Guardian was considered a financial flop in arcades for Toaplan. As of 2019, the rights to the title is owned by Tatsujin, a company founded in 2017 by former Toaplan member Masahiro Yuge and now-affiliate of Japanese arcade manufacturer exA-Arcadia alongside many other IPs from the defunct studio.
Guardian is a science fiction-themed side-scrolling beat 'em up game reminiscent of Kung-Fu Master, where players assume the role of a robot through six increasingly difficult fictional planets, each with a boss at the end that must be fought before progressing any further as the main objective.[1][2]
The player controls the robot with a four-way joystick and two attack buttons to punch and kick. The joystick is not only used for crouching, but for jumping as well. Punches and kicks are performed from either a standing, crouching or jumping position.[2] Along the way, there are three types of items that appear as flashing crosses: extra energy stock, invincibility and a long-range laser weapon.[1][2] On occasions, a red orb spawns on the ground and when picked up, increases the robot's punching power up to three times.[1][2]
The game hosts hidden bonus secrets to be found, which are crucial for reaching high-scores to obtain extra lives.[1] The title uses a checkpoint system in which a downed single player will start off at the beginning of the checkpoint they managed to reach before dying. Running out of energy will result in losing a live, as well as a penalty of decreasing the robot's power to his original state and once all lives are lost, the game is over unless the players insert more credits into the arcade machine to continue playing. After completing the last stage, the game begins again with the second loop.[2]
Development and releaseedit
Guardian's development process and history were recounted between 1990 and 2009 through Japanese publications such as Gamest.[3][4] Kōetsu Iwabuchi designed the game's graphics in his first video game role prior to Twin Cobra and Hellfire.[3] Former Toaplan composerTatsuya Uemura stated that the title was developed alongside another project intended for the Sega System 1 that was ultimately scrapped.[4] The music was composed by Masahiro Yuge, although Uemura wrote the boss music.[5][6]
Guardian was released only in arcades across Japan and North America on March 1986 by Taito and Kitkorp.[7] It was showcased in Japan at the 1986 AOU Show and for the first time in North America during the 1986 ACME show in Chicago before launch.[8][9] On 25 July 2018, an album containing music from the title, as well as from other Toaplan games was published exclusively in Japan by City Connection under their Clarice Disk label.[6] In 2019, Japanese company M2 announced that in 2020 they will release every game by Toaplan (excluding Mahjong Sisters and Enma Daiō) for consoles in Japan including Guardian.[10][11][12] In 2021, the game was included in the Kyukyoku Tiger-Heli compilation for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 as part of M2's Toaplan Arcade Garage label.[13]Guardian is planned to be included as part of the Toaplan Arcade 1 compilation for Evercade.[14]
Ichiro Tezuka of Japanese publication Micom BASIC Magazine regarded Guardian as a fun Spartan X-style game due to the enemy variety and attack patterns on each planet.[8] According to Toaplan, however, the title was a commercial failure in arcades.[3][15] The official world record for the game is held by Will Czeswinski with 1,058,420 points.[16] Despite its failure, the game served as an influence for titles such as Locomalito's upcoming Star Guardian.[17] In more recent years, the rights to the title and many other IPs from Toaplan are now owned by Tatsujin, a company named after Truxton's Japanese title that was founded in 2017 by former Toaplan employee Masahiro Yuge, who are now affiliated with arcade manufacturer exA-Arcadia.[18][19][20][21][22]
Notesedit
^Also known as Get Star (Japanese: ゲットスター, Hepburn: Getto Sutā) in Japan.
^ abcde"GET STAR" (in Japanese). Shooting Star. from the original on 2019-10-21. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
^ abc"東亜プラン". Gamest (in Japanese). No. 49. Shinseisha. September 1990. pp. 68–69. (Translation by Shmuplations. 2019-11-07 at the Wayback Machine).
^ abIona; VHS; K-HEX (June 2009). "東亜プラン FOREVER". Floor 25 (in Japanese). Vol. 9. pp. 1–70. (Translation by Gamengai. 2020-10-10 at the Wayback Machine).
^Abeto, Kobatsu (September 1989). "東亜プランインタビュー". PSG (in Japanese). Vol. 10. F.S.G Club. (Translation by Shmuplations. 2017-05-31 at the Wayback Machine).
