J.J. & Jeff (TurboGrafx-16)
http://www.megalextoria.com/wordpress/index.php/2017/07/11/j-j-jeff-turbografx-16/
J.J. & Jeff is based on an obscure (at least in North America) Japanese game show that was supposedly the inspiration for America's Funniest Home Videos. The player gets to play one of two bumbling detectives as they set out to solve a kidnapping case. The game's claim to fame is its crude humor more than anything else which was largely censored for the North American release. For instance, in the North American version you can attack you enemies with a can of spray paint. In the Japanese release on the other hand you were essentially farting on your enemies.
J.J. & Jeff is not a terrible game by any means but it is rather obscure and not spectacular. Of all the games they could have released, why this one? I guess one thing it had going for it was its uniqueness. You certainly didn't find this one on any other consoles. J.J. & Jeff was re-released on the Wii's Virtual Console in 2007.
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lol, I never seen this title, I might go hunting for the rom, what a weird concept, TG16 ruled for having different games.
I owned this game back when I was deep into the TG16 around 1991 and I have fond memories of it. Its like a bizarre Adventure Island clone, with some crude humor that was censored for the US release (like changing a fart attack into a spray can). Controls were a little stiff, which made the precise platforming the game asks of you really frustrating. I never managed to see the end of this game.
It was really weird, but with a certain intangible charm about it.
It just seemed like an odd release from a marketing perspective. There were a ton of games developed in Japan that you would have thought would be much more successful in the U.S. than J.J. & Jeff.
Definitely. There were versions of Die Hard, Batman and Street Fighter II released on the PC Engine that never got localized. There had to have been a lot of misunderstanding or miscommunication between the NEC offices in Japan and the US branch.
Unfortunately the answer to why NEC released games like JJ and Jeff in North America is a simple one. NEC Japan was making all of the decisions and NEC USA was just a figurehead company here so they could do business in the states. No decisions were made locally until the Turbo Duo was released and Hudson Soft basically merged with NEC.
It doesn't explain why NEC Japan made those decisions though. I mean it couldn't have been rocket science to figure out what kind of games were selling in the U.S. And NEC did a good job releasing great games in Japan making the TG-16 the number one system there for a while.
It's kind of ironic in that this is the opposite problem Nintendo had. Nintendo actually tried to get Atari to release and market the NES in the U.S. The stupidity of NEC Japan's marketing in the U.S. does not compare to the stupidity of Atari.
90% of the great games released on the PC Engine in Japan were tied up in licenses here in the United States which meant almost all of them were not eligible for release here. While I would have loved to have seen Street Fighter II on the Turbo Duo (could you imagine the impact that would have had on the sales of the Turbo Express?) I have read in interviews in gaming mags from that time that Capcom would not give them the US license to bring it over. Something about diluting sales of the SNES and Genesis versions (which Capcom even screwed Sega over and made them wait because of Nintendo).
I also would have loved to see some of those Konami shooters and that Castlevania game here nice and proper but again, licenses. I don't think Konami was interested in supporting the system, even if that meant just taking a check and letting NEC/Hudson handle the programming and publishing.
Some of the shooters by Human, I think is their name, were planned to come over but the market fell out for TTI before they could localize stuff like Rayxanbar and others.
NEC Japan was quite inept at overseas marketing as we can easily see. Apparently they were control freaks too. By the time localization work was handled here in the USA it was too late for the system. I mean, the Turbo Duo had an amazing lineup of launch titles and shortly after launch we still got some good titles but fans had already turned away.
Looking at the list of PC Engine games, it looks like there is a lot on there that probably would have been better than games like J.J. & Jeff from a marketing point of view. Most of the games on that list weren't released in the U.S. on any system so I don't think licensing would have been a big deal for many of them. There were ~650 released in Japan vs. ~138 in the U.S. Localization shouldn't be a big deal for most of them either except for RPGs.
It isn't clear to me why Capcom, Konami or anyone else (other than first party publishers) would be concerned with diluting sales on one system in favor of another. I would think total number of copies sold would be the concern, provided that none of the ports are substandard. And given that in at least some cases we are talking about games that were already developed and released in Japan, most of the work is already done. Of course by the time that, for example, Castlevania was published in Japan, I think TTI had already decided to drop support. At least, the last games published in the U.S. were published in 1993 and Castlevania came out near the end of 1993 in Japan.
Looking back at the list of games released here, it really isn't that bad. There are at least as many good games as bad. It's just that you have these sprinkling of games like J.J. & Jeff that make you wonder what they were thinking. NEC's ineptness certainly seems to be the answer I just don't think there is much excuse for it. They should have been able to do a better job leveraging their success in Japan and getting the highest quality games localized and released in the U.S.
I agree, there are a lot of other games in Japan that I think would have done better outside of Japan than JJ and Jeff. It is just such a weird game. Plus they removed the fart option (not sure what it was for) but pretty much left Splatterhouse intact (other than I think upside down crosses). Their localization side of things was wonky at best.
I was impressed that they took a chance with Y's Books I and II on CD-ROM, honestly. Just a game out of left field back then as role playing games were not exactly burning up the sales charts like they did on Playstation years later.
Which 10 games would you have launched the Turbo Grafx-16 with versus what we got? Personally I would have dropped China Warrior forever, not much "game" there other than a nice tech demo (they should have put it on a CD-ROM demo disc or something if dead set on releasing it here).
The thing about Street Fighter II was weird. They could have localized it quick and got it out. I figure it was released so late that TTI was pretty much already accepting their fate in the USA at that point. Also, remember, Nintendo held enough power over Capcom to coerce them into holding back the first Sega Genesis Street Fighter II game till the NEXT Super Nintendo version was ready to go (Special Championship Edition and Turbo, respectively I believe). Capcom was a diehard Nintendo supporter and they weren't going to hurt their cash cow in any way, even in the 16-Bit days when they had more room to stretch.
I don't think the launch titles were bad (better than the Genesis launch titles overall) though it would have been nice if they could have gotten a big name arcade franchise or something developed for release. Something very recognizable as a system seller.
I think if they had gotten Street Fighter II and Castlevania out that it could have made enough of a difference to extend the life of the system. But like you said, by that point I think TTI had already made its decision.
I disagree about the popularity of role-playing games at that time. The NES had tons of popular RPGs including Final Fantasy, the Dragon Warrior games, some ports from the computer world such as Dungeons and Dragons, Bard's Tale, Wizardry, Might and Magic and Ultima. Then there was Faxandu, Crystalis, 8 Eyes, Magic of Scheherazad, Ys and lots of others. I think they should have localized and brought over Far East of Eden. That game had the same kind of popularity as Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior in Japan.
I think there are a number of games on the PC-Engine game list that would have made for solid releases in the U.S. though they likely would not have been huge blockbusters I would think they would do better than games like J.J. & Jeff. The Fire Pro Wrestling series, a couple of other RPGs, a number of shooters, etc.
Just at a glance through the PC Engine release list (and i only made it about 20% through before I got tired of looking), here are some games I think they could have released in the U.S. without licensing issues (from nintendo anyway);
Mr. Heli/Battle Chopper
Heavy Unit
Volfied
Atomic Robo-Kid
Space Invaders: Fukkatsu no Hi
Golden Axe
Super Darius
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
More of the Cosmic Fantasy games
Power Drift
Daisenryaku
Xevious: Fardraut Saga
Rastan Saga 2
Last Armageddon
Die Hard