Nintendo Grows up

 

Nintendo has a reputation to keep, just like Disney before them. And I really think it is in pursuit of appearing family friendly, the last bastion of true kids gaming on the industry, that so many allow Nintendo to get away with some of the truly heinous crap they pull. Stomping down on content creators for simply loving their games? "Oh, but what if someone makes something objectionable and a kid sees it? It's simply Nintendo doing the due diligence!" (Genuine excuse for them recently announcing an initiative to move on mature art of their characters such-as Bowsette.) "Hmm, they present the worst online experience out of all the big 3. So unquestionable bad that you can't even reliable mic-up with other players? Have to keep those kids safe!" People will justify having their houses broken into and being burgled by Nintendo by simply assuming that all the expensive furniture and family heirlooms that were stolen might have accidently been run into by a child. It's their greatest shield.

But what if Nintendo were to ever... rock the boat, so to speak? What if Nintendo went out of their way to do something... not so 'kid friendly' for once? What if Nintendo announced their very first adult game and the only reason I'm asking these hypotheticals is because that is literally exactly what happened and there's no point playing coy. That is the thing. We're talking about it. It's wild. Now that is really the angle that people are going with- calling this "Nintendo's first M rated game", although that isn't really true when you think about it. Nintendo published Bayonetta, afterall. And one of the Fatal Frame's digital editions, and one of the Ninja Gaiden's and some other horror games from back in the day. And you need merely look at the Nintendo E-Store to find plenty of questionable games for sale- but they've never developed an M rated game before. And that is worth talking about.

Now to be absolutely clear we don't know if Nintendo themselves are official working on the game, they just surprised announced the game with a trailer without anyone being the wiser and in the absence of anyone coming out and claiming the thing it appears to be a Nintendo property. Although some have noticed that Bloober team have a gap in their supposed development line-up which would align neatly with a new game... particularly considering they mentioned it was for Nintendo and codenamed 'Project M'. But then Bloober team aren't usually ones to hide their name. Honestly the speculation about the origins of the project might just be more interesting in the game itself- not least of all because it doesn't have a name beyond the bland and easily forgettable "Project Emio".

Now the curious aspect about this trailer is that it dropped literally out of nowhere. With no Nintendo direct, no heads up, no cross advertising- it just dropped out of the sky. The trailer is a tease of a teaser, with a little bit of jumpy visuals and a an in-progress name- and we can't even tell you who's making the thing. Heck, if I were one for conspiracies I might even question whether or not the thing is even a real game being published whatsoever, or if this is another case of the 'headline grabbers' like Blue box scandal from a while back. Hey... has anyone actually checked up on Blue Box recently? You don't think...

As far as a mature venture for Nintendo to go down, I have to say that making a horror game is perhaps the least interesting angle one might expect. Horror games are such 'easy' mature bait, with implications here, a bit of excessive blood there, and maybe a touch of psychological horror and suddenly the ratings board treats you like a real-life goat sacrifice is performed alongside every playthrough. But it rarely goes that deep. Horror is one of the most accessible genres in the entire medium and that makes it excessively hard to do something truly novel and unique that pushes the boundaries. I typically have a bevy of documents drawn up for concepts that would challenge the bounds of current genres but I've never been able to come up with one for horror- because it feels like they've done everything already. (Or Maybe I'm just not that big enough of a fan to visualise it.)

I'd rather see Nintendo throw their efforts behind something exciting that takes advantage of their renown for great feeling controls and pitch-perfect gameplay. Imagine a balls-to-the-wall action hack and slash game... I guess genre-adjacent to Bayonetta, but leaning on the great eye for iconography and character visualisation that makes Nintendo stand out so vividly!  Maybe there's a bit of flashy action, a few over-the-top cartoonish violence, a potty mouthed script, an intense explored theme or two. I just want something more substantive than walking around an abandoned building being chased by ghosts who mutter about mean things that happened to them when they were twelve. Been there, yawned at that.

What we do know is that according to whoever rated the thing, we can expect themes of domestic abuse and permanent self harm- which ties in to what you typically get out of games like these. Although, maybe I'm being a bit of a reductive here. Afterall, my perception of what horror games have been and could be are based on the thriving indie horror scene and career horror studios that live and breathe this style- never have we seen a family friendly masterpiece creator dedicate themselves to this area- so perhaps there's some unique special something they can bring to the genre-type. Tie in the fact that it's pretty clear this is a Japanese game, giving the Kanji at the end which roughly spells out 'Smiling Man', and we know that Japanese horror tends to go places unexplored my Western horror. Maybe there's something interesting there.

Still, at the end of the day this is Nintendo reclaiming their title as caters to the mature which they've shied away from ever since their days of intentionally producing playing cards that were used exclusively by the Japanese Yakuza in order to skirt overly specific anti gambling laws. Never forget that was how Nintendo got their big break. Maybe they can channel a bit of that back-market dealing into giving a unhinged and untraditional experience that really breaks the mould and reminds everyone why we were so distraught when Silent Hills went the way of the do-do.