^ ab"CDST-10067 | Toaplan ARCADE SOUND DIGITAL COLLECTION Vol.8". vgmdb.net. VGMdb. from the original on 2019-12-08. Retrieved 2019-12-07.
^Akagi, Masumi (13 October 2006). タイトー (Taito); 東亜プラン (Toa Plan); Sun Corp (Kitkorp - Sunsoft); G (in Japanese) (1st ed.). Amusement News Agency. pp. 43, 50, 136, 154. ISBN978-4990251215. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
^ abcTezuka, Ichiro (May 1986). "Video Game - AOU 1986 アミューズメント • エキスポ速報!: タイトー - ゲットスター". Micom BASIC Magazine (in Japanese). No. 47. The Dempa Shimbunsha Corporation. p. 241.
^"Dedicated games, merchandisers mark ACME". Play Meter. Vol. 12, no. 5. Skybird Publishing. April 1986. pp. 16–30.
^Wong, Alistair (December 7, 2019). "M2 To Bring Nearly All Toaplan Games To Modern Home Consoles". Siliconera. Curse LLC. from the original on 2019-12-07. Retrieved 2020-07-04.
^Romano, Sal (December 7, 2019). "M2 to release nearly every Toaplan game for console starting 2020 in Japan - Mahjong Sisters and Enma Daiou not included". Gematsu. from the original on 2019-12-07. Retrieved 2020-07-04.
^Muñoz, José David (December 8, 2019). "Snow Bros. Truxton y más juegos de Toaplan llegarán a PS4, Nintendo Switch y Xbox One". Hobby Consolas (in Spanish). Axel Springer SE. from the original on 2019-12-08. Retrieved 2020-07-04.
^Romano, Sal (July 15, 2021). "Toaplan shoot 'em up collection Kyukyoku Tiger-Heli announced for PS4, Switch - Includes various versions of Kyukyoku Tiger and Tiger-Heli". Gematsu. Retrieved 2021-07-16.
^McFerran, Damien (May 31, 2022). "Evercade Is Getting An "EXP" Upgrade, Complete With Irem And Toaplan Collections". Nintendo Life. Nlife Media. Retrieved 2022-05-31.
^Lambie, Ryan (21 June 2018). "Toaplan: the rise and fall of Japan's greatest shooting game company". Den of Geek. Dennis Publishing. from the original on 21 June 2018. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
^"Guardian". arcade-history.com. from the original on 2016-04-09. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
^david (July 2014). "Zona Indie: Star Guardian". RetroManiac (in Spanish). No. 9. RetroManiac Magazine. pp. 268–271.
^"ライセンス事業" (in Japanese). TATSUJIN Co., Ltd. 2019. from the original on 2018-12-25. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
^Bravo, Roberto (12 September 2018). "Nueva compañía "Tatsujin" asegura tener gran parte de las IPs de la extinta Toaplan" (in Spanish). Gamercafe. from the original on 2019-10-21. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
^"Tatsujin". exA-Arcadia. 2019. from the original on 2019-10-21. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
^Bravo, Roberto (25 January 2019). "Tatsujin, los dueños de Toaplan, anuncian que están trabajando para exA-Arcadia" (in Spanish). Gamercafe. from the original on 2019-10-21. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
^"［JAEPO2019］TATSUJINやナツメアタリの参入が発表されたexA-Arcadia。出展コーナーの模様を紹介". 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). Aetas Inc. 26 January 2019. from the original on 2019-10-21. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
guardian, 1986, video, game, this, article, about, 1986, arcade, video, game, 1994, video, game, guardian, video, game, guardian, 1986, side, scrolling, beat, arcade, video, game, developed, toaplan, published, japan, taito, north, america, kitkorp, game, play. This article is about the 1986 arcade video game For the 1994 video game see Guardian video game Guardian a is a 1986 side scrolling beat em up arcade video game developed by Toaplan and published in Japan by Taito and North America by Kitkorp In the game players assume the role of a robot fighting against a multitude of enemies and bosses across six locations on a futuristic science fiction setting It is notable for marking the debut of Twin Cobra and Hellfire artist Kōetsu Iwabuchi in the video game industry serving as its graphic designer GuardianDeveloper s ToaplanPublisher s JP TaitoNA KitkorpArtist s Kōetsu IwabuchiComposer