The Japanese Gaming Industry Picks Its Game of the Year... Splatoon!

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deactivated-5d6bb9cb2ee20

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#1 deactivated-5d6bb9cb2ee20
Member since 2006 • 82724 Posts

133 developers in Japan were asked what their Game of the Year 2015 was, and...

It was Splatoon!

Splatoon really did well. I hope this gives Nintendo the gumption to iterate on the concept with a more full fledged sequel in the future, and that this also gives them incentive to try more new IPs in the future- especially given just how damn well Splatoon really ended up doing in the end.

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#2 Salt_The_Fries
Member since 2008 • 12480 Posts

Decent pick. Predictably not a single X1 game, though.

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jbc7343

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#3  Edited By jbc7343
Member since 2007 • 441 Posts

@charizard1605: I haven't had the luxury of playing it but it does look hella fun and quite deserved.

Hopefully we will see a sequel on the NX or perhaps 3DS.

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deactivated-5d6bb9cb2ee20

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#4 deactivated-5d6bb9cb2ee20
Member since 2006 • 82724 Posts

@jbc7343 said:

@charizard1605: I haven't had the luxury of playing it but it does look hella fun and quite deserved.

Hopefully we will see a sequel on the NX or perhaps 3DS.

By definition, Splatoon cannot work on the 3DS, it needs far more than the 240p resolution the 3DS screen can afford. Maybe on a future Nintendo handheld.

We definitely will see a sequel to it, though. Nintendo not making a follow up to a successful game of theirs? That's unheard of in this universe. They live by the franchise model.

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jbc7343

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#5 jbc7343
Member since 2007 • 441 Posts

@charizard1605: Perhaps the NX and it's still to be determined handheld/console configuration.

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Ten_Pints

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#6 Ten_Pints
Member since 2014 • 4072 Posts

And this is why I put absolutely no credence to game of the year awards from anyone.

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dobzilian

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#7 dobzilian
Member since 2012 • 3409 Posts

CoDs better.....

I jest, i jest lol.

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khoofia_pika

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#8 khoofia_pika
Member since 2006 • 16761 Posts

I'm shocked.

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#9 deactivated-58abb194ab6fb
Member since 2010 • 3984 Posts

I just bought the game hearing on here how good it is and I'm glad I did. It's a lot of fun and different, I'm really enjoying it.

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Maroxad

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#10  Edited By Maroxad
Member since 2007 • 23813 Posts

Sega really liked Super Mario Maker it seems. Maybe now, they can use this as an inspiration to make a good sonic game again.

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DJ-Lafleur

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#11  Edited By DJ-Lafleur
Member since 2007 • 35604 Posts

A game with young girls and tentacles everywhere wins GOTY in Japan? Who woulda thought?

Seriously though, Splatoon is great. I'm okay with its accolades.

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#12 Bread_or_Decide
Member since 2007 • 29761 Posts

Yep. Anyone paying attention knows Splatoon is the real deal. A gamers game. The industry needs more Splatoon's and fewer everything else.

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#13 JamesGoblin
Member since 2015 • 114 Posts

An excellent pick by experts. Let the unwashed masses vote for witchers and such ;)

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#14 ocinom
Member since 2008 • 1385 Posts

only 133? That's a small sample size

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#15  Edited By bunchanumbers
Member since 2013 • 5709 Posts

Its easily the best shooter this year. And it could be argued that its the best game this year overall. Splatoon is a revelation in a genre that is so saturated with the same old things and deserves the praise it gets.

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#16  Edited By deactivated-58ce94803a170
Member since 2015 • 8822 Posts

Some great picks in there.

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#17 Eikichi-Onizuka
Member since 2008 • 9205 Posts

I haven't played it myself yet but seems like a fun game, not really surprised in won in Japan.

I didn't know Assault Suit Leynos is out already, hoping that gets localized.

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#18 aroxx_ab
Member since 2005 • 13236 Posts

@Bread_or_Decide said:

Yep. Anyone paying attention knows Splatoon is the real deal. A gamers game. The industry needs more Splatoon's and fewer everything else.

