Land of the Rising Fun

I very patiently waited all week before linking to 1up's multi-part Land of the Rising Fun feature. It details several very good, very Japanese titles they've had the pleasure of playing lately. A lot of them are for the DS (no surprise), with Chulip, Odama, and Contact particularly appealing. From the piece: "I've loved Japanese games ever since Pac-Man rocked my childhood. Unfortunately, as the medium matures, its seems more and more Americans take issue with Japan's willingness to defy logic in the name of entertainment. Are the frequently goofy aesthetics of Japanese games a dangerous creative rut? Maybe not. Goofiness is making a comeback, thanks in no small part to the Nintendo DS, which is reaching new audiences with experiences that emphasize creativity above anything so mundane as mere realism."

Comments

American games are all the same.

[Komarechka]

Japan and North America are two different markets. Japan is a very interesting testing ground for new concepts and ideas. North America relies on a more tried-and-tested methodology. In the end this leaves North American and even European gamers is a stagnant rut of the same-old concepts continually rehashed and re-released.

Japan is what is keeping creativity in the industry, because companies know that whatever they make will sell to some success over there as long as its not foreign. Foreign meaning Microsoft, mostly. In North America, we see games made for our market fail miserably (Mark Ecko's Getting Up, for example) when some new ideas and brought forth.

It's not an end-all equation, but the people wearing suits in the game industry want to make money and Americans will buy the same thing repeatedly again and again. Sell them what sells, you'll do fine. Or will you? The American market is now so saturated with the same ideas that without any fresh ideas and concepts the market may crash. That's only speculation, though.

Viva la Revolution.

Re:American games are all the same.

[SilentChris]

Well that's a biased opinion. And an incorrect one.

One could just as easily argue that the Japanese arguilty of rehashing the same old ideas. How many platformers did we have in the 80s that completely copied Mario? How many dating sims are actually needed in the world? And just think how many sequels there are for popular Japanese franchises. How many Mega Man and Final Fantasy games are there? Is there a single American game series that has (if I'm counting right) over a dozen sequels each?

I can think of a ton of original game concepts Americans have come up with. You're just not looking hard enough. Just the top of my head, I saw Will Wright's "Spore" demonstration the other day (use Google Video to find it). It's a simulator that starts you off as a bacteria and pulls the camera back farther and farther until you manage a creature, a society, a world, a galaxy and a universe. It includes procedural programming, incredible AI and a touch of the absurd. It's mindblowing in scope and the guy got a standing ovation at the end of the presentation.

In short, your view is narrowminded and somewhat unjustified. Gaming is a business and as such all businesses crank out new ideas and then ride on them. Japanese, American or otherwise. To think every American video company is the stereotypical EA (which, ironically, will be publishing Spore) is just foolish.

Re:American games are all the same.

[ScaryFroMan]

But there is a major difference in that while it is true that Japanese games often get turned into long franchises, there is still difference in the gameplay.

There is a massive difference between SMBW and SM64, or FF3 and FFX. Japanese franchises reuse characters and basic genre elements (i.e. platformer, RPG, etc), but make drastically different games. In the US, a sequel is the difference between Madden 05 and Madden 06, games with little difference other than graphics and rosters. FPSs are becoming the same, as are MMORPGs, with similar looks and feels, pretty much because they are locked into the same gameplay style.

Finally, Japanese people are really willing to try something very, very different. Look at Katamari, or hell, anything japanese that came out on the DS. They're more willing to take a risk with games than Americans are.

So, there's more to a franchise or a series than just the content to it. Nintendo is generally the best with this, making individual games very different on a gameplay level (see Mario, Zelda, Metroid), when they could have easily just added some polygons and some new levels.

Understand the difference?

Re:American games are all the same.

[typical]

Japan and North America are two different markets. Japan is a very interesting testing ground for new concepts and ideas. North America relies on a more tried-and-tested methodology. In the end this leaves North American and even European gamers is a stagnant rut of the same-old concepts continually rehashed and re-released.

If your tastes run to more experimental stuff, try poking around on the PC rather than the console. The barrier to entry in the PC market is much, much lower.

Goofy never died - just look at Warcraft...

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

Goofy never died - just look at Warcraft. From the first game nearly every character/class/item/goal has been half joke, and it's turned into the biggest "fantasy" franchise (behind Final Fantasy?) out there these days. As long as you don't take fun too seriously, you'll have an audience.

Pokie Man

[Tablizer]

My kids watch a lot of Pokemon. The plots and humor are sometimes "odd" such they are not predictable, at least compared to what I am used to. Lack of predictability makes it kind of refreshing.

Perhaps Japanese kids *will* find it predictable because it fits their culture. It appears the advantage of watching other nation's entertainment is more surprises. However, sometimes it does not make a lot of sense to the other group and it leaves you scratching your head a bit.

I sometimes wonder whether it's really the case...

[McFadden]

that Japanese games companies are especially creative, or is it just that western companies have lost the ability to be so, under a deluge of sequels and licensed franchises?

We don't own sequels/rehashes

[Mr. Samuel]

To think that sequels are an American trend is a mistake. Street Fighter, Megaman (Rockman there), Pokemon, Tekken, Mario, Sonic, and numerous RPG franchises (if you're willing to count them) are examples of major Japanese franchises that will never die.