Why American and Japanese games are different

by Blake Snow { Jan 19th 2007 at 7:28PM }

1UP examines the differences in American and Japanese game design including philosophies, camera control, save points, cultural interpretations, and linearity. Here are a few abridged concepts outlining why our games may be so different:

Americans are big on individuality, hence they like free-roaming environments in games
Japanese favor cinematic presentation over the added control of free-roaming cameras
American designers generally aim for realism whereas the Japanese seem to prefer more stylized graphics
The right to bear arms and a strong military influence could be the reason Americans prefer FPSs more than the Japanese where a military presence is almost non-existent

In essence, both societies rely heavily on their respective cultures for inspiration when making games. That's not to say the two don't have a lot in common, however; censorship of violent games is a contested topic in both countries.

[Thanks, Miniboss]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

dez_mick @ Jan 19th 2007 7:33PM

Jet Set Radio. I loved that game as well as JSRF for Xbox!

dez_mick @ Jan 19th 2007 7:36PM

Sony is the new Rokkaku Group! lol

MthdDirector @ Jan 19th 2007 7:51PM

(begin rant here)

Man, what I don't get is why these awsome games from Japan need to be "americanized."

I grew up on Japanese cinema - saw Kurosawa's "Ran" in theater when it was originally released (as a kid). Think about it: what if every Japanese film had to be americanized in translation? [midwest accent] "Wayne, we must stop the approaching army." "ok LeRoy. You first, dude." I mean, come on!!!!!

Almost without exception, every pre-release game I've played from Japan was better before some voice-over studio in Santa Monica got their hands on it, but now that it's become "the norm", publishers are loath to risk alienating the U.S. consumer. Fear drives these kinds of decisions, not creativity.

Quit suckin' the cool out of games, bro!!!

(end of rant)

dez_mick @ Jan 19th 2007 7:54PM

Seriously though I agree with the article's premise. As an american I like games that immerse me and allow me the freedom to roam the games environment and interact with the game space. Thats why I don't take take stock in the Japanese way of gaming amymore. Therefore, just because the Japanese are into something, I'm less inclined to follow like I used to. Ironically though, the first game to give me that immersive experience more or less was Shenmue, a japanese game for the Dreamcast.

Suhail Patel @ Jan 19th 2007 7:57PM

now why exactly do Brit's like casual, and generally crappy racing games?

NintendoFanbot @ Jan 19th 2007 7:58PM

Eh, I'd rather subscribe to the belief that the designers, no matter the nationality, do whatever they want while keeping their target audience in mind.

For example: Nintendo. NCL makes most of the company's games, and thus their games have to appeal to both eastern and western gamers. Zelda is an example of Japanese design using strong aspects of design popular in American development, though I wouldn't call it American-inspired. It's just one of the many circumstances when one wants to develop a game in a way they feel would be good.

The difference is more of Japanese companies descending from more arcade-style games vs. American companies spawning from a more PC game-inspired industry. Thus I attribute the difference in design disciplines to the platforms more prevalent in the respective regions rather than the nationalities.

There are few differences, but in the end does the gameplay appeal to them enough?

Colin @ Jan 19th 2007 8:09PM

You overlooked a fundamental difference between Japanese and American storytelling: In Japanese storytelling, it's the journey is emphasized rather than the conclusion as in American stories. Often the path to the end of a Japanese movie (or game) is more interesting than the end. For an example, compare the stories told in Resident Evil 4 and Gears of War.

IMHO, I believe Japan's way of telling stories is more suited to videogames than the American way.

otakucode @ Jan 19th 2007 8:11PM

That's a bunch of borderline-racist BS. Japan is a smaller country geographically, so taking a risk and making a game that might sell well is exponentially less of a risk than in the USA. The extremely high population density of Japan over the US has a similar effect.

