Perfect Dark was self-published by Rare. Geist was published by Nintendo, but developed by n-Space. These points have all been stated previously in other posts.

@Danny355:

You're clearly missing the point. The fact that the main character is a fox flying a spaceship does not mean that the story and atmosphere of the game cannot have mature themes. If you haven't played it, you probably won't understand.

Ive played it, I had JP starfox for the snes in when it came out too, I just disagree. I dont see how its more "mature" than Zelda or Metroid or anything else where you're going to get killed if you lose. I just find the concept of measuring the "maturity" of a games theme completely bizarre.

I'm fairly certain that Nintendo published Perfect Dark, and the only Rare published N64 game was Conker's Bad Fur Day; Nintendo (correctly) didn't believe there was much of a market for a cartoony-mature platformer because it alienated both people who were typically interested in platformes with its mature content, and people who were looking for a mature game with its cartoony graphics.

@HappySqurriel:

I hate to continue to argue with you, but I have the Perfect Dark box sitting on the shelf right next to me and it clearly states "Published by Rare". If you look at the enlarged version of the box art in the Wikipedia entry, you can see it. Diddy Kong Racing and Jet Force Gemini were also published by Rare, though of course were not rated M.

@Danny355:

I'm not necessarily saying that it's more mature than the Zelda or Metroid series, just that the juxtaposition of the character design to the nature of the plot makes the mature themes stand out. As for "measuring" the maturity of a game's themes, it was just a question that I wanted to hear some opinions on. You don't hear about thousands of mushroom retainers meeting untimely ends at the hands of a vicious squad of mercenaries in the Mario games; as Nintendo traditionally has a more "family-friendly" image than many other companies, I was curious to know which of their self-developed titles had the most impact in this area in each player's mind, and whether the developers seem to be moving toward or away from those types of themes.

That's a hell of a long sentence.

Conkers problem was two fold first was the issue of delay, and the second was of timing. The multiple delays frosted over interest, and when the game finally arrived the console was not long for this world. Most 64 owners by that point having already moved on to new platforms, and the sales trend of the consoles software due to lack of software had ebbed off.

Had the game arrived earlier in the consoles life it might have done surprisingly well. We will never know. Instead it exploded into a barren wasteland with hardly anyone there to pay attention. Followed by the debacle that was the Xbox release did not help the franchise either. I have little doubt retailers railed against the title for one reason. The game looked like a game for young children, but was adult oriented. So you have the Joe Camel stigma associated with it.

Personally I think the game was ahead of its time, and the concept will probably not be revisited for many years. Traditional platformers will still be dominated by shallow story, and little adult humor. Which is a shame every other genre has been given a chance to grow up, but not this genre. Had the profanity or the crude humor been in any other genre it would have gotten the green light.

I hope Rare does develop another Conker game down the line. Killing Frenchies was ever so much fun.

@RolStoppable:

The Fire Emblem series definitely fits in with what I'm talking about, as mentioned in the first post. Not only do you have the lives of your soldiers to worry about, there are innocents to be protected from war criminals and bandits alike. This series has also been the most consistent in theme and style out of all of Nintendo's series, but that also relates directly to the genre and subject matter. It's not unexpected for the Fire Emblem games to be this way, as they always have been. Though, I suppose it is significant that they have remained as such for so long.

The Advance Wars series looks like it will be experimenting with a new, more "mature" style in the next installment, so it will be interesting to see where that goes. Both series are developed by Intelligent Systems, which was born from Gunpei Yokoi's R&D1 studio which created the Metroid series. They seem to have the corner on serious content within Nintendo's internal teams (though they are also responsible for the whimsical Paper Mario series).

@Dodece:

While I enjoyed the N64 Bad Fur Day, I don't think that it was a direction that platformers needed to continue in. Though I have played very little of them, it seems that the Jak and Ratchet & Clank series have both presented progressively more "mature" storylines and game designs, while not resorting to the all-out scatalogical aspects of the Conker's titles.

Ah, i was thinking of the original Donkey Kong game, but that would be 1) 25 years old (1983 right? [and before November]) and 2) Jumpman instead of Mario.

I'm surprised it took so long for someone to mention Fire Emblem. The slavery and subjugation of the Laguz, the almost sexual pleasure taken in the Heron clan by the nobles, and many other "mature" themes come into this game, above and beyond the simple fact that people die in it.