A History of Odd Games

Japanese video games are renown for their creativity as well as their incredible design teams. This achievement is one that is not a recent development. The Japanese video game culture has years of experience, both positive and...simply weird. This "Oddness" in some Japanese video games, in recent years, has become much more sanitized. However, in the earlier years, some pretty crazy games were made.

The popular website Cracked posted a great example of just a few of the craziest of these games. 6 Japanese Video Games That Will Make Your Head Explode

Most of the crazier Japanese video games did not appeal to gamers internationally, and were not translated (except by some fans later on.) Japanese culture allows for a vast environment to create fantasies to escape from the everyday life. Video games further expanded on this environment. This can be observed in extremely wild games that allow the imagination to play out directly, or more specific games that allow for the average businessman to go on an adventure. 

The sheer imagination of Japanese games astounds most devout fans. Still, Japanese games would be just as "weird" as before, but now in a much more controlled manner. This "thinking out side of the box" is the perfect combination to secure sales in foreign markets. Even still, the Japanese market has hardly become a sellout, and its games still have stayed true to their own unique background.

It is also true that after globalization, Japanese video games have been embraced even further, and sometimes, the weirder the better. This love for the "Odd Japanese" games has brought a reemergence of strange games in foreign markets, and in return, Japanese game studios. A very notable case is the "Katamari" series. Which pretty much explains itself.