Violence. Nintendo. Do they mix? Our staff pick at their brains just for you.

Should Nintendo games contain violence?

Ash: Well it all goes back to what you class as 'mature'. If you mean full of blood and guts and busty ladies which the casual gamer classes as mature maybe one or two, specifically to deal with this subject. Nintendo have the ability to make great games so they should use this to the full extent. However, I can't imagine seeing Bowser bite into Mario and ripping off Mario's arm or something, just not right.

I class mature games as ones that make you think and engross you, some kind of puzzle or something that would be more for adults. There are many games that adults (and children actually) can enjoy. Some of these are Animal Crossing, Super Mario Sunshine and many others. They seem on the surfuce purely for kids but underneath they are mind-boggling and deep games that adults will enjoy if they try them out.

Unfortunately, we live in the casual gamer age when they class DOA Volleyball or a blood filled game as a mature game. A game you either get sadistic pleasure from playing or something, exciting.

Phuzzy: In a word .. no.

I feel that Nintendo is the only of the 3 companies that at least has managed to keep a sense of it being the 'homely' company, with games for all the family and where rather than just spurning out terrible games one after another, they actually take time out to think quite carefully about what they're making, and aren't wholly commercialised (or at least, thats the image they give out).

Therefore, I don't think it would be right for Nintendo to make very bloody or gory games. Sure, I like having that sort of game on the console, but I'd rather Nintendo stick to their roots and stick to bright (but not neccesarily immature) games. There are many 3rd (and 2nd) party developers that I'm sure are able to provide the GameCube (and future Nintendo hardware) with 'adult' games, such as Capcom. I personally hope that Nintendo do venture and do new games and game types/genres ... just not terrifically violent/adult-themed ones.

It's not really Nintendo's style.

Pesten: How much blood and how much gore you put in a game, is always addicted to what type of game you make. And naturaly, a survival horror game needs blood and gore. A shoot'em up should have blood squrting(even though not all have). But it happen to be that Nintendo never make this kind of game. Why, you might ask. Nintendo have always focused on the WHOLE market. They wants to make something for the whole family, to make sure the product sells. And a Resident Evil like game aint for the whole family is it? Doubtly. Not for kids. And too often not for the mother in the house..(or for conservative christians...)

So what do you do then? You make a different game in a different category. And leave the blood to others to deal with.

But if they SHOULD? I would like to see if they really managed it. Nintendo games is king. And if they made an effort, wouldn't they be able to create something really scary and frightening? I believe they could! And with their innovative thinking, a game from them in a genre like this.. it would be really special..

But that's my opinion..

Conor: Well, it depends.

In something like Mario or Zelda, I feel blood-and-gore violence is a BIG no-no. It would just go against the entire mood of the game, and would be very dissapointing and embarrasing to see. But something like that would never happen, even in our wildest nightmares. Because Nintendo are bigger than that, and have a little more pride in themselves than that.

But whose to say Nintendo won't make a really violent game? They helped Silicon Knights with Eternal Darkness and Retro with Metroid Prime, so they're by no means sensitive with violence. It's just that Nintendo won't make a violent game just for the sake of making a violent game, Miyamoto-san make that quite clear in the recent issue of NGC.

So if Nintendo are going to make a great game, but with violence in it, then I'd be all for it. But the inclusion of violence just for the sake of it would be awful. Not like it would ever happen.

Gualtiero: As Pesten said, it all depends on what type of game you're making. If it's a game where there's shooting, killing etc., then blood and violence can help the atmosphere, by making you feel as if you were actually there. But adding blood for no reason, as many games do, just doesn't have a point.

Nintendo seems to focus on family games. The exceptions, like Resident Evil or Eternal Darkness, don't exagerate. Although there is violence, it never exceeds a moral limit that Nintendo set for itself a long time ago.