Topic: On a scale of 1 to 10, how "japanese" are Nintendo games?

I'd say usually between 5-6, which would put them somewhere in the middle. That's one thing I always liked about Nintendo games, cultural balance. Take a game like Skyward Sword, it has the character designs of an old school 80's anime, mixed with feudel Japanese art, yet it has an impressionist painting look that feels very western at the same time. Or even games on the more Japanese end like Kid Icarus, and Fire Emblem, they have an anime art style with Shonen style story telling, mixed with the writing and dialogue of a smart and witty western cartoon like Adventure Time, Regular Show, My Little Pony, Gravity Falls, Futurama, old Simpsons, and old SpongeBob. And games with a more western approach like Star Fox still have a japanese flair combining cute talking animals with giant robots, space fights, and mecha. It's what seperates Nintendo from super japanese companies like Atlus, and very western focused ones like Sony.

8 - 10

I don't think they are Japanese enough.

NoA cancelled e.g this : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giftpia (Too Strange apparently). Shigeru Miyamoto was producer on it.

5-6 because a game can't be 80% or more japanese without being pervy

Nintendo not localizing a game is nothing new, in fact they're not the only ones guilty of it. Square Enix does this crap all the time. Besides, there was Chibi-Robo on the Gamecube.

Depends on the franchise.

Depends on the series. For example:

1 to 2 - F-Zero, Metroid, Fire Emblem
3 to 4 - Zelda, arguably Pokemon
4 to 5 - Most Mario games
8 to 9 or 10 - WarioWare, Rhythm Heaven.

I mostly agree but Fire Emblem? Fire Emblem is literally a JRPG story with strategy gameplay. Granted, in my experience it's closer to old JRPGs instead of "trying way too hard to be anime" JRPGs, but still...

It depends on the franchise but LATELY Nintendo in general has been pleasing the Japanese fanbase.

Also, Donkey Kong Country scores pretty low on being 'Japanese' in terms of content and themes. Probably cause with the exception of Paon in the buyout era, only Western companies have worked on the franchise.

I mostly agree but Fire Emblem? Fire Emblem is literally a JRPG story with strategy gameplay. Granted, in my experience it's closer to old JRPGs instead of "trying way too hard to be anime" JRPGs, but still...

My mistake. Fire Emblem is not a series I have much experience of.

Fire Emblem is very western to be honest

I really enjoy their oh-that's-soooo-Japanese games. I wish they did more.

Depends on the games, The Legend of Zelda and Metroid are way less Japanese than Pokemon and Kirby but even Pokemon and Kirby don't go over the top on Japaneseness as Warioware and Rhythm Heaven do.

I wish that stuff just wasn't localised away.

"But the children don't like culture!" or "Kids are too stupid to want to know culture!"
Take your pick, that's pretty much the mentality for some localisation polices.
Either that, or they're subtly racist. I think it's defiantly more the former though.

There are some other reasons.

Things like "that makes no sense outside of Japan/in english" and "diferent cultures have diferent ideas of what's acceptable and what's not".

Actually I think Pokémon would be higher (at least 5, but maybe more). I never realized/knew some of this, but there are quite a few references to things in Japan in Pokémon. The department stored like the main one in Goldenrod city are what they are like in Japan with specific floors for certain kinds of merchandise. A lot of the trainers you encounter look like certain groups of people there ex. The preschoolers are wearing the uniforms that kids their age wear in Japan. Most of the regions are based on parts of Japan too.(aside from Unova and Kalos)

Pokemon would be higher... except Black and White came out. Since then, since all new Pokemon regions aren't based on Japan (and have significantly toned down the Japanese cultural references), I consider it to be more 'Western'.

9 - most of them are made in Japan...

Disaster Day of Crisis - delightfully Japanese