The cultural differences also account for some of it. In America, people are very self conscious and concerned with the 'image' they project as a gamer. In Japan, eh, not so much. Everyone plays games, so it's a non-issue. Some people dress up as videogame characters, and people in Japan take it in stride. In America, people freak out over it. Games can have religious overtones in Japan because nobody takes religion seriously, whereas in America it is taken very seriously so those topics can't be played with as freely.

As for the Japanese shunning FPS', that's probably just due to their culture as well. There aren't a lot of gun-centric movies, television shows, or manga. I don't think it has much to do with gun control or the military. Europe has pretty strict gun control laws in most places, and the market for FPS' there is fine.

A lot of it also comes down from the fact that the article assumes companies are doing it right. Assuming that since they don't make, say, point and click adventure games that no one would buy them. Simply in QUANTITY of games, Japan outshines the US on every platform except the Microsoft ones. There is a greater variety of games available, not because the culture is so different, but because companies are willing to put games out that don't appeal to the down-the-center mainstream because it doesn't cost them a lot to do so.

Now I'm off to look for a good deal on a Japanese Xbox 360 so I can buy The Oneechanbara: VorteX.

Carlos @ Jan 19th 2007 8:21PM

the diference is that japanese, aside from an excessive manga look to most of their games to my opinion, are much more open minded and original about their products than the rest of the world. I really wonder when are people going to get tired of FPS, it's just absurd the amount of FPS games released each year, i think there is an inminent crisis on the genre.

daddycool @ Jan 19th 2007 8:27PM

I respect the Japanese and all their weird RPGs and all. But I really don't get the no FPS thing. You telling me they didn't play DOOM back in the day. And it's not gun culture either. I'd bet most HALO players have never even shot a gun in real life.

Sean @ Jan 19th 2007 8:32PM

It's not really surprising that the japanese don't like playing WWII shooters...

dan s. @ Jan 19th 2007 8:39PM

It's because until aprroximately 2001 psychelic mushrooms were legal and their use was considered a part of the culture. Psychedlic usage will create wild, exotic, colorful fantasies, which many developers seem to have used to their benefit.

Mario eats a mushroom and gets bigger, eh?

um..wow @ Jan 19th 2007 8:40PM

@otakucode

please tell me you've read more than prince of tennis and watched pokemon...

there is more gun violence in manga and anime then there is in american comics and animation.

CODY @ Jan 19th 2007 8:46PM

People seem to forget japanesse people are more prone to motion sickness than americans, that is one of the typical reasons then games gun aiming mechanics are typically way slower than games developed in america.

sadt @ Jan 19th 2007 8:51PM

very good point #13

nintendo fan @ Jan 19th 2007 8:55PM

@ otakucode
Actually read the article then see if you can still tell me it's borderline rascist.

Zegim @ Jan 19th 2007 9:01PM

I usually dislike Japanese asthetic sense, too far fetched for my taste; but I like the way many Japanese designed games want to be innovative.

Zooks @ Jan 19th 2007 9:44PM

Hmm... I wonder what Australian games should be like then?
Cooking Mama - Aussie Edition! Get yer tongs and snags, mates!

Mephistopheles @ Jan 19th 2007 10:40PM

To MthdDirector:

You're more familiarized with Japanese culture than most people in the US are. There is a very large portion of the American population who are not interested in certain themes that are popular in Japan. Additionally, especially in the case of voice-overs, many people in the US are not used to hearing Japanese which results in "everyone sounds the same". When I first started watching Japanese films I had a very hard time figuring out who was talking when I couldn't see their mouths moving. Some voices were obvious but others sounded too much alike to me. After a while I began to notice the difference. Most audiences will not put forth the kind of effort that it takes to understand the Japanese culture, their themes and other references.

In short, while you may understand certain aspects of Japanese media most people do not. You are a minority on this issue and you need to understand that if they did not "Americanize" the media it would be lost on a large portion of their target audience.

Additionally, the same happens in reverse.

