Top 5 List: Top 5 Great "Kiddy" Games
We all have our guilty pleasures. Whether you like to listen to Britney Spears or love watching Pokémon movies, we all have interests that may possibly get us beat up if said interests were revealed on the playground. One of the mainstream complaints about Nintendo, for example, is that the games are too "kiddy". From the "Celda" flame wars when Wind Waker was announced to a general aversion to Kirby games, irrational loathing for colorful, fun titles is completely absurd. There are some truly excellent titles out there if you get past the marketing, and here is a couple lists compiled by us Geeks especially for you. If you avoided any of these games because you thought your friends would call you gay or something, now is the time to suck it up and enjoy some incredibly good titles.
Caspian's List:
5. Animal Crossing - Assumably meant to teach kids how to pay their mortgage (to Nook), plant a tree (even if it is a money tree, psh), and keep their house clean (don't want any bugs crawlin' 'round in there!). So why are adults so addicted to it?
4. Kingdom Hearts - Square thinks, 'Hey, let's make a game for kids with a bunch of neat Disney movie tie-ins.' Problem: If it has anything to do with Final Fantasy, all us growed-up types will be all over it like white on rice.
3. Harvest Moon - Not sure if this one really qualifies, seeing as you can go around searching for love interests. Hmmm. Anyway, funny side story: While playing the GBA version, my wife accidentally used the hammer tool on her in-game dog and it squealed in pain. Now, whenever I hear the Harvest Moon Dog sound, I figure my wife is back to her animal abusing ways.
2. Donkey Kong Jungle Beat - Oh, how kitschy! It has bongos for controllers. Pretty gimmicky in a juvenile way, right? Wrong. They jam packed all the DKC fun into an interesting control environment and it was a blast to play.
1. Donkey Kong Country - A trend here? One of those games where you scratch your head and say, sure- there's cute bananas that you collect, and fun little baddies that you trounce like pokey bees and toxic beavers, but there are complex timing elements and hidden rooms that the average child, I don't think, would pick up on. Not to mention, DKC was the cash cow that Golden Eye and Viva Pinata were eventually built on.
The Geek's List:
5) Katamari Damacy - Though not really overly recognized as being a "kiddy" game, Katamari is defintely of the style that they Halo and Madden crew would call kiddy. It's simple, it's cheery, and it's bring and colorful. But it's also one of the best original games to come out in recent years.
4) Kirby Air Ride - Obviously, a theme that's going to be pervasive throughout this list is bright and colorful. Because apparently, if it's not dark and gritty, then somehow it's a game only for kids. (That was sarcasm folks, try to keep up.) Kirby Air Ride uses a unique control scheme to make this a fun and different kind of racer. It has a unique mode called City Mode where you just race around a city, collecting powerups and different vehicles before you are plopped into a random race. Plus, the main character is a big pink ball of fluff. Pretty much completely overlooked by the entire gaming community, this game is tons of fun.
3) Kingdom Hearts - I love these games so much. So much. And it would be very easy for an outside observer to dismiss Kingdom Hearts as a kiddy game just because of all the Disney elements and the somewhat cutesy design of the main characters. But luckily for us, instead of the Disney side bringing down the FF side, FF brought up the Disney side and added some darker elements to it. Probably one of the most odd franchise crossovers ever, but easily one of the best.
2) Pokémon - Easily the biggest cash cow for Nintendo, and possibly for the entire history of the industry, Pokémon is pretty much the epitome of a "kiddy" game. But it's an amazingly solid RPG series with incredible staying and franchising power. By itself, the plain ol' Pokémon game isn't really kiddy at all. I don't think Pokémon was even relegated to kiddy status until the cartoon came out in the states and Pikachu became one of the top 3 cutest cartoon characters ever. But somehow despite being amazingly sadistic (fictional fantasy animals are forced to fight and then stuffed back in a little ball), the ol Pokeymans is shunned by many otherwise sensible gamers as being just for kids.
1) The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - I have to put this at the top of the list because this game got the most and loudest flak about supposedly being "kiddy". It still ticks me off to this day. Just because it has bright colors with cel shading and more rounded, artistic character designs, that doesn't mean the game is just for kids. Yes, it doesn't have hooker homicide at every turn and the enemies die in a poof of purple smoke instead of blood and entrials. What the crap, people? How is this any significantly different than the previous Zelda games? Yes, the graphics are brighter and more rounded than Ocarina of Time. It's not a drawback, it's called style.
Honorable Mention: That friggin' Zatch Bell game. BABY FIGHTS, WHEEEEEEEEEEE!!! I always say, some of the best comedy is unintentional.
Chris' List:
5. All NES Capcom Disney games (The Little Mermaid, Chip n' Dale's Rescue Rangers, Ducktales) - Capcom really did franchise titles right back in the 80's and early 90's. They took all the Disney Afternoon cartoons and turned them into fantastic, classic NES games. Even a game like The Little Mermaid took the basic plot of the movie and made it one of the best underwater platformers I have ever played. They invented new game mechanics that are still being used to this day. I really hope some of these come out on the Wii's Virtual Console and soon.
4. Viva Pinata -Truthfully, this was the game that sold the Xbox 360 to me. While it was originally created to combat the Pokémon series, complete with cartoon tie-in and merchandising, Viva stands on its own as a great sim game. There's little moments in the game that just make you think "wait, they made this for kids?". Such as when a pinata dies, the other pinatas come and devour the sweet delicious candy that spews forth. Who couldn't love that?
3. Pokémon Series - I was one of the first to grab Pokémon when it came out in the states, before the cartoon became popular and the card game was a twinkle in Nintendo's eye. Sure the monsters are cute and cleverly named, but the gameplay is deep and immersive, and the battle system simple yet hard to master. I have probably logged more game time in the Pokémon series than in any other game in my life, it's that good. If you are at all avoiding checking it out because of the little kid connotations, do yourself a favor and get that stick out of your ass.
2. Super Mario World 2 Yoshi's Island - It has colorful storybook-style drawings and a crying baby that just won't shut up, but this game is probably the greatest platformer of all time. Super catchy music, beautiful visuals and really unique gameplay that rewards exploration makes Yoshi's Island a can't-miss.
1. Wind Waker - The Geek already had this on his list, but I couldn't leave it off of mine. By far my favorite Zelda game, Wind Waker felt like playing an interactive cartoon. The game was perfectly crafted in my opinion. The music was seamless and the animations were so incredibly fluid. It was an epic adventure for the Gamecube that is completely unparalleled, and I was saddened by the fact that there was SO much outcry against the "kiddy" style that Nintendo decided to make Twilight Princess this horribly ugly "realistic" art direction. I will take painstakingly perfected and well-thought out cartoony character design over the crud that they shoveled to us in TP any day.
What say you?!