Chances are you've never heard of either one. If you've heard of one of them, congrats, if you've heard of both, consider yourself elite.
Koei made great strategy games for the original 8-bit NES. It's most prominent games were Nobunaga's Ambition, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and Genghis Khan. If you're a strategy fan you might be frothing at the mouth just at the titles. Each of these games was based on a period in history in a particular civilization. Nobunaga's Ambition was 15thcentury Japan. ROTTK was during the Dynasties in China. I know that's a long period. Genghis Khan, well, you can figure that one out.
What made these games great was not necessarily the time period or the characters, although it helped, because they were factual, and you could in fact learn about history playing these games, but rather it was the amazing balance between war strategy and managing an empire.
In a time where games like Contra, Ninja Gaiden, and Tecmo Bowl were all the rave, Koei was quietly making the best quality games ever. Unfortunately you had to know what to look for or just accidentally stumble upon them. That's what I did. And I still have the fondest memories of those games. When I wasn't playing Nobunaga's Ambition, I was thinking about it. I was making notes. Developing strategies for the next time I got to play it.
So what happened?
PlayStation, (with Koei's introduction of Kessen) and every modern console since then, that's what happened. And to be fair, Koei sold out. Today, you might know them by their Dynasty Warrior series. Pure crap. Please someone challenge me on that.
Kairosoft makes mobile games. They are incredibly addicting, with a mix of simulation, strategy, and just pure fun. The best way to kill time is to buy anyone of their games (Grand Prix Story is the best to start out). Heck, you could find just as much entertainment by playing their lite versions. The replay-ability is incredible. Just like Koei, they stick to the basic formula but change it enough so that every game is a different experience. Just like Koei, they are in Japan. Just like Koei, you probably haven't heard of them. And finally, just like Koei, they make games for the fastest growing platform.
So is Kairosoft the new Koei? I think nothing will ever replace the Koei of old. But, if Kairosoft grew large enough, stuck to their core competencies and formula, and jumped into the console market with Xbox 360 and PS3, it would be a golden era for me and those that see the world as I do.
So how do I see the world? That's another article entirely.
Nobunaga's Ambition on NES by Koei
RDarren writes: DOOM: The Dark Ages is a gloriously gory game which manages to feel familiar but fresh at the same time.
CCG writes - "Star Wars Outlaws is fun, kept me engaged for about 90 hours, and Kay is a fun character to explore four fairly large environments with. It does a good job of faithfully representing the Star Wars galaxy far far away and stays mostly true to the lore and established characters. There are tie-ins to several of the movies and shows such as Solo and The Empire Strikes Back. If you like Star Wars and you can overlook the subtle and unnecessary woke expressions, then you'll likely enjoy the game. In my humble opinion Outlaws is over-priced at $70 for the standard game, so you may want to wait for a sale."
May is absolutely packed with new driving and racing games, from an indie police chase game to the next chapter of Codemasters’ F1 series.
GameDevStory is a blast. They are doing well. I hope they don't try to go too big too fast. But I definitely think they could bring some games to the consoles, but probably at the PSN/XBL level.
Game Dev Story is my favorite on android! I learned that kairosoft also has developed this game for pc but it's in Japanese... I hope one day they make an extended version of these games.. Such beautiful games, with cute graphics from old 16 bit era and with lots of content. It's very addictive. In the other hand, concerning Game Dev, there's a game called Gamebiz 3 that is heavily detailed but you have to take a degree to learn how to play it, and there's no graphics like those in Kairosoft. Kairo, make a PC VERSION or TRANSLATE the existing one please! By the way, you can synch your apps with a pc (play on pc) with free software Bluestacks. It's an amazing app to have on pc if you have a lot of stuff on android.