It means that the Japanese response to the 360 is analogous to the Western response to the dreamcast. Undersold but stuffed with great games.

Luke, I think that it means that the 360 has a ton of high quality games out for it, but the console holds ZERO appeal for the Japanese gamer. It's that simple.

Microsoft has helped reinforce this negative opinion by building the worst console hardware in history. They seem to agree with me - - tons of great games, but not great enough to make it worth the hassle of constant RRODs. If MS had a quality story to go with the library story, they might actually be relevant outside of NA.

HOLD IT! I see Phoenix Wright up there err I mean Apollo Justice ;o

Wow they have ten 360 games up there. Good for them. I thought Smash Bros would have broken the top 25 though.

Halo might have more features thatn COD4 but the gameplay ins't even close. Silly Famitsu.

I'd also like to know why they thought Oblivion, GRAW2, RainbowSix Vegas, and Assassin's Creed were better ont he 360.

@NotAZombie: 2007 games, not 08

GTA..Japanese....this makes sense not

@SAKY: That's entirely opinion.

Winning eleven 2008, aka PES2008 got the same score for PS3 as for 360, even though 360 version is better than the PS3 version. Does not compute...

Wait a minute, did you say 10 out of 25 top games came out on 360 even though no one is buying 360s in Japan?

There must be something wrong with those reviewers.

@SAKY: They didn't get GRAW2 and R6 Vegas in Japan on PS3 from what I remember.

@SAKY: Oh that's right. *facepalm* Thanks a lot.

Oblivion scored higher than Mario Galaxy? I AM SHOCKED.

Shocked into suspicion!

ZING

wow, it is hard to believe all those awesome titles in the list, yet no one has a 360. it does take me back to the DC days. i actually played through 7 of those 360 games, and plan to buy 2 more. the only one i'm leaving out is WE. i am perfectly happy with WE9 on BC.

So what ?THe PS3 has 5 and then GRAW2 ,Assasins Creed ,Oblivion ,Rainbow Six Vegas etc are also available in the machine .Why would the Japanese buy the machine if all those games are on the PS3 too ?

By the way ,PS3 version of PES is better than 360 version .About the same but has better online ....

It means that Japanese people clearly respect Famitsu a lot less than us...

@Iberianpower: Careful, your fanboy is showing.

@Fluffy22: GTA has always sold fairly well in Japan.

@Captain Impulse: Just a touch...

@Iberianpower: Compared to how many games with better online on 360? Oh, and graphics.

/sarcasm

i am shocked with the list too...COD4 popular in Japan?

Oblivion in front of Mario Galaxy?!

信じられない！！

@ZeAvIs: It's called aggregate scoring. Also, some people enjoy one thing more than another.

Phantom Hourglass was a huge dissapointment.
Still good, but REALLY REALLY tired.

I still can't get over Japan's relatively* luke warm response to SMG.

Also PH's multiplayer is just really frustrating, just like the terrible idea of the Phantom Hourglass dungeon.

@Captain Impulse:
I know, but I still find it rather... well, unexpected at the very least.

I can't believe it either ZeAvIs. But it's the truth, for some reason.

The problem with Japan is that despite being one of the major videogame developer countries there are only a scant few professional reviews. Reading the 'cross reviews' it's obvious these guys never play their assigned game for more than an hour, and yet their scores go to affect things as much that some used game shops will NOT accept low-scored games since they believe it wont sell well. I've never seen anyone say very good things about GamePro reviews (Which I find comparable), so why Famitsu?

@SAKY: Not sure about the other games, but Assassin's Creed for the PS3 got a later release in Japan, hence the absence of the title.

Super Mario Galaxy lost 4 marks for not being Nintendogs, which Famitsu still has a moderately engorged stiffy over.

Same goes for every other game that got a less than perfect score from Famitsu. I still claim that Smash Bros. Brawl would have got a 39, had it not have been for the inclusion of Nintendog references within.

Winning Eleven had serious lag issues at release for the ps3. I think it has been patched but I'm not a soccer fan so..

Anyway, where the hell is BioShock or Orange Box?

@Iberianpower: "By the way ,PS3 version of PES is better than 360 version .About the same but has better online ...."