The ZeroCorpse @ Jan 19th 2007 11:17PM

Japanese culture is homogenous, thus anime and games all feature characters that are damn near identical. When you're Japanese and live in Japan, you're one of a billion faces and not encouraged to be unique or stand out, instead being fostered into a life of toeing the line and doing what's expected of you, culturally. Japanese prefer games in which you achieve greatness from a life of mediocrity and "averageness". This is why every damn anime features a normal person who is involved with/in love with/enemies with some supernatural demon/magician/martial artist.

American culture is obsessed with individuality, and because we're so repressed sexually and emotionally and replace those things with a culture of violence and other spectacles, we have games that are rife with guns and flash and short on plot and cinematics. We have Hollywood; We don't need games to compete with the likes of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt because we have more movies than we can possibly fit into our schedules to begin with. We use games to work out our aggressions with our lousy job, our daily grind, and our hesitant realization that we will never be famous or on the cover of People magazine.

I don't like Japanese games because I'm obsessed with being unique and nonconformist, and every Japanese game I've played is so homogenous and revels in the characters looking and acting like each other that I just can't relate to them. There are exceptions, and we must clarify that there is a HUGE difference between "Japanese games" and "Games made by Japanese developers." The former don't appeal to me, while the latter might have been made with a more international perspective in mind.

In other words, I see nothing redeeming about playing Final Fantasy, but I don't hate Metal Gear Solid. One is made with Japanese culture in mind, and the other is made to resemble entertainment that appeals to many cultures around the world.

Kcon @ Jan 19th 2007 11:25PM

Save points are one of my pet peeves.

When used correctly and everything is working right, they can work very well to build tension.

When you put save points too far apart or even worse god forbid put them in a pc game, they get awful. Pc games tend in general to have stability problems. Nothing is more frustrating that having a game crash and you havent saved a while.

Games like FFX spaced them almost perfect, about 15 minutes away from each other. FFXII on the other hand had them spaced much further apart and tended not to put them in front of nasty fights leading to 20-30 minutes of wasted time at point, I send the game back to gamefly after about 6 hours because of that junk. I found myself reading guides beforehand to make sure I wouldnt get caught like that, it kinda ruined the game, but wasting big chunks of time isnt fun either.

Save points can be good but should never be more than 20-25 minutes apart at most. And only on extremely stable games.

Ugnar @ Jan 19th 2007 11:35PM

"5. "Americans are big on individuality, hence they like free-roaming environments in games"

yeah... which is why Shenmue came out before any of the new Grand Theft Auto games."

Way to pick out two games and try to base an entire argument on it. I also liked how you put "the new Grand Theft Auto games" and tried to totally ignore the fact that the Grand Theft Auto series started like two years before Shenmue ever came out. Troll for angry responses much?

Rubang B @ Jan 19th 2007 11:49PM

I completely agree with MthdDirector. I want my games translated, but not Americanized. If I wanted American games with bad dialogue I'd buy them.

cafeman @ Jan 20th 2007 12:07AM

"Americans are big on individuality, hence they like free-roaming environments in games"

Different cultures do look for different things in games, but the first and the fourth bullet points are tenuous at best. I think this has more to do with a bad summary of the article than the article itself, as there's a heck of a lot more detail in the 1up piece.

Free-roaming games such as Zelda and Mario 64 have also been extremely popular in Japan. And, FPSs are also very popular in the UK and Australia, neither of which has a "gun-culture".

The free-roaming vs. cinematic gameplay only makes sense if you look at GTA and FF (insert generic JRPG here) at the exclusion of everything else. Western RPGs are equally as prone to linear storylines, no matter how they try to hide it. KOTOR, for example, was highly linear, even though characters would react slightly differently to you depending on your actions.

My personal opinion is that apart from the preference against FPSs, it has more to do with the role and audience of games in Japanese culture. A wider cross-section of society plays games in Japanese society compared to Western society. It's like manga - it's just something that people do.

