Welcome to the first game reviews of OK! Japan Videogames!

Before we get started, let’s discuss our review philosophy/rating system and the factors that differentiate us from the standard “retro” reviews you’ve likely seen in the past.

We Review Games Contemporaneously

What this means, in practicality, is that we do our best to review games using the standards, framing, technology, and editorial schemas from the era in which they were created.

We have considerable experience with videogames, particularly Japanese ones contemporaneously, i.e. in the time that they were released and using the cultural, historical, technological and design philosophies of the relevant era in our reviews. At OK! Japan Videogames, you’ll get great reviews but also interesting information about how the game(s) compare/contrast to others in the era/milieu in which they were created. We played them when they were released and in the current era 

We Are Not Techno-elitists 

While the vast majority of our content is captured on original hardware and physical games, we fully realise this is just not an option for everyone. Obtaining and maintaining original videogame console hardware, even Japanese ones can be expensive and time consuming. At OK! Japan Videogames, we want all people to be able to enjoy Japanese videogames!

We want to share the joys of gaming with everyone, a broad audience of all ages, cultures, and interests and expand the horizons of gaming, not close it off to only people who have the means to collect original consoles by insisting this is “better” or the “only/one” way to do it. Anything you see at OK! Japan Videogames can alternately be emulated, or recreated on original hardware in an inexpensive way. We support emulation, FPGAs, original hardware, however you want to play  And if there is an easy way for our audience to enjoy content, we’ll not only encourage it but write about it as well 

The Test of Timeter Score

In addition to our standard rating system of 1-10 based on:

1.    Graphics

2.    Sound/Music

3.    Playability/Gameplay

4.    Overall Score

We’ve invented the Test of Timeter Score! This is an overall measure/rating and specific commentary on how the game stacks up in the modern era, or how well it has aged compared to modern games and/or it’s contemporaries, how well it has withstood, the Test of Timeter.

For example, games from the 8-bit to 32-bit era (for instance on the NEC PC-Engine or the Sega Saturn) that feature great pixel graphics/art may age better than some early 32-bit games that feature low-res texture mapped polygons (Sony Playstation 1, Nintendo 64, etc.)