Why did Japanese developers do an amazing job on American Licensed games?

[Gameguy]

I don't know about the others out there, but stuff like Atari 2600's ET was made in mere months and it's considered one of the worse games in history.

It was made in a few weeks, about 5 weeks from what I've read so just over one month to make.

What other American companies developed or released movie based games?

There's Interplay. They made Total Recall for the NES.

[Low G Man]

There's Interplay. They made Total Recall for the NES.

Actually, that was Realtime Associates.

Maybe it just comes down to the highest bidder at the end of the day. Licensed games in Japan have often been made by reputable companies known for making great original games too. They don't want to tarnish their reputation by going half-assed on a licensed game. In the US (and Europe, with Titus and the like), it was often shit developers that created almost nothing but licensed garbage that landed these licenses. Even with their terrible reputations, the games still sold well thanks to clueless parents and little kids, so they had the funds to pick up more licenses and continue the cycle.



Eh, it's true that there are plenty of bad anime-based games and such, but I still think Japanese games based on Japanese licenses are better on the whole than American games based on American cartoons, movies, and the like.

I completely agree, Badly-made western games seem to be a lot worse than badly mad Japanese games.

Well, isn't that the thing right there? LJN is a shitty developer.

Yeah thats kinda what I was getting at. It kinda depends on the developer. Look at Bandai, they are Japanese and they did Dick Tracy, Dr Jekyl Mr Hyde, Toxic Crusaders, Gilligans Island. Nothing special here.

LJN never developed a single game. All of their releases were outsourced to other developers like Atlus, Beam, and Software creations. Same with Bandai, nearly all of their output was crafted by TOSE Software.

Couple things....Firstly there was almost nothing but crap from Western developers on the NES/SMS era of systems. Some of that was because most of them were developing for PC, and those games often didn't translate well to console. Also, remember that a ton of US-based developers went out of business in the crash, leaving the industry in shambles. They recovered in the 16-bit era I feel.

I maybe wrong, but the way I've seen it, Western developers of the day were more interested in developing the kinds of unique game that were popular on PC and saw console-style games like Mario & Zelda as kiddy fair, but eventually realized that's where the money is and began developing similar games, but were usually of low quality due to not having the same levels of experience and talents of those Japanese designers.

[Gameguy]

Actually, that was Realtime Associates.

Are you sure? I've seen multiple sources say that it was Interplay, I'm not just going by the Wikipedia entry.

http://nesguide.com/games/total-recall/
http://www.honestgamers.com/9391/nes...ll/review.html
http://www.swankworld.com/Games/retr...all/review.htm


EDIT:

I've looked up Realtime Associates' website, they list all of their video games that they produced. For NES they produced Maniac Mansion, Caesar's Palace, Rocketeer, and Dick Tracy. There's no mention of Total Recall. If they're still mentioning Rocketeer and Dick Tracy then I doubt they're editing out their bad games.

http://www.rtassoc.com/pastprojects.html

[CRV]

Realtime Associates only did the sound on Total Recall.

No No No, First of all, LJN and Acclaim were quite the same thing, since LJN was just Acclaims brand that they used in order to bypass the limit Nintendo impose at the point, much like Konami did with the Ultra games subsidiary, and LJN was mostly a publisher, i heard that Karate Kid was developed by Atlus but i cant confirm that, but i know that most of the LJN published games were developed by Rare, yes, RARE.

LJN was a toy company until it was bought by Acclaim in 1990 and gutted.

[Doommaster1994]

Are you sure? I've seen multiple sources say that it was Interplay, I'm not just going by the Wikipedia entry.

http://nesguide.com/games/total-recall/
http://www.honestgamers.com/9391/nes...ll/review.html
http://www.swankworld.com/Games/retr...all/review.htm


EDIT:

I've looked up Realtime Associates' website, they list all of their video games that they produced. For NES they produced Maniac Mansion, Caesar's Palace, Rocketeer, and Dick Tracy. There's no mention of Total Recall. If they're still mentioning Rocketeer and Dick Tracy then I doubt they're editing out their bad games.

http://www.rtassoc.com/pastprojects.html

I believe only the music part of Total Recall was done by Realtime, as that was David Warhol (founder for Realtime) and George Sanger (musician for Realtime). Monster Truck Rally lists INTV Corporation which is actually an alias for Realtime Associates.

Also, another reason why Western game developers may not be as good was because back then sometimes, only one person worked on the entire game. For example, Mark Cerny did the entire port of California Games for the Master System.

