132-602: Chōzetsurin Jin Bravoman is a 1988 beat'em up arcade video game developed and published in Japan by Namco . Described as a "comical action game", the player controls the titular character, a bionic superhero with telescopic limbs, as he must defeat the villainous Dr. Bomb ("Dr. Bakuda" in Japan) before he takes over the world. Bravoman can use his arms, legs and head to defeat enemies, and can also crouch and jump over them. The game ran on
264-515: A multi-million-selling franchise as a result. The company continued expanding its operations overseas, such as the acquisition of Bally's Aladdin's Castle, Inc., the owners of the Aladdin's Castle chain of mall arcades. In December, Namco acquired Nikkatsu , Japan's oldest-surviving film studio that at the time was undergoing bankruptcy procedures. The purchase allowed Nikkatsu to utilize Namco's computer graphics hardware for its films, while Namco
396-436: A shoot 'em up gameplay rhythm with fighting elements when he designed Kung-Fu Master . The game was also distinctive for its use of health meters , for both the player character and each boss. Another 1984 release, Bruce Lee , combined multi-player, multi-character combat with traditional collecting, platform and puzzle gameplay. Later that year, Karateka combined the one-on-one fight sequences of Karate Champ with
528-623: A "brawler") is a type of action game where the player character must fight a large number of enemies in unarmed combat or with melee weapons. Gameplay consists of walking through a level , one section at a time, defeating a group of enemies before advancing to the next section; a boss fight normally occurs at the end of each level. Arcade versions of these games are often quite difficult to win, causing players to spend more money. Beat 'em ups are related to but distinct from fighting games, which are based around one-on-one matches rather than scrolling levels and multiple enemies. Such terminology
660-467: A Nintendo third-party licensee, instead relying on publishers such as Bandai to release its games in North America. In Japan, Namco developed two theme park attractions, which were demonstrated at the 1990 International Garden and Greenery Exposition ( Expo '90 ): Galaxian3: Project Dragoon , a 3D rail shooter that supported 28 players, and a dark ride based on The Tower of Druaga . As part of
792-433: A bionic tokusatsu superhero who possesses telescopic limbs. Bravoman and Alpha Man set out to stop Dr. Bomb and prevent him from taking over the world. Bravoman was the creation of Namco composer Norio Nakagata, who joined the company in the mid-1980s. He had previously directed the arcade game Genpei Tōma Den (1986), a hack and slash platform title that is claimed to be an early precursor to Bravoman . His goal for
924-662: A certain degree of success, and entered the Japanese arcade earnings charts at number-two in August 1996. Core Design 's Fighting Force (1997) was anticipated to redefine the genre for 32-bit consoles through its use of a 3D environment. However, it was met with a lukewarm reception. The beat 'em up genre declined in the late 1990s, largely disappearing from arcades by the end of the decade. In 2000, Squaresoft published The Bouncer (2000), developed by DreamFactory and designed by former Virtua Fighter designer Seiichi Ishii , for
1056-481: A cohesive world made it an astounding success in Japan, recording record-breaking sales figures that had not been seen since Space Invaders . The game's success led to merchandise, tournament play, and the first video game soundtrack album. The same year, Namco released Mappy , an early side-scrolling platformer, and the Pole Position sequel Pole Position II . Endō went on to design The Tower of Druaga
1188-450: A combat motif as beat 'em ups, including fighting games. However, they were differentiated by a specific prefix; games like Double Dragon or Final Fight were called "scrolling beat 'em ups" and games such as Street Fighter II or Mortal Kombat were referred to as "one on one beat 'em ups". Fighting games were still being called "beat 'em up" games in the UK gaming press up until the end of
1320-541: A conversion of Ridge Racer , its most-popular arcade game at the time. The PlayStation was released in Japan on December 3, 1994, with Ridge Racer as one of its first titles. Sony moved 100,000 units on launch day alone; publications attributed Ridge Racer to the PlayStation's early success, giving it an edge over its competitor, the Sega Saturn . For a time, it was the best-selling PlayStation game in Japan. Namcot
1452-445: A few non-video arcade games itself, such as Shoot Away (1977). As the video game industry prospered in Japan during the 1970s with the release of Taito's Space Invaders , Namco turned its attention towards making its own video games. While its licensed Atari games were still profitable, sales were decreasing and the quality of the hardware used began deteriorating. Per the recommendation of company engineer Shigekazu Ishimura,
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#17328806696811584-408: A fixture in popular culture, spawning a multi-million-selling media franchise. Namco regularly released several successful games throughout the early 1980s. It published Galaga , the follow-up to Galaxian , in 1981 to critical acclaim, usurping its predecessor in popularity with its fast-paced action and power-ups. 1982 saw the release of Pole Position , a racing game that is the first to use
1716-507: A larger scale. In 1988, Namco became involved in film production when it distributed the film Mirai Ninja in theaters, with a tie-in video game coinciding with its release. Namco also developed the beat 'em up Splatterhouse , which attracted attention for its fixture on gore and dismemberment, and Gator Panic , a derivative of Whack-a-Mole that became a mainstay in Japanese arcades and entertainment centers. In early 1989, Namco unveiled its System 21 arcade system, one of
1848-459: A minority stake in the company and Nakamura retained his position as its board chairman until the middle of 1988. In Japan, Namco continued to see expeditious growth. It published Pro Baseball: Family Stadium for the Famicom, which was critically acclaimed and sold over 2.5 million copies. Its sequel, Pro Baseball: Family Stadium '87 , sold an additional two million. In 1986, Namco entered
1980-486: A production plant in February 1966, moving its corporate office to a four-story building in Ōta, Tokyo . The company secured a deal with Walt Disney Productions to produce children's rides in the likenesses of its characters, in addition to those using popular anime characters like Q-Taro ; this move allowed the business to further expand its operations and become a driving force in the Japanese coin-op market. Though
2112-402: A published book by Udon. An animated adaptation of the comic by Copernicus Studios premiered via ShiftyLook's YouTube channel on May 20, 2013, and ran for twelve episodes, concluding on February 12, 2014. The series was written by Moylan and Jim Zub , and featured the voices of Rob Paulsen as Bravoman and Alpha Man; Dee Bradley Baker as Dr. Bomb and Black Bravo, renamed Anti-Bravoman as in
2244-535: A racing game, in 1993. Ridge Racer usage of 3D textured polygons and drifting made it a popular title in arcades and one of Namco's most-successful releases, and is labeled a milestone in 3D computer graphics. The company followed its success with Tekken , a 3D fighting game, a year later. Designed by Seiichi Ishii , the co-creator of Sega's landmark fighting game Virtua Fighter , Tekken ' s wide array of playable characters and consistent framerate helped it outperform Sega's game in popularity, and launched
2376-451: A random powerup item. These include rice balls and noodles that will refill a portion of his health, a star that gives him the ability to fire atomic blasts from his fists, a drink that grants temporarily invincibility, and a bullet train that will warp him to the end of the level. The game features 33 stages. Some of these levels take place underwater and transition the gameplay into a horizontal-scrolling shooter, transforming Bravoman into
2508-463: A real racetrack (the Fuji Speedway ) and helped laydown the foundations for the racing genre. It released Dig Dug the same year, a maze chaser that allowed players to create their own mazes. Namco's biggest post- Pac-Man success was the vertical-scrolling shooter Xevious in 1983, designed by new-hire Masanobu Endō . Xevious ' s early usage of pre-rendered visuals, boss fights, and
2640-414: A resurgence within indie game development , resulting in unique titles such as DrinkBox Studios ' 2013 indie title Guacamelee! and its 2018 sequel, which are both noted for their hybrid 2D Metroidvania -style platform brawler gameplay. Other indie titles are The Takeover (2019), Ninjin: Clash of Carrots (2018), and the critically acclaimed Fight'N Rage (2017). Namco Namco Limited
2772-458: A robot named Putan that solved pre-built mazes. In August 1973, American game company Atari began establishing a series of divisions in Asia, one of which was named Atari Japan. Its president, Kenichi Takumi, approached Nakamura in early 1974 to have his business become the distributor of Atari games across Japan. Nakamura, already planning global expansion following his company's success, agreed to
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#17328806696812904-418: A row, in 1988 and 1989 . Double Dragon 's success resulted in a flood of beat 'em ups in the late 1980s, where acclaimed titles such as Golden Axe and Final Fight (both 1989) distinguished themselves from the others. Final Fight was Capcom 's intended sequel to Street Fighter (provisionally titled Street Fighter '89 ), but the company ultimately gave it a new title. In contrast to
3036-751: A selectable track for the Pac-Land stage. Pac-Man 99 also features a Bravoman visual theme as downloadable content. As part of Bandai Namco's ShiftyLook initiative to revive older properties, a new Bravoman webcomic was created in collaboration with Udon Entertainment , titled Bravoman: Super Unequaled Hero of Excellence . Written by Matt Moylan and illustrated by Dax Gordine, the strip premiered on March 9, 2012, and focused on comedic elements such as Bravoman's poor control of his powers, Alpha Man's lackluster attempts to teach Bravoman, Dr. Bomb's misuse of Engrish , and various examples of metahumor . The comic also introduced two new characters that never appeared in
