Obscusion B-Side: The Short (But Memorable) Life of Fresh Games

While it's not necessarily as readily provable today, especially since the sheer amount of "indie" games has diluted that feeling to a large amount, there's always been a belief that if you want to look for the more unique, experimental, & "weird" video games then one should look at what comes from Japan, and especially the stuff that doesn't get localized outside of that country. This was seemingly most true between the mid-90s & the mid-00s, i.e. from the launch of the PS1 & Saturn to (at latest) the early days of HD gaming on the PS3 & Xbox 360, and especially on Sony's consoles due to both the PS1 & PS2 having massive catalogs of titles (~4,074 on PS1, ~4,344 on PS2) that even the original Switch hasn't quite surpassed yet (though it's currently close to the PS1's). Because of that there were many games released that would normally never see international release due to a variety of reasons, one of which would simply be "they're too weird/bizarre" & wouldn't appeal to international audiences.

However, in the early 00s one video game publisher decided to seemingly try their hand at localizing some of these "weird" or "bizarre" Japan-developed games... and failed, but the attempt is still remembered by many to this very day. So, for the 100th Obscusion B-Side (including B-Lists), let's go over the life & titles of Fresh Games.

Not quite a "wonton font", but not too far off, either.

Originally founded in 1984, Domark was a European video game publisher that made its name publishing titles for PC & later game consoles, even establishing a US division in 1993, but by 1994 was in some financial trouble. In September of 1995 Domark would be formally acquired by Eidos, a video compression company, resulting in the formation of Eidos Interactive, and via both the acquisition of other companies (Core Design, Crystal Dynamics, a majority share of Ion Storm, etc.) & some good publishing deals the company would slowly make a name for itself with franchises like Tomb Raider, Legacy of Kain, Hitman, Deus Ex, & Fear Effect. This success seemingly allowed some at Eidos to expand their horizons a bit with what the publisher could potentially put out, and the decision was made to launch a new label for something a bit more... "fresh". So, in late January of 2002, Eidos Interactive announced the launch of Fresh Games, which Eidos CEO Mike McGarvey stated was "a boutique label, created solely to expose gamers to unique and captivating gameplay experiences that traditionally have been unavailable outside of Japan." The person leading Fresh Games itself was Kevin Gill, then a global brand & product manager for Eidos, who in an interview with Gaming Age later that February went into more detail regarding the creation of the label.

In the interview Gill explained that Fresh Games was launched as a way for "hardcore gamers everywhere to be able to buy ['Quirky' or 'Odd' games with a lot of polish & attention to detail] at their local store without having to deal with mod-chips and exorbitant costs", i.e. importing, & that they "wanted to break some rules, and break some of the barriers that exist in this industry in regards to 'What type of games do people really want to play?'" Also, the reason for not simply publishing them under the Eidos name was because "they have their own unique heritage and they needed a label to represent that, a label that represents a standard of excellence in gaming, a label that represents something new and groundbreaking" & that the titles published under Fresh Games were "something out of the ordinary". While three PS2 titles (all originally published in Japan by SCEJ) were announced alongside the label that January, the plan was to be platform (& licensor) agnostic, and while Gill was open to all genres, he did say that Fresh Games likely wouldn't publish "a character based sequel, a license, or a [sic] extreme sports game". Unfortunately, after those initial three titles came out throughout the Spring & Fall of 2002, only one more game (which came from another company) would come out shortly afterwards before Fresh Games became a dead brand by the end of the same exact year it launched. The label would be revived for one last release in early 2004, but beyond that Fresh Games was seemingly just too weird/bizarre/quirky/odd/etc. to continue to stick around... but was it because of the games themselves, or was Fresh Games maybe just too ahead of its time? Let's go over each of the five games released under the Fresh Games branding & find out!