I would say industry need less online competive multiplayer games, we need more good singleplayer/offline games.

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#19 JamesGoblin
Member since 2015 • 114 Posts

@aroxx_ab said:
@Bread_or_Decide said:

Yep. Anyone paying attention knows Splatoon is the real deal. A gamers game. The industry needs more Splatoon's and fewer everything else.

I would say industry need less online competive multiplayer games, we need more good singleplayer/offline games.

I totally disagree, we need more MMOs instead of multiplayers; Singleplayers - we are virtually stumbling over these at each step.

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#20 brn-dn
Member since 2015 • 1982 Posts

@bunchanumbers: Garden Warfare was the revolution, Splatoon got the praise that Garden Warfare deserved.

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#21 deactivated-5d6bb9cb2ee20
Member since 2006 • 82724 Posts
@brn-dn said:

@bunchanumbers: Garden Warfare was the revolution, Splatoon got the praise that Garden Warfare deserved.

I'm sorry, I wasn't aware that garden Warfare had the kind of territory control/movement/transformation mechanics that Splatoon did.

Wait, that's right. That's because it didn't. Silly me.

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#22 aroxx_ab
Member since 2005 • 13236 Posts

@jamesgoblin said:
@aroxx_ab said:
@Bread_or_Decide said:

Yep. Anyone paying attention knows Splatoon is the real deal. A gamers game. The industry needs more Splatoon's and fewer everything else.

I would say industry need less online competive multiplayer games, we need more good singleplayer/offline games.

I totally disagree, we need more MMOs instead of multiplayers; Singleplayers - we are virtually stumbling over these at each step.

I see f2p MMOs with disgusting microtransactions everywhere i go

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#23 brn-dn
Member since 2015 • 1982 Posts

@charizard1605: Well it does have territory control so you're forgiven.

Garden Warfare and Splatoon are very similar, this isn't the first time I've had this argument. Yes I get that the "main" mechanic of the game is covering the ground in ink but when people praise it as an innovative shooter that's where the problem is. Garden Warfare released months before Splatoon was even revealed and they are both kid-friendly, they're both colorful, they are both third person shooters, they both have items that let you customize your character, they both launched with limited content, they both had a lot of post-launch free DLC.

However Garden Warfare launched at only $40 while Splatoon launched at $60. Garden Warfare is better all-around but no one really knows about it because it doesn't get the "Nintendo praise" so many people add to Nintendo games on the internet. If Nintendo makes a good game, then it's a great game. If anyone else makes a good game, then it's just a good game. Tearaway should have had a lot more praise and I know that if it were a Nintendo game it would have received a lot more praise Garden Warfare is in the same boat.

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#24 jhonMalcovich
Member since 2010 • 7090 Posts

What this list actually shows is that 24 out of 133 people liked Splatoon and the other 109 people preferred something else. If it was presidential elections then a 2nd and probably a 3rd round would be required to determine unanimous choice lol So no, Splatoon is not the choice of the entire Japanese gaming industry.

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#25 JamesGoblin
Member since 2015 • 114 Posts

@aroxx_ab said:
@jamesgoblin said:
@aroxx_ab said:
@Bread_or_Decide said:

Yep. Anyone paying attention knows Splatoon is the real deal. A gamers game. The industry needs more Splatoon's and fewer everything else.

I would say industry need less online competive multiplayer games, we need more good singleplayer/offline games.

I totally disagree, we need more MMOs instead of multiplayers; Singleplayers - we are virtually stumbling over these at each step.

I see f2p MMOs with disgusting microtransactions everywhere i go

I don't see a single one worth even mentioning, god forbid playing.

There's lots of junk everywhere, just - there is hundred times more in singles :P

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#26  Edited By deactivated-5d6bb9cb2ee20
Member since 2006 • 82724 Posts

@jhonMalcovich: These are just the people who ranked Splatoon first. Second and third place nominations aren't mentioned here.

