Splatoon |OT| What is Street Culture?

[MadeManG74]

Can we please leave the "You just hate *blank*" arguments at the kindergarten?

I think you just hate kindergarten.

[Barry the Nomad]

What Aki said. People can do the mash-ups all they want, I'm not going to hate them or anything. I just think the connection people are making between the two is a bit over the top.

To quote myself in my JSR retrospective:

[Smilebit] drew inspiration from the youth culture of Tokyo, which at the time in the late 90’s, featured high energy and vibrant colors. Popular music at the time was a mix of big beat, rock, DJ culture and a revival of hip hop. Ryuta Ueda, chief graphic designer for Jet Set Radio who had just recently left SEGA after 19 years, reflected on the game’s development in the 2012 documentary Jet Set Radio: The Rude Awakening: “[the music] influenced me in many ways. So, with the game, I kind of wanted to broadcast to the world what I felt at that time in my youth, an image of what was popular in Tokyo then.” Another source of inspiration was Ueda’s visit to 1996’s Tokyo Game Show: “When I saw PaRappa The Rapper at TGS… I think that’s the first game with pop culture like that. They did it first. After that I decided to make a true game, not just a visual experience, that was actually for adults.”

Splatoon, meanwhile, doesn't feel like it came from that sort of inspiration. It's colorful and edgy, but I feel that is the extent of the connection. Like I've said before, Splatoon feels far more similar to De Blob or even the many figure lines popping up as of late like Mighty Muggs and Pop! Vinyl.

My point is, JSR is its own thing, Splatoon is its own thing. They are both colorful and edgy, but that's about the extent of comparison. Now if a Splatoon dev has spoken out about inspirations and points to the same stuff JSR has or JSR itself, I'd like to know. But as is, I really don't draw such a strong connection between the two and the notion that Splatoon is somehow a spiritual successor or SEGA game is silly to me.

[Radrappy]

Now if a Splatoon dev has spoken out about inspirations and points to the same stuff JSR has or JSR itself, I'd like to know.

They have and did.  They don't mention JGR specifically but point to youth street culture and shibuya punk style in general.  Feel free to dig through the past pages to where I linked to an article where the devs talk about their inspirations.  I'm too tired of this argument.  To me, they have so much in common visually, inspiration wise, and even musically.  The primary mechanic of spraying paint on the walls and floor is also thematically similar to JGR's graffiti mechanic.  Based on all the mash-ups it's a very common observation. 


All I ever said was that it feels a lot like a sega game that could have been released in the dreamcast era. 

[Radrappy]

seriously you guys are being stubborn for no reason.  LOOK AT THIS STUFF:



The similarities could not be more in your face.  They draw inspiration from very similar places. 

[TimmiT]

seriously you guys are being stubborn for no reason.  LOOK AT THIS STUFF:


The similarities could not be more in your face.  They draw inspiration from very similar places. 

Shocking discovery: game made in Japan is inspired by Japanese places.

[Radrappy]

Shocking discovery: game made in Japan is inspired by Japanese places.

Not just "Japanese places", a specific district of Tokyo that has a strong identity and flavor.  Also, that's already more in common with each other than POP toys or De Blob. 

[MadeManG74]

I can definitely see the comparison with pictures like that, but from my limited time seeing Splatoon in action I didnt' draw any myself.

I've only seen a very little bit of gameplay though.

[TimmiT]

Not just "Japanese places", a specific district of Tokyo that has a strong identity and flavor.  Also, that's already more in common with each other than POP toys or De Blob. 

So? Again: that's just it being inspired by the same (pretty well known) place. Aside from it using the same location (Shibuya) as its inspiration, it's still pretty different. And in Splatoon it's only a small hub area. It's kinda hard to say that it's inspired by Jet Set Radio when what's most similar about it is that it used the same location as inspiration for a single area in the game. Especially when Splatoon uses a lot of other locations as inspiration as well.

