Nintendo Numbers, Steam Stoppages, and Lots of Virtual Fistfights – This Week in Games

Welcome back, folks. I figured the anniversary of my accident would be the toughest part of this week, but it looks like fate had other plans in store. On the other hand, I at least feel encouraged; if I can survive a car, I can survive a lot else. Besides, I have a column to write—someone has to be around to cover Izuna 3 when that lands. And someone has to be around to read it when that happens. I hope you all stay with us to read about it when it happens; you can count on me to continue writing until then and beyond. (Who knows, maybe I’ll get to interview Ironmouse or Silvervale or Zentreya next…)

This is…

Steam Refuses Tokyo Clanpool, For… Some Reason

Sure would be nice if I didn’t have to keep writing this kind of story, but it keeps happening and it never stops being frustrating. Steam has a… not-great reputation for having a double standard with Japanese games. Not so much with erotica; Shiravune curtails all that for their adult visual novels by distributing patches for the adult content on a separate website (it’s a bit of an open secret). But a number of Japanese titles end up getting refused distribution on Steam, lock-stock-and-barrel, purely because… er, because. Chaos;Head was a notable case from a few years back; infamously, the visual novel was banned from Steam until widespread pushback from both the public and Spike Chunsoft forced them to change their minds. Then there was the case of Dungeon Travelers 2, a ToHeart 2 spin-off that had even been released on the PS Vita in the U.S. (and could be purchased at Walmart). And now it happens with—of all things—a Compile Heart game.

Tokyo Clanpool is a first-person dungeon crawler about a gaggle of anime girls exploring a dungeon upon the order of the Prime Minister of Japan (who’s also a cute anime girl). The game has a mechanic where characters can change their class by using Digiskins. They’re not particularly lewd or anything, they’re just typical cutesy-wutesy outfits you’d expect from Idea Factory. Tokyo Clanpool is a far cry from something like, say, Criminal Girls or the likes of the uncensored Taimanin Asagi visual novel… but the game was banned from Steam nevertheless. And getting banned is pretty final—no option to go back and edit anything, just outright refusal of service. Much like with Dungeon Travelers 2, this one is pretty egregious since Tokyo Clanpool was rated by the ESRB and everything—and is miles away from an AO rating. The Japanese release had a Cero-D rating (equivalent to an M for Mature rating). Tokyo Clanpool was already slated for a Nintendo Switch release, too, and it’s still slated for release on that platform this December. Tokyo Clanpool‘s Steam release has since been replaced with a planned GOG release, but the whole Steam fiasco still blows.

The barometer for what is banworthy on Steam and what is acceptable appears to run entirely off a double standard. There are numerous “Sex with Hitler” titles that Steam has rightfully taken no small amount of criticism over, but those are hosted and sold on Steam with no issue. I could understand Steam being antsy over an anime title with a school uniform, especially if the game had some kind of suggestive angle (plenty of payment processors wouldn’t want anything to do with something that implies anything with high schoolers). And even Dungeon Travelers 2 had to be toned down some for its U.S. release back in the day. But Tokyo Clanpool is, at first blush, a world away from any of that. So what gives?

The unfortunate truth is that Steam is able to make these kinds of arbitrary decisions because the games targeted are fairly obscure (not a lot of ToHeart 2 fans these days), and handled by small enough studios that likely wouldn’t want to risk their standing with Steam. Sure, whether any other game they release on Steam lives on the razor’s edge of potentially being too “anime” for Steam’s tastes, but it’s that or just outright getting refused from Steam outright because you “rocked the boat” too much. Again, Spike Chunsoft was able to reverse the decision on Chaos;Head by virtue of having a degree of acclaim to their name, not to mention Chaos;Head itself being a very notable title. There was pushback for that. Eastasiasoft… doesn’t have that same benefit, sadly.