But yep, Splatoon won Japanese industry's GotY. Pity you're having such trouble dealing with it though :(

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#27 dreamdude
Member since 2006 • 4627 Posts

That's cool. I'll play it once I find a friend with a WiiU. Someday.

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#28 AM-Gamer
Member since 2012 • 8116 Posts

That's pitiful.... But so is most the Japanese gaming industry.

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#29 CountBleck12
Member since 2012 • 4726 Posts

Cool, game's a lot more fun than it looks but I wish I could say the same for the single player offline mode.

Also, lol at 1 vote for Undertale.

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#30 Shrek
Member since 2015 • 387 Posts

This is why Japan isn't taken seriously. Over all other contenders, this got their pick..

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#31 deactivated-5d6bb9cb2ee20
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@shrek said:

This is why Japan isn't taken seriously. Over all other contenders, this got their pick..

Not taken seriously by whom? And what is wrong with a game that is also winning awards in the west winning this award, exactly?

@AM-Gamer said:

That's pitiful.... But so is most the Japanese gaming industry.

What is wrong with a game that is also winning awards in the west winning this award, exactly? Also lol at the generalization

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#32 Jag85
Member since 2005 • 19382 Posts

@ocinom said:

only 133? That's a small sample size

That's a sample size of 133 developers, not the general public. For developers, that's a large sample size.

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#33  Edited By Jag85
Member since 2005 • 19382 Posts

It's worth mentioning the runners-up:

1. Splatoon - 24

2. Bloodborne - 8

2. Super Mario Maker - 8

4. The Witcher 3 - 7

4. Fallout 4 - 7

6. Metal Gear Solid V - 5

7. Hearthstone - 4

8. Dragon Quest Heroes - 3

8. Mobius Final Fantasy - 3

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#34 GreySeal9
Member since 2010 • 28247 Posts

@charizard1605 said:
@shrek said:

This is why Japan isn't taken seriously. Over all other contenders, this got their pick..

Not taken seriously by whom? And what is wrong with a game that is also winning awards in the west winning this award, exactly?

@AM-Gamer said:

That's pitiful.... But so is most the Japanese gaming industry.

What is wrong with a game that is also winning awards in the west winning this award, exactly? Also lol at the generalization

Splatoon should also win an award for being the game that rustles the most jimmies. Some very shallow people just can't stand the fact that a "kiddy" looking game is getting such recognition for its gameplay depth.

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#35 shadow_cse
Member since 2003 • 61 Posts

Not my personal GOTY but I could certainly see how it would be for some...especially considering FPS games don't tend to be as popular over there so Splatoon could be seen as even more original.

I'm also shocked that Fallout 4 and The Witcher 3 both got more votes than MGS 5.

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#36 AM-Gamer
Member since 2012 • 8116 Posts

@charizard1605: Its won awards but nowhere near GotY. The biast for there own games is also hilarious although if something like MGS:V or BB won it that would be understandable. There passion for games that are about 15 years behind top tier titles is baffling to me. And I'm not some dudebro that plays only one type of game It just feels like the vast majority of Japanese games are extremely simple with no effort.

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#37 Basinboy
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Some hardstyle Nintendo dick-riding going on by picking Splatoon (and Super Mario Maker tying for second with Bloodborne). But it's the Japanese gaming press and such is expected, especially in a period when the Japanese development scene is struggling to adapt with current market conditions and Nintendo is one of the few companies who manages to operate successfully while catering to Japanese sensibilities.

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#39 deactivated-5d6bb9cb2ee20
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@AM-Gamer said:

@charizard1605: Its won awards but nowhere near GotY. The biast for there own games is also hilarious although if something like MGS:V or BB won it that would be understandable. There passion for games that are about 15 years behind top tier titles is baffling to me. And I'm not some dudebro that plays only one type of game It just feels like the vast majority of Japanese games are extremely simple with no effort.

