Nintendo is known as a family-friendly developer and console manufacturer that appeals to exactly this target group with Super Mario in various games. Even before the plumber’s first appearance, Nintendo tried an erotic game that never saw the light of day.
What game is it about? When you watch a Nintendo commercial, you almost always see families playing games like Mario Kart or Switch Sports. Even though their own children don’t always play perfectly, Nintendo is generally known as a child-friendly gaming company, but it wasn’t always that way.
Even before Nintendo produced its own home consoles, the company was known for toys and card games. Before the NES, people tried arcade consoles, i.e. fixed games that could be played in dedicated halls. You put change into the machine and you could play a round until you died and then you had to put money in again.
A big genre in the arcade era was light gun shooters. Instead of a classic joystick, you used a replica of a weapon with which you aim at a screen and shoot at opponents. The most famous game in the genre is probably House of the Dead.
For a presentation of one of these games, Wild Gunman, a legendary Nintendo developer came up with a much raunchier version: Fascination.
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A prototype supposedly to impress male journalists
What kind of game was Fascination? In 1974, 7 years before Mario’s first appearance in Donkey Kong, the Fascination prototype was developed as part of the development of Wild Gunman. Wild Gunman had scenes shot with real actors and then you could interact with a toy gun. You can find a document with the prototype on videoamesdensetsu’s tumblr blog.
Gunpei Yokoi was supposed to develop the game. The legendary developer was later also responsible for the Game Boy at Nintendo. According to a quote from GoNintendo, the developer said the following about a presentation about the game:
I knew that only male journalists would be present at the Wild Gunman presentation, so I wondered if there wasn’t a way to score a big coup by doing something unusual that would seduce them. This is how I imagined fascination.
In Fascination you didn’t shoot opposing cowboys. The focus of the game is a young woman who dances to the rhythm of the music. As a player you shoot at the clothing, which makes the model in the game become more and more revealing.
Although it was quite popular according to Yokoi’s quote, it was never properly released.
Prototypes are said to have been set up in Shinjuku, but there was never a real release. This was supposedly because the technology was too complicated and the parts were more fragile than other light gun shooters. Since the game was never released as an arcade game, there are no videos or real pictures of the gameplay.
Are there adult games on Nintendo consoles? After that, Nintendo itself didn’t develop a game that was classified for ages 16 or 18. However, several games appeared on the respective consoles that were aimed more at an adult audience. The GameCube even had an exclusive deal with Resident Evil 4.
There are also countless games on the Switch that are not just family-friendly. Mortal Kombat 1, Doom Eternal or The Witcher 3 are just a few examples. With Catherine: Full Body there is even a puzzle game with erotic elements from the well-known Persona developers. But of course the current Nintendo console is primarily focused on child-friendly games. But Nintendo isn’t so friendly when it comes to disputes with other companies: Palworld is currently in a legal dispute with Nintendo and is now changing how you call your monsters