Donkey Kong is the perfect example. The trilogy on SNES during RARE days had quite a few dark moments.
In DKC 1 we have the mines levels, the scary looking bosses, the overall dark graphics...
In DKC 2 we have... I would say the whole game, but things like the violence stuff (DK being tortured by K.Rool and Klubba hitting the Kongs with a spiked mace for example).
In DKC 3 we got the scariest bosses in the series, and K.Rool screaming after being shocked at the final battle can be a bit... Out of place for a kid-friendly game.
The lack of this stuff iis one of the things that made modern Donkey Kong games worse in my opinion.
But this isn't exclusive to Nintendo or gaming, I feel like a lot of "all ages" things are getting more and more on the soft side. Cartoons, movies and comics used to be much more "dark" when I was a kid.
i even dropped one of my favorite comic books because in modern days it feels like the authors are scared of "hurting" the kids, so the stories are all about "colorful things", "good messages" and not even true adventures anymore.