But none of this is applicable in this case:

  • The Japanese Top 10 almost entirely resembles most mainstream western Top 10s
  • The Japanese Top 10 games include three western games
  • Splatoon is not a game that is simple, with no effort, or even 15 years behind anything
  • I'm not sure why MGSV or Bloodborne winning is acceptable, but Splatoon winning is not. Would you have been okay with Mario Maker or Xenoblade X winning?
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#40 deactivated-5d6bb9cb2ee20
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@Basinboy said:

Some hardstyle Nintendo dick-riding going on by picking Splatoon (and Super Mario Maker tying for second with Bloodborne). But it's the Japanese gaming press and such is expected, especially in a period when the Japanese development scene is struggling to adapt with current market conditions and Nintendo is one of the few companies who manages to operate successfully while catering to Japanese sensibilities.

  • This is the Japanese gaming industry comprised of Japanese developers, not the Japanese gaming press
  • As someone who has played Splatoon, The Witcher, Bloodborne, Fallout, and just about most other big games of the year, Splatoon is a game that I have legitimately no issues with winning the title- personal preferences aside, it is as eligible to win something like this as those other games are
  • I'm not quite sure why Super Mario Maker, a game that scored high everywhere (it is as highly rated on this site as Bloodborne, and ranked just one place below Bloodborne in Gamespot's own list), as high as Bloodborne, tying with Bloodborne is such an issue causing disbelief in this case
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#41 imt558
Member since 2004 • 976 Posts

Not a bad choice. Splatoon really deserved it.

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#42  Edited By Shrek
Member since 2015 • 387 Posts

@charizard1605: Not taken seriously by the entire industry. The Japanese game industry has been on a huge decline for the past several years. And now we see 24 Japanese developers vote for some small game like Splatoon as number one over vastly more ambitious games like Witcher 3. Even Super Mario Maker got more votes than Witcher 3. That's a flat out travesty.

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#43 deactivated-5d6bb9cb2ee20
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@shrek said:

@charizard1605: Not taken seriously by the entire industry. The Japanese game industry has been on a huge decline for the past several years. And now we see 24 Japanese developers vote for some small game like Splatoon as number one over vastly more ambitious games like Witcher 3. That's a flat out travesty.

Their opinion doesn't match yours, so it's a travesty, yes.

I also agree that the Japanese gaming industry is in decline. Never mind the fact that five of the ten highest rated games this year are Japanese, that two of the three consoles on the market are Japanese, that both handhelds are Japanese, that the highest grossing mobile games are all Japanese, and that five of the ten most anticipated games for next year are Japanese. No, you're right, the Japanese industry is clearly in decline. What a shame.

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#44  Edited By Basinboy
Member since 2003 • 14495 Posts

@charizard1605 said:
@Basinboy said:

Some hardstyle Nintendo dick-riding going on by picking Splatoon (and Super Mario Maker tying for second with Bloodborne). But it's the Japanese gaming press and such is expected, especially in a period when the Japanese development scene is struggling to adapt with current market conditions and Nintendo is one of the few companies who manages to operate successfully while catering to Japanese sensibilities.

  • This is the Japanese gaming industry comprised of Japanese developers, not the Japanese gaming press
  • As someone who has played Splatoon, The Witcher, Bloodborne, Fallout, and just about most other big games of the year, Splatoon is a game that I have legitimately no issues with winning the title- personal preferences aside, it is as eligible to win something like this as those other games are
  • I'm not quite sure why Super Mario Maker, a game that scored high everywhere (it is as highly rated on this site as Bloodborne, and ranked just one place below Bloodborne in Gamespot's own list), as high as Bloodborne, tying with Bloodborne is such an issue causing disbelief in this case

My mistake about it being developers and not the press. But I still am unable to refrain from scrutinizing their selection, given the context and the nature of the game. Perhaps it's an indication of how incompatible Japan and Japanese developers' sensibilities are with my own and, perhaps more generally, with Western gamers. To analogize, imagine Titanfall (or Destiny, even) being crowned as the best game by Western devs, in spite of the shortcomings of both of those games. While great and worthy of being lauded, it is a mistake to reward such games as being the singularly superior game experience of the year, in light of the fact that other games objectively realized their creative pursuit more fully and satisfactorily. Perhaps I'm getting philosophical again and simply questioning the entire practice of GOTY commemoration absent objective criteria and have difficulty getting past some of the asinine practices employed by Nintendo in both SMM and Splatoon.