That directly influences game design. Games like Oblivion are just not oriented towards people who don't play games for long periods of time. It's a *world* to explore, not just a game. That has implications for time spent playing, which in turn makes it unattractive to anyone who can't spare that time (which, to be honest, is most people). Games like Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing tell you what to do, give you very basic tasks, and set you to work. You can play a day of game time, maybe discover something new (or not), and then drop it and do something else. That's why I believe the DS is doing so well in Japan and why proportionally, open-ended gameplay experiences tend not to do as well in total marketshare as they do in the US.

v1cious @ Jan 20th 2007 12:08AM

"Americans are big on individuality, hence they like free-roaming environments in games"

yeah... which is why Shenmue came out before any of the new Grand Theft Auto games.

v1cious @ Jan 20th 2007 12:19AM

wow, posting system is retarded. anyways...

"Way to pick out two games and try to base an entire argument on it. I also liked how you put "the new Grand Theft Auto games" and tried to totally ignore the fact that the Grand Theft Auto series started like two years before Shenmue ever came out. Troll for angry responses much?"

i said NEW, because the others were 2d, which hardly counts for anything. my point is Shenmue did the 3d Free-Roaming thing WAY before Grand Theft Auto 3, so 1up's argument hold no water. it's a fact. i hardly see how that's trolling.

GhaleonQ @ Jan 20th 2007 12:29AM

"whereas in America it is taken very seriously so those topics can't be played with as freely."

Are...are you serious? Nearly no one in the United States knows anything about religion. However, that's not the reason that no games with stories examining religion exist. Are you going to suggest that the developers are educated enough to put together anything a religion story that's worthwhile? These are the same people inspired by the "Star Wars" movies and DOOM.

"American culture is obsessed with individuality, and because we're so repressed sexually and emotionally and replace those things with a culture of violence and other spectacles, we have games that are rife with guns and flash and short on plot and cinematics"

Never become a cultural anthropologist. Ever.

Strike Man @ Jan 20th 2007 1:28AM

"i said NEW, because the others were 2d, which hardly counts for anything. my point is Shenmue did the 3d Free-Roaming thing WAY before Grand Theft Auto 3, so 1up's argument hold no water. it's a fact. i hardly see how that's trolling."

2D gaming doesn't count? Uh...

Shenmue came out WAY before GTA3? There was just under a year between both titles coming out in the US...

The open-ended gameplay in Shenmue is still quite restricted compared to many other "sandbox" games. Oops, you can't take a right here, please turn around. Oops, you can't go to the harbor yet, please wait until you've passed the necessary point in the story. Etc. The game gave you quite a bit of freedom to explore, but it's still quite linear.

And why does everyone still believe that open-ended gameplay was born with Grand Theft Auto? Many Western-developed RPGs have had this "feature" for years, such as the Ultima or Elder Scrolls series.

Rubang B @ Jan 20th 2007 2:39AM

They're right about the religious thing. The point here isn't that Americans can't handle religious themes in video games. The point is that Japanese developers don't want to risk pissing too many people (religious non-gamers mostly) off in America. Devil World was a fun game on the Famicom in Japan that never made it to the NES in the U.S. Why? It was made by Shigeru Miyamoto! Why can't we get it on the VC on the Wii?!?!? Only Miyamoto game not released over here. Europe got it. We can't. Nintendo doesn't think we can handle it. They just don't want American parents to hear their kids going "Oooh ooh let's play Devil World" and then freak out.

The Wikipedia page on Devil World even says that Nintendo erased the statue of Tamagon from Devil World in the U.S. release of Smash Bros. Melee, but he's in the Japanese version. But then there's a Devil World segment in Tetris DS. I have no idea what's going on anymore. That's my 2 cents.

P.S. And in the Japanese Legend of Zelda they had a Bible, but the U.S. version got the "Magic Book."

NoBullet @ Jan 20th 2007 3:52AM

"Nintendo doesn't think we can handle it. They just don't want American parents to hear their kids going "Oooh ooh let's play Devil World" and then freak out."

There's been a TON of Nintendo games that never made it to the US, and didnt involve religion. Your point is moot.

