Nintendo honestly makes some really dark games despite being labeled as "childish". Games like Majora's Mask, Metroid, even Mario RPG have darker plotlines and symbolism.
As soon as I saw the title I thought Majora's Mask! The old pokemon games were kinda dark, especially compared to the new ones. Chopping off pokemon tails and killing them 0.0
Eternal Darkness....nuff said (although they didn't make it per say Miyamoto had a lot of involvement & they published it)
Someone could easily argue that Super Smash Bros for the N64 was a dark game, with the empty-sort of feeling throughout the game, the dark voices and darker shade used for graphics, and some that menu music was almost complete silence. Others would include, The Metroid Series, (Super Metroid is one I have most memory of playing in a dark room) LoZ: Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess Eternal Darkness Luigi's Mansion Earthbound had some pretty dark moments in it Pikmin had some dark moments too, but it feels more empty than dark This is personally my own opinion, but I always felt Super Mario 64 was a dark game. Just the whole feeling of Super Mario Bro's, but open world, I always felt alone and because it was the first 3D-Mario title I was playing, I always had that looming feeling that I was being watched from where I couldn't spin the camera, the fact that I couldn't see all around me at once in a game bothered me. Hazy Maze Cave, Boo's Mansion, and the underwater levels were all other examples of how dark and empty the game felt to me.
Pokemon is incredibly dark when you think about it, you traverse the land with red and white balls that contains murderous monsters willing to kill on command. You stomp around the grass until other monsters show up and then you have your monsters beat, burn, and poison them until they pass out leaving them to possibly never revive all because you want a bunch of points so you can get shiny badges. Also like Throwaway Duck said, Pikmin can get pretty dark as well as you can kill your Pikmin on purpose tossing them into water like a madman.
Final Fantasy VI is really dark, if you want to count it. The fact that, about halfway through the game, the villain succeeds in DESTROYING THE WORLD, and drives the party to want to commit suicide, since there is nothing left to fight for or to save, is more than enough to qualify it as 'dark'.
Now that I think about it, the Banjo Kazooie game with Witch Grundy? I think her name was...she was freaky as hell too! oO
They don't make games that are dark in the same way "mature" games are, with events that are in-your-face grim like Mass Effect's Reapers who liquefy people alive and use the nutrients to replicate. They make games that are full of fridge horror that is much more potent the more you think about it. It's a good strategy in a way. If a kid doesn't get it, no harm done, they just play the game and hardly realize something really messed-up just happened. If an older person plays, they are able to get a more meaningful experience that isn't just cutesy absurdity. I chalk up a lot of it to my own personal rule: If it's Japanese, don't ask questions. Because Japanese stuff is weird as f*** and needs no reason to be so.
I don't think that Luigis Mansion is actually a dark game. At all. It's full of humor, and it's a good game, but not dark. They're rather old, but the Mother games / Earthbound are supposed to be really, really dark. I haven't played them myself, though.
Me too! That game would depress the hell out of me when I was 8 or so, with that sinking skull moon and everyone's frantic story line. Good times. ---------- Post added 9th Aug 2014 at 01:41 AM ---------- The next thought actually was FF7, despite the fact that it obviously wasn't a Nintendo game LOL.
Xenoblade Chronicles is another dark Nintendo game. The Pikmin games have dark aspects to them as well, plus some just really startling and scary enemies (like Beady Long Legs and the Water Wraith). Kid Icarus Uprising has some really dark moments, but they're kinda suppressed by the humour in that game. Also, can we count Bayonetta now? XD
I don't know if any of you guys have played the latest pokemon games X & Y, but those games are definitely dark. I mean, it is literally a Hitler thing. Since I don't know how to use the spoiler function I'll just use this. Spoilers ahead for those who don't like them!!! The leader and those he deems worthy(those that payed millions to him) are the only ones that will be left alive after he uses the power of the legendary pokemon to kill every pokemon and human on the region. It's literally a genocide of those he find that are filthy on unworthy of being alive and sharing the world with him.
And yet he was handily beaten by a kid with a level 55 Chatot and a few friends. In the annals of villainy, he was about as strong as the Grinch. He was a very realistic kind of evil though. I have to commend Pokemon for having such a cool bad guy.
Well it is inevitable, he needs to be defeated for the hero to succeed. But overall he was a great villain. Even the fact that he cried when he knew pokemon would be killed as well is something other villains didn't have, and I really enjoyed it.
It was so close to being a nintendo game...funny how one game kind of changed the whole console war that generation.
Has anyone paid attention to some of the Pokedex entries? Some are just downright creepy. Like Drifloon's 'These Pokémon are called the "Signpost for Wandering Spirits." Children holding them sometimes vanish.' Seriously? Or Phantump's 'According to old tales, these Pokémon are stumps possessed by the spirits of children who died while lost in the forest.' There are more entries but still, Pokemon is supposed to be geared towards all ages. >_<