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Portables (Games) GameCube (Games)

Japanese DS Game Substantially Different Than US? 64

Posted by Zonk from the betting-on-american-consumerism dept.
Eurogamer has the story that the Nintendo DS title Mr. Driller may have a very different feature set in the US and Japan. From the article: "According to widespread reports - which we've been unable to confirm as we haven't got a copy of either version - the Japanese version allows players to engage in various multiplayer battles in groups of up to four players using just one of the DS's game cards, whereas the US version requires multiple copies to achieve the same result." Interesting, if cynical, decision.
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Japanese DS Game Substantially Different Than US? More

Japanese DS Game Substantially Different Than US?

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  • Would this be based on comparison of economies int he wto countries? I know that I would be slightly annoyed if it was available in japan and not here as a feature, as thats a pretty darn cool feature...

    • Re:Why? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by antifoidulus ( 807088 ) on Monday December 06, 2004 @11:00AM (#11007779) Homepage Journal
      The games don't have region codes, so provided you can locate an import copy and don't mind reading Japanese, you can do this as well.

    • Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Jahf ( 21968 ) on Monday December 06, 2004 @11:57AM (#11008360) Journal
      It wouldn't be the first time and I don't think it is a decision based on the economies of the 2 regions (as in one country not being able to afford as many games). I do think that you are close in that this is likely a socio-economic decions (as in the social norms of each country determining which policy is more economically sound).

      In Japan people are more social players ... in other words, it isn't going to look "weird" to see a number of young adults playing together on DS systems in a public gathering place. Therefore the inclusion of a mode where you only need 1 cartridge to play will drive sales of the base unit.

      In the U.S. we have far less focus on social gaming and are willing toi pay out the nose for games ... therefore there is little if any advantage to "giving away" the multi-player game since someone who wants to play a GBDS game will likely already have a GBDS. In other words, the impetus to buy the system in Japan is driven by a social desire while in the U.S. it appears to be a more -antisocial- behaviour since we in the U.S. often use such devices to exclude ourselves and "create space". I know I use it that way on a plane as do many others (though if I could wirelessly game on a plane with the kid a few rows up without us both having to own the cart, I would be quite likely too ... I think the U.S. antisocial playing style is often because vendors assume we aren't social players).

      Note that I am not saying -no one- plays multiplayer games ... my wife and I have GBAs to play multiplayer and having to buy 2 games usually keeps us from doing so. That's a lot of dough in the end when we could just buy 2 different carts and swap them.

      And for those U.S. players who say "hey! I play socially" / "I wish I could play socially, it's not my fault" ... I agree with you ... but looking at the styles of multiplayer gaming here compared to Asia it doesn't change the fact that it is less of a culture here.

      However, as others mentioned there is apparently a missing game -mode- in the U.S. version ... if this were true I would think that to be a bad decision since the U.S. version is obviously willing to pay a premium to get multiplayer.

      I am making a guess here ... purely a guess ... but is it possible that the ratio of the price of the console to the price of game carts is higher in Japan than the U.S.? I am talking about the ratio of console:carts not the direct price of the console in Yen to the price of the console in U.$. If not, then I assume that the Japanese market must by a lot more games in total than the U.S. market does (# of carts, not cost of carts).
      • From what I've seen in general, consoles tend to cost about the same amount and the games seem to cost a bit more in Japan. Japanese kids don't seem to be that much different when it comes to playing games either, if my nephews are any indication. The difference seems to be in how much return a gaming company expects out of a given market.

        Japanese gaming companies seem to treat their home country as a sort of testing grounds for products before they get shipped off to other countries. Some of the games wil

  • oh geez (Score:1, Informative)

    by Naikrovek ( 667 )
    that's not a DS thing, that's a game thing.

    I have a DS, and YES it is capable of playing four player games with just one gamecard. if its not available in the US version, that's the game publisher's intention, its not a DS difference.

    all DSs can play 4 player games with one game card, if the game supports it.

  • It's True (Score:5, Informative)

    by vitaflo ( 20507 ) on Monday December 06, 2004 @10:56AM (#11007738) Homepage
    In the Japanese version there is "download play" with a single cart (so only one person needs to have the game and the rest of the people download a copy to their DS to play along in multi-play). Whereas with the US version each player needs their own copy of the game to join into a multi-play session.