[BlastProcessing402]

there was almost nothing but crap from Western developers on the NES/SMS era of systems.

Pretty much, at least on the console front. (Completely different story on the computer side, though). That's not to say there are no exceptions, though.

[Neb6]

Also, another reason why Western game developers may not be as good was because back then sometimes, only one person worked on the entire game. For example, Mark Cerny did the entire port of California Games for the Master System.

According to the reviews though, it looks like he still managed to make a solid game. Maybe he works well on his own? I haven't played that one, so I really can't say first-hand. Cerny is definitely a star programmer though.

[Doommaster1994]

According to the reviews though, it looks like he still managed to make a solid game. Maybe he works well on his own? I haven't played that one, so I really can't say first-hand. Cerny is definitely a star programmer though.

Some programmers are better experienced than others. The programmer of Spider-Man for the NES told me he had to learn 6502 assembly in a week. Then a programmer for Win Lose or Draw said something like the game was made in two weeks. I know those games were made by more than one person, though. I haven't really played California Games myself (though I do own a copy). I also have a strong suspicion that the people who worked on Bill & Ted are the same people that worked on The Mutant Virus. That game was made by (I think) 5 people and it's the same game developer.

Haha, it's funny back then games had very short development teams, but now you have a large amount of people working on one game.

[NeoZeedeater]

Also, another reason why Western game developers may not be as good was because back then sometimes, only one person worked on the entire game. For example, Mark Cerny did the entire port of California Games for the Master System.

He was the sole programmer but he didn't do the artwork (which looks notably Japanese in that version).

[Doommaster1994]

Ah. I wonder who did the graphics then? Or the music? I know the title screen music's a real song and the rest of the songs are taken from the computer versions, but I'm wondering who did the adaptation for Sega Master System.

[wiggyx]

I think there a great many reasons for this. One, I feel that the likes of Konami and Capcom developed games and then applied a license to them. The game came first, the licensed bits later. I think the inverse is/was true for US developers, which is to say that they built everything around the licensed property, with far less (if any) concern over whether or not a good game was to come of it.

I'm also fairly certain that the quality of the game is indicative of the quality of the property it's based on. How many of the licensed games in question are really great and who owns the IP? I'd say only a handful and almost all are owned by Disney. Disney, like em or not, is known for producing good quality product (TV/film), so having a good game to go along with their IPs only makes sense. They don't need to cash-in on their films right away because their films have lasting power. A game can come out a year after the film's theatrical release and people will still care, versus something like Total Recall which is easily forgotten by most of the game's target audience.

So crappy licensed game probably have less to do with the developer and more the movie and TV studios pushing to have a product ready at the same time as the film/TV show release so as to not miss their window of opportunity, and I'd like to think that Japanese developers were/are less likely to take on a rush project like that, since it would potentially tarnish their brand.

[SparTonberry]

At least at the time, Disney cared more about quality control.
I do remember reading an interview with the producer of DuckTales. Capcom certainly cared about game quality, but Disney almost had to threaten to pull the license if they didn't fix their Engrish, if I remember reading it.

Though Toy Story I didn't like as much, but I don't think I've yet seen a Disney game that I could call abysmal, just below-average (High School Musical 3, which I only played some of for the sake of being one of the last licensed GBA games).

[Neb6]

I think there a great many reasons for this. One, I feel that the likes of Konami and Capcom developed games and then applied a license to them. The game came first, the licensed bits later. I think the inverse is/was true for US developers, which is to say that they built everything around the licensed property, with far less (if any) concern over whether or not a good game was to come of it.

I'm also fairly certain that the quality of the game is indicative of the quality of the property it's based on. How many of the licensed games in question are really great and who owns the IP? I'd say only a handful and almost all are owned by Disney. Disney, like em or not, is known for producing good quality product (TV/film), so having a good game to go along with their IPs only makes sense. They don't need to cash-in on their films right away because their films have lasting power. A game can come out a year after the film's theatrical release and people will still care, versus something like Total Recall which is easily forgotten by most of the game's target audience.

So crappy licensed game probably have less to do with the developer and more the movie and TV studios pushing to have a product ready at the same time as the film/TV show release so as to not miss their window of opportunity, and I'd like to think that Japanese developers were/are less likely to take on a rush project like that, since it would potentially tarnish their brand.

Good observations! The SG-1000 game Zoom 909 being turned into Buck Rogers is one example that comes to mind. Then there's TRON. The 1982 arcade game made more money than the movie.