Global Gaming Spotlight: Tokyo Jungle (Japan)

With each post in this mini-feature, I highlight a game from a different country around the world. Keep in mind these aren't necessarily the best or most popular games from each nation, but simply a fitting representative. After beginning with my native United States yesterday, we head to the other colossus of the gaming world today: Japan.

Tokyo Jungle - Sony, 2012

Of course, there are thousands of Japanese games to choose from. But while many Japanese games take place in fictional worlds or even in America, I wanted a game that takes place in Japan.

Tokyo Jungle took the world by storm this year. Taking place in a future version of the Japanese capital where humans are gone and animals must duke it out, Tokyo Jungle takes a very Darwinian approach to the survival genre.

The game was a hit in its home country, and later became a cult success in the West, despite its decidedly-Japanese weirdness. In an era where many people think the Japanese game industry is faltering internationally, Tokyo Jungle makes no concessions to try to appeal to global audiences.

Producer Masaaki Yamagiwa recently told Gamasutra:

"Users from other regions and Japanese users have different perspectives to begin with, so it's not surprising to see the gaps between what they think is fun versus what we think is fun. Japanese people should be 'Japanese' and simply create what they think is fun, and have other regions accept it as a novelty item."

Hopefully this is inspiration to other Japanese studios to really flex their creative muscle, instead of trying to please Westerners with more big-budget flops like Resident Evil 6.


I'll be adding to the map as we go, but here's the Global Gaming Spotlight so far:

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