Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Mad World and Nintendo get slammed by the NIMF


Looks like The National Institute on Media and the Family is disappointed with Nintendo for letting a game like Mad World be released on one of their systems. Look at some quotes:

"The release of Mad World for the Wii brings violent video games to a once family-friendly platform," said Dr. David Walsh, president of the National Institute on Media and the Family. "In Mad World, gamers use the Wii Remote to make the necessary physical actions to chainsaw an opponent in half, impale an enemy with a signpost or decapitate a victim with a golf club. MadWorld is another reminder that parents need to make sure they watch what their kids watch and play what their kids play.

"In the past, the Wii has successfully sold itself as being the gaming console for the entire family and a way to bring family-game nights back into people's living rooms. Unfortunately, Nintendo opened its doors to the violent video games genre. The National Institute on Media and the Family hopes that Nintendo does not lose sight of its initial audience and continues to offer quality, family-friendly games."

Link

From reading that it's obvious that the NIMF doesn't really know Nintendo at all, Nintendo has been trying desperately for the past 8 years since the Gamecube launched to get developers to believe in them and make Mature games for their systems. While it started to happen a little with the Gamecube, it is really starting to happen on the Wii now that it's the market leader. Mad World is a strong indication that more games like this are on the way for the Wii. Nintendo lets the other guys worry about Mature content while they focus on what they've always done: making great games for people of all ages and not just the kiddies.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

"In the past, the Wii has successfully sold itself as being the gaming console for the entire family and a way to bring family-game nights back into people's living rooms. Unfortunately, Nintendo opened its doors to the violent video games genre. "

So they have never heard of:

-The Godfather: Black Hand Edition.
-Scarface
-House of the Dead 2&3
-Resident Evil 4
-Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles
-Mortal Combat: Armageddon
-No More Heroes
-House of the Dead: Overkill
-Call of Duty 3
-Call of Duty WaW
etc etc etc

And NOW, all of a sudden...

"Madworld is the first violent game to come out on Wii, and we don't trust Nintendo with our children anymore!"

Ignorance, the disease that keeps forgetting why it spreads...

May I ask why a parent cannot just avoid buying their children M-RATED games which have CLEAR indications on the FRONT of the box, that lets parent know what kind of content is inside the game?

I though that ESRB ratings had a purpose...I guess I'm the fool.

Anonymous said...

Forget them trying to understand Nintendo... they first need to understand what the Wii is about.

Assuming that the Wii caters to kids? The Wii caters to a very diverse crowd. Young and old. Thus if these morons were a bit familiar with the Wii, they would know that the console was by logic, going to attract games design for kids and adults. And some of those games would target specifically gamers of a certain age, in the case of MadWorld, adults.

And I guess they never heard of Rockstar's Manhunt 2 on the Wii.

Sheesh!

Anonymous said...

"MadWorld is another reminder that parents need to make sure they watch what their kids watch and play what their kids play."

This sentence makes my head hurt. Shouldn't parents be doing that anyways? :(

Gregory Weagle said...

Where in the heck was NIMF when BMX XXX was released on Gamecube? The only one that was fully uncensored? Never mind that Nintendo allowed Mortal Kombat 2 for the SNES to be uncensored back in the mid 1990's. This proves that Nintendo Wii is truly in the same league now as PS2 was; only Wii has more than enough excellent family friendly games (even among third party developers) to balance the M-rated stuff out.

Don't forget Grand Theft Auto: China Town Wars on DS NIMF. It's M-rated too. Way too little, way too late guys. Even Jack Thompson is smarter than you when it comes to Nintendo and when that happens; you are hosed creditability wise.

Personally; this doesn't bother me much since most parent groups believe what memes are spewed on the internet from the virals. After all; Microsoft was the one that started the kiddy meme en masse for so long.

Human beings are cognitive misers and these kinds of shortcuts in thinking will occur. It happens to us all; including myself.