s Masahiro YugeTatsuya UemuraPlatform s ArcadeReleaseJP March 1986NA May 1986Genre s Beat em upMode s Single player Multiplayer Guardian was considered a financial flop in arcades for Toaplan As of 2019 the rights to the title is owned by Tatsujin a company founded in 2017 by former Toaplan member Masahiro Yuge and now affiliate of Japanese arcade manufacturer exA Arcadia alongside many other IPs from the defunct studio Contents 1 Gameplay 2 Development and release 3 Reception and legacy 4 Notes 5 References 6 External linksGameplay edit nbsp Gameplay screenshot Guardian is a science fiction themed side scrolling beat em up game reminiscent of Kung Fu Master where players assume the role of a robot through six increasingly difficult fictional planets each with a boss at the end that must be fought before progressing any further as the main objective 1 2 The player controls the robot with a four way joystick and two attack buttons to punch and kick The joystick is not only used for crouching but for jumping as well Punches and kicks are performed from either a standing crouching or jumping position 2 Along the way there are three types of items that appear as flashing crosses extra energy stock invincibility and a long range laser weapon 1 2 On occasions a red orb spawns on the ground and when picked up increases the robot s punching power up to three times 1 2 The game hosts hidden bonus secrets to be found which are crucial for reaching high scores to obtain extra lives 1 The title uses a checkpoint system in which a downed single player will start off at the beginning of the checkpoint they managed to reach before dying Running out of energy will result in losing a live as well as a penalty of decreasing the robot s power to his original state and once all lives are lost the game is over unless the players insert more credits into the arcade machine to continue playing After completing the last stage the game begins again with the second loop 2 Development and release editGuardian s development process and history were recounted between 1990 and 2009 through Japanese publications such as Gamest 3 4 Kōetsu Iwabuchi designed the game s graphics in his first video game role prior to Twin Cobra and Hellfire 3 Former Toaplan composer Tatsuya Uemura stated that the title was developed alongside another project intended for the Sega System 1 that was ultimately scrapped 4 The music was composed by Masahiro Yuge although Uemura wrote the boss music 5 6 Guardian was released only in arcades across Japan and North America on March 1986 by Taito and Kitkorp 7 It was showcased in Japan at the 1986 AOU Show and for the first time in North America during the 1986 ACME show in Chicago before launch 8 9 On 25 July 2018 an album containing music from the title as well as from other Toaplan games was published exclusively in Japan by City Connection under their Clarice Disk label 6 In 2019 Japanese company M2 announced that in 2020 they will release every game by Toaplan excluding Mahjong Sisters and Enma Daiō for consoles in Japan including Guardian 10 11 12 In 2021 the game was included in the Kyukyoku Tiger Heli compilation for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 as part of M2 s Toaplan Arcade Garage label 13 Guardian is planned to be included as part of the Toaplan Arcade 1 compilation for Evercade 14 Reception and legacy editReceptionReview scorePublicationScoreMicom BASIC Magazine nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp 8 Ichiro Tezuka of Japanese publication Micom BASIC Magazine regarded Guardian as a fun Spartan X style game due to the enemy variety and attack patterns on each planet 8 According to Toaplan however the title was a commercial failure in arcades 3 15 The official world record for the game is held by Will Czeswinski with 1 058 420 points 16 Despite its failure the game served as an influence for titles such as Locomalito s upcoming Star Guardian 17 In more recent years