3168-735: A sense of progression, along with the use of cut scenes to give it a cinematic look and feel. Like Kunio-kun , the game's combat system drew inspiration from the Bruce Lee film Enter the Dragon , while Double Dragon added a new disaster-ridden city setting inspired by the Mad Max films and Fist of the North Star manga and anime series. Double Dragon became Japan's third highest-grossing table arcade game of 1987 , before becoming America's overall highest-grossing dedicated arcade game for two years in
3300-484: A sophisticated move set likened to a fighting game. It updated the Streets of Rage formula to 3D, while implementing moves and combos from the fighting game Virtua Fighter 2 (1994), the ability to combine weapons to create more powerful weapons, and in two-player mode the ability to perform combined special moves and combos. It also had cut scenes , with quick time events interspersed between scenes. The game achieved
3432-421: A submarine that can fire missiles at enemies. Most stages feature a boss at the end that must be defeated in order to progress. The most common boss the player fights is Black Bravo, an evil clone of Bravoman that mimics his attacks. Other bosses include the cyborg ninja Waya-Hime; a mechanical version of the king of Atlantis ; and Pistol Daimyo, a shogun with a cannon attached to his head. The first level acts as
3564-466: A tutorial, with a robot alien named Alpha Man teaching the player how to play the game. In the last level, the player must fight Dr. Bomb himself. Some levels act as bonus levels, featuring many power-ups and little to no enemies. The storyline in Bravoman is told through the game's attract mode sequence, alongside various pieces of promotional material. When Japanese car insurance salaryman Hitoshi Nakamura
3696-531: A vital role in the console's mainstream success. Sony recognized Namco's commitment to the console, leading to Namco receiving special treatment from Sony and early promotional material adopting the tagline "PlayStation: Powered by Namco". Namco was also given the rights to produce controllers, such as the NeGcon , which it designed with the knowledge it gained through developing its cancelled console. Though it had signed contracts to produce games for systems such as
3828-590: A year later, a maze game that helped establish the concept for the action role-playing game . Druaga ' s design influenced games such as Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda . 1984 also saw the release of Pac-Land , a Pac-Man -themed platform game that paved the way for similar games such as Super Mario Bros. , and Gaplus , a moderately successful update to Galaga . The success of Namco's arcade games prompted it to launch its own print publication, Namco Community Magazine NG , to allow its fans to connect with developers. In July 1983, Nintendo released
3960-675: Is a caricature of Namco's then-president Masaya Nakamura , who the game was dedicated to. It is Namco's only video game to use pressure-sensitive buttons, which were reportedly easy to break. It was ported to a handful of systems, including the TurboGrafx-16 , Japanese mobile phones , and the Wii Virtual Console . In Japan, Bravoman was widely successful, receiving high praise for its gameplay and humor. It received much more negative coverage from western publications, who disliked its mechanics, difficulty, and inferiority to other games in
4092-416: Is a video game genre featuring hand-to-hand combat against a large number of opponents. Traditional beat 'em ups take place in scrolling , two-dimensional (2D) levels, while a number of modern games feature more open three-dimensional (3D) environments with yet larger numbers of enemies. The gameplay tends to follow arcade genre conventions, such as being simple to learn but difficult to master, and
Bravoman - Misplaced Pages Continue
4224-438: Is a horizontal-scrolling shooter notable for its outlandish theme and strange character designs. Bravoman appears as a playable character in the 2005 PlayStation 2 game Namco x Capcom , developed by Monolith Soft , where he is paired up with Wonder Momo ; Waya-Hime also appears in the game, first as an enemy then later as a playable character. Bravoman is also featured in the tactical role-playing game Namco Super Wars for
4356-509: Is considered one of the strongest beat 'em up titles for its fantasy elements, distinguishing it from the urban settings seen in other beat 'em ups. Bad Dudes Vs. DragonNinja featured platform elements, while P.O.W.: Prisoners of War took the weapon aspect a stage further, allowing the players to pick up guns. Another beat 'em up— River City Ransom (1989), named Street Gangs in Europe—featured role-playing game elements with which
4488-556: Is loosely applied, however, as some commentators prefer to conflate the two terms. At times, both one-on-one fighting games and scrolling beat 'em ups have influenced each other in terms of graphics and style and can appeal to fans of either genre. Occasionally, a game will feature both kinds of gameplay. In the United Kingdom, video game magazines during the 1980s to 1990s, such as Mean Machines and Computer & Video Games (C+VG) for example, referred to all games which had