    The Japanese version also includes Dristone Mode, which isn't in the US version either (it's a modified version of single player with slightly different rules). Given that DS games are region-free, if anyone is seriously interested in the game, it might be better to import it.
    • Download mode is *supported* in the US version- I see it in the main menu when I turn on the DS. It really is up to the individual games, not the DS itself.
      • Missing the point. It's HARDWARE supported, but it's dependent on the software to use it. The Japanese Mr. Driller game SOFTWARE supports the HARDWARE by allowing download play off of ONE CART, but the N.American release doesn't, requiring multi-cart link play. It's a software decisions -- and a stupid one -- not a hardware problem. Geez.
  • But a bad thing I don't read Japanese. I'll own both so that i can have the US version on standby for translation and everyone else can crowd over it so we know what's going on... Or maybe I'll just skip Mr. Driller for the likes of Metroid Prime:First Hunt.

  • Not only is it missing download play... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Gunsmithy ( 554829 ) on Monday December 06, 2004 @11:08AM (#11007843) Homepage
    ...but also, apparently an entire mode. [ga-forum.com]

    Dristone/Drillstone mode is a sort of RPG mode, and I guess the US version doesn't have it--Namco did reply to an inquiry about the exclusion of some features here. [gaming-age.com]

    "We didn't have the time to implement the some elements/features in order to make the DS launch date in North America,"

    Which is kind of funny, as they launched simultaneously.
    • Actually the NA launch was 2 or so weeks before the Japan launch.

      • Re:Not only is it missing download play... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Westacular ( 118145 ) on Monday December 06, 2004 @12:39PM (#11008719)
        But Mr Driller DS was not released at the NA DS launch.

        However, apparently because of mastering/shipping issues, the deadline for Namco to submit a master copy of Mr Driller DS to manufacturing was roughly two weeks earlier for the NA version than it was for the JPN version.
          • That's alright, it's easy to misconstrue. Of course, the idea that they could code in two extra modes in two weeks is sort of ludicrous.

            And what about the fact the "detect other DS's" is taken out of the US DS? :P
            • I am willing to bet they figured they could sell more in NA w/ xmas coming up and all and the need for a game for each player would boost sales. The sad part is that most companies will force everyone to own the game in order to play, if I recall correctly there were quite a few gameboy/advanced games that could play multiplayer off of one cart, but those games are nothing compared to the amount of games that requited a cart for each player. Pure and simple more money is made when everyone owns the game.

              • In the case of the GBA, I believe that part of the reason there are so many more multi-cart multiplayer games than single-cart multiplayer games is a tradeoff with quality. I've played Advance Wars 2 with a single cartridge on two linked GBAs, and the result was less than satisfying--the game was significantly less sophisticated than the single player version, without any of the battle animations, a very limited choice of maps, poor map animation, and a much less complex game (no cities, so no capturing, no

                • The DS has a significantly larger amount of ram that the game can be loaded from compared to the gba, which is why you noticed such a difference in quality with the gba. This problem should no longer exist in the DS unless it is a very advanced game as the ds has 4 megs of ram to load the game into via the wireless connection. Being that both games apparently run the same and the hardware(ds) is exactly the same, I can be confident that the gaming quality was not part of the reason to make the games diffe
  • Does the import Drill Spirits have such abysmal audio, or is this just a really crummy translation/dub? The voice acting is quite bad, and the ending song is an absolute disaster.

    Good thing I've already got Mr. Driller Ace for the GBA, which has Drill Stone ("Wonderful Pacteria" in that version), single cart multiplayer, and not-sucky audio. Heh.

    Don't get me wrong, Drill Sprits isn't a bad game. It's just got a couple flaws that will keep it from being a best-seller.

  • blech (Score:1, Interesting)

    by krudler ( 836743 )
    So what's this saying? Americans are suckers and would pay extra for "functionality" while its rubbed in our face that the functionality is not only possible but available to other people.

    I'm sick of getting screwed over for games and technologies. If this is the greatest country in the world, why does our technology suck so hard? Why do we let companies screw us?

    • Re:blech (Score:4, Insightful)

      by TychoCelchuuu ( 835690 ) on Monday December 06, 2004 @11:24AM (#11007988) Journal
      Why do we let companies screw us? Because the rich people don't care and the poor people are stupid. Okay, that's over generalizing. But the majority of game players don't really mind because they don't know what they're missing. Unless a large outcry is raised nobody will ever really know.

