Gamertell

The latest advertising onslaught from Nintendo is a series of commercials featuring female celebrities playing DS games with the tag-line, “I Play for Me.”

This seems like a fairly innocent notion and a means to get women and girls interested in the system by showing famous women engaged in games. However, at least a few gamers have taken issue with the games depicted and the actresses’ behavior.

There are three TV commercials currently airing: One features singer Carrie Underwood playing Nintendogs, another features actress Liv Tyler playing Brain Age 2 and the final commercial shows America Ferrera playing New Super Mario Brothers.

The Underwood/Nintendogs commercial has received some criticism online due to the fact that Underwood is playing Nintendogs. Some of the offended gamers saw the depiction as stereotypical, and insinuating that women only like cute, easy games. It is far more likely that Nintendo wanted to show one of the women enjoying the best selling DS game. Nintendogs has sold 17.79 million copies, according to Nintendo’s “Financial Results Briefing for the Nine-Month Period Ended December 2007.”

Another commercial under a bit of fire is the Tyler/Brain Age 2 commercial, but it isn’t for the game. Instead it is for Tyler’s “performance.” Frustration at Tyler’s behavior initially is understandable - Brain Age 2 isn’t a game that people would expect to inspire giggling. However she redeems herself after the first few minutes while actually playing Brain Age 2‘s music test. She makes the music test - where you must follow sheet music on one screen while playing a keyboard on the touch screen - seem enjoyable. While her initial giddiness at writing her name in the DS is unbelievable, her reaction to the actual game is normal.

The content and performance of the Ferrera/New Super Mario Brothers commercial also provides support for notion that Nintendo was just trying to show famous women playing best-selling games. If Nintendo had wanted to pander to females, or be demeaning, Ferrera would have been playing Super Princess Peach. Instead, she is relaxing and enjoying New Super Mario Brothers while on the set of her TV show. (Note: The actual Ferrera/New Super Mario Brothers commercial was unavailable on YouTube.)

Even the tag-line for these commercials is positive. “I Play for Me” isn’t insulting or stereotypical in anyway. Rather, it is a positive expression of individuality. Nintendo is trying to encourage viewers to play games that they enjoy for themselves, and not care about what others think about them for doing so.

Surely Nintendo intended no offense when crafting these commercials. Perhaps it just intended to reach female gamers by showing famous, respected, female celebrities playing the DS’s three best-selling games. Any offended gamers need to lighten up - these are only commercials. Nintendo chose three prominent and admirable actresses to perform and chose three popular games. There is no deep, hidden meaning programmed into these 30 second shorts.

If you are one of the offended viewers, think about it - it could have been worse. There could have run commercials featuring Paris Hilton playing Super Princess Peach and Amy Winehouse playing Cooking Mama on Pink DSes.

Site [I Play for Me] Read [Nintendo Financial Results] Also Read [Kotaku] Also Read [DS Fanboy]