happydolphin said:
This is a topic that has always bothered me. I know that New Super Mario Bros. is an excellent game, and Mario Galaxy is a jewel of a game. But do the themes need to be so childish? Mario Kart, same diff.
As an older man, there are movies for kids that I can watch because they don't alienate me. Examples of these are disney's movies especially.
There are companies out there that create content that appeals to children, of all ages, and on a wide variety of themes. My favorite example of these is Disney. Time and time again, this company was able to release one classic after another of top content that appealed to children, and to adults alike. The Little Mermaid, The Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Tarzan, and so on and so forth.
When we look at Nintendo, we found something similar in the origins of the Super Mario series:
 
Donkey kong, the story of a Gorilla breaking down scaffolds that a construction worker (Mario) is attempting to climb in order to save the kidnapped princess. Sounds like King Kong... hmm not a movie for kids if I recall. What about Mario Bros, the story of a plummer that needs to attack crabs and turtles and butterflies, with fireballs coming out of the wall to attack him. The colors in both game are not aggressively childish, and hold neutral shades of blue, green, red and brown, with Peach's pink as the exception.
The trend continues all the way to Mario 3 and even on to Super Mario 64. But something happened at some point in the Gamecube era where Nintendo decided to inject colors and lame story
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I think that you are looking at the history of Mario through "nostalgic 80's goggles" and misconstruing things to support your argument that aren't really the case. For example, the level design of Donkey Kong being in a construction site was not chosen to give it a "appeal to adults theme" but instead had a far more practical purpose:
"Miyamoto had high hopes for his new project. He lacked the technical skills to program it himself, so instead came up with concepts and consulted technicians to see if they were possible. He wanted to make the characters different sizes, move in different manners and react in various ways. Yokoi thought Miyamoto's original design was too complex. Another idea Yokoi suggested was to use see-saws to catapult the hero across the screen; this was too difficult to program. Miyamoto then thought of using sloped platforms, barrels and ladders. "
The choice of colors as well had far more practical purposes than simply to remain neutral so as to appeal to adults:
"Shigeru Miyamoto designed Mario wearing a hat because he found drawing hair difficult. He also drew Mario with a mustache because a mustache was easier to see than a mouth with 8-bit graphics. Miyamoto designed Mario with overalls that contrast with his sleeves to help in the animation of his arm motions. The sleeves are of the same color of his shirt and without the overalls the arms would disappear during the movements. Overalls: Stylish and practical."
The choices that were made in game design for Donkey Kong or the original Mario games in the 80's were born out of necessity rather than what you saw as a conscious choice to appeal to all ages.
