Recommending Japanese Browser Games

I remembered a Japanese troll flash game and in trying to find it, discovered a few other gems (and loads of weird stuff) instead. This is more of a recommendation post than discussing the games in-depth, and it's not some definitive best of - you should explore some on your own too. I found most of these browsing unityroom and /v/ (e.g. this thread). While there's some UX issues from being a different language, they generally accommodate Western keyboards and such.

Eyemaze deserves a special mention, delighting for more than a decade with the Grow series and more, though I'll mostly be focusing on non-flash because Adobe couldn't bother dealing with that anymore. There's a lot of Japanese games that never got any attention internationally, both on consoles and online. These are some of the most interesting ones I've found. I'll be using English or romanized names when possible, if you want the original names check the link.

Strange Keyworld by Gmshara_ (https://unityroom.com/games/strangekeyworld)

Genius little game. Despite so many novelties and surprises throughout, I still got completely blindsided by the final one. Never gets too obscure with the puzzly platforming, a bit slow at times but the finale makes me look back only fondly. The physics are excellent, much tighter than one would expect from something with puzzles and a focus on the unique concept over traditional platforming (look at Change Lives, it's great but the game feel is awful).

Gel Gel Panic by Nekogames (http://nekogames.jp/html5/gel2/)

Really neat, simple but nuanced controls, slimes getting more dangerous as you shoot them and later "powerups" that remove all your powerups makes it quite deliberate. The scoring is a bit odd, but I managed a 825,100 and would love to see it beaten.

Minemonsters by Monkey Circus (http://www.mameson.com/mmw/mmw.html)

Minesweeper, but with monsters and level-ups. I like the low level strategies more, overlapping fields of possible monsters makes for some neat maths, though I'm not sure if it holds up beyond that. There's a lot of brainless filler moves, like clicking every space adjacent to numbers of your level and below, and it's hard to tell when you need to trade health to continue solving. I finished normal, hard and big monster modes. Big boards and the mine mode are a bit too much like regular Minesweeper, going through the motions.

Milk, Milk, and More Milk! by Monkey Circus (http://www.mameson.com/milk/milk.html)

Bizarre arcadey goodness. The game over hatch can open right after the one above it opens, so to be safe you need to have all 4 of those squares empty at all times, which is impossible. It's still really cool, but I think it is very reliant on rng once you get to a certain point. I can get pretty consistent 20k scores, and got 43k once without ever getting above 25k before or since, a lot due to luck. The concept is really neat though, and it was still a lot of fun to play.

The game has an online leaderboard which is cool, but since playing a year ago my 4th place score hasn't moved at all which is a shame. 

The SUMOU by トモぞヴP (https://unityroom.com/games/sumou)

Beyblade sumo wrestling. That is all.

Psychontact by GMshara_ (https://unityroom.com/games/psychontact)

Dash from room to room and try to reach the end before the timer reaches 0. Simple but with great game feel and pacing. Masocore platforming but with a nice structure so consistency actually matters, as well as Dandara's movement.

Demon's Holiday by Kako(Vail), Nishikawa Keisuke and Tsukasa Ohmae (https://unityroom.com/games/demonsholiday)

Kind of like Missile Command, but no scoring system and a lot more faffing about. Some nice moments as you strategically place holes to kill as many knights as possible. Great music too.

Heartreasure by Nettaigyo, Asaha and Mamiko (https://unityroom.com/games/heartreasure) 

A delightful Wally-like, with endlessly charming music and visuals. Its sequel is just as good, introducing some more interconnected areas.

Owata 2 by King (http://king-soukutu.com/flash/owata2.html)

Can't not mention King, and this most recent work of his is particularly delightful. Moving away from the pure trolling of the first game, this leans more on riddles and platforming to deliver its humor than trial and error. Especially from the boss onward it's a lovely, nostalgic tribute.

When the Panda Turns, the Earth Turns by Nekobata Kaigi (https://unityroom.com/games/pandama)

Hold RMB to breed pandas faster, and LMB to spin. There's some different ways you can approach building your panda hivemind but mostly it's just witnessing how it builds up and what it looks like with pareidolia.

Any% Glitched by Shunte (https://unityroom.com/games/any-percent) 

There's a way to skip the intro hinted at in the chat, but I can't read that... Really cool gameplay using versatile glitches to optimise the routing of an automatic platformer.

Super Speed Breakout by Tsubaki (https://unityroom.com/games/blockblockt1)

Neat idea, pretty satisfying to see the chaos that ensues from sometimes arbitrary paddle placement.

Unakiri Action (https://kasatana.itch.io/unakiriaction)

Touhou x Mega Man, but unlike either it's extremely easy until the very last stages. The double jump is more fun to optimize bouncing on enemies, while the dash is less cheesy but also has some awkwardness. Spin dash is usually just about shooting into them, you're immune to projectiles during the dash and move so fast after it that they're unlikely to hit you while recovering. In between dashes you do need to set up though, positioning to dodge attacks and get close enough to go on the offensive. The spin jump lets you just bounce on their head repeatedly by making small adjustments, neat nuanced optimization but very easy, only challenge is that you're somewhat vulnerable when you drop the combo.

The real appeal is the extra stage bosses, starting off with fighting two in the early game style but at the same time, and the fourth one is a cool two-phaser. There's usually a weapon that makes it quite straight forward but nonetheless if the whole game was like this I'd recommend it wholeheartedly.

Hopping Ninja-San by Hoppoco (https://unityroom.com/games/hopping-ninja)

A simpler Pogostuck it seems; I haven't played that game yet but I know you maintain momentum a lot more, do somersaults for extra speed, and there's some landing lag to let you redirect. It also doesn't have the single level structure, instead opting for checkpoints, which trivializes a lot of the obstacles. Still some cool ones here and there, mostly about controlling your direction and predicting your trajectory.

Shiropen Road by baba_s (https://unityroom.com/games/shiropenroad)

Delightful physics puzzling with so much freedom, even if it gets janky to optimize as a result. I got below 2k line length which was tricky enough, but there's a guy who grinded down to 49 so there's some even wilder stuff.