Western Devs Don't Get the DS

via kotaku

Japanese developers so get the DS. Western ones, it appears, do not. A feature over at Pocket Gamer shows that while a ton of non-Japanese companies are making DS games, most of them just aren't very good. The site took all of Metacritic's 201 DS scores and tried to see where American and Japanese games rated on the review scale. Their results?

...realise that the highest-scoring non-Japanese DS game is Tony Hawk's American Sk8land, in 16th position with (a very respectable) 84 per cent. We then have another Activision title, Ultimate Spiderman, in 34th place, and then another Tony Hawk's title, Downhill Jam, in 40th.
On the whole, the bulk of the top 100 places — 74 of them — are from Japan, while the country is responsible for just 32 of the bottom 101 places.

Tony Hawk, the West's great hope in DS gaming.

There is a lot of games available on DS, but most of them are just bad. Look at Rayman Raving Rabbids, Shrek Smash'n Crash, for exemple, they are just boring (in my opinion).

I'd mention that Elite Beat Agents is an awesome game, but it was based off of a Japanese title to begin with, so....

Most third party titles, simply are quickly shoved out afterthought titles (aka crap)

The main difference is, from time to time japanese companies are willing to take risks, while western companies dont even try anything new, they just shove out a quick conversion.
(although while most people hate it, i really like the Tomb Raider DS port)

But the main problem generally is, the quick development of the games in conjunction with a huge buyer demographic which seems to be happy with film conversation 15 which is the same game as film conversion 14 and bloatware 16 enforces, that a lot of really aweful games are produced for the console.

The main problem the DS has, is that from time to time a gem comes out but it is drowned in a boatload of pure and utter garbage released every week. Basically a bubble syndrome where everyone tries to jump the bandwagon.

I can really imagine a developer holding the DS, with a perplex look on his face saying: "how do i touched screen"

Actually the funny thing is, that western development houses are very strong on adventure games, rts, and nonlinear rpgs, and the ds really lacks a lot of games in all of those areas.
The best adventure games still are the ones you can run via scummvm (sorry Cing but it is like that you really need to work on your stories) almost no RTS game at all and basically no nonlinear RPG, just the typical japo rpgs (which I personally hate because they feel like being stuck in the early eighties)

Things will become better, several adventure game makers currently jump onto the bandwagon, but it probably will take a while until those games become available. RTS, there still is not too much there, and as for non linear rpgs with a story that does not suck, Bioware, please...