*facepalm*

I was expecting to see Bioshock on there

Am I the only one who thinks that the quality of 360 isn't that great?

All Hollywood-like games which most of 'em made it onto PC. PC-like game genre's aren't my type anyway.

I think rather than "Oblivion over Mario Galaxy!?", it should be "Phantom Hourglass over Oblivion and Mario Galaxy!?". TPH was complete garbage compared to either one.

@phloog: I really don't like that argument. I haven't ever got a RROD or a DRE and I've had my 360 for a year and a half.

Good games are good games, whether people play them or not. Look at some of the games that failed to find big audiences here in the West that were great games, on PS2, Dreamcast, Xbox 1, etc. Just because they aren't that popular in Japan doesn't mean that they aren't good games.

Like I'm sure that if we played Housoku Card Battle or whatever it is, we'd like it to.

Or maybe not :)

I liked phantom hour glass, it creative use of the stylus is unique and the cellshaded awsomeness just adds to it, i liked the story and well everything, mario galaxy should be over it and over elder scrolls but thats just a few of us and we dont write the magazine. :(

@JakeDunn: @Xolotl: So, um, Bioshock and the orange box, were they released in 2007 in japan? (hint: no)

@futurebiblehero: I don't think TPH was 'complete garbage', I thought it was a great game, but it certainly wasn't in the 'absolutely amazing' category that I'd place Mario Galaxy in. (Likely Oblivion is a better game than TPH too, but I haven't played it, so I wouldn't know.) On the other hand, anything 37 or above is really in the same category of being really good according to their review, I don't see any particular point in differentiating between 37 and 39.

@ZeAvIs: Oblivion isn't in front of Mario Galaxy. They have the same score. Whoever made up this list just picked that order... It would've been better to show 'joint' places.

@Para: OBJECTION! It should have been higher than 24th! :>

@Atheist Jew: *suits up in flame-proof bodysuit* Oblivion is a better game than Mario Galaxy.

@loempiavreter: You're crazy. Just because a genre isn't your "type," doesn't make it any less quality. The 360 is packed with fantastic games.

Bioshock was just released in Japan in February and Orange Box will be released in May I believe.

I have a feeling that the Japanese won't be as enamored with Bioshock as the rest of the world anyways. Just a guess, but I think I might be right. Its' release date aside, it hadn't even occured to me to wonder why it wasn't on that list.

Although there are creepy, ghostly looking little girls. So that might sway the game in Bioshock's favor.

phantom hourglass was a boring and terribly short game that should not even be up there, (people are going to hate me for this) Minish Cap was a far superior game.

Ah, poor 360. You kick so much ass (even if it leads to a broken hip or a case of the RRoD), but no one cares about you in Japan. For shame, Japan....

And that's a pretty solid list, though I'd personally put Super Mario Galaxy above Phantom Hourglass.

@loempiavreter:

That's an outrageous statement. The 360 had its' fair share of console-only games (ace combat 6, lost odyssey etc) ;)

Japan likes them some western videogaming

Ive read it many times over and I still can't believe it... 10 out of 25, WTH Japan!?

@pokebud: @EgoMonk: Don't forget most of us played a localized translation of Phantom Hourglass, so it might have been a lot better in Japanese.

I know this is officially old, but this news calls for a "NO WAI!".

@loempiavreter:

Uh-huh, and Uncharted, God of War aren't the poster-children of 'Hollywood' games how?

The only true non-'Hollywood' console is the Wii; they're more like Bollywood on crack and motion sensing (which come to think of it, a Bollywood-themed DDR-like game would be incredible...)

Lousy classification, and I don't mind the PC ports. It doesn't hurt the PC market whether they decide these games are ported or not, consumers can just not the games you know, and considering the costs of game development these days, developers NEED to give these ports.

But anyway, I'm just whooping for Lost Odyssey being up there!

If Mistwalker was smart, they'll cut their Microsoft Games Studios ties and somehow rerelease Lost Odyssey on the PS3.

Also, a lot of these "amazing 360 games" are also available on the PS3. They're not going to go out and buy a 360 for a bunch of good games they can get for their PS3.

I only regret that none of the Tingle games are not up on that list. D: