Atari to Zelda: Japan's Videogames in Global Contexts

by Mia Consalvo

The cross-cultural interactions of Japanese videogames and the West—from DIY localization by fans to corporate strategies of “Japaneseness.”In the early days of arcades and Nintendo, many players didn’t recognize Japanese games as coming from Japan; they were simply new and interesting games to play. But since then, fans, media, and the games industry have thought further about the “Japaneseness” of particular games. Game developers try to decide whether a game's Japaneseness is a selling point or stumbling block; critics try to determine what elements in a game express its Japaneseness—cultural motifs or technical markers. Games were “localized,” subjected to sociocultural and technical tinkering. In this book, Mia Consalvo looks at what happens when Japanese games travel outside Japan, and how they are played, thought about, and transformed by individuals, companies, and groups in the West.Consalvo begins with players, first exploring North American players’ interest in Japanese games (and Japanese culture in general) and then investigating players’ DIY localization of games, in the form of ROM hacking and fan translating. She analyzes several Japanese games released in North America and looks in detail at the Japanese game company Square Enix. She examines indie and corporate localization work, and the rise of the professional culture broker. Finally, she compares different approaches to Japaneseness in games sold in the West and considers how Japanese games have influenced Western games developers. Her account reveals surprising cross-cultural interactions between Japanese games and Western game developers and players, between Japaneseness and the market.

Genres: Nonfiction, Game Design, Japan, Video Games, Gaming, Games

268 pages, Paperback

Published June 7, 2022

About the author

Mia Consalvo is Professor and Canada Research Chair in Game Studies and Design in the Department of Communication Studies at Concordia University in Montreal. She is the author of Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Video Games and Atari to Zelda: Japan's Videogames in Global Contexts, both published by the MIT Press.

Reviews

[Nicholas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think a star rating for a text like this is misleading, for sure. So, an actual review would serve this book better.

Mia Consalvo's dedication and passion for studying and analyzing video game history and applying a sociological view to it permeates throughout the book. You can tell this was crafted with love throughout a few years' work. Every chapter - from ROM hacking and fan translations to how Square Enix, Capcom, and Level-5 Studios approach Western audiences all flow nicely. She outlines how each chapter connects to her overall conclusions of what constitutes Japaneseness and how that term affects global markets.

One interesting point she brings up is how exposure to Japanese culture through video games, anime, music, etc. affects one's openness to studying Japan, and that point is there is no real connection - everyone approaches studying culture differently. As a young child in the peak of Pokemania in the late 1990s, I vividly remember talking to my fellow Pre-K/Kindergarten friends about wanting a "Chinese Holographic Charizard" Pokemon card. We didn't know, as four and five year olds, that we were consuming Japanese culture through buying Pokemon cards and playing Red and Blue on our Gameboy Colors. We could "verbally regurgitate" that Pokemon was foreign (without understanding what that truly meant) but didn't realize we were slightly off, geographically speaking. This also correlates into not realizing the anime of Toonami was also Japanese in our early years of watching Gundam or Dragon Ball Z. Applying these anecdotes back to Mia Consalvo's work, my friends and I always were consuming works of Japanese cultural exports while thinking these shows were cooler than a lot of Western works. Dragon Ball Z had blood and fights that could last multiple episodes; SpongeBob, despite loving the show, did not. Even Power Rangers, which I didn't realize was based off the Super Sentai series, was also a "localized" Japanese cultural export. This shows that it is easy to be unconsciously consuming media and culture. This love of Japanese games and anime led me to taking a Japanese culture course in college.

One aspect I wish "Atari to Zelda" touched upon was how Western publishers or arms of a company would ask for certain changes in bringing games or anime to America. Going back to Pokemon, certain changes were done to appeal to Western audiences. Pokemon Red and Blue, instead of Red and Green like in Japan, were released in America due to red and blue being on the U.S. flag, or Nintendo of America staff redesigning Pikachu to be a big breasted tiger lady. ("How Pokemon Red & Blue were Changed Around The World - Did You Know Gaming? Ft. Dr. Lava") Even in the first season of the Pokemon anime, Brock refers to rice balls (a distinctly Asian food) as donuts (a stereotypical American food). I think this back and forth between Japanese and American staff would have made for an interesting discussion. This definitely falls into the cultural exchange through localization that Mia Consalvo was describing.

Finally, I read this in 2025, almost a decade after this was originally conceived. A lot of the games referenced or data referenced is somewhat dated. That could influence some immersion from potential readers, but that's something that you run the risk of when reading scholarly works. "Atari to Zelda" also reads like an approachable scholarly work. While I don't think the Lexile level is too high, there were times where it felt dense. If you're not used to reading nonfiction, especially something that seems at home in a college classroom, this could be a challenging read.

[Pekka Ollikainen]

Atari to Zelda shed light on Japanese videogames and its global fans and players. It is partly essay, partly critics, partly reviews. But as a academic text it has been put together from published sources and interviews made by author. It can be interested reading even if you would not be keen on (Japanese) games. Japanese game- and pop-culture are great innovators at global markets

[Rendell · Rating 3 out of 5]

More accurately, it should be 2.5 stars. Although the author try to keep the book engaging with some gameplay reviews, I find it unnecessary. There are some minor game "spoilers" to a few games which was not forewarned. Also there are a few screen captures of games presented and they didn't help me understand the points author is driving at.

Overall, I still find it quite a "weak" book in terms of information on Japanese influences or non influences on gaming industry and western gamers.