Also Shenmue wasnt truely free roaming or sandboxed. Evey section had to be loaded. You couldn't just start beating up on people. Not only that, it forced you to go to sleep. So it stops you from being "free". It wasn't like GTA where the city loads up and you can go and do anything you want. Even though there were a lot more free roaming games on the PC before GTA was even an idea.

kevinski @ Jan 20th 2007 7:39AM

In response to #3, I completely agree about the fact that Americanizing games generally screws the overall quality of the translations and whatnot. Really, the same goes for movies and whatnot. In Japan, a hero will generally come off as more honorable and respectable, whereas the American dubbed version of that same hero will come off as some sort of cocky asshole.

Music in games is another fine example of this. Jet Grind Radio is actually a great example of this, too, as its soundtrack is absolutely amazing, with the obvious exception of the inclusion of Rob Zombie's Dragula. *sigh* I seem to recall either EGM or GMR interviewing somebody who was involved with the game, asking the person why they included Dragula in the game's soundtrack. Hahahaha...

sjenky @ Jan 20th 2007 8:59AM

Funny how people use GTA as an example, since it's a Brittish franchise which was largely ignored in the US untill it went 3D.

kyou @ Jan 20th 2007 10:03AM

I don't care if they dub japanese games, as long as we can choose the original soundtrack. I mean, why not!? Many games in the PS2 did it, even games with a lot of dialogue. Or if publishers aren't going to include the original japanese soundtrack, they could AT LEAST hire good voice actors. MGS, FF and Kingdom Hearts are the only examples I can think of good english dubs (in the case of KH english is probably better than the original).

Also, is it me or dubs are getting worse? I remember loving everything about the voice acting in Starfox 64, but in Starfox Assault... man... why did they change the voice actors?

Anyways... that's why I'm glad that there's only text in Zelda games. This concludes my rant.

P.S. American developers... no more generic FPS's... PLEASE.

Chocolate Starfish @ Jan 20th 2007 11:10AM

@ 27.

Claiming that no one in The United States knows anything about religion is close-minded and foolish. You'll be hard pressed to find a nation with as many different practiced religions, and as many people studying different theologies - especially without being killed for it.

According to the Pew Global Attitudes Project, almost 60% of Americans surveyed listed religion as "Very Important" in their lives. Only 12% of the Japanese made the same selection. As always, the generalizations made in 1Up's article and these comments are entirely based on fallacy and false conjecture.

tom @ Jan 20th 2007 11:20AM

"Uh, no I'm afraid not. But you have me at a loss. You know my name but who are you? Just another American who saw too many movies as a child? Another orphan of a bankrupt culture who thinks he's John Wayne? Rambo? Marshall Dillon?" - hans

lol. the american cowboy self-image is a source of constant ammusement to the rest of the world. My RPG i s bigger than yours! And i have a right to carry it!

Shibathedog @ Jan 20th 2007 12:02PM

you know i think i like the Japanese games better. If you think about it, they make more sense. American games are generally aiming to be more realistic, more like real life. While Japanese games are aiming to be more stylized and cinematic. The Japanese have a much more realistic goal here. No matter how far technology advances, Im pretty sure there will never be any game exactly or even pretty close to real life. However Japanese games with their goal can accomplish it time and time again and produce many fun games! I cant tell you how many times ive heard people say "This game is so fake its stupid."

whitemike @ Jan 20th 2007 1:53PM

I'm an American and I have each of those Japanese preferences. This is one reason I'm not tempted by the XBox 360, FPS's galore but I could care less. I can see why the 360 is tanking there. I agree that the Japanese preferences just make for better games.

...I think I'm turning Japanese I think I'm turning Japanese I really think so...

diskoboy @ Jan 20th 2007 2:13PM

JET SET RADIO!!!!

(Sega - please make another sequel!!)

VampireHunter Z @ Jan 20th 2007 3:09PM

The American constant need for individuality, uniqueness and identity really sickns me sometimes. The other day I was playing Texas Hold'em on XBLA and some kid in the room just keeps asking everyone stupid questions. Like: are you mexican? Are you black? Are you emo? Are you goth? Are you gay? Obviously a sense of identity is just way too important to him.

