Quote Originally Posted by kupomogli View Post
This.

Japan had this idea that people in the west sucked ass at video games in comparison to Japanese gamers, and this may be true(see image below,) but kind of disrespectful when you think about it. A lot of games had changes that made them easier for the western market, although few(very few) were much harder in the west(Contra Hard Corps, Ninja Gaiden 3.)
Funny they thought that, because if you check any list of arcade game records, particularly classic, Americans dominate. NAMCO had this big celebration after Billy Mitchell's perfect game in Pac-Man. It's not about difficulty so much. I think Western gamers loved fast moving games, games that are fun first. Japanese wanted to be tested mentally at every path, in a puzzle-solving way. JAP-SMB2 if you ask me, game-wise, is not good. It's not fun, it's a pain in the butt which I would have had zero patience for 25 years ago. I don't think it would have ruined the Mario franchise, but it would have been ugly.