Nintendo vain of light-hearted and easy-to-grasp entertainment.
Mind you, I'm not talking about gameplay here. Kid Icarus is a lot of fun, but it is best described as a Saturday Morning cartoon, with pretty darn great banter ;-D I think the closest you could come are games like Golden Sun or Fire Emblem for story-telling, or MP or Majoras Mask for the kind of mood and atmosphere, still, I could not, in good conscience, point anyone towards those games, for those 'features'.
As much as I adore those games, esp. FE and Zelda, when it comes to the kind of 'sophistication' I refered to, I would much rather play and therefore recommend games like Baldur's Gate or even Mass Effect, for telling a pretty great and meaningful story, with plenty of depth and complexity to it's characters, as well interesting themes like moral ambiguity. Or games like Alan Wake or Shadow Of The Colossus for an atmosphere, actually worthy of being called an "experience".
Nintendo games simply can't thouch that in my opinion, at least none I have played so far. If you look beyond the actual gameplay, it becomes rather barren rather quickly.

Nearly every game I listed was 1st party (Nintendo owns Intelligent Systems and Monolith). And they actually not as few and far between as you may think. Kid Icarus actually touches upon some heavy concepts, and actually becomes a bit more serious midway through, so its not all fun and games. And Fire Emblem Awakening has banter and characters almost as silly as Kid Icarus (especially during supports).

TheMisterManGuy

Ralek85

@TheMisterManGuy Nearly ... no doubt about that. Still, the fact remains, they "touch upon some heavey concepts", on occasion that is, in some rather fringe productions. Honestly, has anyone ever argued, that Nintendo was a great storyteller? Or good at inspiring any kind of emotion besides joy and laughter? Sometimes people want to feel afraid, or sad too. Nintendo strikes me as pretty one-sided here.
Again, this is not criticism, just an observation. Even the FE:A story is pretty forgetful, if you ask me, I liked the story of Radiance/Dawn a lot better, esp. the plot about the Laguz was decent and somewhat well used and some interesting questions were raised throughout the game. On the other hand, those also stayed very tame and basic nontheless. Can't say any Nintendo story really stuck with me over the years, or that I ever had the desire to replay a Nintendo game, to relive the story or get immersed in it'S world. It just not something they do particulary well, despite some good efforts by some Nintendo owned-studious, as you say.

[Edited by Ralek85]

Switch: 3355-6459-9982 | 3DS: 2809-7989-1816 | NNID: Ralek85

SkywardLink98

Ralek85 wrote:

Again, this is not criticism, just an observation. Even the FE:A story is pretty forgetful, if you ask me,

I liked Fire Emblem: Awakening's story

Ralek85 wrote:

I liked the story of Radiance/Dawn a lot better, esp. the plot about the Laguz was decent and somewhat well used and some interesting questions were raised throughout the game. On the other hand, those also stayed very tame and basic nontheless.

EDIT: I just noticed that TBD censored my last post. I figured since it was discussed on NLife before it was safe to do so now. Sorry.

[Edited by SkywardLink98]

My SD Card with the game on it is just as physical as your cartridge with the game on it.
I love Nintendo, that's why I criticize them so harshly.

GuSolarFlare

8BitSamurai wrote:

ogo79 wrote:

this board...i just dont know


wanted to say something by myself, but that's exactly what came to my mind, every time I clicked this thread......

[Edited by GuSolarFlare]

goodbyes are a sad part of life but for every end there's a new beggining so one must never stop looking forward to the next dawn
now working at IBM as helpdesk analyst
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Hy8ogen

Kiddy, Mature, photorealistic or whatever, I don't care. As long as it is fun, I'll play it.

Nintendo fan since 6 years of age.
Owned: SNES, Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance, DS, 3DS, Wii U, PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4 and PSP3000.

8BitSamurai

Hy8ogen wrote:

Kiddy, Mature, photorealistic or whatever, I don't care. As long as it is fun, I'll play it.

How about "rare" or "balancing"?

[Edited by 8BitSamurai]

"rare download" Assistant

Bolt_Strike

Einherjar wrote:

Its all down to what people "presume" is mature. The mainstream media conditioned people to think that everything

  • with the main color being brown
  • that has (space) marines in it
  • focusing on guns, war etc
  • that is photorealistic
  • that features extensive amounts of blood and gore
    is to be seen as mature content. Its not about the content itself anymore. People are judging by the looks and not whats actually inside.

Star Fox deals with a major scale war on an entire solar system, wiping out entire planets or, in command, with a parasitic organism and a rather creepy pigma being assimilated and yet, it has talking animals so it must be kiddy stuff.

If you look into the F-Zero lore, its basicly a pirate story with flying cars really. Its about treachery, backstabbing, gambling and characters who kill competitors in a race for fun and conveniance. Yet, stuff like Octoman make it kiddy.

If you look deeper into nintendos flagship franchises, they often deal with rather mature themes overall, yet are represented in a light hearted tone. This is not kiddy, this is how you give a game a distinctive personality, something unique and outstanding.

This guy gets it. People don't really hate Nintendo for being kiddy, they hate Nintendo for not making the same dull dudebro shooters that everyone else does. Frankly, they deserve much better than that, but unfortunately this industry is full of complete morons with no taste.

Bolt_Strike

Switch Friend Code: SW-5621-4055-5722

Hy8ogen

8BitSamurai wrote:

Hy8ogen wrote:

Kiddy, Mature, photorealistic or whatever, I don't care. As long as it is fun, I'll play it.

How about "rare" or "balancing"?

Untitled

Nintendo fan since 6 years of age.
Owned: SNES, Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance, DS, 3DS, Wii U, PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4 and PSP3000.

Ralek85

Bolt_Strike wrote:

This guy gets it. People don't really hate Nintendo for being kiddy, they hate Nintendo for not making the same dull dudebro shooters that everyone else does. Frankly, they deserve much better than that, but unfortunately this industry is full of complete morons with no taste.

Right, there are Nintendo games, and there are "the same dull dudebro shooters that everyone does". After all, the world is dark and white, so why shouldn't gaming be the same way ... As for the "complete morons with no taste", who populate the industry, those would just be your average humans, who don't share your preferences, I'm afraid. There is nothing moronic about posing the question, if a game has to be about the caricature of an Italian plumber saving the archetypical princess from her evil abductor, of course, visualized as a monster.
Good luck with fighting the 'kiddy' stereotype with the 'dudebro shooter' stereotype ... this cannot fail, can it?

Switch: 3355-6459-9982 | 3DS: 2809-7989-1816 | NNID: Ralek85

theblackdragon

@SkywardLink: i believe you may be thinking of another forum, unless you'd like to point me in the direction of that particular discussion so that i can nuke it from orbit? to the best of my knowledge (and with Google's help), i cannot remember seeing such a discussion take place nor have i been able to find it myself.

The bottom line is that it's a fan theory with no solid basis in canon reality, and the assumption you are choosing to make from the support convo in question (i've seen it too, i know what happened) is not only a serious stretch, it's also vile and offensive. i may as well try to claim that the 'cake' Peach baked for Mario in SM64 was actually a code word between the two for something else entirely for all the truth behind either theory.

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AceDefective

If you can't enjoy something that is "kiddy", then you've got some serious growing up to do.
Nintendo is not the "Dora" of the game industry /in the slightest/, if you think colorful graphics are "immature" then you need to mature. If you were mature, then certainly you wouldn't care about what people think of you for liking a Mario, Zelda, or Kirby game. True maturity means being not being embarrassed for liking something seen as "childish".
Dark story lines, settings, or charactersdo not equal good or mature

Just some random loser who loves a variety of things.
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