This happens a lot in other online games. Why is this so important? Who gives a fuck about so called individuality? Not me. I guess this is why I'm not into open ended (sandbox games). I watch my friends play GTA but could never get into it. I'm also not willing to try Oblivion. Personally I think a linear and restricted game created by a genius and visionary is far more entertaining than a game where I can do anything. I prefer to experience the creators vision than make up my own in a sandbox game.

As far as FPS are concerned I'm half and half. Generally they give me motion sickness. The 1st FPS I played (other than Golden Eye) was Quake 3. It was way too fast and made me sick. For some reason Halo 2 has a really good camera and speed so that doesn't make me sick. I don't mind FPS that much and games like Crysis are really nice to look at.

The bottom line is that I can enjoy something from both cultures without being on the extreme end of either.

Slaziman @ Jan 20th 2007 4:00PM

I agree with 39

I could never see what was so fucking great about GTA, the "missions" were boring as hell, go here and kill this guy and return, the storylines are usually bullshit, specially the one from San Andreas, wtf was that about? Sure it's fun to fuck around for a while in the big city, but after a while getting the same reactions from pedestrians time after time, and getting wasted by the cops time and again, or getting your car destroyed doing stupid shit, the "freedom" gets boring. And I won't even mention the missions with that fucking RC helicopter, goddamn. IMHO the only reason GTA sells so well is because people are too concerned with their image, I mean what would you rather play when you are with your nongaming friends, Final Fantasy or GTA? Playing FF will trigger your friends "what is this bullshit" or "what are you doing?" reaction, while GTA will get you "what happens if you shoot that guy there" or "what happens when you get a 6 star wanted level".

PS: CJ is a whiny BITCH

WamBam @ Jan 20th 2007 4:11PM

I lived in Japan for a while but am from the States. While there are elements of truth to the generalizations that are being made, we run the risk of stereotyping both cultures. I'd like to say three things briefly:

One, accepting the fact that Japanese games are more fantastic and Americans are much more concerned with realism, I don't honestly see how anyone could say one is better then the other. It's a matter of preference, plain and simple, and that preference may or may not be influenced by cultural history.

Second, how can one say that Americans are more militarized when Japan, for hundreds of years was ruled by the Shogunate and a warrior/military caste? I'm sure that one could cite recent history and say that Japanese has soured on militarization but then again, it seems as though samurais are always present in japanese games, literature and film.

Last, I encourage anyone who is interested in the notion of heroism - which is not doubt an element in video games - watch both of Clint Eastwood's new films Flag of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima. Both movies examine the construction of heroism in JApan and the US and hightlight the dangers or contradictions of trying to believe in such ideas... not to mention the dangers of people who believe that American individuality or seemingly homogenous is all that each culture is really about.

some person @ Jan 20th 2007 8:03PM

real motion/physics+stlyized graphics=a good/looking game

Noah Dylan Goldblatt @ Jan 20th 2007 11:53PM

This is really interesting. I wrote up a post just now about my own personal experiences with Japanese gaming vs. American gaming.

http://www.ndgold.com/2007/01/20/american-vs-japanese-video-gaming/

HAHA @ Jan 21st 2007 2:09AM

Yea if i gotta here kagome yell INUYASHA one more GOD DAMN TIME!!!!! or vuce versa....I personally dont care for the japanese games....all that shit is played out Pokemon full metal DBZ yu gi oh Naruto. and all that other crap on adult swim. I really dont know why people get so caught up in what they play. We dont only have FPS Instead of all that fantasy magic crap we have REALITY BASED GAMES like the SIMS and WWII. AND they are wrong we do enjoy a good storyline and plot it just isnt any. And we cant just NOT play games because all the storylines suck. AND WTF is stuff like DDR seen as so much fun to adult's

SSUK @ Jan 21st 2007 2:58AM

#5: I'm British, oops don't like Racing Games. My friends are also British and heavy gamers, oops don't like racing games. Go back to your hole and reconsider your reasons to live.

