Design: Multimedia & Graphics 2nd year – 2010/2011 THD203 2000 Words Essay Yann ROIRAND 084285292 – bf42ra Question #25: Computer games became more available in the 1970s, and have been a growth industry ever since. Tancred Dyke-Well[s], Lead Artist at Kuju Entertainment has argued that ‘The really cool, radical looking games almost always emerge from Japan.’ (Morris & Hartas, 2003, p.101.) Would you agree with this assessment, and if so, why has Japan been so influential? Use examples to support your argument. Video Games constitute one of the pillars of the 21st century’s global popular culture. With a field of influence ranging from television to politics and sixty-five percent of American households playing video games (Fig.1), the video game industry has, over the past forty years (McCarthy, Curran & Byron 2005, p.6), risen from its original mere curiosity status to what we know it as: the current leading form of entertainment and “de facto dominant artform in the world” (Kelman 2005, p.14). And yet, interestingly, being a rather new media, it is still relatively poorly documented and generally overlooked by scholars (Kelman 2005, p.14). This essay shall attempt to do its part towards bridging the gap between academics and video games. Hopefully, it shall raise the awareness that they are now as important to our culture as mythology, literature and Fine Art have been up until now (Jenisch 2008, p.4); and thus as worthy a study topic as any other. Do most really cool, radical- looking games come from Japan and if so; why has Japan been so influential? To tackle this question, this essay shall first examine a selection of such games as well as their influences and legacies, keeping the focus on their graphical aspect. Then, it shall investigate why the style of Japanese games has been and still remains so globally influential. Finally, it shall discuss the limitations of this essay question. Fig.1, Aziz Ali, ‘All About Video Games’ infographic, PSFK, New York, USA. 2010. State of video games now. Jet Set Radio (“Jet Grind Radio” in North America) is the first video game that shall be studied. It is used as an example by Tancred to illustrate his point (Morris & Hartas, 2003, p.101); this Fig.2, ‘Jet Set Radio’ gameplay screenshot, IGN Entertainment, San certifies the relevance of this Francisco, USA. 2000. The player is spraying a graffiti on a bus. game to the argument. This very unique game is an action/platform title developed by Smilebit which came out in 2000 for the Sega Dreamcast (Website #2). It innovated in all directions, letting the player explore cool subcultures such as skating and graffiti; but its most unique defining feature when it came out was its looks. Indeed, it was one of the first ever games to use a technique known as cel- shading, which gives 3D objects and environments a hand-drawn comic-like look (see Fig.2 & 3)(Website #2). This was very “cool [and] radical looking” at the time; it got the game a lot of attention from the press and let it win three awards in 2001: Best Console Game (Website #3), Excellence in Visual Arts and Game Innovation Spotlight (Website #4). Though it interestingly did not meet commercial success, it got several game sequels and achieved a cult following (Website #5). But its most extensive legacy by far lies in the graphical field, in the possibilities the technology it showcased opened for video games. Cel-shading is now a familiar term to the casual gamer and has been used in all kind of games, from racing to FPS. To this day, 257 games using cel-shading have been released (Website #6). Every single one of them owes its existence to Jet Set Radio, making it one of the best example of an influent radical looking Japanese video game. Fig.3, Matthew Jay, ‘Cel-Shading’ comparison, Sega Addicts, 2010. Regular render (left) & cel-shading (right). Not one single game but an entire video game genre, the rhythm game genre was pioneered by the Japanese and has been frequently featuring colourful graphics since its genesis. PaRappa the Rapper pioneered and popularised the genre (Website #7). It was developed by NanaOn-Sha and released for the Sony PlayStation in 1996 (Website #8). It was considered ahead of its time in its day. Indeed, it features a unique gameplay comparable to Simon, an electronic game of memory; it requires the player to repeat a sequence of buttons shown on screen in rhythm (Website #9). This emerging genre carries an Fig.4, ‘PaRappa the Rapper’ gameplay screenshot, IGN inherent perpetual challenge for designers, that of Entertainment, San finding ways to represent rhythm and sounds Francisco, USA, 1997. Character’s flat paper look. graphically. This challenge yielded numerous “cool [and] radical looking” results; PaRappa, Vib-Ribbon and Mojib- Ribbon are three of those unique brainchildren (Morris & Hartas, 2003, p.101). PaRappa had