Recently in the “Is handheld gaming doomed?” thread, while listing the best selling games for DS and 3DS. I’ve run into many diverging opinions about what constitutes a casual game. The games in question were:

New Super Mario Bros., Nintendogs, Mario Kart DS, Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day, Pokémon Diamond / Pearl for DS

Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, Nintendogs + cats, Monster Hunter 3G for 3DS

At first, I had flagged only Nintendogs and Brain Age as casual games but from Andrespetmonkey’s perspective he believed that Mario Kart was definitely casual and also mentioned that Super Mario 3D Land “isn’t exactly hardcore”. This exchange prompted GhaudePhaede010 to state that both Mario Kart and Smash Bros. weren’t hardcore because they appeal to women and non-gamers. Finally, outlawauron dropped a bomb by declaring he considers all above games casual (even Monster Hunter to some degree).

This whole exchange left me confused, I was aware not everyone had to same definition of casual but I never imagined people could push it this far.

So I’m asking guys, what is YOUR definition of a casual game? Does it include only party games, mini-game collections, educational and fitness games? Or does any game with accessible gameplay qualifies as casual? Does being family friendly tip the scale? Is it the number of hours required to finish it that determine its status? Are you required to have guns in a game to make it hardcore? Enlighten me VGChartz!

Also as a side experiment for those interested, I would like you to simply answer casual or hardcore for the following games (or game series):

Mario (platformers)
Zelda
Halo
Grand Theft Auto
Call of Duty
Mario Kart
Madden
Uncharted
Street Fighter
Final Fantasy
Monster Hunter
Smash Bros.
Guitar Hero/Rock Band
Gears of War

Herein lies my biggest beef with the term "casual" game. Everybody is quick to point them out and criticize them, but nobody can ever define them. That is because they don't exist. They are not a real genre. It's simply branding by the gaming media and gamers.

Thank you ToS!! I'll formulate an answer and post it.

To expand on Metallicube's idea, it's all just branding, it's kind of the same deal with the term "hardcore gamer" with the exception that nobody really calls them self a casual gamer anywhere near as much. If you had to define, I'd say a casual game concentrates on easy but really fun gameplay, it'll still have challenge to it, but never to the point where the players will feel discouraged and will keep on playing.

Mario Kart Wii. It a simple game that has a randomly generated winner and takes no skill to win in. I'm a lucky, lucky guy.

pretty much any nintendo game that sells more than a playstation game

Personally I think any game can be played in a hardcore or casual fashion. (I played the shit out of Endless Ocean 2 when I got it, alternately some people probably just drop into Zelda for an hour every few days)

I guess there are some games that are targeted towards specific types of gamers though, but trying to put all games into 2 categories like that is ridiculous, especially when games like NSMB exist, which I personally feel fits in neither "casual" nor "hardcore".

I would like to define a casual game as one that largely mainly attracts the purchase of the casual audience. If it attracts the purchase of a core audience, then the degree will affect its category. If it's to a very small degree, then it is still casual. If not, then it is not a casual game.

I would like to define a core game as one that largely mainly attracts the purchase of the core audience. If it attracts the purchase of a casual audience, then the degree will affect its category. If it's to a very small degree, then it is still core. If not, then it is not a core game.

If a game attracts both casual and core consumers, then depending on the game, it will have a different nametag (see table below).

I would like to go a step further and offer two categories of gamers.

E: Everybody. Moms, girls, boys, young men, older men, women, people of all ages that share one thing in common: they're not big on Gory, Violence and Sexually explicit themes.

M: Mature. Generally adult men, specifically adult men who like Gore, Violence and sexually explicit themes.

EM: Everyone and their dogs. Either the sum of both Es and Ms, or people who are just in both situations.

I would think an easy definition would be a party game. If you can easily play it with your Grandma and she enjoys it then it is practically a casual game. Not all Nintendo games are casual, as most people seem to want to believe. All Mario games take a certain amount of skill. Some take more than others but you get the main point. Kirby I would also say is a non-"casual" game. It still takes a certain amount of gaming skill to play even if it is one of the easiest platformers' out there. Basically if a game takes skill and active attention then I would deem it non-"casual."