Anyway, I'll prose this to you all though, and you cannot deney it whatever, every culture is arrogent about letting go of what it has. Thus, when a team localises a game or film in America, there will always be some edits to make it fit better into their culture and try hard not to bastardise the culture they're throwing it into.
As a poor, 3rd gaming world player in Europe, we're thrown this almost un-comprihencible localisation and expected to know what the fuck is going on. It just doesn't happen. Here's an example for you; Another Code 2 Memories for the DS, when it was originally translated, it was done straight from Japanese to English UK, German, Spanish, Itallian, French by Nintendo Europe. It was a game where I actually understood everything that was said without trying to comprihend what cultural meaning it may be for Americans like I do with... Every other bloody game. However, if Nintendo America had released the game as it was to you guys in the US, you would have been as lost as we are EVERY BLOODY GAME.
Thankfully for you, you were lucky enough to get Another Code made into Trace Memory and all kinds of ungodly things happen to it during localisation. But hey, you all seemed to not throw a fuss over the game, so it works.
I just don't understand that we're forever getting this American bullshit thrown into our, quite different culture and bastardising us into America 2. We may speak the same general language, but we're worlds appart, but hey, who cares about Europe? I grow tired of the lack of enthusaism towards one of the biggest major game-selling continents in the world.

Sadistic Freek @ Jan 21st 2007 4:49AM

I watch a lot of independent and foreign movies (Postman Blues being my all time favorite movie). The storyline has so much more depth, feeling and meaning over most of the BS the movie industry forces down our throats. When it comes to games I still desire a rich storyline. Much like my choice in movies, my choice in games is wide and dependent upon many factors such as, the depth of the storyline, the gameplay system in place, and just how much I enjoy playing the game.

Games I play? Ranges greatly... from Mario to Final Fantasy, to Halo, to Castlevania. I even still play older games on my old consoles, like Albert Odyssey on my Saturn, Jet Set Radio and Jet Set Radio Future on their respective consoles, Chu Chu Rocket... Alundra, Ecco the Dolphin and Shining Force. I like to keep my collection vast and ever expanding. If it weren't for the vast amount of nationalities bringing us games, I don't think I would be happy as a gamer. Same goes for movies.

Steve @ Jan 21st 2007 2:00PM

What about Crash Bandicoot? The series started around the same time as Super Mario 64 came out and was widely viewed and marketed as the "American" version of a 3d platformer. Mario 64 is literally as free-roaming as you can get in a platformer (I don't think any game since has been as vague about the objectives), while Crash was totally linear.

The article seems to throw a lot of trivia about Japanese culture around to reach tenuous conclusions, and doesn't seem particularly well-thought out. Other times it's just wrong (the intro to the article identifies Mario 64 as an American game, for example).

Shawn Oster @ Jan 21st 2007 5:09PM

So the Japanese don't like free roaming games? Yeah, I suppose FFVII didn't do to well...

American's don't like linear-style games? I guess those 3 million copies of Gears of War were probably just bought by only Japanese then.

I highly doubht if bullet points could summarize the differences in a meaningful way.

shushu @ Jan 22nd 2007 10:01AM

You are also missing the "cute & cool factor" compare lead caracters in Gears of War and Devil May Cry and you´ll know why japanese arent interested in american characters.

MagusDF @ Jan 22nd 2007 11:21AM

America as a lot more than just some generic fps, and completely sandbox based RPGs. But if you take a look at early American RPGs they were all D&D worlds with different stories. It made sense for them to be more open-ended. Japans culture also has a lot more smaller developers releasing a wide assortment of things. Where as American culture purely capitalist driven companies consider the risk to profit, very few take a chance and even fewer make it to a final product.

Also when looking at American FPS you should take into account some of the unique ones that have cropped up along the way. Thief, SystemShock 2 ect..