Many older gamers know that Nintendo used to be heavy into censorship.  Games that were no big deal in Japan had to be changed for the US releases.

Games back then were not allowed to have religious symbols of any kind when brought to the US.  Profanity was a huge no-no.  Killing, or even the mention of death was not allowed.  That is part of the reason that enemies blinked away after being defeated.  Or they used words such as “Defeat” the Goombas, rather than “kill” the Goombas.

This may also be why the whole “kiddy” image thing started.  Eventually, Nintendo had to give in and just let the blood thing go for Mortal Kombat II.

A kid who grew up in the N64 or Gamecube era probably wouldn’t know this.  Try telling an 8 year-old that at one time games did not even have ratings.

Here is a full list of Nintendo’s Early Policies: Nintendo’s Early Days