Rated E for Everyone
Most games are made with an audience in mind. However, even developers are sometimes surprised by the audiences their games actually attract. In fact, these 20 games were made with children in mind, but ended up having massive appeal to adults, who make up a significant portion of their player base. Do you also play one of these games?
1. Among Us
Among Us is a cartoonish-looking social deduction game where players act as crewmates or secret impostors. You may think it is only for kids due to the childish art style and tasks you do, but the strategic mind games and deception keep it from being dull. It is surprisingly popular with adults due to the nail-biting mind games and hectic chaos.
2. Animal Crossing
Animal Crossing is a home-decorating and life-simulation game in which players fish, bug hunt, and make friends with their chatty animal neighbors. The game's cuddly graphics and easy, even childish gameplay seem to target children, but that's not all there is to its appeal. In fact, the main market for Animal Crossing has always been adults, with its relaxing atmosphere, customization, and freedom to escape from the stresses of daily life.
3. Super Mario Odyssey
Super Mario Odyssey is a vivid platformer full of kooky worlds, cutesy characters, and goofy mechanics like Mario's sentient hat, Cappy. On the surface, it appears as if it could be a game for children, with its cartoon art style and storybook approach. But most of its cult following is adult, and they play for the nostalgia, tough platforming, and smart design.
Cláudio Luiz Castro on Unsplash
4. Stardew Valley
Stardew Valley is a farming simulator that features cute pixel graphics, amiable townspeople, and mundane tasks like farming, fishing, and animal husbandry. It has an extremely childlike aesthetic that can make it seem like a children's game, despite having more involved systems of farming, relationships, and storylines that are more mature and appeal to older players. Adults make up a large part of the game's fandom and have expressed appreciation for its elements of relaxation, strategy, and the escapist experience of living a slower and more serene life.
5. Hades
Hades is an action-packed game featuring a bright color palette, over-the-top combat, and an abundance of snappy dialogue, coming across at times as close to a cartoon as possible. With its gameplay, art style, and presentation being so colorful, along with its exaggerated writing, it can give the appearance of being much more lighthearted or even childish than it is. It may seem so to the general public, but its difficult roguelike systems, mythological lore, and storytelling appeal to its core audience, which is primarily adults.
6. Minecraft
Minecraft is a sandbox game in which players can build, explore, and survive in blocky, procedurally generated worlds with a simple, childlike appearance. The game's bright, toy-like graphics give it a visual aesthetic that suggests it's a kids' game. The creativity and complexity involved with building, crafting, and creating mods is leagues beyond that association. These days, it's mostly adults undertaking huge projects, building complex redstone machines, and running community servers.
7. Satisfactory
Satisfactory is a factory-building game in which the player constructs sprawling production lines on a highly colorful alien world. Bright and cartoony with silly touches like bouncing lizards and squishy, cartoon vehicles, it has an intentionally childish aesthetic. The game's engineering, logistical, and optimization challenges are, however, likely to mostly appeal to adults with patience for problem-solving on a grand scale.
8. Marvel Rivals
Marvel Rivals is a team-based, third-person shooter that pits players in 6v6 battles as a diverse roster of iconic Marvel heroes and villains. The game’s bright graphics and comic book-inspired character designs, coupled with its flashy combat abilities, give it an appearance that can be perceived as childish, or even cartoony in places. However, the opposite is actually true, and the game has found an audience with adult fans who appreciate its challenge, depth, and, most of all, its Marvel-fueled insanity.
9. Neopets
Neopets is a virtual pet browser game that allows users to adopt cartoon creatures, play mini-games, and navigate a vibrant virtual world. Its cartoonish visual style and premise of owning cute virtual pets give it an air of childishness. However, a lot of its current player base is actually adults who grew up with Neopets and still enjoy the nostalgia, community, and eccentric economy.
