Hardcore Gaming 101 Presents: Japanese Video Game Obscurities

by Kurt Kalata

Japan has produced thousands of intriguing video games. For any number of reasons, not all of them were ever released outside of the country, especially in the '80s and '90s. While many of these titles have since been documented by the English-speaking video game community – and in some cases, even unofficially translated – a huge proportion of the Japanese game output is unknown outside of their native territory (and even, in some cases, within it). Some of these games are oddities, the kind of uniquely Japanese title that wouldn’t have been commercial viable outside of the country; others may have done well but were victims of circumstance. Plus, for quite a long time, the Japanese industry developed separately from American and European output, with their own landmark titles that created trends and inspired later games. Even the older games have a visual and aural style that make them distinct from similar games from around the globe. Hardcore Gaming 101 Japanese Video Game Obscurities seeks to catalogue many of these titles – games that are weird, compelling, strange, cool or historically important. Some of these may be familiar if you’ve comprehensively read Hardcore Gaming 101 website archives (though the actual text for this book is completely original), but we’ve also included a large number of titles that aren’t (currently) reviewed, and in some cases, have little to no English-language coverage whatsoever. Most of these games are Japanese exclusive, though we’ve also picked some that are suitably obscure outside of the country, or were only localized many years after their original release. In some cases, they’re games that were hugely successful in Japan but barely made a mark in the West.

Genres: Nonfiction, Video Games, Gaming

208 pages, hardcover

Published March 3, 2020

About the author

Kurt Kalata has been writing about video games for twenty years. In addition to founding retro game website Hardcore Gaming 101 in 2003, he previously started fan sites The Castlevania Dungeon and The Contra HQ. He has also contributed to several other websites, including 1up, Gamasutra, and Siliconera. He has edited and published over fifteen books through the Hardcore Gaming 101 website, including The Guide to Classic Graphic Adventures and The 200 Best Video Games of All Time, and has contributed to several other retro themed books, including The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers, Unseen64’s Video Games You’ll Never Play, and The Overstreet Guide to Collecting Video Games. He lives in New Jersey, USA, with his wife, daughter, and two cats.

Reviews

[Khalifa Al-Doseri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whenever someone says that video games are for kids it always comes off as somewhat of an ignorant statement, because clearly those people never took the time to learn more about the history of video games in their respective cultures to understand the role that the medium had to convey the cultural zeitgeist of its time, and Kurt Kalata's book gives a brief glimpse into why video games were the most suitable medium to convey the conditions that Japan went through during the early days of video games coming into prominence.

This is not to say that the book is complicated or long, matter of fact, the only reason I chose it is because I wanted someone light to read before I sleep that is not the common complicated affair that I used to go for back when. The book is arranged as a series of video games that were never officially translated into English due to the fact that they were "too-Japanese" or something along that line, and during the whole read you see why: what Japanese developers thought was acceptable for the general consumer is not something that most other cultures are ready to understand or accepted, and thus this is why these games never left Japan. However, this also gives the reader a glimpse into many fascinating aspects of the early days of Japanese game development that were pretty lawless and unfiltered, and I think that is something that needs to be brought more into the light more and more. Early video games might be the best candidates for something that is not built intrinsically for kids, and this book gives a brief glimpse into that history, and this is besides the fact that there is all kinds of weird, funny, surreal, Giger and Lynch in there that you just have to read the book to believe it. Could it have done more with what it presented? Yes, but as a book that is written for the general consumer and generally other gamers to digest I highly recommend it.

So yes, if you are interested in Japanese culture from an outside observer perspective then give this book a go, you might be able to understand why Japan have long accepted gaming as a medium that conveys the popular culture of the times

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Divided into several sections by genre, this is a wide look at many obscure Japanese exclusive games. A handful have had version released in the Western world, but most are very unknown. While we live in an era with worldwide multiplatform releases, much of the book are games from the 80s 90s and 00s. I feel like some of the games would fit well in the Western world, but others are more steeped in cultural references. Nevertheless, the write ups are very informative while also being breezily paced.

[Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good list of obscure games. Format is kinda wack on Kindle, can barely see the screenshots, but it did give me a whole bunch of games to check out. Writing is classic HG101 anthropology.

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply put, this book was a joy to read. While I recognized a few of the titles covered in these pages, most were ones I'd never heard of, and as an avid fan of esoteric gaming history, I loved that! I even learned some things about games I was already familiar with, making this a worthwhile investment even if you're a walking encyclopedia of little-known gaming knowledge.

It's very informative, full of a ton of screenshots, and covers a variety of gaming eras, genres, and platforms. I'm not sure what else to say--if you like weird Japanese games, or interesting pieces of video game lore, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy of this.

[Robbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best video game books I've ever read. The author does a very good job of balancing descriptions of game play while providing cultural and historical context within each game's miniature essay. Adding to this experience is the layout which is both beautiful and functional. The games are covered in a very academic way, while still appealing to a casual reader. This isn't a fan boy gushing over their favorite games, nor is it a book full of "hey look how weird the Japanese are," it is rather a well presented and respectful look at another culture via the art has produced. This is the kind of work that video game journalism at large should strive to be more like.