ABSTRACT
As the most well-known game developer of the time, Nintendo, despite its continuous efforts to appear “family friendly” from the very beginning of the NES launch, became the main target of different groups for many different reasons. Jewish associations harshly criticized Nintendo for designing a dungeon in The Legend of Zelda in the shape of a swastika.2 Parents flooded the company with angry phone calls following the release of Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest and its review in the official Nintendo magazine Nintendo Power because the artwork, featuring the main character holding a severed Dracula’s head, gave their kids nightmares. In general, like in the early eighties, video games were an easy target to blame for making kids lazy or more aggressive. Groups such as Families for Peace started demonstrating in front of Nintendo of America headquarters to protest the use of guns in games. Even academic professors began analyzing the social implications of the video game phenomena, with some concluding that video games were very harmful because they actually instigated violence and racism.3