[Barry the Nomad]

Redrappy, I think we need to step back and figure out what you are arguing. Shibuya no doubt inspired both, though as Tim points out the area has inspired a LOT of media. Anime, manga, other games - Shibuya itself is featured or inspired by. From where I stand, that's about as strong a connection as New York City and just about any media property based there - alleyways, sewers, pizza, taxis, brooklyn accents. Still, I wouldn't say Home Alone 2, Spider-Man, TMNT, and Ghostbusters are joined at the hip - they just feature a similar location.

So in that regard, yeah I can look at those screens and think "hip metropolitan Japan", but beyond that I think both properties are very much their own thing. I mentioned vinyl figures because that is where Splatoon feels most associated with visually. Kids with squid features and with an almost plastic quality to them. Looks like some trendy thing you'd see for sale next to Mighty Muggs or stuff like this: http://www.squidkidsink.com/ That's not a knock on them, I just think they are very much a product of whats hip in Japan now and its very much in line with the crazy sort of toys and anime happening right now - like Panty Stocking.

JSR, meanwhile, is much more a product of the late 90s, pulling from Ryuta Ueda's gritty sketchy art style and inspired by the youth culture of the late 90s (not 2015 as Splatoon feels). Not to mention we have the war on gangs and pirate radio aspects which feel straight out of the 80s and 90s war on graffiti and gangs.

Both are based on Japanese youth culture (with a 15 year seperation, however) and an area of Japan, but thats about the extent for me. Outside of that you have plasticine 3D squid kids that look like vinyl toys made in 2015 compared to flat rough sketchy street gangs fighting cops that look like something out of a late 90s sketchbook.

[pirovash88]

^Why is that bad? 3DS has a much larger fan-base than Wii-U I imagine, probably a lot of people who didn't/couldn't play it on Wii U can play it on 3DS. Some people might love it and want it on the go?

Exactly my point, 3DS has a bigger install base so that's why Nintendo is porting this game. Easy cash grab, game's gotta have zero interest at this point.

[MadeManG74]

But why is that shady or bad? If anything isn't it good for consumers?

[pirovash88]

I suppose if the interest for a port is there then yeah i can see that. What i don't understand is why port such a shit game when people have been calling for re-releases of other games for years?

I just see it as Nintendo hoping that people will double dip on this game. Not to mention it's also taking away one exclusive from the Wii U's lineup.

[TimmiT]

There's nothing shady about porting the game to the 3DS. Having to buy the 3DS version to get the added stuff in the Wii U version kinda is though.

What i don't understand is why port such a shit game

Clearly you haven't given into the Musou love yet.

[Aki-at]

The primary mechanic of spraying paint on the walls and floor is also thematically similar to JGR's graffiti mechanic.

Graffiti artists through out the world shocked to find out that their hobby has just been glorified paintballing all this time.

[Radrappy]

stuff

I never said they were identical.  let me list the things that are similar for you:

-Shibuya influence (the hub world design, skate park levels, the advertisements featured all over with thick juicy graffiti font)
-sense of street fashion (goggles/bucket hats for example)
-naganuma sounding electronic hip hop music (heavily sampled disc scratching for example)
-in-world broadcasts (the intro videos featuring professor K are extremely similar to the Marie and Calie updates.  They even have similar looking bumper graphics)
- Core gameplay mechanic based on vandalism.

So far, all i've read is you moving the goal post.  First you said all they have in common is colors.  Now all you say they have in common is a shibuya influence (which by the way already eliminates the other examples, de blob/mightymugs/poptoys you listed previously completely)

Aki, I'm not reducing the art of graffiti to paintballing at all.  And neither is the gameplay in Splatoon merely paintballing.  It's about claiming territory, which by the way was the whole thematic concept of JGR. 

The games have so much in common, people all over the internet are spamming Naganuma's wall with Splatoon stuff.  Not only that, Naganuma himself is getting in on the action and loving it.  I don't know why there's so much resistance to pointing out the inherent similarities.  Isn't it good to be getting attention for JGR?  Isn't it good that people are generating interest in a franchise that Sega has dumped in the garbage?