Wed, Jun 06, 2012 | 23:18 BST

Hayashi – Ninja Gaiden III was, “a Japanese hamburger for the West”

Team Ninja head Yosuke Hayashi has compared Ninja Gaiden III to “a Japanese hamburger for the West,” and the food analogies didn’t end there: Hayashi said when it comes to game, players want really good Japanese food.

Speaking in an interview with Gamasutra, Hayashi said what consumers really want, are great games from Japan not westernized games made by Japanese developers.

“It seems like we made a Japanese hamburger for the West,” Hayashi said regarding NG3. “I feel like maybe, as a Japanese developer, we need to make good Japanese food… That’s what people are wanting from a Japanese developer. What we made, it’s an okay burger, but it may not be what people are wanting.”

Hayashi noticed during his time at E3 this week, that the big game conferences didn’t really show many Japanese-developed titles, and he realized something needs to change in order for the industry to take notice again.

“Maybe if the industry is going for that Hollywood blockbuster direction, we can offer something that’s different,” he said. “And maybe it doesn’t get picked up by that, because that’s Hollywood, but we can still offer solid entertainment, and make sure that it reaches the people that are looking for that solid entertainment.

“All Japanese developers are right now treading water, and doing everything they can just to basically stay above water. We feel that actually, you’re going to get an answer coming from that [situation], because everybody is so desperate to stay there and stay alive that you’re going to get answers for how to move forward and how to make things work in the future.

“That’s the state the Japanese industry is in right now.”

Pass the dumplings, then.