Japanese Fighting Gamers Are Better?

[Tetsu]

I was playing my with Agetec Dreamcast Arcade Stick today, and came to the conclusion that Japanese fighting game fans have a few advantages over their American and European counterparts. An American/European gamer stands in front of a cramped machine, bashing on the controls while rubbing elbows with his/her human opponent. Meanwhile, his/her Japanese counterpart sits comfortably on a stool in front of a generic game kiosk. The joystick and buttons on the kiosk are smaller and more responsive, so the Japanese gamer needs only to quickly tap out special-move motions with a thumb and forefinger, instead of using his/her entire arm. (the toughest SNK specials and SF "teleport" moves are MUCH easier to do on my Japanese-style Agetec Stick). The Japanese gamer's opponent is also several feet away, on a linked cabinet, where neither player can see what the other is planning to pull by looking over at the controls. All this leads me to believe that Japanese gamers have an edge on fighting games simply because the enviornment they play in is more gamer-friendly. I was curious to know what you guys thought of this.

[Kroogah]

Yes, Japanese gamers obviously have a decided advantage, since video games are a real way of life in Japan. Video games aren't simply reduced to economic figures on CNN and a few lame Blockbuster commercials like they are here.

I seem to recall reading a message board post at shoryuken.com about how Japanese fighting gamers are great....except at Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. Hmm.

[ShinobiMan]

With the release of Street Fighter 4, has anybody had a run in with a kick your ass Japanese super gamer? I have NEVER been able to defeat these elusive masters of the joystick.

[kedawa]

Japan has a much bigger arcade scene and standardized equipment. Other than that, they have no particular advantage.

Skill is still the deciding factor.

[XxHennersXx]

Not every Japanese fighting game is linked to another cabinet. a lot of them are side by side, and not all of them are sit down candy cabs either.

As for "responsiveness" it's a matter of preference. HAPP controls are good and so are sanwa.

Except at Marvel, HAPP works so much better at MVC2.

And yeah it's true - Japanese are garbage at Marvel.

[The 1 2 P]

I also seem to recall that a number of Japanese arcade games allow the user to use save cards that they store their stats and high scores on(among other things) to continue play from last time. And in some cases(like Tekken 5) there are memory card slots on the arcades where you can transfer data between the arcade and home console version. I'd say thats a nice little advantage to have.

[roushimsx]

What was the deal with Agetec bringing the stick out in the US instead of Sega self releasing it? Was it just an ASCII product that Sega opted not to distribute in the US or something? Always wondered that, though I've never been willing to crack open my HKT-7300 to check. Love the shit out of that thing.

Still going strong 10 1/2 years later. wtf!

[123►Genei-Jin]

Japanese players are garbage at MvC2 because they never gave a damn about the game and there's no scene around it. I'm not saying they will destroy american players if they had a scene but things would be at least more competitive. They simply own at any other game they have a scene for though. So to be more on topic, is not simply a matter of hardware and environment, is a matter of having a competitive scene.

[XYXZYZ]

I thought Japanese people were consistently better than us at everything ...

[ubersaurus]

I've played the Japanese at MOTW; not all of them are gods of the machine. I ran them with Tizoc, worst character in the game :P

US vs Japanese cabinets and equipment are a matter of preference, really. A lot of top American players who grew up on arcades, prefer US parts and cabs. And the Japanese don't own us for free in everything: All of the Marvel series games we've dominated them, Alpha 2 we dominated them, and if the last EVO tourney was any indication, our top guys can fight their top guys in CvS2 and Street Fighter 2. And I believe the Koreans were always the top of the heap in Tekken, the Mexicans and Chinese in KOF...

And honestly? I can't say that in the middle of a match, I'm looking at my opponent's controls. Maybe if they're going for the start button, but that's about it. If anything the Japanese setup makes it a pain in the ass to get next in a game, since once you pick a side, you have to wait in line for THAT SIDE. You can't just wait for the loser to get off the machine; it has to be the guy you're waiting behind.

[XxHennersXx]

I also seem to recall that a number of Japanese arcade games allow the user to use save cards that they store their stats and high scores on(among other things) to continue play from last time. And in some cases(like Tekken 5) there are memory card slots on the arcades where you can transfer data between the arcade and home console version. I'd say thats a nice little advantage to have.

tekken also lets you plug in PS2 pads for custom arcade sticks and Pad Warriors.

As for being side by side or linked - not a lot of them have linked game play. It's only a few of them.

[Nirvana]

I really need to face some Japanese gamers in Street Fighter IV.

[poloplayr]

Obviously it's just anectodal evidence and clearly not representative of the overall top players but so far I have come to the following two conclusions from playing japanese players online at SF4.

1. They are not better on average than the non-japanese players - rather the opposite.

2. They tend to cancel matches/kick you out far more often than non-japanese players.

[Blur2040]

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