If so, are they the same WWII games played in the US and UK? What side do the German and Japanese kids play as?
The only games I’d think they’d really have a problem with is something like the Medal of Honor series, where the Axis soldiers are basically the “monsters” you mow down. But from what I understand, the whole military FPS shooter genre is pretty much a US (and UK to a lesser extent) phenomenon anyways. My impressions is that WWII strategy and simulation games sell reasonably well in Germany at least (although they often have to be edited to remove any Nazi imagery, which is illegal there). Japan pretty much has its own game industry and Western games don’t really sell well there in general.
Thanks. I know that in the 90s, when submarine simulation games were popular, I loved them but could never bring myself to play as a German U-Boat- so I wondered if there were any parallels for kids in Germany or Japan.
Capcom, a Japanese company made a game based on the Battle of Midway in which the player plays as an American fighter pilot.
I present to you Moe Moe Niji Taisen a strategy game where you play as machines of war anthropomorphized into young girls (hence the title) on both the Axis and Allied side. I haven’t actually played this myself, mind you, but from the screencaps it looks like a Super Robot Wars-style turn-based RPG, where damage is shown as clothing damage.
…yeah. There’s a reason this game doesn’t have an official overseas localization.
From what I understand from the Castle Wolfenstein days forward the German versions of games remove both Nazi symbols and blood. The game can leave blood in if it is colored green instead of red, so you can splat zombies or aliens but not humans.
As noted, Japanese gamers don’t really care for FPS games. I’ll note that Medal of Honor: Rising Sun was released in Japan, though.
WW2 flight simulator and strategy games are out there, but are a bit niche and not AAA titles. There’s also moe WW2 games such as dotchan linked to, but these aren’t particularly serious.
As for your other question, they generally play as the Japanese.
Keio Games had a WWII Pacific Theater game for PS.
The swastika is illegal in Germany. The Japanese just appear to have cultural amnesia.
Well, anime art recently acquired yet another WWII genre — some of which have games attached, almost as an afterthought — to join Axis Powers Hetalia, WWII nations as small children; Strike Witches, various heroes of all sides shown as small girls, battling aliens; Girls und Panzer — soldiery, mainly Axis, as small girls; and even mighty Touhou occasionally has small girls flying Luftwaffe aircraft etc…
Kantai Collection, Imperial Japanese Battleships as small girls.
There’s kind of a theme there, but not everyone can pick up on it.
Gaming prolly has no deeper meaning, but I was disquieted to see Steam is bringing out Verdun. My step-grandfather fought there when very young ( on the wrong side, but peace be unto his honoured memory ) and I’d feel wrong to comfortably play a game where he and those others on both sides suffered in a bloodbath; I doubt I could play any WWI game.
WWII was as bad, but I don’t feel the same remorse, since everyone was fairly detestable. I loathe the nazis as extra-vulgar republicans; but I’ve never played the Allied side yet.
From what I’ve heard (and this goes back to the original Wolfenstein 3D, so things may have changed), Germany has flat-out slammed the door on the Nazis, and they’re utterly forbidden in any context. I doubt it’s that big a deal for them. That takes out, what, 5% of one genre?
Japan is the country that gave us Pop 'n Music, Japan World Cup, and Touhou Project and invented the eroge genre, so suffice to say that restricting things in video games has never been a high priority for them. It’s like cckerberos said, they’re not fanatical about FPSes like we are. Given the nation’s notorious silence on all things regarding WW2, I doubt most gamers today would even notice anything amiss in a game about the Empire of the Rising Sun.
So right now, at least, there just isn’t any reason this would be a big deal.
fanganga - Capcom began as a British company and IIRC still has a headquarters there (the name, in fact, stands for “capsule computer”, whatever the heck that is). There have been a fair amount of British-flavored games like Ghosts 'n Goblins and Knights of the Round, and nearly every Street Fighter has at least one stage in the UK. Just saying that okaying a shooter series kinda-sorta-maybe based on the Allied side in WW2 was never a big deal.
Claverhouse - Correct me if I’m wrong (I’m not big on anime nowadays), but aren’t the Axis Power Hetalia and Strike Witches characters in their late teens?
Where’s the Luftwaffe aircraft in Touhou? That’s news to me. Given the kind of attacks those girls are capable of, I’d think that any large war machine wouldn’t survive very long.
This is a bit of a tangent, but Germany is fine with swastikas used in historical contexts in other media, but the laws currently consider video games to be toys. Other countries that have similar laws against the display of Nazi imagery consider video games with historical settings to be like movies with historical settings and so allow swastikas. If it ever became a big issue, I’ll bet the argument could be made in Germany as well.
Koei I mean…
The main character is 14, the leader of the group who is “getting old” and “will have to retire soon” is 22 I think.
That show really creeped me out.
I used to play that game all the time from both sides. I played while I was onboard US Navy ships, or living in US Navy barracks. Its weird because I have never been able to sit down and watch the Pearl Harbor movie(I get too emotional), but I can play a game from the Japanese side and bomb the crap out of Pearl Harbor. I also played Koei’s Liberty or Death from both the American and British side. My wife looks at me weird now when I play the “wrong” side, but it doesn’t bother me.
My dad and I and a group of sand table gamers played through the whole Ruhr Pocket campaign. He got a bronze star and a silver star in the battle of the Ruhr Pocket…
Yeah, but he had actually done it, and earned the right: I haven’t. The pictures of opened ossuaries at Verdun made a strong impression on my young mind — although frankly this is ridiculous: bones are beyond all suffering, it was the living wounded who felt pain.
On the other hand, I wouldn’t feel anything playing the War Between the States or the British Civil Wars: in the first I don’t feel much for either side ( although from the age of 6, when I was given a history of that conflict the size of a table ( Earl Schwenk Myers, I salute you ) it was my first war; and in the latter I just want to kill every enemy of King Charles I who ever existed. And do today.
I’m getting to the point though that practically all war is ipso facto bad, m’kay; and I know all the arguments regarding it’s nobility, because I’ve made them.
Since I don’t speak Japanese, I don’t understand your logic here…
“Moe” is the Japanese term for, uh…well, it’s complicated, but “huggable” is probably the closest translation I can think of off the top of my head.
So “Moe Moe Niji Taisen” would translate into something like “Cuddly Wuddly Second Great War”.
Very, very incorrect. Military FPS games are massive throughout Europe. Regarding Germany specifically:
2012:
Number 2 in sales: Call of Duty: Black Ops II (PS3)
2011:
Number 1: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (PS3)
Number 5: Battlefield 3 (PC)
Number 6: Battlefield 3 (PS3)
Number 8: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (PC)
And so far this year Call of Duty: Black Ops II (PS3) is at number 4, despite (obviously since it was number 2 in 2012) being released in the previous year.