I think I found the Video Game equivalent of the Animation Age Ghetto.

If you don't know what the Animation Age Ghetto is, it is the stereotype that only young children can enjoy cartoons and that older people cannot enjoy cartoons at all. I think the video game equivalent of it that I have discovered is the stereotype that only young children can enjoy Nintendo consoles and that E and E10 rated games cannot appeal to the older audience. If this somehow becomes a new trope how about we call it the Nintendo Age Ghetto or the Video Game Age Ghetto. Personally I like any game as long as it's a good game, no matter what its rated. (As long as its not rated eC). The only time I'd question you for playing a certain game is if you for some reason enjoyed a Dora educational game or that Barney game for the Sega Genesis. For the people that say "NINTENDO IS KIDDY", I'm going to get out my massive ass list of M rated games for Nintendo systems. (Some multiplats, some not.)

• Resident Evil 4
• Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D
• Resident Evil 2
• Resident Evil (Gamecube remake)
• Quake
• Quake 2
• Doom
• Doom 64
• Conker's Bad Fur Day
• Most Mortal Kombat games
• Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
• Perfect Dark
• Turok: Dinosaur Hunter
• Duke Nukem 64
• Duke Nukem Zero Hour
• Eternal Darkness
• Madworld
• Geist
• No More Heroes
• No More Heroes 2
• Smash TV (Technically never received an ESRB rating, but its a pretty bloody and gory game)
• Serious Sam: The Next Encounter

This list will be updated later.

Anyways, its sad to see the platformer genre decline due to those stupid little kids and tweens who think they're automatically "Cool" for playing the latest bland first person shooter game.

edited 1st Aug '11 10:40:04 AM by HappyComputerist

inb4 "Nintendo is kiddy".

Probably made worse by the fact that NOA itself fell for this a decade or two ago.

The main reason why Psychonauts sold so badly is because it was put on kiddy shelves because of the cartoonish cover art. A pity.

This has been around probobly ever since 3D graphics were invented. So it's Older than You Think.

However, it is sad how people have not grown out of such assumptions, going as bad as when Mad World was released, Moral Watchdogs started criticizing Nintendo for brining "such an horrendous thing to their family friendly console!" While other games such as Resident Evil 4 and No More Heroes went unnoticed by them.

And even before that, Eternal Darkness was released on the Gamecube without any outcry.

Well, Eternal Darkness and Geist are the only M-rated games i know of that Ninty has ever published, the closest they've come since being Days of Ruin. Considering how long they've been around, and how prolific M-rated game are, that's a major statistical anomaly. Did i say that right?

Of course, one need only play the Paper Mario games to realize that Nintendo makes plenty of stuff with older gamers still in mind. You just can't tell from the cover.

edited 29th Jun '11 10:19:24 AM by ShirowShirow

Totally YKTTW-ed this.

I think Nintendo got that label because they decided to market themselves as family-friendly during a time when the rest of the industry was primarily catering to male 18-27 crowd.

At the time, Nintendo was criticized for it, but that started to change once the company started making a ridiculous amount of money.

I would say that, unlike the Animation Age Ghetto, this is nowhere near as cut and dried a phenomenon to be a trope. It only, by and large, relates to Nintendo, isn't as ubiquitous even there as the animation equivalent, and is the softer "Nintendo games are family friendly" ( safe for kids ) rather than "Nintendo games are ( only ) for kids."

Definitely not limited to just Nintendo. I can't tell you how often I find people who are horrified that things like GTA exist. "17+? But it's a toy!"

Not limited, no, but its nowhere near as pervasive as Animation Age Ghetto.

Actually, I would have to guess that this Kiddy game Ghetto is probably the reason for the decline of platformers in the 2000s, as their normal 8-14 demographic in a (Pointless and laughable) attempt to try and appear more mature now prefer to play T & M rated games, due to the fact that they consider games with actual colors and whimsy "k1ddy" and "gHey".

This is also why I think that Rare's games have been consistent flops on the Xbox (Which is why I maintain that this was one of the worst buyouts in gaming history, as NOBODY was happy with what happened), as the "dumb fratboy" part of the Xbox's demographic considered them too "kiddy" to be worth their time.

