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Why the Switch Needs Adult Content

Why the Switch Needs Adult Content

Recently, I talked about some of the ways that Nintendo has matured to compete with the other top companies in the console business. They’ve started adding features to their consoles, in this case the Switch, that other companies have been doing for years. These changes will hopefully allow Nintendo to prosper more in the future than they have in recently. This piece that I wrote sparked a little controversy, as people thought I was going to be talking about more mature game content from Nintendo or on their systems.

Well here we are again, everyone talking about Nintendo putting on their big boy pants again. As we’re all aware, Nintendo wasn’t always the G-Rated, “Let’s play bowling on the Wii, granny!” Nintendo was once associated with names like Primal Rage, Killer Instinct , and Doom . Hell, I can even remember when I my dad handed me his original Game Boy. He had two games that I remember most. One was a typical G-rated Nintendo title, Super Mario Land . The other was, True Lies . Yup, the James Cameron film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger had a Game Boy game. The more you know, right? But I digress.

Nintendo did have more than just kids titles on their consoles and handhelds in their history. There was of course BloodRayne on the GameCube, which had an M-rating. Even further before that was the infamous Conker’s Bad Fur Day on the N64 which said right on the cover, “Advisory: This game is not for anyone under age 17.” Somewhere along the way, Nintendo stepped away from this a bit.

They still included more mature games in their history. The Wii had Alone in the Dark, Dead Space: Extraction , and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, for example. The Wii U had ZombiU, Bayonetta 2 , and Call of Duty: Ghosts . But even still, somewhere along the way we stopped associating Nintendo with mature titles. When game series like Mario Party or Mario Kart and The Legend of Zelda are most pushed in our faces, we tend to forget that other options exist. When Nintendo started focusing whole hog on being family friendly, they lost a lot of their other fans and a little bit of their past at the same time.

Sure they were filling a niche. There wasn’t a console that focused entirely on being family-friendly, so they wanted to give that a try. Well, it’s time to come back into the mature fold, Nintendo. There are definitely still families that are going to want to play your systems; you won’t lose them. What you will gain is that core fanbase back from when you remembered that not all gamers have toddlers and pre-teens in tow. People are literally crying out for more mature games on the Nintendo systems. All you need to do is listen.

Why the Switch Needs Adult Content

In the current era, people would love to have games like Metroid again, or maybe even a grittier The Legend of Zelda (thanks N4G commentors). I personally can cite Metroid Prime as one of my favorite games on the GameCube. I’d love the chance to see what a developer in today’s gaming industry could come up with in the Metroid universe. There are also other upcoming games that would do well to be included in Nintendo’s library. BloodRayne allowed us to enter the dark world of the supernatural, and the upcoming game Vampyr from Dontnod Entertainment will do the same. I wouldn’t mind being able to slay some vampires on a Switch.

Nintendo has always had a history of mature game inclusion. They just lost sight of it when they decided to go family friendly. I say it’s high time they go back to their roots a bit more and open up. I’m not the only one, there are plenty who would love to see mature games on the Switch and Nintendo systems in general. Hopefully, the company hears our pleas. At the very least I want to say this, Nintendo. There is a whole market out there yearning to play games on your consoles, you’re just not providing them. Give us what we want and we’d be happy to return to the company that gave a lot of us our gaming start.

Image Credit: achibner

Image Credit: Sexy Mario

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