Growing up as a devout Nintendo fan has had its fair share of pleasantries: Quality products, unique titles and even a few nostalgically fun rehashings have all been the norm over the years. Though staggering to me, not everyone has had the same experience or impression. It seems that nowadays the brunt of what I hear from young adults and growing teens isn't appreciation, but the misuse of the “F” word. Now hold on, you don’t need to recall the recent SpawN confrontation to know what I’m talking about here. What I’m touching on is the “For Kids” or “For Children” phrase. Everyone is trying to classify Nintendo as “For” something or another, and quite frankly it’s about time people get it right.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that throughout its history, Nintendo has strictly stood by the do-gooder image —always having a no nonsense policy towards sex, drugs and realistic violence in its games. And as other companies introduce themselves to the video game market, the difference between Nintendo and its competitors has become much more apparent . With the launch of the Xbox, the common philosophy (and marketing pitch) was that the Xbox was for older audiences, and Nintendo was for kids.

As it stands today, many have ascertained that Sony and Microsoft stand alone in the “adult” gaming world, seemingly only to include Nintendo as leverage over one another (Notice Microsoft’s push for the 360-Wii combo over the PS3). It’s like competitors literally treat Nintendo as a company in an entirely different market. In fact, it is starting to look as if Microsoft is actually starting to buy into its own pitch. Such a nonchalant attitude towards Nintendo isn’t what gripes me though. I mean after all, their mistake is my gain right?

What bothers me is the image forcefully painted on Nintendo fans as a result of Microsoft trying to chip away at Sony’s empire. People don’t seem to recognize that what is said about Nintendo is nothing more than a business plan and hopeful jargon. Not many people appear to actually recognize what is going on —instead they just believe what they hear and spread it along: “Nintendo is for kids, Xbox has ‘M’ games, therefore, it’s for adults." Somehow some way everyone has fallen into this train of thought, without even thinking about it.

Thankfully enough, I'm a thinking man, and I bet my fellow DPAD junkies are too. So, let’s go over the “facts” again and see if we can’t solve this little problem. Nintendo has a strong stance against drugs, sex and violent content. If you look at everything from a general perspective this is very true, but if you look a little bit deeper you will see it is much, much more than that. What Nintendo is against isn’t the aforementioned, but the excessive, which is to say more than is needed. Anyone who has seen Zero Suit Samus or Japanese Nintendo adverts knows that the developer isn’t against sex appeal, but rather lewdness. Every SSBM guru can tell you that Nintendo doesn’t neglect violence, but rather gratuitous terrorism. It seems that the only thing people are right about is the indifference with drug-infused content. But this hardly means Nintendo is “For Kids."

The concurrent justification for the “F” word is as stated: Nintendo doesn’t have all of the “adult” qualities that other developers and publishers do. Well, I’m here to make it very clear that none of the characteristics in question make anyone more “adult” than others. Glorifying drugs, lewdness and gratuitous violence isn’t the trait of adults, it’s the trait of irresponsibility. Which ironically enough is an antonym of maturity. That isn’t to say that it isn’t fun to step into the shoes of an assassin from time to time, as in Hitman: Blood Money, but to claim the lack of such qualities define you as juvenile is childish in itself.

While all of us will have to sit through the same argument over and over for the next year as the PS3 and Microsoft rivalry builds, there’s no reason to condone it by helping to spread the fallacious image of Nintendo and its fans. At the moment, there’s only one proper way to use the “F” word in conjunction with Nintendo. You see, the company has grown alongside us for over ten years, and if they have been “For” anything, it’s gamers. And what of the next decade? With the launch of the Wii in Q4 of 2006 we may very well see a shift in verbiage, where Nintendo no longer functions “For gamers,” but more appreciably “For everyone."