Everyone's heard the saying that men are from Mars and women are from Venus - and if you follow the stereotypes, nowhere should this be more applicable than in the world of games. While your stereotypical man can't get enough blood, guns, and headshots to satisfy his visceral lust for death and destruction, your stereotypical woman pretty much plays the Sims, and only the Sims, with the odd match three puzzle game thrown in for good measure. In reality, of course, things are a little bit different.
Japanese outlet, My Navi, recently decided to conduct a survey of the Japanese public's favourite Nintendo franchises - and the results are interesting indeed. Giving the lie to the old adage of men and women being completely different, it actually shows that when it comes to Nintendo games, there really isn't all that much to choose between the two genders.
The results are as follows:
Men:
- 1 Super Mario - 36.8%
- 2 Legend of Zelda - 13.3%
- 3 Pokémon - 11.8%
- 4 Kirby - 10.4%
- 5 Donkey Kong - 9.8%
- 6 Smash Bros. - 9.2%
- 7 Mother (Earthbound) - 5.8%
- 8 Fire Emblem - 4.2%
- 9 Metroid - 3.7%
- 10 F-ZERO - 3.2%
Women:
- 1 Super Mario - 42.1%
- 2 Pokémon - 15.1%
- 3 Kirby - 11.4%
- 4 Donkey Kong - 10.1%
- 5 Animal Crossing - 7.4%
- 6 Legend of Zelda - 6.3%
- 7 Rhythm Heaven - 5.1%
- 8 Smash Bros. - 4.4%
- 9 Pikmin - 2.9%
- 10 Fire Emblem - 1.9%
Seemingly, a love for the Italian moustachioed plumber is shared almost equally by both sexes, with more than a third of both men and women naming him as their favourite character. Women find Pokemon (2nd) more popular than men (3RD), possibly because of the cuteness Pokemon on offer, while men prefer the swords of Zelda (2nd) a lot more than their counterparts (6th). It's disappointing to see Smash Bros so far down in the women list, though, as this is a game that still sees plenty of play time amongst the women at Everybody Plays HQ.
However, the survey also shows there may be more truth to the stereotypes than we'd like to admit - the easy to pick up and play Rhythm Heaven/Rhythm Paradise series finds its way into seventh place on the women's list, whilst life sim Animal Crossing, a game best described as the Sims with animals, takes fifth. Over on the men's chart, meanwhile, things have a bit more chest hair, with the high speed racing action of F-Zero, and the intergalactic first person shooter Metroid taking places nine and ten. Odder still is the fact that gardening-cum-strategy-game Pikmin finds its way into the women's list, but not the men's. We guess it could be the cuteness factor again, though - apparently those little flower type people know how to win a girl over.
While the survey throws up some interesting results, it is worth taking things with a pinch of salt, as well as remembering that it was carried out before the release of the Wii U, which is due on 30th November 2012. With a new game in development, it wouldn't be surprising to see Pikmin jump a few places up the list upon the release of Pikmin 3, or Mario cement his position even further thanks to launch title New Super Mario Bros U.
