It's pretty safe to say that the core audience of this game probably has never even heard of EGM or VGCharts.com for that matter. It's not aimed at us. It's aimed at the same people that bought Nintendogs. I saw this game, and instantly thought of my 7 year old daughter. My son already has a Wii, but part of the reason I bought her, her own Wii was so that she could play Endless Ocean. It is a fun diversion. People enjoy themselves doing alot of things that have nothing to do with conflict. Playing a guitar, walking a toepath through the woods, watching TV. My daughter wants to be a marine biologist when she grows up and loves going to Seaworld. When we went to Typhoon Lagoon in Disney World we got to do the dive in the shark tank. The sharks were of the harmless variety and there was no danger, no conflict, or air gauges, but we had a blast. My daughter will love exploring an ocean that is endless. It's aimed at those people. Some people in the video game community are just bent because this game has totaly ignored the self proclaimed "hardcore". Just deal with it. It's not the end of the world.

who says you don't have to worry about the air?, at least in my game i do have.

 +1 for bulletstopper.

True gamers play all kinds of games.
(and real men use items)

All I have to add is

http://zzap64.co.uk/zzap7/lcp.html

 I agree with almost all of this, although Endless Ocean isn't exactly a game for children -- any more than biology and Scuba Diving would be. Children would certainly enjoy the latter (and be informed by the former), but those are definitely adult activities, as well. 

If we are to go by generalizations (which I happen to think are largely correct), it's important to remember that the Wii has an adult audience as well, one that is on the whole older than the 360 or PS3. The defining games of the PS360 are for 18-30 year old males. Games like Endless Ocean or Wii Sports can be played by children, but are also enjoyed by 50 year olds. In a way, this game is more adult than, say, Gears of War -- a game that is only "mature" in the sense that there is so much senseless violence that kids probably shouldn't play it. You'd have to search far to find a grown woman over 40 playing Gears of War (I'm sure there are some), but you'd find that Endless Ocean appeals much more readily to adults. 

As a side note to my above post, there really are two separate definitions of "mature" that people work with.

One, as stated above, is something that has so much sex and/or violence that children probably should not play it, regardless of how simple it may be. If you redid Mario 64, except had Mario cuss constantly and had the Goombas profusely gush blood every time they're stomped, that would make Mario a "mature" game by this standard. It certainly could achieve an "M" rating from the ESRB this way, and it's an important standard for some people, mind you.

But then there are things that are considered "mature" that have no violence or profanity whatsoever: classical music comes to mind, as does sculpture, opera, and movies such as Straight Story or The Ice Storm. In general, most people would agree that Children should be allow to hear/view such material -- but by and large, children find this boring for various reasons and wouldn't want to hear/view it anyway.

It's important to keep those two separate definitions in mind. In my post above, I think Gears of War (the example I gave) is much more "mature" by the former definition, but Endless Ocean is more "mature" by the latter.

 QFT.  People have grown to assume that mature = sex/violence rather than mature = adult themed concepts.  I would say that WiiFit is also a mature game because it appeals to adults who are looking for something that's not gratutious violence.