Balance is still necessary even for kids.

Made with deviantART muro Alright, I've seen so many stupid claims as to when someone says something is too childish and then some random idiot comes along and says "Oh, it's SUPPOSED to be like that!" Morons who miss the darn point of the complaint, look, there's nothing wrong with a light-hearted thing for kids, however, if you overshoot on that aspect, it becomes insulting to the person, even children, they may be children, but they are not idiots. Children's Video Games for example aren't all supposed to be just silly jokes, happiness or "yay rainbows", if that's all there is then where is the game? What drives you to continue? Kids being treated like kids tends to feel insulting, sounds odd, but it's true. Let's look at some games that aren't always just overshot kiddie style...

"Super Mario" Yeah, sounds about as light hearted as you can get, right? Wrong. Lets look at the Super Mario Galaxy games specifically, try most of the boss fights, Giant Rock Phantoms coming to life throwing rocks upon rocks at you, a giant Lava octopus, and even kicking rocks at Bowser's face all the while dark orchestral music tends to play in the background, it's climatic, and goes to show you don't need it to just be sunshine and rainbows for kids.

"Sonic The Hedgehog" The games have you fight robots of mass destruction in the skies with plenty of action to be had, rocking, catchy music to keep the player energized, high speed action that keeps you going and doesn't slow down for very long. 

Finally "Pokemon" Pokemon is pretty darn dark at times, if anything I think it has the best mix between for kids and appeal to an older audiences out of these three, creepy moments and stories for all to enjoy, heck in the most recent Pokemon game, the main villains goal is sheer genocide, but that doesn't stop it from being a kids game, you see what I'm saying?

Now look, before someone says that it shouldn't be too dark, I agree, but that's not the point I'm trying to get across, I'm saying that just because, it may be for kids, that doesn't mean that it has to be overly childish, children are not as stupid as you think they would be. Children are children, not sheltered pussies. Saying something for kids can't be too childish is like saying something mature can't be too gory or something, it really can. Balance is an important thing, if you have no balance towards what is being made, then you might as well sell a game for it's visual quality and do nothing with how the game actually plays.