Neopets Metaverse on Wikimedia
10. Rocket League
Rocket League is an over-the-top vehicular soccer game where players guide rocket-powered cars to score goals. Rocket League's toy-like premise and emphasis on arcade-style gameplay give it a childish appearance as if from a cartoon. However, its high-speed mechanics, strong skill ceiling, and active competitive scene have made it popular for adults to both casually play and take seriously as an esport.
11. Overwatch
Overwatch is a colorful team-based shooter with a varied cast of over-the-top heroes and cartoonish design. Bright graphics and playful animations make it look lighthearted, even childlike. However, adults make up its player base. They are drawn by strategic team play, depth of competition, and frenetic action.
12. Sims 4
The Sims 4 is a life-simulation game that lets players create and manage odd, cartoonish humans in eccentric, colorful homes. Playful graphics and wacky scenarios give the game a near-childlike appearance. Adults are the primary audience, drawn to the deep customization, storytelling, and experimentation with intricate social and life simulations.
13. Disney Dreamlight Valley
Disney Dreamlight Valley is a life-simulation adventure game where the player can meet various Disney characters, embark on quests with them, and design and decorate their own village. With its cartoonish and pastel aesthetic as well as its childish gameplay, the game evokes a feeling of childlike innocence, even storybook whimsy. It is, however, mostly played by adults with a fondness for nostalgia, socializing with characters, and idle world-building with elements that require focus and challenge.
14. Pokémon
Pokémon are games which fall in the category of role-playing games, or RPGs. The bright colors and adorable art style give Pokémon a very childish, whimsical vibe. While the games have a market of children who like them, the complexity and strategy involved in competitive battling, as well as the collecting aspects, have made them primarily an adult pastime. Plus, many of the kids that grew up with Pokémon are adults now who still crave the nostalgia.
15. Lego Games
LEGO games are action-adventure video games in which the player can explore their environment, which is typically whimsical, and contains humor, building elements, and a cast of licensed franchise characters. The games' pastel and toyetic graphics and their focus on light-hearted narratives have given the LEGO game series an outward appearance as a child-oriented game series. However, a large portion of the series' audience has been adults who find the series' tone, nostalgia, creative puzzle solving, and focus on cooperation appealing.
16. Ace Attorney
Ace Attorney is a visual courtroom adventure where you solve odd cases, cross-examine witnesses, and reveal hidden secrets. Its cartoonish character models and over-dramatic, frequently absurd or even comedic scenarios make it play like a game for children. However, its primary audience is actually adults who appreciate its clever mysteries, witty dialogue, and complex storytelling.
17. Spyro
Spyro is a platformer game starring a small, mischievous dragon as he travels through whimsical worlds, uncovering treasure and a variety of eccentric characters. Spyro's appearance and tone, with its bright and cartoonish art style, would lead one to believe that it is a game designed for children, but its target audience is primarily adults. Spyro's appeal to this audience comes from a mix of nostalgia, the game's challenging platforming elements, and the opportunity to play through a classic series again.
18. Overcooked
Overcooked is a cooking simulation where players work together to prepare food in odd and chaotic kitchens. The game has a cartoony, offbeat style and often absurd situations that make it seem like a childish game. However, the primary audience of Overcooked is adults, who enjoy the frantic gameplay, challenging levels, and absurd humor that tests their skill and teamwork.
Team17 Digital Ltd on Wikimedia
19. Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy is a role-playing video game series known for its colorful characters and locales, magical or science-fiction settings, and often overblown, fantastical plots. Its graphics make the game feel juvenile and whimsical in appearance. However, the average player of these games is an adult who enjoys the game's intricate stories, themes, mechanics, and world-building, which have spanned the series for decades.
20. Kirby
Kirby is a cute platformer starring an adorable, pink blob who sucks up enemies and copies their powers as he explores bright, whimsical worlds. With its playful visuals and simple, colorful gameplay, Kirby feels very much like a game for children. But adults love it for its clever level design and hidden challenges, as well as its appeal to those who grew up with the series.
