Support NeoGAF

[Afro Republican]

That's right, after all these years, Crash Bandicoot 2, which took the world by storm and we still don't have full figures for from Sony for some reason despite it reportedly being the bet selling game out of the 5 PSX games, is STIll, yes STILL the best selling western made game IP to sell in Japan retail. Developed by American company Naughty Dog known for such classics before Crash such as...... And then they got really big with Crash Bandcoot and have been a top tier developer ever since.

In Japan, Crash Bandicoot 2 has sold around 1.1 million units. For second place, it's,,,,,, Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped with 918k and then followed by... GTA V with 890k.

Top 3:

1. Crash 2: 1.1 million
2. Crash 3: 918k
3. GTA V: 890k

We've had some growing franchise like GTA and COD, western Ips made by western devs, becoming more and more accepted in Japan. However, even with several franchises starting to do so, Crash 2 still seems to be untouchable. Truly an amazing experience.

Top 10 Western dev made Ips in Japan:

1. Crash 2: 1.1 million
2. Crash 3: 918k
3. GTA V (Old Gen): 890k
4. Crash 1: 695k
5. GTA V (Current Gen): 670k
6. Just Dance Wii: 667k
7. GTA Vice City (PS2): 605k
8. COD Black Ops II: 575k
9. Ratchet and Clank (PS2): 562k
10. GTA San Andreas (PS2): 558k

 

[The Elite]

I should try the Crash games someday. Everyone speaks so highly of them. I might pick up the Switch pack over the holidays.

 

[TheDuskwalker]

Weird N'Sane Trilogy didn't do better there.

My vote went to Crash 2, runner up would be Crash 3. Probably like the Ratchet series better, but the original Ratchet game aged worse because of the combat.

 

[Breakage]

Aesthetically, Crash looks terrible though compared to, say, Klonoa or even Spyro.
There is nothing charming or endearing about Crash's character design.

 

[iconmaster]

 

[Afro Republican]

Weird N'Sane Trilogy didn't do better there.

My vote went to Crash 2, runner up would be Crash 3. Probably like the Ratchet series better, but the original Ratchet game aged worse because of the combat.

Likely because Japan didn't get a console game since 2005 and the last Crash game was the horrible boom bang party game for the DS in 2006.

So that's 12-13 years without a crash game outside PSN/XBL downloads of older titles. For some reason Sierra (and the IOS games) were just not released in Japan and well and some of the other portable games.

Not as bad as Spyro though only like 3 games were released there. Spyro was a massive flop in japan, 1st game sold 57k, the other 2 games sold less than 10k. Like Rayman 1 levels (Rayman 1 sold like 7k in Japan)

But yeah Crash always did decent in Japan:

Crash 2: 1.1 million
Crash 3: 918k
Crash 1: 695k
Crash Team Racing: 300k+
Crash WOC: 275k+
Crash Bash: 177k
Crash Huge Adventure: 110k
N.Sane Trilogy: 66k

So yeah N.sane due tot he reasons I mentioned above, didn't do that great there, however, it still did better than some games. top 8.

 

[Afro Republican]

Aesthetically, Crash looks terrible though compared to, say, Klonoa or even Spyro.
There is nothing charming or endearing about Crash's character design.

Hmmmm.

Sales of best selling games:

Crash 2: 1.1 million
Spyro: 56k
Klonoa Door: 112k

Well I guess in Japan that doesn't matter I guess.

 

[Shifty]

Big ups to my boy Ratchet.

Whoa whoa whoa, Spyro is called Ripto in japan? Or is this a weirdly-prioritized version of Ripto's Rage logo text? Bizarre.

 

[Afro Republican]

Big ups to my boy Ratchet.


Whoa whoa whoa, Spyro is called Ripto in japan? Or is this a weirdly-prioritized version of Ripto's Rage logo text? Bizarre.

Actually it says Spyro, but it looks like Ripto, and that is why Spyro 2 named Ripto that name because they decided to take the weird text and make it the name of the character.

Here's the GBA version, that's just how the letter look when spelling Spyro there:

Also the japanese version of Spyro one is really weird, it's much easier, they don't give full camera control because of sickness possibilities, the camera goes to a kind of overhead mode instead of being behind spyro leading to weird collision and camera angle issues,

There are hint signs. Spyro is made slow for health reasons, in fact, his charge speed is basically the same as his regular walk speed in every other version of the game. In fact, unlocking "regular" speed is an 100% completion bonus.

So with the game being annoying to play i suppose that could be why it was a massive flop. Then again even if JP got the same version everyone else got I doubt it would have done that well. For one Spyro 2, had the same stuff (with a couple added odd choices0)so I'm assuming the market tests showed the original version wouldn't work without these changes.

 

[Mato]

Minecraft doesn't count? But I see what you mean.

 

[meirl]

Source? I don’t believe it.

 

[Shifty]

Actually it says Spyro, but it looks like Ripto, and that is why Spyro 2 named Ripto that name because they decided to take the weird text and make it the name of the character.

Here's the GBA version, that's just how the letter look when spelling Spyro there:

Oh I see, the characters are japanese but my brain is reading them as english. That's a really neat thing!

Also the japanese version of Spyro one is really weird, it's much easier, they don't give full camera control because of sickness possibilities, the camera goes to a kind of overhead mode instead of being behind spyro leading to weird collision and camera angle issues,

There are hint signs. Spyro is made slow for health reasons, in fact, his charge speed is basically the same as his regular walk speed in every other version of the game. In fact, unlocking "regular" speed is an 100% completion bonus.

So with the game being annoying to play i suppose that could be why it was a massive flop. Then again even if JP got the same version everyone else got I doubt it would have done that well. For one Spyro 2, had the same stuff (with a couple added odd choices0)so I'm assuming the market tests showed the original version wouldn't work without these changes.

All of this is fascinating, publishers certainly went the extra mile with region-specific changes during the PS1 era (cough working designs cough).

The idea of an overhead camera goes some way toward explaining why the isometric GBA games exist too, aside from the fact that the platform was inundated with them anyway.

 

[Afro Republican]

Oh I see, the characters are japanese but my brain is reading them as english. That's a really neat thing!


All of this is fascinating, publishers certainly went the extra mile with region-specific changes during the PS1 era (cough working designs cough).

The idea of an overhead camera goes some way toward explaining why the isometric GBA games exist too, aside from the fact that the platform was inundated with them anyway.

No, actually it was done because the GBA couldn't do 3D and it was the only way to have a 3D open-world game feel translated to a weak portable.

The zooming out in japanese Spyro is nothing like the GBA games though, it's often fixed despite stage design, so it'll lock behind objects, it'll zoom in and out nauseatingly as you approach important objects, and it can swing around at the wrong times. At least GBA spyro it's a fixed scrolling camera angle.

 

[Sub_Level]

Call of Duty sells pretty good in Japan. They know whats up.

 

[Alexios]

It's those eyebrows.

 

[Insane Metal]

Crash 3.