Japan, "Your Games Just Suck"

[Baseley09]

How about Xenon II or Battle Squadron? People like those one. IMO the best western one was Menace from Psygnosis, though it is quite the R-Type rip off.

Psygnosis also put out Blood Money, which may be related to that game?

They did Agony also.

Then there is X-Out & Z-Out from Rainbow Arts.

Basically Amiga.

[QualityChimp]

I'm not really bothered about the original point, but i've been racking my brains trying to think of something after someone's post. Genuinely, I cannot think of a single good (Non Jap) shmup from the 8/16bit era? In fact, I can't think of a good western shmup at all. Maybe you can tell me what they are and i'll realise I like some that aren't Japanese?

How about Defender, SWIV or Xenon 2?

Uridium? Asteroids?

Smash TV

Armalyte

How about Jeff Minter stuff - Llamatron and the various Llama-obsessed games?

[Nico87]

They aren't good shmups in the sea of Japanese shmups.

A big part of the Japanese dev "problem" is that companies like Capcom and Konami has started letting totally random Western devs develop their games in hopes for the Western appeal thing.

Just look at the devs for

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slant_Six_Games
Silent Hill: Downpour - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatra_Games
Blades of Time - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaijin_Entertainment
NeverDead - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebellion_Developments
Dead Rising 2 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Castle_Games
Bionic Commando - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GRIN_(company)
Splatterhouse - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottlerocket_Entertainment
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MercurySteam

Plus the loads of games published by Square Enix in the past two years.

I think a lot of this has to do what the company themself actually has to make in-house to keep that huge profit. Capcom has the Street Fighter franchise, Resident Evil (except RE: ORC) and Monster Hunter, Namco Bandai has the Tales franchise and Ace Combat plus ****loads of anime games, while Square Enix has Dragon Quest and the Final Fantasy franchise. Konami has Metal Gear Solid, Pro Evolution Soccer. Remember, most of these companies also owns a lot of slot/pachinko machines in Japan, and also has a lot of merchandise available. Namco Bandai and Capcom are also involved in anime.

[rmoxon]

Yeah some of my fondest gaming memories from the early 90s is playing stuff like Cannon Fodder, Doom, Championship Manager, North and South (ok maybe that last one was just me). For me there has never been a time when Japanese games ruled the roost so to speak.

Ive always enjoyed things from all regions, I wouldn't say any has ever been better than any other.

[speedlolita]

I only really play Japanese games. No reason why in particular though, just what appeals to me.

Looking at my 360 games now, they're all clearly japanese with 5 of them being readily available to play in arcade in japan, the others are console exclusive fighters and Deadly Preminition.

[Tobal]

Agree.
I think the easten developers have been pushed out of this gen due to pumped out **** like COD and Fifa. If i look at my Retro collection, its all from Japan and all still massively playable. You won't be able to say that about COD in 10 years.
Anyway, i can name some cracking games thats come from the east this gen.

What rubbish, that to me screams "i hate the player base", the games sell well because they've been made well, especially in the case of Fifa, they had to work hard to surpass PES which is complete tosh now stuck in the past for last 4/5 years, and for every good eastern game you can mention i bet anyone on this forum can counter with a western game.

[dataDave]

Any Street Fighter, probably even including the first one but excluding the game based off the movie, match those.

Body Blows? Rise of the Robots? Mortal Kombat?

Dodonpachi Resurrection?

[Brad]

True. It's all down to taste and sweeping statements are pointless. The Japanese are certainly not inherently bad at making videogames these days. MGS4, Bayonetta, Mario Galaxy, Demon' Souls, all amazing games, as are Skyrim, Dragon Age, Halo etc.

[BeyondJumpFish]

Fair enough, ill give you Fifa because it has come along way and has to update with each season I guess. Still hate COD though.
I think Fifa and PES make a good example of where things have gone right and wrong for the west and east. As you said PES has been stuck in the past and i think thats a good analogy of where Japan went wrong. Saying their games suck is a harsh comment made though.

[Flabio]

Street Fighter 4 was coded in the States wasn't it?

[Brad]

Co-developed I think? Someone here surely knows the facts though.

[MisterBubbles]

Nope not just you Rmoxon, North and South is a cracking game, can hear the tune in my head already.

[nakamura]

Fifa still copies PES though. No doubt the next Fifa game will pioneer 'Pro AI' or something because Konami have once again **** all over EAs parade in terms of gameplay. Fifa is a better overall product, but the AI and offline gameplay is rubbish, the AI is the same for every single team in the game and even Stoke City play like Barcelona. PES is flawed though and way behind.

[Skull Commander]

Now, I like Japanese games and I also like US Western games. But which is better? There's only one way to find out...

[rmoxon]

Fair enough, ill give you Fifa because it has come along way and has to update with each season I guess. Still hate COD though.
I think Fifa and PES make a good example of where things have gone right and wrong for the west and east. As you said PES has been stuck in the past and i think thats a good analogy of where Japan went wrong. Saying their games suck is a harsh comment made though.

Can you name a Japanese FPS that's better than COD then?

In fact, can you name a Japanese FPS?