in the shell

I just stumbled accross this apparently in Japan because the PC gaming market is smaller counterstrike is being sold as an arcade game with anime style characters and aliens instead of terrorists/freedomfighters/whatever. which frankly is awesome anyone know of any other games that have made a similar platform jump for Japan?

I don't really know Counterstrike, but I think that Japan does everything best almost all the time when it comes to videogames. The western industry largely sucks in my opinion- very few cool characters, too many of the same boring kinds of game (well, I guess it's not boring if you are into sports, FPS, military strategy, or those games where you go around being a gangster). We've come out with a selection of really great things over the last decade or two, but probably only 1 out of every 10 truly brilliant, classic games is a western attempt, the rest are asian. Judging from my hit list, anyway. (Personal opinion, in case you don't get the hint- don't kill me for it)

Depends on what you mean by Western. If you mean non-Japanese then there are a bunch of games that come to mind that are really good. Like Beyond Good and Evil (made by a French company) and Indigo Prophecy also made by a French company. Also the new Prince of Persia games were made in Canada and they're pretty awesome.

If you think about games that are off the beaten path too there are a few games that came out of the US like Myst that were developed in the US.

I agree though that mainstream games are better in Japan.

I generally don't like games that are made in or for the Japanese market, but they do arcade, puzzle, beat em ups and RPGs games way better than anyone else. Probably because that's what makes up the bulk of the market in Japan.