I simply fail to believe that it's pure coincidence that Japanese developers voted for a game with strong Japanese sensibilities in spite of the fact that it objectively does not offer a level of variety or dearth of content that other games released do. Naturally, it all comes back to what one expects from a game and your subjective experience playing such. Overriding subjective preference with objective criteria just doesn't happen in these sorts of things, especially while the data available in this thread indicates the selections were made based on a cursory, passing level of interest.

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#45  Edited By Jag85
Member since 2005 • 19382 Posts

@Basinboy said:
@charizard1605 said:
@Basinboy said:

Some hardstyle Nintendo dick-riding going on by picking Splatoon (and Super Mario Maker tying for second with Bloodborne). But it's the Japanese gaming press and such is expected, especially in a period when the Japanese development scene is struggling to adapt with current market conditions and Nintendo is one of the few companies who manages to operate successfully while catering to Japanese sensibilities.

  • This is the Japanese gaming industry comprised of Japanese developers, not the Japanese gaming press
  • As someone who has played Splatoon, The Witcher, Bloodborne, Fallout, and just about most other big games of the year, Splatoon is a game that I have legitimately no issues with winning the title- personal preferences aside, it is as eligible to win something like this as those other games are
  • I'm not quite sure why Super Mario Maker, a game that scored high everywhere (it is as highly rated on this site as Bloodborne, and ranked just one place below Bloodborne in Gamespot's own list), as high as Bloodborne, tying with Bloodborne is such an issue causing disbelief in this case

My mistake about it being developers and not the press. But I still am unable to refrain from scrutinizing their selection, given the context and the nature of the game. Perhaps it's an indication of how incompatible Japan and Japanese developers' sensibilities are with my own and, perhaps more generally, with Western gamers. To analogize, imagine Titanfall (or Destiny, even) being crowned as the best game by Western devs, in spite of the shortcomings of both of those games. While great and worthy of being lauded, it is a mistake to reward such games as being the singularly superior game experience of the year, in light of the fact that other games objectively realized their creative pursuit more fully and satisfactorily. Perhaps I'm getting philosophical again and simply questioning the entire practice of GOTY commemoration absent objective criteria and have difficulty getting past some of the asinine practices employed by Nintendo in both SMM and Splatoon.

I simply fail to believe that it's pure coincidence that Japanese developers voted for a game with strong Japanese sensibilities in spite of the fact that it objectively does not offer a level of variety or dearth of content that other games released do. Naturally, it all comes back to what one expects from a game and your subjective experience playing such. Overriding subjective preference with objective criteria just doesn't happen in these sorts of things, especially while the data available in this thread indicates the selections were made based on a cursory, passing level of interest.

Look at their top 5 picks:

1. Splatoon

2. Bloodborne

2. Super Mario Maker

4. The Witcher 3

4. Fallout 4

They have two Western games in their top 5 list. That's about as many Japanese games you'd find in Western top 5 lists.

Here's an objective fact for you: Splatoon and Bloodborne have objectively superior gameplay compared to Witcher 3 and Fallout 4; the latter are great games with huge worlds packed with content (and in Witcher 3's case, well-written storytelling too), but their core gameplay just isn't that great. If we're judging a game based on the actual core gameplay, the thing that defines the video game medium, then Splatoon and Bloodborne are two of the best picks this year, objectively.

Your criteria might be things like ambition, quantity of content, writing, or production values, but their criteria is that gameplay takes priority above all else. Japanese developers are not alone in this gameplay-centric criteria, but that's how the leading British game magazine Edge also judges video games (they also scored Splatoon higher than Witcher 3, on the basis of core gameplay).

