Walter - Why can't we have more nice things?

[bonkers]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/06/15/hes-not-a-drop-to-drink-walter/

Such a lovely idea and character, wonderfull graphics, joyful music and a trailer which simply makes me smile and wanna play. Walter reminds me of why I became and why I still am a gamer. I already love Walter for reminding me of that.

Is it just me or are there fewer and fewer games coming out which actually make you happy just by purely watching? Why does 'everything' have to be dark and gritty?

I kinda feel reminded of times when I was young and read about upcoming Nintendo games for the SNES. Somehing just grabbed me then and almost never did again after. Of course there are games which I anticipated eagerly, but very few through all those years touched me on an emotional level. It's like you can feel the "love" the developer put into his/her/their game. With the Walter trailer this feeling somehow just came back and reminded me of what I am missing.
Or is this just romanticization of the past?

[Heliocentric]

Games used to be stylized for children, now many games are stylized for tweens and manchildren.

Look at Cargo: Quest for Gravity, a man child wouldn't be able to cope with it, its not gritty and visceral (read as brown) enough.

Games still exist with beauty and wonder which expect patience (do not mistake manic repetition for patience) and thought. Just keep yourself open to it.

[Orontes]

I don't mind dark and gritty games, it's just that there are too many nowadays that are like that. The indie scene can provide the whimsy and joy, but I'd like to see a AAA game set itself apart and convey happiness to the gamer. A change of style is, in my opinion, badly needed in mainstream gaming.

[SirKicksalot]

I like cartoons and childish things (and I especially like pretty colours) but for some reason I rarely like games with this aesthetic. I dislike most Nintendo stuff, for example.
It's not just the look but also the sound design - I fucking hate "cutesy" sounds like in Mario or Pikmin 3. While watching Nintendo's E3 conference I had this awful feeling... All those people excited about their games while I recognised the genius behind stuff like Pikmin and yet couldn't stand it because of its presentation.

[Flint]

The mascot platformer genre was such a wonderful little thing for stuff like this - even when the games themselves were average, the overall feel of them would be so compelling that you really enjoyed playing the games. I really wish the genre would get a revival soon beyond the 2-4 series that are still around.

[Casimir Effect]

Play Botanicula whenever you feel like this.

[vinraith]

It's funny, something like Walter is as distant from why I became a gamer as something like Call of Duty. The appeal of both is, honestly, kind of baffling. To each their own though, of course, if games were all made for one person it wouldn't be a very interesting medium.

For contrast though, an image that neatly encapsulates why I became a gamer:

http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/8177/miniatureswide.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/577/miniatureswide.jpg/)

Plenty of colors there. :)

[Cooper]

I never could quite get into Philip of Macedon's odd take on strategy. It was certainly interesting, and I loved the setting, but it made me respect even more the decision of the Total War games to have the two different game-types in parallel.