The Most exciting Japanese Games Ever. Essays - Nintendo, Gaming

The Most exciting Japanese Games Ever. Over the years, Japanese developers have come up with a number mind-blowing of video games. Some have been top-notch, and others just deplorable. These are a list of the most exciting ones. Space Invaders (1978) Space Invaders defined Japanese gaming for a generation. The game helped kick up a tide of space-based shooters, and it was so popular when it was released in 1978 that arcades dedicated solely to the game, named "Invader House" in Japanese, appeared all over the country. With its thumping score, Space Invaders was one of the first games to realize the potential of music. No wonder The Pretenders released a track called "Space Invader." Pac-Man (1980) Pac-Man's impact has been enormous. Pac-Man is gaming's first superstar character, appealing to a wide variety of players. Even today, the basic game design is timeless, with players trying to avoid enemies until they got a power-up. The design and concepts in Pac-Man have influenced countless games throughout the decades. Donkey Kong (1981) There are a slew of reasons why this game is important. It told a story, albeit a simple one, in an age when most arcade games did not. It was a massive hit for Nintendo when the company needed one most and then gave Nintendo a huge foothold in the U.S. It also introduced players to Jumpman, who would later be renamed Mario. Oh, and it was created by some dude named Shigeru Miyamoto. Super Mario Bros. (1985) Not only one of the most important video games ever produced, but also one of the most important creative works made in the last forty years. Dragon Quest (1986) Internationally, Dragon Quest hasn't quite reached the level of Final Fantasy's popularity. In its native Japan, Dragon Quest is a cultural institution. The Dragon Quest games have influenced generations of Japanese gamers and game creators. The success of the very first title helped a young game designer at another game company get the greenlight for the RPG he had always wanted to make. The developer's name was Hironobu Sakaguchi, and the game was Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy (1987) The lore behind Final Fantasy's conception and development is one of gaming's great yarns. With their back against the wall, Square thought this game was going to bankrupt them, hence the word "Final" in the title. (Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi said the original title was "Fighting Fantasy," and any word that started with "F" would've been a-okay.) But can you imagine if this game was never made? Can you imagine Japanese gaming without Final Fantasy? Mega Man (1987) Mega Man is one of the most well-known video game characters ever to come out of Capcom. With big, memorable bosses and wonderful soundtracks, Mega Man left its own lasting mark on the platforming genre. Just look how many people backed Mighty No. 9 in the hope it would fulfil its promise as the character's spiritual successor. Baseball Stars (1989) Sorry Bases Loaded, but Baseball Stars is the best baseball game on the Famicom (NES). It was fun to play, but more importantly, it had several features that would influence future sports games and become standard. Via the game's manager feature, you could create teams as well as players. Not only was it possible to improve their abilities by using in-game cash earned after wins, but you could fire them if they didn't perform and draft new ones. You could play a 125-game season, which would be saved by battery backup, and the game would track stats for all the players in the league. Street Fighter II (1991) There were fighting games before Street Fighter II, but no fighting game was the same after it. If you were in arcades in the early 1990s, you couldn't miss it. Besides influencing the genre, the game was so popular that Nintendo actually designed the SNES controller around it. Sonic The Hedgehog (1991) Going up against Mario is no easy feat. But that first Sonic game, with those wonderful blues and greens, terrific platforming, and blazing speed did a wonderful job of challenging Mario. In many ways, Sonic, with all his tude, was the anti-Mario. The perfect foil for an era in which Sega did what Nintendo didn't. Super Mario Kart (1992) You gotta love Nintendo. As with fighting games, they didn't just