Well said Apollo.

Except for games which blow their entire budgets on liscencing rights, then make a crappy game, American produced games are just as good as Japanese counterparts. That said, both markets make games only for their market. Generally, its only the mega hit games like the final fantasy series which make it across the ocean. These games often enter the foreign market, expecting similar sales, but often don't acchieve them

I agree totally. I didn't mean to imply that I think american games suck. They simply don't fit my gaming tastes.

I'd rather never play a game again, than be forced to play anothe GTA game or clone. But given the series and offshoots popularity, the games obviously don't suck. They're simply not my cup of tea, like 90% of non-japanese developed games.

Wow, this far in and nobody's pointed out the big obvious: GTA is not an American game!

I think it's unfair to judge the American vs. Japanese game production. The first major factor to consider is a cultural one: the Japanese see video games as an ART FORM, not just a hobby or pasttime. If you need any proof look at their box art and designs compared to ours. They're not so concerned with selling the product so much as making it beautiful.

The same goes for graphics. American games aren't necessarily any better or worse technically, but artistically speaking, Japanese games blow them out of the water. One of the major reasons why i stopped playing Grand Theft Auto 3 was because of the horribly dull graphics. They're not everything, mind you, but they do add to the overall experience.

Lastly, remember that only recently have games really become profitable in the west, as well as the rise in actual videogame development companies housed in the states.

Truth be told I find Japanese video game graphics terribly generic. It's the same with American games, of course; it's just a different kind of generic. For every Viewtiful Joe there's 5,000 standard spiky-haired anime rejects.

Ditto Samurai Shodown II - one of the best fighting games of all time, and also one of the worst-translated games. It's damn near incomprehensible sometimes. For god's sake, in SS4 you have to see the word "Victoly" after every winning battle.

- David Stein

Outside of a few RPG's, i'm not a big fan at all of many games coming out of Japan. But i do give them credit for attempting to put out some unique ideas and presentations, unlike most Western games that generally take a certain forumla and lump useless or boring features on top of that. Of course, while i applaud the creativity, i'm still sad that it created something that looked as ugly as Wind Waker.

In general, I prefer the gameplay and innovation of Japanese games but the concepts and exploratory nature of American titles. American titles generally have more replay value, but Japanese games are more awe-inspiring on the initial go through.

I find it interesting that Japanese gamers dislike open-ended games and demand to know where to go, what to do. I guess I'm just a crazy freedom lovin' American because that's my favorite thing about the GTA games.

Yeah i enjoyed the open-ended aspect of the GTA games too.

I remember getting the demo for GTA 1 and it had a timer that let you only play for like 5-10 minutes. Normally i'd be pissed at having a limited time to play, but it made for a wonderful little mini-game where you caused as much trouble as possible without getting killed or busted before the timer ran out.

That's why I prefer Japanese games. I grew up on, and first gained interest in gaming, through side scrolling platformers. Just keep going right till you get to the end of the level. I've never liked wandering around trying to figure out what to do much.

I can stand it in small doses like zelda, metroid etc, but I can't stand open-ended games like GTA or Morrowind.