The double standard at play is certainly annoying. Even when you get past the many other reprehensible titles or outright scams that Steam allows on their platform, that they’re so big as to be a practical monopoly in PC gaming means that any title barred from release on their platform has lost that much market penetration. Just look at the difference between Kingdom Hearts releasing on Epic’s store versus its Steam release. Tokyo Clanpool getting a GOG release is a decent enough consolation, but GOG is still a distant second to Steam. And it doesn’t help that the topic of Japanese games getting short shrift is one that’s been co-opted so much by folks arguing entirely in bad faith (y’know, the kind of folks who think an agenda was responsible for Tifa wearing a sports bra in the Final Fantasy VII remakes). It boggles the mind to think that in 2024, after a year like the one we’ve had where Japanese RPGs have effectively dominated the market (Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Metaphor: ReFantazio, Yakuza: Infinite Wealth, Persona 3 Reload), we still have to worry about people turning their nose up at Japanese titles. Best thing to do? Respectfully make your voices heard, support Eastasiasoft’s release, and let Steam know that you don’t appreciate the double standard they impose on Japanese titles. Emphasis on the “respectful” part; I expect more from folks who take the time to read my column. Throwing a tantrum and carrying on is not how you ask for things.

Nintendo Talks Sales During Policy Briefing, Confirms Backwards Compatibility For New Console

When speaking with most other people in gaming communities, I can be struck by how many rumors (if not outright misinformation) get tossed around. For example, people make claims about Nintendo‘s new console. Bad enough that people get so weirdly feral about Nintendo keeping some kind of schedule for their Directs, you also have the weird business analysts trying to “predict” Nintendo‘s next moves (case in point: the Switch Pro). So it is that folks are seriously, seriously desperate for anything concerning the new console. Folks have taken to calling it the “Switch 2,” but who knows if Nintendo would ever go for that name. Regardless, ever since Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa confirmed that the console was “in development,” anticipation has reached a fever pitch. All we know is that the console is to be announced sometime before the end of the Japanese fiscal year—March 31st, 2025. I’m not gonna lie, I’d like to know the price of the thing sooner rather than later so that I know how much money I have to put away to get one, but also: Nintendo will announce the console in due time. Climbing all over the walls isn’t gonna make them announce anything faster, y’know?

At any rate, Nintendo carried out a Corporate Management Policy Briefing today, which breaks down some of their major numbers for the year. I’ll go into that stuff later, there’s plenty to chew on—but the biggest bit of news is President Furukawa confirming that the Switch’s successor will be backward-compatible with the Nintendo Switch.

That’s about the smartest move they could make. The Nintendo Switch is an embarrassment of riches, library-wise. Sure, it might be thin on AAA games, but it has pretty much anything else you’d want to play: ignoring Nintendo‘s incredibly strong first-party line-up (arguably their strongest ever), we’ve got an incredible selection of titles from all over the industry. Sure, anything running on the Switch was likely the worst-running version of the game, but that didn’t stop the PS2 either. Nintendo‘s support of indie titles was also astonishing on the Switch, with Nintendo taking plenty of time to showcase titles like A Little To The Left or Cassette Beasts. With a library like that, you’ll never lack things to do on a new console. But backward compatibility isn’t everything. That new console still needs killer apps of its own, or else nobody will have a reason to upgrade. And while this will be far from a deciding factor on the Switch, it’ll be interesting to see whether the new console can play Switch games better. That said, I’m not sure if that’s at all feasible. I don’t know how programming works, but I think there is only so much a newer, stronger console can do to play a game in better resolution or at a faster framerate when the software was only designed to work with so much ram or so much processing power. So, uh, I don’t think Pokémon Scarlet/Violet will run any better on the new console. But I sure would love to be proven wrong.

In addition to backward compatibility, Nintendo also confirmed that the Nintendo Switch Online service will also be extended to the new console. Nintendo cites that it “allows them to build a long-term relationship with users.” This means your digital purchases, friend list, and gaming history on the Switch will also transfer to the new console.

Nintendo‘s briefing also had lots of other fascinating data, like their goals for strengthening relationships not only with developers (they list a collage of 32 developers including FromSoft, Devolver Digital, Square Enix, and Microsoft), but also with indie devs (courtesy of games like A Dance of Fire and Ice, Little Kitty, Big City, Pizza Tower and Lorelei and the Laser Eyes). They also hope to expand their relationships with consumers, not only by strengthening touchpoints with their IP, but also by expanding into “developing markets” by offering their games in other languages (like Traditional/Simplified Chinese or Portuguese) or by offering their titles in Southeast Asia. They also hope to use their new ventures like Super Nintendo World theme parks to familiarize people with their IP—they list Splatoon and Fire Emblem among them, so maybe they’ll have new attractions based on more non-Mario-related media in the future?