The Murderers' Row of 1970s Manga: Shonen Jump's Stretch of Simultaneous Long-Running Baseball Series

While baseball is nicknamed "America's Pastime", one could probably make a decent argument that Japan may possibly love the bat-&-ball/safe haven game even more so. I mean, let's face facts... the United States don't have anything close to an equivalent to the Spring & Summer Koshien tournaments, which are literally for high school teams yet are seemingly treated almost as important as the big leagues. Introduced to the country in 1859, baseball would become a school sport in 1872, and by the 1920s there were already professional teams, though it wasn't until the 1930s that the pro league concept truly became a hit with the populace. Naturally, manga about baseball would get made alongside the growth of the sport, and in the late 1940s Kazuo Inoue's Bat Kid would become the first "proper" manga series about baseball. The next evolution in baseball manga would then come about over a decade later across three series, the last two written by the late Kazuya Fukumoto: 1958-1963's Kurikuri Pitcher by Hiroshi Kaizuka, 1961-1962's Chikai no Makyu/The Magic Ball of Promise (drawn by Tetsuya Chiba), & 1963-1965's Kuroi Himitsu Heiki/The Black Secret Weapon (drawn by Daiji Kazumine). All three fully established the concept of the "makyu" to sports manga, allowing for all variety of fantastical pitches to be thrown, while also emphasizing the "pitcher/batter" dichotomy as the dramatic focus of each game. Then, in 1966, Weekly Shonen Magazine saw the debut of Star of the Giants by Ikki Kajiwara (story) & Noboru Kawasaki (art), which would become one of the most iconic & influential sports manga of all time, as well as the very first sports anime, its impact still arguably felt to this very day. Two years after the debut of that megahit would see the debut of Weekly Shonen Jump in 1968... and it's here where things get interesting.

Debuting in (there whereabouts of) August 1968, Shonen Jump's very first issue saw only two serialized manga (Harenchi Gakuen did appear in it as a one-shot, but wouldn't become a proper serialization until Issue #11), and one of those was a baseball manga: Chichi no Tamashii/Father's Soul by Hiroshi Kaizuka, the creator of Kurikuri Pitcher. Detailing the journey of Hayato Nanjo as he makes his way up the school baseball ranks, this was the first long-running serialized manga in Jump history, and outside of some short-lived titles in 1970 (like Animal Kyujo & Namida no Gyakuten Homer) & a single short-lived title in 1971 (Yami no Senshi) Chichi no Tamashii was the only truly notable baseball manga that ran in Weekly Jump at the time. Things would change with Issue #36 of 1971, though, which saw the debut of Samurai Giants, the creation of legendary writer Ikki Kajiwara & relative newbie artist Ko Inoue that told the story of Ban Banba, a teenage pitching prodigy known for his immensely strong & forceful pitches who finds himself scouted to play for the Yomiuri Giants. In fact, Shueisha apparently had an exclusive contract with the Giants that had predated the debut of the magazine, hence why Chichi no Tamashii had actual pro players appear in it & why Samurai Giants saw Ban join the actual team, and there are varying stories regarding why Kodansha was able to get away with Star of the Giants. It's either that Tadasu Nagano (who would become Jump's first Editor in Chief) simply allowed it "for the sake of the manga industry" (according to Shigeo Nishimura, the future third EiC) or Shonen Magazine's third EiC Masaru Uchida personally made a deal with the Giants himself, which then resulted in Shueisha terminating the exclusivity deal (according to author Shigeru Ohno). Regardless, Jump wouldn't have two long-running baseball manga serializing at the same time for long, as Chichi no Tamashii would end just eight issues after Samurai Giants' debut, in Issue #44 of 1971, after 128 weekly chapters across 14 volumes, though it would get a three-volume continuation in Monthly Jump from 1975 to 1977, showing Hayato's time in the pros; as of today only the Weekly Jump run has ever seen re-release, though.

However, Samurai Giants wouldn't see a similar run as Jump's (mostly) isolated long-running baseball manga. No, starting the following year Weekly Shonen Jump would go on a multi-year streak where it would have multiple long-running baseball series running simultaneously, and even if you just count two as enough then it would be a nearly decade-long stretch! Not just that, but from 1972 to (technically) 1978 Jump saw a new baseball manga debut each & every single year, nearly all of which would go on to be simultaneous long-runners!! Was there just something in the water at Shonen Jump back in the 70s? Was the Japanese populace just more obsessed with baseball than usual? (To be fair, the Yomiuri Giants were on a bit of a hot streak during this time) Regardless, let's get taken out to the ball game & see what baseball manga were running simultaneously in Weekly Jump during these years & try to figure out how this "Murderers' Row" fared for the magazine.