S.T.A.G.E. said:
F0X said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:
Soundwave said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:
Soundwave said:
The type of "mature IP" that would be ideal for Nintendo would be something more like Uncharted or the James Bond IP.
Something that appeals to hardcore players (namely 14-35 year old males) without being wildly out of sync with Nintendo's reputation as a family company.
Grand Theft Auto is too ridiculously violent, it's just not a good fit with Nintendo's other franchises. |
Mature games are aimed at 17+.
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I meant in terms of a game property that appeals to that kind of audience. Bond or a character in the vein of Drake is a far better fit for Nintendo than a game like Grand Theft Auto.
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Most Nintendo characters dont enjoy much dialogue. Nintendo just focuses on mechanics, but I see your point. A realistic character doesn't always fit well in the Nintendo wheelhouse. Luckily for Samus her outfit and and color scheme fit into the Nintendo universe by design even though shes on the realistic end.
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I think you need to clarify your criteria for realistic characters. Are you talking actual characterization, aesthetics, or both at the same time (which makes sense to me)?
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Nintendos characters by design are made for a child to teen audience even though they are sold to everyone. Adults color patterns change as they get older. The aesthetic is known to catch the eye of women and children with mostly bright primary colors (and some secondary) and highly exaggerated and round shapes. They were designed based on formula, which is also used by disney. I studied this formula in school when I was learning to draw cartoons.
Primary colors
Jumping from what Nintendo does to this...
Sony is clearly going for a teen audience with formula
The last photo is a great example of variety (when it comes to games), but loses itself because of lack of harmony, even in the color schemes from a passers view. As you get to the adult games theres less colorful and more muddy. Theres more mixture of tones to replicate reality and less vibrance. In the Disney/Nintendo realm solid colors are a must. Same goes with Sony's teen games.
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Fair enough criteria, but I have a few things to add:
1. Brawl would be a more fitting representation than Melee if only because it is a more recent example of the direction Nintendo has been taking with its franchises. I also believe that the use of color in Melee was an attempt to uniformalize the art direction more than anything else, as certain characters do seem to look quite different from their portrayals in their native franchise. Brawl's characters are more faithfully depicted (though there are exceptions, like Toon Link, interestingly).
2. Also take into account the Japanese perspective. Some of Nintendo's more anime-esque franchises feature brightly colored characters, but are actually geared to teens and adults. Namely Fire Emblem, where a distinction could possibly be made for how the actual in-game models (or sprites), as well as the environments, are designed compared to the character portraits. This also seems to hold true for parts of the world impacted by Japanese popular culture, in my experience.
3. Taking this further, it's not hard to see how many Nintendo franchises are influenced by specific styles of anime as well as western animation. F-Zero leans towards what appears to be a cross between comic book and sci-fi teen/adult anime (and indeed there was a surprisingly mature F-Zero anime). I think there's plenty of room to go deeper into this topic beyond using primary colors.
