Mature Games Are Great, But Where Have All The Kiddie Games Gone?

by Roehl Sybing 

There has been a lot of controversy about mature content, religious issues, and censorship involving video games. Unsurprisingly, some of us are talking about Final Fantasy VII and all SquareSoft games thereafter. Don't get me wrong, FFVII is great. I love the game, but it's not like past Final Fantasy games, is it? It's got suggestive material, immoral content, and all-around bad stuff in it.

But that's not my concern. In the post-Mortal Kombat era, there are a lot of games out there with suggestive material in them. That's fine and dandy with me, is it with you? Does the fact that the majority of games out there are only worthy of a teen or higher rating satisfy you? I hope it does, and I hope you're happy.

What is the point of all my sarcasm? The fact is that there are alarmingly few games left that can appeal to all audiences without having suggestive content in them. Final Fantasy VI (U.S. FF III) was one of the last breed of games that fit this category. Final Fantasy VII is miles apart, if not miles ahead, of its previous counterparts. FFVII is part of a new generation of games that's got video gamers saying that video games aren't for kids anymore. What have we done?

Let's explore this for a minute. There are many video gamers out there making excuses to create mature games for all these new systems. Many excuses, like, "A child doesn't stay a virgin forever," or, "If the child gets corrupted, it's the parent's fault." But that does not mean that we can let video game companies happiily corrupt children and then blame it on the parents. Would you like someone blaming you for not buying a lock for your door? I'll tell you one thing: If a child in this society grows up too fast, it'll be everyone's fault, myself included.

So, what's the solution? We just can't stop packing the shelves with games like Final Fantasy VII, Tomb Raider, or Forsaken 64. No, but the door swings both ways. Me, I still like the cutesy games with the heavy "awwww" factor. Games like Twinbee, Donkey Kong, and Bubble Bobble. Where are the games with that kind of content nowadays? Are the Namco arcade revivals for Playstation the only games kids can play anymore? Did we dump the cutesy and general audience games when we raised the reality factor? (Note: I know what you're thinking, but puzzle games don't count, ladies and gentlemen. I'm certainly not leaving my future son or daughter with a few Tetris variations and saying that was video gaming when I was small. Not a chance in hell.)

So, you're probably saying, "All the great mediums - television, radio, etc. - have mature content. Why do video games have to avoid that stuff?" I'll tell you why. Because video games are the largest form of interactive entertainment in this society, second only to the Internet. As with the Internet, we have a responsibility to young audiences and successive generations (in video game time, of course) to demand content that can be viewed by all. Personally, I'm tired of asking companies to put blood in Mortal Kombat, if you know what I mean.

We've become so grown-up that we forgot what it was to be children, what it was to pick up a controller and lose the real world for a bit. Back then, parents didn't need to worry that their child might be corrupted by games like Donkey Kong or 1941 or Doraemon. Now, they have to worry if their childrens' games have suggestive content in it? I sure don't want to be responsible for placing that burden, one out of so many, on the parents.

To sum everything up, don't give up games like Final Fantasy VII, Tomb Raider or Parasite Eve. By all means, you are free to buy the games you love. It's a free country, I won't stop you. What I'm saying is that you need to picture what it was like to be a child, what it was like to play all those innocent games, like Super Mario, or Metroid, or Final Fantasy I. When I take a look at the shelf these days, I know for sure there aren't games like those anymore. But we simply cannot shrug, hide behind the veil of anti-censorship, and say that we cannot create original games with characters like Mario, Samus Aran, or (to get more current) Cecil or Terra anymore. What, then, does that leave our future children with?