Anime-Based Games: The Long and the Short of Them

You see a relatively new title in the store you frequent. You don’t know whether to pick it up, examine it and eventually buy it or just scoff at it. You choose to pick it up. You see the title is the same as the title of something you religiously watch on TV every single day. You’re not sure whether to believe your own eyes or to shake off that creeping feeling of disappointment.

But since you chose to pick it up, you’d rather believe that you’re actually seeing the game version of your favorite anime show. And you know that everyone else who’s a fan of the show feels and is doing the same thing you’re feeling/doing right now: you’re all amazed that you’re holding the new game title.

Or you might be seeing the title on the download site. Whichever encounter you’re involved in, you’re still shocked, elated, disappointed. Something’s bound to happen to this new game counterpart of your favorite anime show. Relax – you’re not the only one feeling that way.

You know that not all anime-based games survive the tough gaming world. Critics abound. Gamers are hard to please. Not everyone knows anime; but those who do are not too enthusiastic about anime branching out. Chances are the game’s doomed, unless you and other fans campaign for the game. You know how the gaming world’s going to  treat this as just another one of ‘those games’. Or worse, they’ll expect too much from it – to be as great as the anime whose name it shares.

Be realistic. However good the anime from which the game’s based on might be, you can’t expect that the game will be that good. There have been many video games based on really amazing anime, but not all of them end as popular as the animes, and not as good with gamers as the animes are with their fans. Several anime-based games include Bomberman, Astro Boy, Castlevania Series, Devil May Cry, Digimon, Dragon Ball Z titles, Final Fantasy, Full Metal Alchemist titles, Ghost in the Shell: Stand alone Complex, InuYasha, The Legend of Zelda, Mahou no Princess Minky Momo, Mein Liebe, One Piece: Great Battle, Pokemon, The Quiz Master, Sonic the hedgehog, Sakura Wars, Shaman King, Sailormoon, Tekken titles, and Ranma ½, to name a few.
Their success and failure can be chalked up to factors which the game developers and the anime developers may not have any control over. First of all, you can’t expect the fan base of, say, Ranma ½ (this is the first English-dubbed anime in the US that had a really big fan base) to support the game version just because they like the anime.

The release of the 2D game version of the very popular Ranma ½ series for the SNES (this was in 1990, mind you) which had the title Ranma ½: Hard Battle was met with mixed reactions and with low support.

You see a relatively new title in the store you frequent. You don’t know whether to pick it up, examine it and eventually buy it or just scoff at it. You choose to pick it up. You see the title is the same as the title of something you religiously watch on TV every single day. You’re not sure whether to believe your own eyes or to shake off that creeping feeling of disappointment.

But since you chose to pick it up, you’d rather believe that you’re actually seeing the game version of your favorite anime show. And you know that everyone else who’s a fan of the show feels and is doing the same thing you’re feeling/doing right now: you’re all amazed that you’re holding the new game title.

Or you might be seeing the title on the download site. Whichever encounter you’re involved in, you’re still shocked, elated, disappointed. Something’s bound to happen to this new game counterpart of your favorite anime show. Relax – you’re not the only one feeling that way.

You know that not all anime-based games survive the tough gaming world. Critics abound. Gamers are hard to please. Not everyone knows anime; but those who do are not too enthusiastic about anime branching out. Chances are the game’s doomed, unless you and other fans campaign for the game. You know how the gaming world’s going to  treat this as just another one of ‘those games’. Or worse, they’ll expect too much from it – to be as great as the anime whose name it shares.

Be realistic. However good the anime from which the game’s based on might be, you can’t expect that the game will be that good. There have been many video games based on really amazing anime, but not all of them end as popular as the animes, and not as good with gamers as the animes are with their fans. Several anime-based games include Bomberman, Astro Boy, Castlevania Series, Devil May Cry, Digimon, Dragon Ball Z titles, Final Fantasy, Full Metal Alchemist titles, Ghost in the Shell: Stand alone Complex, InuYasha, The Legend of Zelda, Mahou no Princess Minky Momo, Mein Liebe, One Piece: Great Battle, Pokemon, The Quiz Master, Sonic the hedgehog, Sakura Wars, Shaman King, Sailormoon, Tekken titles, and Ranma ½, to name a few.

Their success and failure can be chalked up to factors which the game developers and the anime developers may not have any control over. First of all, you can’t expect the fan base of, say, Ranma ½ (this is the first English-dubbed anime in the US that had a really big fan base) to support the game version just because they like the anime.

The release of the 2D game version of the very popular Ranma ½ series for the SNES (this was in 1990, mind you) which had the title Ranma ½: Hard Battle was met with mixed reactions and with low support.

There was also the Dragon Power game version for the SNES titled Street Combat which was released in 1993 and crashed and burned. The anime counterpart, however, maintained a following.

Perhaps the most famous anime that was ever shown in the US and in other regions that had a huge fanbase was the Dragon Ball Z series. The 1993 released anime-based game Dragon Ball Z Super Butouden was one met with (again) mixed reactions. The anime was already popular, so the game was expected to be as big as the anime.

Now you’re looking at the game version of your favorite anime. You try to gauge how you and others will react to the game. After all, you’re a skilled gamer yourself. You can measure the game’s performance by playing it. But you’re having second thoughts about doing that since you know there’s a big possibility that you won’t like it as much as you like the anime it’s based on.

You analyze what it is about anime that a fan like you admire. The story? The graphics? The characterization? Do you focus on just one element or do you appreciate the entirety of the anime? Based on those you assess how the game will fare when reviewed by gamers and fellow fans. Keep in mind that not all the elements of the anime will be present in the game version.

Characterization, for one, will suffer immensely in the game as certain attributes of the anime characters will be present. Only characters’ different skills and abilities can be used if the game falls in the action/adventure genre. The setting in the anime version can be used in the game. The storyline, on the other hand, can be dealt with by the developers in two ways: they could scrap the storyline and create a new one solely for the game, or choose to follow the original story of the anime. The latter is more difficult to do since the game has limitations with regard to the possible storyline to follow. Maybe a portion of the original story could be used for the game, but not the entire story – alterations would have to be made to make the game more exciting. The adventure factor of the game is most important for it to be successful.

Another important factor in the success of anime-based games is how the creators and developers market the games. As anime is serious art and is labor-intensive to create, anime designers tend to get busy with coming up with succeeding shows rather than get very involved with the game development part. This is true for most anime creators since a lot of them still follow the traditional way of making great art – drawing all the frames by hand. Perhaps this is another reason why fans love anime so much, because they know the kind of work that is put into making these animations.

If creators of successful animes focus on developing games, the quality of the series would suffer but the quality of the games will definitely improve. This is one of the most common dilemma anime creators have to deal with when faced with having to choose between the anime series and the game version. And fortunately (for the anime fans and sadly for the gamers), they often choose to focus on and develop their art.

It’s a major step to try and merge these two huge industries. The gaming and entertainment industry are very different because of the way they are made and treated (and marketed). Most gamers and anime fans who play anime-based games sometimes find games mediocre, because the games aren’t as great as their marketers claim (if they had been marketed at all), or because the games didn’t live up to the reputation of the anime they’re based on.

Now back to you.

All these thoughts run through your head as you stand in line to purchase the game. You think about the possible elation or disappointment when you finally play the game in your PC or your console when you get home. If the game turns out to be bad, you know you’ve wasted money and time. If it’s as good as the anime version, then you’re in luck, and you’ll probably be thanking the developers for not making a good anime series the laughing stock of the gaming community.