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#46 deactivated-5d6bb9cb2ee20
Member since 2006 • 82724 Posts

@Basinboy said:
@charizard1605 said:
@Basinboy said:

Some hardstyle Nintendo dick-riding going on by picking Splatoon (and Super Mario Maker tying for second with Bloodborne). But it's the Japanese gaming press and such is expected, especially in a period when the Japanese development scene is struggling to adapt with current market conditions and Nintendo is one of the few companies who manages to operate successfully while catering to Japanese sensibilities.

  • This is the Japanese gaming industry comprised of Japanese developers, not the Japanese gaming press
  • As someone who has played Splatoon, The Witcher, Bloodborne, Fallout, and just about most other big games of the year, Splatoon is a game that I have legitimately no issues with winning the title- personal preferences aside, it is as eligible to win something like this as those other games are
  • I'm not quite sure why Super Mario Maker, a game that scored high everywhere (it is as highly rated on this site as Bloodborne, and ranked just one place below Bloodborne in Gamespot's own list), as high as Bloodborne, tying with Bloodborne is such an issue causing disbelief in this case

My mistake about it being developers and not the press. But I still am unable to refrain from scrutinizing their selection, given the context and the nature of the game. Perhaps it's an indication of how incompatible Japan and Japanese developers' sensibilities are with my own and, perhaps more generally, with Western gamers. To analogize, imagine Titanfall (or Destiny, even) being crowned as the best game by Western devs, in spite of the shortcomings of both of those games. While great and worthy of being lauded, it is a mistake to reward such games as being the singularly superior game experience of the year, in light of the fact that other games objectively realized their creative pursuit more fully and satisfactorily. Perhaps I'm getting philosophical again and simply questioning the entire practice of GOTY commemoration absent objective criteria and have difficulty getting past some of the asinine practices employed by Nintendo in both SMM and Splatoon.

I simply fail to believe that it's pure coincidence that Japanese developers voted for a game with strong Japanese sensibilities in spite of the fact that it objectively does not offer a level of variety or dearth of content that other games released do. Naturally, it all comes back to what one expects from a game and your subjective experience playing such. Overriding subjective preference with objective criteria just doesn't happen in these sorts of things, especially while the data available in this thread indicates the selections were made based on a cursory, passing level of interest.

But two of the top five games are western in those lists. In fact, the top five pretty much resembles exactly the Top Five on lists we have had from western media and outlets.

And that's just the thing- maybe not Gamespot, but a lot of western media did award Titanfall or Destiny with Game of the Year last year. A lot are giving it to Battlefront this year. This poll is just one poll in Japan, using it to draw inferences about the entire country's opinion or mindset as a whole (or at any rate, that subset of the country that is involved with games) seems fallacious to me.

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#47  Edited By Bigboi500
Member since 2007 • 35550 Posts

I wonder exactly how many posters in this thread who have bugs up their yazoo have actually, you know, played Splatoon before they judged it as being somehow less of a game than the competition? That would be really interesting to know.

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#48 Shrek
Member since 2015 • 387 Posts

@charizard1605: I noticed you didn't list these so-called top dog Japanese games that don't exist. Congratulations.

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#49 deactivated-5d6bb9cb2ee20
Member since 2006 • 82724 Posts

@shrek said:

@charizard1605: I noticed you didn't list these so-called top dog Japanese games that don't exist. Congratulations.

Oh, no worries, here you go:

  • Bloodborne
  • Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
  • Super Mario Maker
  • Xenoblade Chronicles X
  • Splatoon

This is just counting the consoles- if I broadened the field and included handhelds and PC too, then the list would be inundated by Japanese games, such as Trails in the Sky, Majora's Mask 3D, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, and so on.

Anticipated games for next year that are Japanese? Erm, okay? Final Fantasy? Zelda? Dark Souls? Scalebound? Persona? Fire Emblem? The Last Guardian? Hell, the biggest announcements at E3 this year were all for Japanese games- Final Fantasy 7, The Last Guardian, and Shenmue 3.

Japan is not in decline, it was in a recession, the thing with recessions is, they end.

