Reviewing Japan-Only Games

[goemon]

UPDATE: Afraid Gear Review (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs5tenaVcfo) is up!

I've started reviewing Japan-only Playstation games on YouTube. (Or, rather, I have a promo video finished and will upload the first review this weekend.) I already have a batch of 15 games picked out to review, but I'm open to suggestions. I would like to stick to the Playstation for now, but once I get more apartment space for systems, I would like to branch out to the SFC and PCE.

I'm trying to do something unique with these reviews. I don't want to praise or trash a game -- I want to explore why it was never released in America and what the good and bad things are. There are already plenty of people reviewing bad games (AVGN, Armake21, Jedite, UrinatingTree, etc) and some of their reviews are entertaining, but just bashing a game seems rather pointless after a while. I want to remain neutral and detatched. I think that Lee's Still Gaming reviews manage to do that to an extent, which I like.

Anyway, the promo movie is HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqvb_kJr60w). I know I sound awful -- I'm not much of an actor and I usually mess up when reading from a script, and I'm not a good ad-libber either. I hope I'll get better as I get used to reviewing. Let me know what you think, and maybe suggest some future reviews!

[Daltone]

I think it's a fantastic idea, and you don't sound bad at all.

[Drag0nsfyre]

cool promo video. :) I look forward to your reviews. :D

[thetoxicone]

Looks like they will be a good watch, I'll be awaiting word of the first actual episode

[UndeadKing]

I too look forward to it! You picked out a nice variety of games.

[Windy Miller]

Good stuff goemon - I look forward to watching them. As for suggestions, maybe puzzle games ? Not that it's my favourite genre or anything... :love: :-D

[goemon]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I have a quick question for the episode I'm working on -- I recall hearing about Playstation games that had cutscenes taken out during localization to the US market, but I can't remember which games they were. Does anyone know which ones had cut scenes deleted?

[Aussie2B]

Hah, Tanuki Teabag, great name. :) It sounds very cool, and I'm eager to see what you make of it. I've found your reviews on GameFAQs very interesting and helpful, especially since you covered a lot of otherwise completely ignored titles, and it looks like you plan to do the same with this too. I'm looking forward to the reviews on Goemon, Cho Aniki, and Monster Collection especially. I can't even tell what the hell to do in Monster Collection. o_O

[GillianSeed]

Resident Evil had some edits made to at least two cutscenes. They were supposedly going to add them back in for the Director's Cut, but there was a mixup and the edited versions were reused instead.

Kind of ironic, considering that our version of RE4 is gorier than the Japanese release.

[Cryomancer]

I would suggest that you try to review games that you are familiar with "outside" of the game itself, or are willing to to the research on. What i mean by this is, don't fall into the common english review trap of playing say, a Kamen Rider game, and then calling it "power rangers". Check out IGN's review/preview of "super hero retsuden" for the Dreamcast to see one of the most non-professional online reviews ever.

Basically I'm just saying try not to make stuff up about games that are based on a show/movie/comic etc, try to be aware of what it actually is. That shit drives me nuts in reviews. If you review "Takeshi's Challenge" for the famicom (just using it as an example, i see you're doing PSX games), give some slight info on who Takeshi is, etc.

Sorry if this sounded mean or something but I felt the need to rant about this. LOL

The games in the preview vid are some good choices too, based on the handful i recognize. I didn't know Monster Collection got a game...I remember seeing an amusing ad for it in some random manga mag I picked up at a comic book store years ago. Should be a good series.

[Aussie2B]

I don't know, I think that kind of irrelevant. Of course, it helps to flesh out and spice up a review if you can add some interesting details about a game's source material, but I don't think it's a necessity. It's just crucial that a reviewer is good enough to realize where their knowledge is lacking and avoid making any assumptions and writing incorrect information. Calling Kamen Rider "Power Rangers" would just show ignorance and arrogance.

I think a far greater problem is when a reviewer is lacking the knowledge of related games. I've seen so many errors made because a reviewer was unaware of what series a game was a part of, or where it fell within a given series, or even its relation to games within its genre. For example, it would be common to see someone claiming that Shining Force started the strategy RPG genre even though the genre was already established at that point by Fire Emblem and others. Or another example would be someone claim that a game is so "original and innovative" when it's actually the second or third game in a series, and its gameplay is entirely based upon the entries before it.

It's those kind of mistakes that bother me much more.

[Spartacus]

Looks interesting to me and I've suscribed. I'm just curious though, why are the teabags blurred?

[StealthLurker]

Looking forward to your work!

[goemon]

I'm just curious though, why are the teabags blurred?

Because some people don't want to see mad 'nuki ballz.

[Drag0nsfyre]

Great first review. :D looking forward to the others. :)

[Cryomancer]

Hah, good stuff. Good job at working in a butter monster reference and Parodius music.

[OldSchoolGamer]

Great idea! I have often wondered which Japan only games would be worth checking out and simple text descriptions don't always convey enough! Thanks for this and good luck! looking forward to seeing all the results!

[goemon]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! YouTube cut off the last few seconds of the video -- after the music started to fade, I talked a little more about alternative fuel and soy sauce.

Anyway, I'm working on my second video now. It's going to take a little longer since I'm using Flash instead of WMM. Since Aussie2B can't figure out what to do in Monster Collection, I think I'll lend a hand and review that next.