Mature like old cheese

With many gamers today being adults - many of whom grew up playing games - there is talk of games getting mature. This is due to games catering for a change of tastes and doing things beyond the restrictions of a child demographic.

Decent enough intentions true but I've grown suspicious of games proclaiming to be 'mature'. It's nice you cater for different tastes just don't make a big show of it!
In addition, claims of being 'mature' seem to come across as being silly: Sex, cursing and killing so many dudes in gruesome fashion seems to me, pandering to a sense of spectacle. Sure, it may be great that we can do such things but it is indeed problematic that such things should get more attention than the game mechanics themselves. Other times, the 'mature' content comes across as trying too hard to please an audience that's growing older. I personally thought the use of cuss words in Mass Effect 2 as coming across as trying ever so hard to such pretensions of 'maturity' - so much so that it kind of distracted from what was a stunning game on all accounts.

No, for me, 'mature' games seem ill-defined. In my eyes, 'mature' gaming is really a sign that that games are growing beyond their original intention as a sense of entertainment. 'Mature' games for me those which are trying to get a point across that challenges the player until well after the console is turned off.

So what games do I think meet this criteria? Funny you should say that:

Cannon Fodder (1993)
A game that came out on the Commodore Amiga with other systems following suite. Seeing as war games are a major driving force in the gaming industry, it seems strange that one game should come along which criticizes warfare. Strange yes but it works: You control a small group of soldiers through a succession of missions involving entering enemy territory and blowing shit up. Thing is, each soldier has a name and, upon each successful mission the player is confronted with a list of who survived and a list of who got killed. This is then followed by a screen image consisting of a line of new recruits ready for action - a line that encircles a hill covered with graves of the fallen. You wouldn't see a game biting the hand that feeds it but here it works a treat.

The Dig (1995)
Sure the dialogue's questionable, sure the period in development was beset with problems and sure it's stern/serious nature seems out of place to the rest of the LucasArts adventure games, but there is still a lot going for this game. I like the ideas that are really being put forward that suggests a gaming maturity: It breaking from the humor that the adventure genre is known for to do something different. It is conveying a sense of wonder in exploring an alien planet. It is the sense of atmosphere on being on a barren world where an advanced civilization once inhabited and is doing something with a tiny cast of characters.

Metal Gear Solid (1997)
Heavy handed in it's approach to war and nuclear warheads but at least they're having a stab at it.

Final Fantasy VII (1997)
A dying planet that would be glad to see it's human inhabitants gone? That makes heaps of sense to me. Though it is interesting to note that, considering the backlash to the game's conclusion, whether or not gamers are really ready for 'mature' gaming as they so claim....

Chrono Cross (2000)
Can't say I've played this game (call it being in a country that apparently doesn't matter) so pretty much all I know about this game comes from this slice of wisdom. Still, what is said is enough to get me interested.
As indicated by the linked piece, Chrono Cross, as a game, has as many good ideas as bad ideas. But the one that works, is the one that challenges the borderline between the player and the player character. This eventually reaches it's apex with the game's conclusion with text addressed directly to the player and a montage made up of some life action footage shot in Japan.
Won't give too much away (you could read the linked article or just look the ending up on youtube) but I commend the balls the game designers had in presenting such an idea and connecting the player at a personal level. This type of thing needs to happen more often.

So let's drop the pretensions: Let's make something with more substance than style. And while we're at it, someone get me a Ferrari!