Speaking of Mario, Nintendo also announced some sales figures for their IP. The world’s most famous plumber has surpassed 30 million sales for each of his landmark entries on the Switch (2D platformers, 3D platformers, Mario Kart and Mario Party). And the successes aren’t his alone; the Pokémon series overall has seen sales of around 99 million units across all the titles on the Switch. Super Smash Bros Ultimate moved 35 million units (making it the best-selling fighting game on home consoles). Animal Crossing: New Horizons has 46 million units sold to its name (not bad, given the dearth of content). Between Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, The Legend of Zelda has 53 million sales to its name. And that’s just the big names. This is where I removed that Xenoblade pin from earlier—the Switch was incredibly good to Monolith’s science-fantasy epic, going from just 1.16 million units sold across the Wii U and 3DS to 7.17 on the Switch alone, making it a veritable new crown jewel for Nintendo. Other rousing successes: Metroid (from 980,000 sales to 4.99 million) and Pikmin (7.86 million sales, up from 1.78 million). Kirby is listed with them, but that one feels unfair; its sales increased from 5.62 million to 15.08 million. I thought it was a done deal that we all loved Kirby.

In the meantime, Nintendo is going to be riding out the Switch for as long as possible; they’ve projected another 12 million Switches sold for this quarter. I dunno, I can see a holiday bundle with a good discount making those numbers easy. Nintendo is also planning a very solid entry into 2025—albeit one that’s very heavy on the RPGs. Last week they blew minds with the announcement of Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition—put a pin in that for now. We also have Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land, and Pokémon Legends: Z-A releasing early next year, along with the Trails in the Sky remake and the Guilty Gear Strive port. The ride stops when Nintendo says it stops.

Well, the PS5 Pro is still a tough pill to swallow, a luxury-priced video game console that costs the better part of $1,000 USD, doesn’t even include a stand for vertical storage out of the box, and only renders games in marginally better detail than the standard-issue PlayStation 5. The bad news is that thus far, Sony hasn’t really announced any must-have software for the PS5 Pro; the good news is that they’ve listed about 50 games that will be “enhanced” on the PS5 Pro. The list isn’t exhaustive, so there are extras that could get announced from here to the PS5 Pro’s launch this November 7th (if not released in the future).

The good news is that the list is basically a murderer’s row of must-have titles on the PlayStation 5. They might be gaining multi-platform support in the near future, but it’s a good list of titles. Stellar Blade, there’s a good action game (and it’s got that upcoming NieR: Automata DLC). Dead Island 2 and Alan Wake 2; are nothing alike in their vibes in any capacity, but they’re both great titles to pick up. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: rage at the mushroom forest at 60 fps! And so on and so on.

Again, the biggest issue Sony has is that I’m not sure how attractive any of these games are going to be on a console that’s that expensive. Oh sure—people will buy a PS5 pro. Of that, there’s no doubt. Some folks absolutely set aside their disposable income for that kind of thing as a flex. But on a practical level? I still don’t know who this console is for. It still feels like anyone that hard up to play Stellar Blade is still waiting for a Steam release—or at least will get it on a stock PS5. And if folks haven’t gotten Diablo 4 now, why would they pay upwards of $500 to get a console for it?

By now, it should be well-established that I’m a bit of a second-hand fan of fighting games. I enjoy the games, their design, their mechanics, their history, and culture, but more from afar than anything else. And there are a lot of fighting games that have been left in the annals of history—chief among them Sega‘s Virtua Fighter. Oh sure, you can play Virtua Fighter 5 in Yakuza 6: The Song of Life, and Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown exists… but also, we haven’t had a new Virtua Fighter since Virtua Fighter 5 released in 2007. The Virtua Fighter series has gone without a new game for only one month less than the Izuna games.

The good news is, Sega is working on this; in a recent interview with VideoGameChronicle, Sega‘s global head of Transmedia Justin Scarpone mentioned in a totally offhand manner that a new Virtua Fighter is being worked on. There aren’t many other details; Scarpone only really mentioned Virtua Fighter in passing while discussing other revivals Sega is working on (Crazy Taxi, Shinobi, Jet Set Radio, and Streets of Rage). The rest of the interview is also fascinating, at least, going over Scarpone’s plans for extending Sega‘s reach through animation and film through their IP.

