Lol Kotaku's opinion on games is like komodo dragons opinion on flying.
Kotaku is the worst game news site.

Not Kotaku's opinion. They are reporting on a poll by a Japanese TV station of Japanese citizens. Google doesn't want to translate the TV station's page for me, and I don't know Japanese, so I can't offer a direct link to the original source (likely entirely in Japanese, much like the TV station's main page).

To what degree do maturity ratings affect the accessibility/sales of games in Japan? In the US, M-rated (2nd highest rating) are sold alongside E-rated (the lowest) at major retailers. Some stores may have policies to that prevent minors from buying M-rated games themselves, but it doesn't hurt sales much since an older person can easily buy a game on their behalf. The only rating publishers have to worry about is AO (which is very rare) if they desire mainstream success.

I'm curious about the discrepancy of maturity ratings come from. From my perspective, I find Resident Evil more graphic than Assassins' Creed when it comes to violence. Are Japanese rating agency being more strict towards Western games or is it simply a difference in culture when it comes to what is acceptable?

Get a move on GOG. Big audience craving if you can get the right games on here.If ever ....

If you don't wish to contaminate your browser by visting Kotaku, here's the list at NintendoLife:
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/12/japans-top-100-console-games-of-all-time-revealed-according-to-a-nationwide-tv-network-poll

Interestingly, this article specifically states "console-games" whereas the Gofuku article only says "video games". As usual then, they misrepresent the informtion. The Nintendo article also makes it clear the survey includes mobile phones.
In any case, PC games were not even considered for the list.

It's like 90% Japanese games. However, this is a measure what Japanese people like, not what the world likes, it's not the same thing. Language is also a factor, you have take into account how many Western games are translated into Japanese in the first place, not to mention actually distributed there.

A similar list from the US or UK would probably feature 50% Western games, a list from Hungary probably 80-90% and so on. So availability, language, and culture obviously matters.

That's a lot of Pokemon and Dragon Quest. Would be more interesting to see what fills out the rest of the 100 if you could only have two games per franchise.

I understand what you are saying. However, I would rather have a honest top 100 with no restrictions at all (regardless of what platform you play on) so you can see what is trending in this or that country. That would be awesome if more countries would conduct such a poll.

Doesn't mean every game voted in made it to the top 100. They could release a list with my restrictions, doesn't devalue the one they already put out. It'd be like if an American list was made up of Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto games throughout the years, with garbage like Borderlands and Madden sprinkled in.

That said, it would be very interesting to see what less represented countries would rank as their faves. I hear Gears is pretty popular in Mexico for example.

No, but that wouldn't show what people really like either. They would be forced to pick games that wouldn't necessarily be on the top on their list, just so they meet the criteria.

I apologize, I meant they should keep the list they already have as is and simply release a new one. Or simply have a runner up list. Probably would still be mostly Pokemon though.

EDIT: Honestly, this feels like we're talking past each other. I'm not asking for a critics' pick of games or to junk what's voted most popular, I would just be more interested in seeing what didn't make the list as opposed to common, marketable trends.

Street Fighter II is indeed a classic and influential game in the fighting game genre. Released in 1991 by Capcom, https://suika-games.com] it played a significant role in popularizing the one-on-one fighting game format.

So almost only japanese games...

Anyway, WHERE'S A LINK TO THE PAST?????

You just clicked on it.