Nintendo iNSIDE

Ever wondered what Japanese web sites are like? Japanese news is mere clicks away, but sadly masked behind the impenetrable barrier of language. Well wonder no more as I give you a look into Japan’s greatest Nintendo site, Nintendo iNSIDE.

First, lets take a look at the latest news. Unsurprisingly, the focus is on the launch of the lovely new DS Lite with reports of huddled otakus queuing all night in their sleeping bags. Only the white edition has gone on sale so far, but the site’s user comments suggest there will be an even greater demand for the coloured versions on March 11th, especially with that being a queue-friendly Saturday.

As a foreign reader of Nintendo iNSIDE, two things are really striking. First, is its fascination for Western news. Maybe you’d expect a fixation on the lives of Miyamoto and Iwata, but the guy they talk about more than anyone is our own beloved Reggie. While us hardcore western gamers spend a lot of our time wondering what’s going on in Japan, it seems the Japanese spend just as much time wondering what’s going on “˜round our way. Who would’ve thought it?

The second thing is that we in the West get the big news at the same time as the Japanese. There’s enough language ability out there, and enough people scanning every possible source of news that it really doesn’t matter if you’re a speaker of English or Nihongo these days. We’ve never had it so good.

Ok, maybe you’re thinking that Japanese web sites are pretty pointless now, but that’s not entirely true. The smaller, non-world shatteringly important news makes its way to English language sites at a far slower speed. For example, if we look at the news on Nintendo Inside right now, there’s an announcement of quirky new game “Kanji no Watari Tori“ where success in writing and understanding Japanese characters equates to martial arts action with a love story plot. Bet you didn’t know about that.

Heck, a lot of the Japanese news never makes its way to the West at all. Some of this might be the latest news on horse racing and train driving sims, but some of it is actually rather interesting. It’s old news in Japan now, but Japanese Mario Karters are currently competing for the nation’s best time trial scores, with customised trophies up for grabs.

The interesting part is how the competitors send their times to Nintendo for ranking: Choosing “Records” and then “Time Trials” from the title screen and then inputting up, down, L, R, Y and A gives an easily emailed 16 digit code. Before you go grabbing your English language copies of Mario Kart, I can tell you that yes, this code does indeed work. So brush up your snaking skills as we may well be seeing such a competition ourselves. Nintendo of Japan promises to put up videos of the best time trials sometime after the competition ends on March 19th.

I recently got some further insight into this wonderful website when I got to pose some questions to Mr Cube, the man behind Nintendo iNSIDE:

Jools: What are the differences between Japanese and Western web pages?

Mr Cube: The big difference is the level of enthusiasm and devotion of both the writers and the readers. The west has many more fan sites than Japan, some of which have developed huge fan bases – that is very enviable for us! Also, everyone seems to be a master of Photoshop, they can make anything with it.

What’s the appeal of Nintendo in Japan? What kind of person likes Nintendo?

I could be considered an expert on gaming but… I don’t really know (laughter). People know that Nintendo has been making good games, maybe that’s the reason. For people who aren’t gamers, Nintendo have the reputation of being a strong, reliable and very successful (rich) company, that may be it – though not even I understand the popularity boom of the DS! Now the DS is popular with young women, and I was surprised to see an old man in his 70s looking at games in a game shop recently.

What do you think the difference is between Western and Japanese gamers (for example, we think that all Japanese people are really good at video games)?

Japan good at games? LOL, that isn’t true! I think Japan and the west are probably the same. As for Nintendo, its very popular with children under 12 and adults over 20. Also, the generation that grew up with the Famicom (NES) loves Nintendo. I think its the same in the west.

What do you think the difference is between Japanese and western games?

I don’t know completely, but the image in my head is that Japanese games are handmade whereas Western games seem to be the product of a corporate organisation or company. Also, Japanese people feel that western games are more difficult to play.

Why did you start Nintendo iNSIDE? Are you paid to do it?

No! The reason I started it was that company web sites were completely useless (laughter!). Also, because Nintendo is only the 2nd biggest games company, a lot of information was not being reported. That’s why I collect information from all over the world.

Do you have a special relationship with Nintendo? Do they provide information or free goods?

Nintendo does not care about us, they don’t give us any press releases or anything else. I envy kind NOA and NOE.

Overall, Japanese sites are a great source of information on gaming, especially for the quirky, more unusual stuff. While the really big news makes its way overseas father quickly, a lot of the gaming culture in Japan is lost on the rest of the world. Great sites like Nintendo iNSIDE can help us bridge that gap and make gaming that much more universal.

[ Japanese Correspondent - Jools ]