The game while pretty short is engaging and fun. You have multiple weapons that work pretty darn different. I replayed that game constantly and it never gets old.
The issue isn’t the game, but Nintendo’s decision to choose THAT game instead of other games. No one knows why Nintendo wanted Cave Story except Nintendo. Since we are on the outside, we have to guess.
Two possible reasons is that the gaming/anime fans (those that overlap) were all a buzz over Cave Story and the other is that the creator of the game is Japanese.
There is a massive change lately in how Nintendo has been operating which we haven’t heard anyone comment about. When Nintendo tried to bring the Famicom over, it was laughed out of the Consumer Electronics Show. Why? It is because it was too Japanese.
Above: This would never sell in the West.
Nintendo would return to CES with this:
Above: The sleek NES attracted attention.
But since the console market had crashed, Nintendo of America marketed the NES with a toy robot.
Above: This is the NES the West got.
Once the NES was seen as a safe purchase for retailers, Nintendo of America dropped the toy robot.
The point is that Nintendo had a very different form of branding and appearance (and games) in the West than it did in Japan. The differences of Europe versus America or Austraila versus everywhere else is nothing compared to the vast difference and thinking between Nintendo in Japan and Nintendo of the West.
Nintendo of the West was a huge force in shaping the Nintendo consoles’ library, appearance, and mission. To you SNES fans, it was Donkey Kong Country that saved the Super Nintendo in the United States. Nintendo would buy Rare (a Western game company). To you N64 fans, much of your enjoyment of the N64 was due to Nintendo owning a western company such as Rare and the N64 being designed with Western sensibilities in mind. The games you liked on the Gamecube largely followed this tradition too. And, of course, there were the handhelds.
When Iwata took over, it seems that the multi-culture approach with Nintendo went out the door. There was only one culture: Japanese. When I look at Nintendo still pushing games like Dragon Quest (or Monster Hunter) in the West instead of, say, buying the rights or the company that makes Western RPGs, I get the impression that under Iwata that Nintendo has become a constant Japanese Pride Parade.
Consider the sales of Twilight Princess. The game sold GREAT in the West but not so well in Japan. Still, overall, Twilight Princess is (I believe) the best selling Zelda since Ocarina of Time. Instead of continuing what works, we see Nintendo go back to Wind Waker style. Much of it HAS to be due to the ‘Japanese first’ mentality under Iwata.
If you ask third party developers about the Wii U, they will say, “The thing is too Japanese.” What does that mean? It means it was designed with a Japanese context. Hence, Western third party developers don’t want to touch it.
“But Malstrom,” you say, “Nintendo is a Japanese company. They should make all their products with a Japanese context.” Sony is also a Japanese company, but they aren’t designing the PS4 in a Japanese context. At least, not intentionally like Nintendo does.
Look at Metroid. Metroid has sold most in the West. Retro’s Metroid Primes sold very well in the West. Doesn’t matter to Nintendo. Metroid: Other M was intended, in large part, to sell in Japan. Why would a company make a game, whose series sells most in the West, suddenly revolve around Japanese manga?
Can someone who hates Japanese culture be allowed to work at Nintendo? This would be an interesting question. “Nintendo is a Japanese company.” That doesn’t matter when your satellites such as Nintendo of America have the responsibility of selling to the local populace. Americans aren’t Japanese. Europeans aren’t Japanese. In the old days, places like Nintendo of America used to be a diverse group of people. Today, it is like they only hire people who love Japanese culture. They probably all watch anime together or something. The problem is that this creates a monoculture and something they think is ‘really exciting’ to the group ends up hitting a thud in the marketplace.
I have seen Cave Story championed by the ‘Japanese culture is amazing’ crowd on gaming forums. Could they have played a hand in this?
We see the Cave Story creator is Japanese. Is this perhaps why Nintendo has pushed the game so hard?
Let’s not forget that the person responsible for bringing Tetris to Nintendo was not Japanese. Henk Rogers (apparently) ended up in Japan only chasing a Japanese girl (who he later married). He designed the game that introduced the RPG to the Japanese (based on the Western game Wizardry). (He actually had to sit down Japanese gamers and show them how to play the RPG.) Instead of Nintendo trying to jam Dragon Quest into the West, wouldn’t it make more sense for Nintendo to buy a Western RPG and sell THAT to Japan?
Instead of trying to jam the Japanese Cave Story to the West, woudn’t it be more productive for Nintendo get a popular Western indie title (such as Minecraft) and sell it to the Japanese?
Has Nintendo ever put their might behind a Western title to sell in Japan? Ever? I can think of only one: the Donkey Kong Country games. Maybe some commercials for the Metroid Prime games.
I’m always so frustrated with the controls of Nintendo’s new systems. Then I realized why when I compared it to the older systems. Compare the size of the buttons. Nintendo is forcing the West, who has bigger hand size, to use controls designed for smaller Japanese hands. Why is this being done if the consoles are region locked?
My issue with Cave Story is that I suspect it is a symptom of a much bigger problem: Nintendo operates with a Japanese Pride Parade. Iwata did mention back in 2006 that his mission was to return Japan to ‘export Japanese culture’. But I am not interested in Japanese culture. If they wish to sell to non-Japanese, they have to sell their sensibilities.
If Notch was Japanese, Nintendo would have moved heaven and earth to get Minecraft on their systems. Since Notch isn’t Japanese, they pretend Minecraft doesn’t exist.
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