For folks who don’t know about Virtua Fighter, here’s why it matters: it was the first 3D fighting game series. It’s a bit more complicated than that, of course; the series still has plenty that separates it from modern 3D fighters like Tekken or Dead or Alive. Cynics might point to the Virtua Fighter cast being boring, and… look, I’m not gonna argue that. It’s hard to defend the series protagonist Akira being so boring. The joke is that most Tekken characters are just, y’know, “Jimmy,” a dude in jeans who just so happens to have an electric punch, but Virtua Fighter actually is that meme (case in point, siblings Jacky and Sarah who are a Jeet Kune Do and a mixed martial artist respectively). Virtua Fighter is possibly the most grounded fighting game out there, given how closely it cleaves to real-world practices like Aikido or Pankration. It doesn’t leave much room for its cast to be particularly fancy, sadly, but it does leave plenty of room for the game to have a ton of depth. Virtua Fighter uses a simple three-button system (Punch, Kick, Guard), but through that system, you have a wealth of offensive options at your disposal. And there’s a ton of room for high-level play, to the point where the game might be a martial art unto itself. Nothing illustrates that better than the series poster boy Akira. Far from an approachable all-rounder like Street Fighter‘s Ryu, Akira is an extremely difficult character to use. Akira practices Bajiquan, which focuses on reversals and counters. It’s not enough to learn a number of very complicated inputs—like his infamous Teishitsu Dantai, a knee move that requires players to input the command within one frame (that’s 1/23rd of a second). You also have to understand frame advantage, how to counter throws and read your opponent.

Sure, Virtua Fighter might not be as flashy as Tekken or as over-the-top as Soul Calibur, but it’s nevertheless foundational to the 3D fighting game genre. Its DNA is in plenty of newer games; you can look at Tekken as an extension of Virtua Fighter‘s system. Dead or Alive is basically Virtua Fighter with extra reversal systems; heck, Virtua Fighter‘s Pai, Akira and Sarah even made cameos in Dead or Alive 5. And while Virtua Fighter 5 is 17 years old, it still holds up plenty. And its characters are still plenty important; I’d be extremely remiss if I didn’t point out former This Week in Games writer Heidi Kemps’ passion for Virtua Fighter‘s Vale Tudo practitioner Vanessa. But there’s also Sarah Bryant; chances are, if you’ve seen any adult animations starring Samus Aran, you’ve seen Sarah. Long story short: because many animators fear getting in trouble with Nintendo over using Samus’ model from any of the games, most Blender artists will modify Sarah a bit and use her instead. Sarah being a statuesque, athletic blond with a ponytail, fits the bill for Samus’ description easily. Given Virtua Fighter‘s relative obscurity, I’m willing to bet more people have seen Sarah as a proxy for Samus than actually know Virtua Fighter. It’s like how Elizabeth Comstock from Bioshock Infinite was instrumental to improvements in 3D animation on an amateur level courtesy of folks who really wanted to do her justice via their naughty animations of her.

We’re likely a long way from any concrete news from Sega regarding a new Virtua Fighter, but we’re looking forward to it. It’s not for everyone, but it’s a deep game. I look forward to seeing folks do the craziest reversals once that game comes out.

Let’s wrap up with some quick tidbits

That will do it for this week, I think. For folks in Portland this weekend: as you read this column, I will likely be at Kumoricon. I have looked forward to this since last year; at the time of publication, I will likely be meeting artists and cosplayers and enjoying the things that bring us together: a passion for anime, games, and manga. If any folks plan on going to Kumoricon, I have two panels this Saturday the 9th: a panel on Digimon virtual pets and their influence on the Digimon Adventure anime at 10:00 am, and a panel on writing about games at 1:00 pm. It’ll be my first time hosting two panels at a convention, and I’d love to see any of you guys there. If you can’t show up: no sweat. Remember to extend a hand to those around you; we are better for having community and for helping those around us. Even a simple howdy-do can mean worlds to others, which is why I encourage folks to thank creatives whenever possible. Look forward to next week, where I’ll no doubt be hoarse after a weekend of shouting over a crowd! Be good to each other, I’ll see you in seven.

This Week In Games! is written from idyllic Portland by Jean-Karlo Lemus. When not collaborating with Anime News Network, Jean-Karlo can be found playing JRPGs, eating popcorn, watching v-tubers, and tokusatsu. You can keep up with him at @ventcard.bsky.social.