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#50 Basinboy
Member since 2003 • 14495 Posts

@Jag85 said:
@Basinboy said:
@charizard1605 said:
@Basinboy said:

Some hardstyle Nintendo dick-riding going on by picking Splatoon (and Super Mario Maker tying for second with Bloodborne). But it's the Japanese gaming press and such is expected, especially in a period when the Japanese development scene is struggling to adapt with current market conditions and Nintendo is one of the few companies who manages to operate successfully while catering to Japanese sensibilities.

  • This is the Japanese gaming industry comprised of Japanese developers, not the Japanese gaming press
  • As someone who has played Splatoon, The Witcher, Bloodborne, Fallout, and just about most other big games of the year, Splatoon is a game that I have legitimately no issues with winning the title- personal preferences aside, it is as eligible to win something like this as those other games are
  • I'm not quite sure why Super Mario Maker, a game that scored high everywhere (it is as highly rated on this site as Bloodborne, and ranked just one place below Bloodborne in Gamespot's own list), as high as Bloodborne, tying with Bloodborne is such an issue causing disbelief in this case

My mistake about it being developers and not the press. But I still am unable to refrain from scrutinizing their selection, given the context and the nature of the game. Perhaps it's an indication of how incompatible Japan and Japanese developers' sensibilities are with my own and, perhaps more generally, with Western gamers. To analogize, imagine Titanfall (or Destiny, even) being crowned as the best game by Western devs, in spite of the shortcomings of both of those games. While great and worthy of being lauded, it is a mistake to reward such games as being the singularly superior game experience of the year, in light of the fact that other games objectively realized their creative pursuit more fully and satisfactorily. Perhaps I'm getting philosophical again and simply questioning the entire practice of GOTY commemoration absent objective criteria and have difficulty getting past some of the asinine practices employed by Nintendo in both SMM and Splatoon.

I simply fail to believe that it's pure coincidence that Japanese developers voted for a game with strong Japanese sensibilities in spite of the fact that it objectively does not offer a level of variety or dearth of content that other games released do. Naturally, it all comes back to what one expects from a game and your subjective experience playing such. Overriding subjective preference with objective criteria just doesn't happen in these sorts of things, especially while the data available in this thread indicates the selections were made based on a cursory, passing level of interest.

Look at their top 5 picks:

1. Splatoon

2. Bloodborne

2. Super Mario Maker

4. The Witcher 3

4. Fallout 4

They have two Western games in their top 5 list. That's about as many Japanese games you'd find in Western top 5 lists.

Here's an objective fact for you: Splatoon and Bloodborne have objectively superior gameplay compared to Witcher 3 and Fallout 4; the latter are great games with huge worlds packed with content (and in Witcher 3's case, well-written storytelling too), but their core gameplay just isn't that great. If we're judging a game based on the actual core gameplay, the thing that defines the video game medium, then Splatoon and Bloodborne are two of the best picks this year, objectively.

Your criteria might be things like ambition, quantity of content, writing, or production values, but their criteria is that gameplay takes priority above all else. Japanese developers are not alone in this gameplay-centric criteria, but that's how the leading British game magazine Edge also judges video games (they also scored Splatoon higher than Witcher 3, on the basis of core gameplay).

Gameplay mechanics are certainly an objective criterion but should not be wholly determinative. The amount of weight it should play in the decision is argumentative, but I don't disagree that standing alone it should outweigh other factors individually. It should not outweigh all other factors combined. How to reconcile the disparity between these factors is rarely ever applied consistently and it certainly does not appear that there is any data in this instance that suggests how decisions were reached to meaningfully further the discussion.

But just comparing Bloodborne to Splatoon and assuming that Splatoon wins the gameplay factor and Bloodborne is favored in everything else, should Splatoon win the award? It certainly appears a disservice to the industry as a whole to confine games as a medium to its basest level of interaction and seemingly neglect to consider the excellence of other elements. I suppose that's where I principally differ from others: I want the medium to be more than just digital toys. Others prefer the opposite and I can't bring myself to accept that premise.

I also have difficulty in accepting the way Nintendo administers Splatoon (and SMM), directing how content should be consumed and limiting what players can access at a particular time. How that should factor into consideration, however, is something I haven't the energy to explore.