LudoScience

Studies & Analysis (videogames)

Author(s) : Chris Kohler
Editor : Brady Games
Publication date : 01-01-2004
Language : english

This book presents a historical, economic and artistic analysis of Japanese video games, hoping to explain why they are so successful all around the world. The author, who is an expert of this topic, offers us a combination of detailed history (the birth of Japanese video game industry), personal analysis of games series (Mario, Final Fantasy, etc.), and interviews with legendary game designers such as Shigeru Miyamoto and Fumito Ueda. The author then explores some "japanese-specific" aspects of the video game culture, such as Akihabara and the numerous game soundtrack published on CD. He also analyze the relations between Japan and the rest of the world, with the topic of video games translation and localization, and the case of international collaboration such as Starfox, co-created by Nintendo and the British company Argonaut Software. All these elements back up the author's thesis, who manages to make us travel to Japan with this brilliant book. Moreover, this book will also make you realize that there isn't any single "magical secret" behind the success of Japanese video games: in reality it's a combination of many cultural, artistic and economical factors. To summarize, it's a captivating book that successfully address its topic.