I knew it! I knew "Matoor Gamurz" would ruin everything! God damn them to the deepest pits of Hell!

edited 29th Jun '11 3:29:56 PM by Rynnec

The ghetto I've noticed seems to be one of graphics. It's particularly obvious with the limited graphical capabilites of the DS, which American developers usually limit to children's games. That said, this does not apply to JRPGs.

Conker's Bad Fur Day was brilliant! ;_;

I find it genuinely funny still, even if all the humor is dated... And the ending is still bloody depressive

I suck at first-person shooters and shooters in general, but the multiplayer was fantastic and I played it with my sister and friends for a long time, even with Gameqube, PS 2 and X Box... Then Microsoft butchered it...

You know, while the 3D platformer collectation/collectathon? genre is dead, I will never forget all the hours I've spent into the likes of Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie and the sequel, and Donkey Kong 64. One day, I hope to play a collectation/collectathon game like those again... One day...

Nintendo is for everyone!!

edited 29th Jun '11 4:20:10 PM by Folt

The Ghetto is part real, but part Dead Unicorn Trope (Discretited Trope?).

Pong, the first sucessfull arcade game, set up shop in a bar. The first RPG and Strategy games were designed and played by college-age nerds. The Atari 2600 had players of all ages.

Then the video game crash of the 80s came.

Post-crash, Nintendo was seeking to market it's new Famicom to America, but were having a hard time finding a distributor willing to take the risk on a video game system. Eventually they paired up with toy stores (I forget which) by passing it off with toy branding; the Nintendo became a runaway success and since then, Nintendo of America has been associated with the games = for kids mindset. To a degree they try to maintain their brand name as one associated with being family-friendly, with occasional exceptions. However, the average gamer is in their 30s and growing older - the perception that most gamers are kids or teens is false.

edited 29th Jun '11 4:53:23 PM by Elle

Shirow Shirow, for useless information, Eternal Darkness and Geist are not Nintendo's only published M games. They're the only ones to make it out of Japan. Or rather, they were the only ones not developed in Japan.

edited 29th Jun '11 9:25:22 PM by Cider

If we're bringing up the more "mature" aspects, I'd just like to bring up every single goddamned Kirby final boss.

edited 29th Jun '11 8:35:25 PM by Hal10k

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/discussion.php?id=4cg876t8aqee8ya40kz64utn

Truth! Or half truth anyways!

edited 29th Jun '11 9:47:11 PM by Folt

Looks like someones never heard of vibrators.

edited 29th Jun '11 10:45:54 PM by Signed

I grew up with the assumption that the only people who liked video games were crazy fanboys like me. Especially guys whose parents had a good amount of money, and whose parents weren't so conservative that they'd go to revivals and destroy games. The way I figured it, adults thought video games as disposable entertainment at best, and subversive propaganda at worst. That's probably why I believed that I should give up games before becoming an adult.

So now I'm an adult myself, and for some reason, I still kinda like video games. And I enjoy some other stuff that other people might consider inappropriate for adults (board and card games, as well as various types of comics and animation). This leaves me kind of confused, with a bunch of unanswered questions. Do I feel safe admitting that I still enjoy video games, especially cute ones? Do I want to believe that more than three or four other adults share my interests? Should I like pop culture entertainment in general, or should I give in to the idea that intelligent adults ignore any media which is cute or humorous or action-driven? For all these questions, my answer is currently "I don't know."

Senible adults may only enjoy media they cannot understand.

Go ahead and like pop culture. The newest generation of 'adults' grew up with it anyway and most of us are into it. Not to mention there are many 70's and 80's geeks out there with happy families and stable jobs to go along with their merch collections (there may be some from even earlier than that but I'm not too sure).

Just don't let it consume your entire life because if you do, even those younger than you will start looking away... although there are people who've managed to work a high living out of that exact thing, so what can I say?

edited 30th Jun '11 4:34:39 AM by Recon5

Chances are, they haven't. Or haven't heard about collectibles, for a less Squicky example.