      • Re:blech (Score:4, Insightful)

        by servognome ( 738846 ) on Monday December 06, 2004 @02:53PM (#11009929)
        But the majority of game players don't really mind because they don't know what they're missing. Unless a large outcry is raised nobody will ever really know.
        Why do you think you got "screwed" because the version in a different country has different features? Nintendo didn't advertise the feature and not deliver it. When you buy a product you decide if it has enough features to warrant the price you pay. If you decide yes you buy it, if you decide no you don't.
        This is like the kid whining after he gets a new bike, because the neighbor got a better one.
        • This is like the kid whining after he gets a new bike, because the neighbor got a better one.

          That's the american way. It doesn't matter if you got what you paid for, if somebody else gets more, you want more!
        • I don't think this is simply a case of whining about someone else getting something better. Its more about US players having to spend 4 times as much* in order to play with the same amount of players as in Japan. *(4x is an approximation as I did not check into the prices of either but I'm assuming them to be roughly the same)
        • This is like the kid whining after he gets a new bike, because the neighbor got a better one.

          I don't know... If the kid had to pay for the bike, and both of the bikes came from the same guy, and it looked an aweful lot like the guy was taking advantage of you because he knew thinks you are more gullible than the other kid...
  • Nintendo Gameboy titles that allow multiplayer have almost always required all players to have copies of the game to play with each other, haven't they? I find it hard to believe they would change this policy and (In their eyes presumably) cheat themselves out of a lot of cartridge sales, JP or NA.
    • ...for the GBA, even if the gameplay was limited.

      Two examples would be Super Mario Cart (limited set of tracks with one cart) and any of the Super Mario Advance games (Mario Bros. VS single cart, could play it co-op with multiple carts...)

      I was very surprised to see so many of the first wave of DS releases requiring multiple carts, I figured they would have had a few games multi-play with a single cart to entice people to buy into the system early (and to show off the DS's multiplayer capibilities.)
    • The Gameboy Advance can do one-cart multiplayer (it was a selling point at one point IIRC), but it only has a small amount of memory (128kb IIRC) to store the game, so big games can't use it, unless they cut down features. (Mario Kart only has a few tracks available for example).

      The DS apparently has more RAM to use for one-cart multiplayer, but I'd imagine that could be filled up by games.

    • No, starting with GBA. (Score:5, Informative)

      by JimTheta ( 115513 ) on Monday December 06, 2004 @12:19PM (#11008539) Homepage
      The GBA has a number of titles that can be link-played with only one cartridge. Usually, you can only play mini-games or other small features this way.

      For instance, in my Kirby & the Amazing Mirror game (which rocks by the way), there are 3 mini-games that can be played up to 4 player with only one cart.

      You can also play the main game with 4 players, but for that each player needs a cart, which makes sense, as each player can explore the whole game world simultaneously. The slave GBAs would need to load pretty much the whole game world off of the master, or at least a sub-world at a time.

      I can't think of any other games that can link without more carts, but I know I've read about some in the past. I believe some of the Mario ones, and perhaps the Zelda one.

      -Grant
    • Actually, while I was on vacation in Tokyo I picked up Mr. Driller Ace for the GBA (GBA has no territory lock. Yay!) and it allows you to download the game to connected GBAs as well. Several GBA games do this.

  • Most importantly... (Score:3, Funny)

    by igorthefiend ( 831721 ) on Monday December 06, 2004 @03:35PM (#11010362)
    Does it still go "Mistah Drilah!" when you turn it on like the Dreamcast one did? If not, I'm not buying, whatever region. ;)

  • Scarcity (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Also, the initial stock of the mr driller carts for the US version is split between the US and europe. Namco has said that they dont plan on making a second stock if this first English language one runs out.

    sort of a catch-22, limited stock yet more carts are required to play multiplayer. I'm now sold on buying the import version....
  • "Japanese DS Game Substantially Different Than US?"

    Well, no, but it might be substantially different from...

    • Bad news - "different than" is an acceptable usage in American English. "Different to" has a similar status in British English. "Different from" is required in formal written English, but that's not what Slashdot uses.

      If you want to nitpick the title, try the point that it's fairly obvious that a video game is going to be easily distinguishable from the United States of America. (Adding "Version" to the end of the sentence would resolve that little ambiguity.)

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