the rights to the title and many other IPs from Toaplan are now owned by Tatsujin a company named after Truxton s Japanese title that was founded in 2017 by former Toaplan employee Masahiro Yuge who are now affiliated with arcade manufacturer exA Arcadia 18 19 20 21 22 Notes edit Also known as Get Star Japanese ゲットスター Hepburn Getto Suta in Japan References edit a b c d Get Star arcade flyer Taito JP a b c d e GET STAR in Japanese Shooting Star Archived from the original on 2019 10 21 Retrieved 2019 11 06 a b c 東亜プラン Gamest in Japanese No 49 Shinseisha September 1990 pp 68 69 Translation by Shmuplations Archived 2019 11 07 at the Wayback Machine a b Iona VHS K HEX June 2009 東亜プラン FOREVER Floor 25 in Japanese Vol 9 pp 1 70 Translation by Gamengai Archived 2020 10 10 at the Wayback Machine Abeto Kobatsu September 1989 東亜プランインタビュー PSG in Japanese Vol 10 F S G Club Translation by Shmuplations Archived 2017 05 31 at the Wayback Machine a b CDST 10067 Toaplan ARCADE SOUND DIGITAL COLLECTION Vol 8 vgmdb net VGMdb Archived from the original on 2019 12 08 Retrieved 2019 12 07 Akagi Masumi 13 October 2006 タイトー Taito 東亜プラン Toa Plan Sun Corp Kitkorp Sunsoft G in Japanese 1st ed Amusement News Agency pp 43 50 136 154 ISBN 978 4990251215 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a work ignored help a b c Tezuka Ichiro May 1986 Video Game AOU 1986 アミューズメント エキスポ速報 タイトー ゲットスター Micom BASIC Magazine in Japanese No 47 The Dempa Shimbunsha Corporation p 241 Dedicated games merchandisers mark ACME Play Meter Vol 12 no 5 Skybird Publishing April 1986 pp 16 30 Wong Alistair December 7 2019 M2 To Bring Nearly All Toaplan Games To Modern Home Consoles Siliconera Curse LLC Archived from the original on 2019 12 07 Retrieved 2020 07 04 Romano Sal December 7 2019 M2 to release nearly every Toaplan game for console starting 2020 in Japan Mahjong Sisters and Enma Daiou not included Gematsu Archived from the original on 2019 12 07 Retrieved 2020 07 04 Munoz Jose David December 8 2019 Snow Bros Truxton y mas juegos de Toaplan llegaran a PS4 Nintendo Switch y Xbox One Hobby Consolas in Spanish Axel Springer SE Archived from the original on 2019 12 08 Retrieved 2020 07 04 Romano Sal July 15 2021 Toaplan shoot em up collection Kyukyoku Tiger Heli announced for PS4 Switch Includes various versions of Kyukyoku Tiger and Tiger Heli Gematsu Retrieved 2021 07 16 McFerran Damien May 31 2022 Evercade Is Getting An EXP Upgrade Complete With Irem And Toaplan Collections Nintendo Life Nlife Media Retrieved 2022 05 31 Lambie Ryan 21 June 2018 Toaplan the rise and fall of Japan s greatest shooting game company Den of Geek Dennis Publishing Archived from the original on 21 June 2018 Retrieved 2019 11 06 Guardian arcade history com Archived from the original on 2016 04 09 Retrieved 2019 11 06 david July 2014 Zona Indie Star Guardian RetroManiac in Spanish No 9 RetroManiac Magazine pp 268 271 ライセンス事業 in Japanese TATSUJIN Co Ltd 2019 Archived from the original on 2018 12 25 Retrieved 2019 11 06 Bravo Roberto 12 September 2018 Nueva compania Tatsujin asegura tener gran parte de las IPs de la extinta Toaplan in Spanish Gamercafe Archived from the original on 2019 10 21 Retrieved 2019 11 06 Tatsujin exA Arcadia 2019 Archived from the original on 2019 10 21 Retrieved 2019 11 06 Bravo Roberto 25 January 2019 Tatsujin los duenos de Toaplan anuncian que estan trabajando para exA Arcadia in Spanish Gamercafe Archived from the original on 2019 10 21 Retrieved 2019 11 06 JAEPO2019 TATSUJINやナツメアタリの参入が発表されたexA Arcadia 出展コーナーの模様を紹介 4Gamer net in Japanese Aetas Inc 26 January 2019 Archived from the original on 2019 10 21 Retrieved 2019 11 06 External links editGet Star at GameFAQs Guardian at Killer List of Videogames Guardian at MobyGames Guardian at The Toaplan Museum Portals nbsp 1980s nbsp Japan nbsp Video games Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Guardian 1986 video game amp oldid 1222189117, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
