Wed, Mar 23, 2011 | 03:19 GMT

Western games dominate Japanese developers’ best of 2010 list

A late survey of Japan’s development luminaries has seen Heavy Rain and Red Dead Redemption top a list ripe with international releases.

Andriasang posted the results of a Dengeki poll on the past year’s best games. Heavy Rain was the clear winner with just under a third of respondents honouring Quantic Dream’s noir thriller.

Red Dead Redemption came in a close second, earning praise from the likes of Jun Takeuchi, Goichi Suda, Hideo Kojima and Yousuke Hayashi.

Although no other title managed so many nominations, there were several recurring Western entries, including Limbo; Alan Wake; Infinity Blade; and Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Several other traditionally Western games made single appearances, leading to a list heavily weighted towards non-Japanese titles.

Of Japanese development, hard-as-nails action shooter Vanquish turned up a few times, along with the phenomenally successful Monster Hunter Portable 3rd, and notoriously divisive JRPG Nier Replicant/Gestalt.

Mario Galaxy 2, Pokémon Black and White, and Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker each scored a small number of mentions.

8 comments

triggerhappy686
23/03/11, 3:24 am

WOW. We really are living in weird and exciting times. Heavy Rain, Red Dead and Alan Wake are all fantastic games, im glad they are appreciated over there.

MgsNull
23/03/11, 3:33 am

congrats to those guys well derseverd.

HauntaVirus
23/03/11, 4:18 am

If you want to make your own top game lists and compare them with other gamers, check out this awesome new website…

http://www.unikgamer.com/

xino
23/03/11, 4:29 am

no surprise there:/

Japanese needs to step up their games, the only shit they know how to make now are JRPG, and they are always the same shit.

Game changers that came out from Japan were just VanQuisH, Demons Souls and Bayonetta.

xino
23/03/11, 4:31 am

@3
nice website.
but I’m not going to bother with it.

If Ocarina of Time is currently rated #1 best game of all time, then I know surely Nintendo fanboys have infested the place just like how they do at GameFaQs.

so…let it go

Blerk
23/03/11, 8:47 am

It doesn’t surprise me that Japanese developers appreciate these games. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the Japanese gaming public do, though – there’s still a lot of work to do there. It’s still pretty rare to see a Western-developed game in the Japanese top 10, just like it’s become equally rare to see a Japanese-developed game in our charts.

HauntaVirus
23/03/11, 4:01 pm

@5
I agree with you partly. You do have to realize that the website only has 1200 members. Once it starts to grow faster, that entire list could get turned upside down.

osric90
23/03/11, 4:44 pm

Do you remember when Japanese games were the best? I’m still hoping a new franchise like Bayonetta and Vanquish rocks my world. Hopefully Bayonetta 2 and Vanquish 2 (yeah, sequels…) will fix their very own problems (compatibility and extra features) and will be among the best in the current generation. As for now… I’m very interested in Catherine, but I doubt it will be as goos as Uncharted, Heavy Rain, Gears of War or anything. Waiting for Metal Gear Solid Rising too.