Japanese Gamification Fetish
In which western IPs are adapted into videogames by Japanese developers, but these manage to infuse the title with THAT unique energy that makes you go "ah, yep, this is a Japanese game alright", or even completely reinterpret the world and characters to attract the Japanese audience.
Marvel superheroes have named all their special attacks weird shit like "MAXIMUM SPIDER" and yell them everytime, Jack Skellington is going combo MAD at his enemies, introducing mechanics Devil May Cry and Bayonetta would later steal; Donald Duck is the most powerful wizard in all of Square Enix's games, Mr. Smithers is now inexplicably a supervillain that wears a cape with an atom motif and fights with bombs against the Simpsons, Counter Strike is now about good guy rebels in a cyberpunk future fighting a megacorporation (with MGS ass designs), and of course, The Wizard of Oz is now a JRPG.
Marvel superheroes have named all their special attacks weird shit like "MAXIMUM SPIDER" and yell them everytime, Jack Skellington is going combo MAD at his enemies, introducing mechanics Devil May Cry and Bayonetta would later steal; Donald Duck is the most powerful wizard in all of Square Enix's games, Mr. Smithers is now inexplicably a supervillain that wears a cape with an atom motif and fights with bombs against the Simpsons, Counter Strike is now about good guy rebels in a cyberpunk future fighting a megacorporation (with MGS ass designs), and of course, The Wizard of Oz is now a JRPG.
63 Games
Complete series
Suggested by LukeGirard
Complete series
Gameboy version
SNES version
NOT this one, the 2008 arcade game by Banpresto.
Is this even a western IP? Regardless, this game kicks ass
Western characters such as K.Rool, Banjo and even Mii costumes go through Japanese Gamification in this series.
Suggested by @letshugbro
Also Meitantei Holmes - Kiri no London Satsujin Jiken, which is an even more agressively Japanese styled adventure game, with the command menu like this one but also animated portraits and sounds that play when dialogue appears.
9 Comments
ducktales, castle of illusion, quackshot, konami tmnt series
holy shit Arm Joe
@Pangburn I considered all those games, but ultimately I think they keep themselves to a style more similar to their source material and could easily be mistaken for western games if you didn't know any better. I'm going more for something you'll almost immediately recognize as Japanese if you're familiar with their typical style. I know it's very subjective, but I try to be kinda selective here because it's not really a list of just Japanese games based on western IPs.
A Week of Garfield and the Sherlock Holmes beat em up for the Famicom come to mind
@letshugbro not quite what I'm looking for either as weird as it is that Sherlock kills every man and woman he encounters, sorry, but it did lead me to find the other two Japanese Sherlock Holmes games, Loretta no Shouzou and Kiri no London Satsujin Jiken that are a lot more in the style of Japanese adventure games like Famicom Detective Club and the like, presentation-wise, I feel that distinguishes itself more from the western adventure games.
@letshugbro actually, I changed my mind, it's too weird of an idea considering every Sherlock game was an adventure game until the Robert Downey Jr. movie came out, plus it seems Takeshi's Challenge-esque, so this one goes to the list too
You already have a couple Batman games on here but how about the Game Boy adaptation of the 1989 movie by Sunsoft that is essentially just Mega Man. Also X:Men: Mutant Apocalypse and Marvel Super Heroes in War of the Gems for SNES are maybe the most Capcom games ever
That t Sawyer box art is giving the most despicable vibes
LukeGirard
2 years ago