It’s odd of me to talk about video games in something I refer to as a “diary”. But something I must accentuate is the importance video gaming is to me. With that, I continue my rant.
      There’s a fine line between video games when it comes to American and Japanese games. I have an eye that can easily distinguish an American game from a Japanese. Suddenly, this summer, I realized that American games outnumber Japanese games significantly. Granted, America’s population outnumbers Japan’s by a 2.4:1 scale, but it’s been said that quality comes before quantity. One can easily say, over half of America’s overabundance of games sell like crap. I now turn to the well-known theory of “cause and effect”.
      The cause of the lackluster sales of many American games is because many developers aren’t aiming for something new, but simply emulating and imitating. When Nintendo, a Japanese company, dished out one of the industries most innovative ideas, Mario 64, American development houses clamored with a resounding respect, and soon hoped to spew out their own competitors. It’s a fact that many of these games were superb, however, a majority of them were mere copies, and others just plain sucked. It’s also a fact that nothing, thus far, has been able to change the gaming industry’s platforming genre on the scale that Mario did. The effect of this “wannabe” atmosphere is that costumers were looking for another revelation, not an imitation.
      From the beginning of video gaming, America was always behind. Because of the success of games like the original Donkey Kong and Pac-Man, the US began to develop their own arcade games. Japan’s Capcom introduced the everlasting franchise of Street Fighter, along with its new 2D fighting genre. America retaliated with Midway’s Mortal Kombat-a nice idea, but soon began to fade into the dust-covered shelves due to repetition. Speaking of such, it brings me to another point in my banter: content and character.
      The ever-aging industry seems to be aging in actuality. I don’t consider boobage and profanity as “mature”, but I’ll spare the whole other argument. The fact is that video games are beginning to show more of them respectively. However, chance has it that these “maturing” games are all American. Dave Mirra XXX, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, The Getaway, and the list goes on. I’m no fool to try and hide Dead of Alive Xtreme Volleyball, but the idea of the game isn’t merely to whet the testosterones of adolescent males (I can hear snickers of disbelief in the background), it’s also a (dating) sim, a genre completely foreign to the US. The idea of mixing a sim with a volleyball game is, indeed, a new idea. 95% will buy it for the scantily dressed hot females and gravity defying breasts, 5% will buy it for it’s innovative idea. Regardless, the idea is innovative.
      For some reason or another, Japanese games are never made for the sake of hacking and slashing humans or deformed creatures into oblivion, or beating your opponent with their own limb, for that matter (e.g. Mortal Kombat). Japanese games mostly aspire for gameplay perfection, storyline innovation and the like. Take two large American examples… Tomb Raider and Mortal Kombat. Sexuality, Profanity, and Violence are the main things that make a game get a black “M” slapped upon their box; Tomb Raider offers the first, Mortal Kombat offers the last. Dave Mirra XXX will deliver the middle along with the first and last, but it hasn’t been released to the general public yet, so its been ruled out as an example. Keep in mind that the three are all American though. What was in Midway’s mind at the time was to create a fighting game unlike any other, without the vibrant colors of Street Fighter. The idea was correct, but the approach could only satisfy a certain group. They had to resort to extensive usage of blood and gore to attract audiences rather than using a new overhauled fighting system. Tomb Raider: I’d bet my life that if the main character were a male, the game would sell half as well, maybe even less. Dave Mirra XXX, the developers specifically stated they wanted to do something other than recreate levels and add new moves, a la Tony Hawk. Running out of ideas, are we?
      What I’m attempting to stress is that many American games use human desires to attract customers. Using a more contemporary example, Pikmin’s idea was an idea unheard of by anyone else. In there, you see no blood, no breasts, and no profane language. However the fact that it didn’t succeed well in sales makes it an improper example. Metal Gear, perhaps, is a better example. It’s not to say it has no blood and no profanity. Nevertheless, the game’s goal was to kill as few enemies as possible. If caught, you’d face certain death, depending on your skill and the level you played at. The focus was to use stealth techniques rather than running head on, guns blazing, into battle, while maintaining a deep storyline, something it excels on. The second game proves it once again, and redefines the meaning of gaming cinematics. I can’t help but think that the blood and torturing techniques of the soldiers was for the American’s pleasure, seeing as it seemed more popular in the US. But the idea of holding people up was for the sake of innovation, realism, and freedom.
      Games like Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy, Sonic, all Japanese games, manage to become some of the greatest franchises of all time without using extreme violence, profanity, or sexuality to gain success. What makes these games great is gameplay. Final Fantasy, in fact, offers some of the greatest storylines along with it. One very notable game I’d also like to mention is Vagrant Story. The game used a complete different battle system partially influenced by Parasite Eve (both from Squaresoft), but also unique in its own sense. The game combined real-time battles with turn-based traditional RPG battles. It also managed to have some of the best graphics ever seen on PSone, and one of the best scripts of any game to date, written by true archaic, British writers. Nothing about it suggests the aforementioned things that give games an “M” rating
      After four paragraphs, I’ll finally get to “character”, or rather “art”. One thing to keep in mind is that Japanese never make first person shooters or dedicated sports titles, and Americans never make traditional turn-based RPGs or dating sims. Personally, I believe the reason for this is that the former is too shallow for most Japanese developers’ tastes, and the latter is too deep for most American developers’ tastes. Rarely will you ever find any American game with as much personality as the cast from any Final Fantasy or Metal Gear. Halo, although a great game that redefined the FPS genre, has a mute protagonist with a cheap name, “Master Chief”. Sure Mario or Link never talk, but they have subtle expressions that give the game a flair only found within the said game as opposed to Master Chief being the always-stiff flawless heroic figure. Nintendo has a certain way of creating speechless personalities, which purpose is to allow the player to feel more like the character, making their own decisions. Final Fantasy and Metal Gear define this on different terms. Their characters have their own personalities, and they stress that more effectively than, say, Max Payne.
      The look to many American games contributes nothing to allow one to feel they control a living person. When I look at the faces of comrades in Halo, they look like complete static figures, their faces plastered on, and their mouth animations so stiff. Although Eternal Darkness, as another example, is Canadian, they too have that same style in their art. Rather than relying on light sources to have characters cast shadows upon themselves, they create textures to substitute that, which only makes the characters look muddy and corroded. Tomb Raider is an exception. Although not flourishing with an overuse of texture, she just looks plain inhuman. Her legs too cylindrical, her breasts just two balloons held on by skin, and her lips like she’s just been punched in her mouth. The Japanese seem to have a better grasp on human anatomy than westerners do, Europeans included. Personally I’m more “aroused” by DOAX Volleyball than seeing deformed humans ride around on BMX bikes or watching prostitutes with demon like faces and bodies restore your health in the car. Perhaps the influence of Anime has helped the Japanese make their humans look more attractive (e.g. Intro to Ridge Racer V).
      Call me racist, prejudice, but one must admit, Jill Valentine is hotter than Alex Roivas, Cammy is hotter than Sonya, Tifa is hotter than Lara, and Snake is hotter…er…cooler than Sam Fischer (sorry, redundancy gets to you). On a side note, one look at Splinter Cell (actually many looks), and I can tell there won’t be nearly as much personality as Metal Gear. Nicer gameplay, maaaaaaybe. Better story, hell no. Mario 64 is to Spyro as Metal Gear is to ________. Gran Turismo 3 is to RalliSport Challenge as Street Fighter is to ________. There’s no denial that American development houses can create some incredible games, but too few create quality or revolutionary games.
~Chibi