Dan Damon 

February 5th, 2018.

Nintendo is a Japanese multinational video game company that is notorious for building on franchises such as The Legend of Zelda, Pokémon, and arguably the most successful franchise in gaming, Super Mario. These titles have a reputation of their nostalgic and fun gameplay, with players spending endless hours behind their screens whether alone or with friends and family. Ever since they saved the video game industry in the 80s, Nintendo has skyrocketed in their production of quality games and have proven themselves worthy of possibly being the best gaming company of all time.

Despite the popularity of Nintendo, modern Nintendo fans face a problem that many would never imagine to be an issue. Nowadays, teenagers and even some adults get bullied or are told to “grow up” for playing Nintendo games. Why does this generation has created this viewpoint of Nintendo games being childish, and feels the need to harass, or at the very least scoff at others who innocently play these games and mind their own business? There are reasons upon reasons why this argument of Nintendo games being “for little kids” gets first prize for being the absolute dumbest thing I have ever heard, and why it fails to be even close to the truth.

Most of the people who say Nintendo is for little kids are, (surprise, surprise…) kids themselves! For example, today’s world of middle schoolers host some competition on who is the most “manly”. According to them, you are required to play Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty, or some other extremely violent and graphic game to be “cool”. What these people are oblivious to is the fact that making fun of people about what they like to do is ten times more childish than someone playing Nintendo games. They are the real ones that are immature. It’s irony and hypocrisy all in one! Also, there’s no manly scale when it comes to video games. Just because your game is rated “M” doesn’t mean that you’re the most hardcore person to ever step on planet earth. Video games are video games, you can’t compare them to being more childish than another because their all essentially the same thing; pressing buttons with your fingers.

Nintendo games are kid friendly, and very little mature themes can be found in them. The worldwide anti-Nintendo club seems to believe that if a game is kid-friendly, then it’s strictly only for kids. That theory is also absolute trash because they don’t realize that Nintendo does an excellent job of implementing factors into their games that can appeal to all ages. For example, Pokémon is a huge target that anti-Nintendoers love to poke at, and it ranks high on their “little kid” scale. However, they don’t realize that Pokémon is actually pretty complicated, especially when you enter the world of competitive battling. Pokémon is a game full of 800+ monsters that fight for you and they all have individual stats, abilities, and movesets. It’s like a giant game of chess, and it takes a lot of intelligence and strategy to win against skilled players. That’s what makes Pokémon an all-age game, because the bright and colorful monsters appeal to kids, but the sheer complexity makes it appeal to older players. But do you think the Nintendo bullies look into any of that? Nope! Because 99% of them base their judgements on the look of the game. Nothing is more stupid than hearing someone mock you for liking Nintendo games when they don’t even know anything about the game other than the fact that it looks “kiddie”.

The modern world is very judgmental. People are judged for the games they play, the music they listen to, how they look, and it’s just nonsensical. The way I see it, if someone is minding their own business and doing something that’s not illegal, then leave them be. Nintendo haters need to learn that people are going to have different opinions, and they have to face the facts that some people are going to aim their preferences towards Nintendo games.