Earth Defense Force! Woo hoo!

Recently, I've become a fan of D3 Publisher. D3 Publisher of Japan has been publishing a series of game known as the "Simple Series." They're very low budget, low priced titles priced from 1500 yen(PS1 titles) to 2800 yen(Nintendo DS titles) and Playstation2 games at 2000 yen a pop. Not bad at all when you consider that full priced games run at 6800, 5800 and 7800 yen per system respectively. Not to mention movie tickets in Japan are about 3000 yen. The Simple 2000 series for the PS2 is freakin' huge!

In a Simple Series game, you're not unmasking layers of drama as you dynamically interface in a virtual confine with storytronics. You are playing a very straightforward, simple game. A lot of these are low budget knockoffs of full priced games that offer about 5-10 hours of game play a pop. The titles of these games are as straightforward as "Snakes on a Plane." For example, Zombie vs Ambulance. And The Crime Scene Investigator. The Maid Uniform & Machineguns. The R.C. Helicopter. The Block Crushing Game.

D3 Publisher has released Earth Defence Force for the Xbox360. The MSRP is only $40. The graphics aren't much better than a PS2 game, there are framerate/performance issues and there isn't a tremendous amount of variety to the gameplay. There's no online features. On the other hand, you do get 200 weapon types(only 5 of which I really find myself using) EVERY building can be destroyed, you can duck for cover, strafe around and the action is very accessible. Best of all, you can do 2-player same-console co-op. Oh no, co-op where you have to sit next to the other player! GADS! Sure, this is no Gears of War or Crackdown. You get what you pay for, you don't get what you don't pay for.

This interview with D3 USA is kind of sad. If you can't view Gamasutra's articles, Kotaku has a quick & dirty summary. No Zombie vs Ambulance for America. And Sony Approvals seems to be filibustering D3 USA's attempts at bringing the Simple Series to America in general. This is really sad. Why is a simple, value priced line of games so darn intimidating? Scared that your every day consumer doesn't care about all those budget busting features that you blew millions of dollars to implement? The Simple Series would most likely perish if it was subject to the same horrible retail distribution treatment that all games suffer from in the US. I've spent a ton of my money and I can't really justify buying Gears of War when I can borrow it from a buddy. Crackdown, while vastly technically superior to Earth Defense Force...Hmm, I'm just not interested in the extra sophistication the $20+tax brings. Besides, it's going through a patch to theoretically fix its horrible, Dead Rising-like save system that keeps you from getting all your achievements in one play. And heck, D3 could really use my support.

Dear D3. Bring Zombie vs Ambulance to Xbox360.