unmistakable graphics that emulated flat paper dolls of comic facture against a 3D world (see Fig.4); all brightly-coloured and kept as simple as possible (Website #8). Clever design and camera work made these risky technical choices work and conceived this graphical landmark ranked 3rd best game of all time by the Official UK PlayStation Magazine. PaRappa, its protagonist, was also rated 7th coolest video game character by games.net (Website #10). Vib-Ribbon (1999), developed by the same company for the PlayStation also, chose a different approach to the genre’s concept altogether. This graphically very basic game featured a character moving through levels in a 2D platform game -much like Super Mario Land- fashion. The player would dodge incoming obstacles by Fig.5, ‘Vib Ribbon’ gameplay screenshot, TGR, 2009. Minimal. pressing combinations of 4 buttons only, following the rhythm of a song (Website #11). The originality in this game’s graphical representation of music was that -its small size allowing it to be loaded into the console’s RAM- it let the player Fig.6, ‘Super Mario Land’ use an audio CD as the gameplay screenshot, Wii World, source of the music. 2008. A video game Classic. The game could render a random level tailor- made for any song (Website #11). This feature was famously adopted by award-winning Audiosurf, a well-known rhythm/puzzle game released for PC by the American Dylan Fitterer in 2008 (Website #12). This shows the legacy Fig.7, ‘Audiosurf’ gameplay screenshot, Quaedam, 2008. Entrancing, vibrant. of Vib-Ribbon in terms of graphical concept. Finally, Mojib-Ribbon (2003), a pseudo-sequel of Vib-Ribbon for the PlayStation 2, featured a different graphical style and altered the interaction with the music. It focused on lyrics rather than melody this time and blended traditional Japanese calligraphy with Rap music (Website #13). It showed once again a distinct interpretation of the rhythm game concept and its unique typically Japanese looks inspired Ōkami, a 2006 acclaimed action/adventure Fig.8, ‘Mojib-Ribbon’ gameplay screenshot, Gamespot. Typically Eastern-looking, unique aesthetics and feel. game by Clover Studio for the same platform (Website #14). This shows the far-reaching influences of this third radical looking game as well as the indefatigable originality of this entire Japanese- brewed genre. Showing evidence is one thing, but what are the reasons behind “Japan’s weighty influence” (Website #15)? Numerous standard core components in modern video game Fig.9, ‘Ōkami’ gameplay screenshot, Nintendo originate from Japan. Among those, we Everything, 2008. Beautiful calligraphy-inspired game. find cinematic elements, introduced by Pac-Man –who was also the first ever protagonist- in 1980, storytelling, introduced by Donkey Kong in 1981 and even the concept of split screen which lets several players play simultaneously on the same machine, originally influenced by typically Japanese manga panels layouts (Website #15). Having contributed that substantially to shaping video games as we know them today, it is no surprise that “Japanese video game titles [still] represent a significant portion of the U.S. video game market” (Website #16) today. The second hint lies in video games’ history itself. In 1983, “an oversaturated market [and] a decline in quality [...] causes the US video game market to crash” (Website #17). Nintendo saves the day by releasing the Famicom, the “most advanced home console of the time, in Japan” (Website #17). The decision to launch it in the US as the “NES” two years later will result in “ending the industry crash and launching the third generation of console gaming” (Website #17). It will then go on to release the GameBoy, the “most popular handheld gaming system of all time” (Website 17) in 1989. Finally, Sony’s PlayStation 2, launched in 2000, remains to this day the best- selling console of all time with over 130 million units sold (see Fig.1). In these respects, the Japanese have been at the forefront of video game software and hardware development since its very early stages and up to this day. This is the reason why they have a direct influence on the development of the medium and are so revered by video game-aware individuals globally. Do most really cool, radical-looking games come from Japan and if so; why has Japan been so influential? This seemingly straightforward question has various limitations and is in fact rather hard to grasp, for three main reasons. Firstly, the perpetually increasing amount of computer games -or as they are referred to in this essay, “video games”- released to date was estimated at more than a thousand in 2005 (Kelman 2005, p.5). This is the first limitation of this essay -as well as, arguably, any comprehensive study on this topic: it shall only cover a fraction of the universe of video games and gaming experience.