4620-405: Is now named Bandai Namco Holdings ; the standalone Namco brand continues to be used for video arcade and other entertainment products by the group's Bandai Namco Amusements division. The Namco name comes from Nakamura Manufacturing Company , derived from its founder Masaya Nakamura . In the 1960s, it manufactured electro-mechanical arcade games such as the 1965 hit Periscope . It entered
4752-519: Is the Dynasty Warriors series, which beginning with Dynasty Warriors 2 (2000) offered beat 'em up action on large 3D battlefields with war strategy game elements, displaying dozens of characters on the screen at a time. The series to date spans 14 games (including expansions) which players in the West view as overly similar, although the games' creators claim their large audience in Japan appreciates
4884-483: Is very popular. Dungeon Fighter Online has become one of the most-played and highest-grossing games of all time, having grossed over $ 10 billion. Other traditional 2D scrolling beat 'em ups were released on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network including The Behemoth 's Castle Crashers (2008), featuring cartoon graphics, quirky humor, and acclaimed cooperative gameplay, The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile (2011), Double Dragon Neon (2012) and Scott Pilgrim vs.
5016-403: Is walking home one day, he encounters a strange, humanoid-like alien named Alpha Man, who claims to be from the planet Alpha. He informs Nakamura of a mad scientist named Dr. Bomb, who plans to destroy Earth and enslave the human race through his army of robots and a deadly superweapon. Alpha hands Nakamura three items; a metal rod, a tuning fork, and a ¥100 coin, which transforms him into Bravoman,
5148-640: The 1979 movie of the same name), released in 2005, featured large scale brawling in 3D environments interspersed with other activities such as chase sequences. The game also featured a more traditional side-scrolling beat 'em up Armies of the Night as bonus content, which was acclaimed along with the main game and was later released on the PlayStation Portable . Capcom's Viewtiful Joe (2003), directed by Devil May Cry creator Hideki Kamiya, used cel-shaded graphics and innovative gameplay features (such as
5280-498: The Family Computer , a video game console that utilized interchangeable cartridges to play games. The console's launch came with ports of some of Nintendo's popular arcade games, like Donkey Kong , which at the time were considered high quality. Though Namco recognized the system's potential to allow consumers to play accurate versions of its games, the company chose to hold off on the idea after its ports for platforms such as
5412-465: The Namco System 1 arcade board. Conceived by Namco composer Norio Nakagata, Bravoman is a homage to 1960s tokusatsu films, parodying common tropes found in the genre, and Nakagata's love for synthesizer music. Many former staff members from Toei Animation were hired for the project, leading to the game's distinct art style influenced by anime . Bravoman's real identity, known as Hitoshi Nakamura,
Bravoman - Misplaced Pages Continue
5544-497: The PlayStation 2 console. It was an ambitious project that attempted to deliver a cinematic, story-driven beat 'em up, combining 3D beat 'em up gameplay with action role-playing game elements, cinematic cutscenes, high production values and an "Active Character Selection" system where choices alter the storyline . It was highly anticipated due to Squaresoft's reputation with Japanese role-playing games such as Final Fantasy , but
5676-401: The PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch on June 8, 2023. Bravoman received high praise when it was first released in arcades. The video game publication Gamest gave it several awards, including 3rd Grand Prize, 3rd Best Ending, and 12th Annual Hit Game. In their 1991 mook The Best Game , they commended its gameplay for being fun and balanced in terms of its difficulty, and also praised
5808-563: The Sord M5 flopped. Nakamura suggested that his son-in-law, Shigeichi Ishimura, work with a team to reverse-engineer and study the Famicom's hardware in the meantime. His team created a conversion of Galaxian with their newfound knowledge of the console's capabilities, which exceeded the quality of previous home releases. The port was presented to Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi alongside notification that Namco intended to release it with or without Nintendo's approval. Namco's demonstration
5940-532: The WonderSwan Color . The arcade game Marvel Land features a parade float in the design of Bravoman fighting Waya-Hime. In 2005, Japanese company Yujin released a gashapon figure of Waya-Hime as part of their "Namco Girls" collection. One of Taki's alternate costumes in Soulcalibur II is also based on Waya-Hime. The fighting game Super Smash Bros. For Wii U features the soundtrack for Bravoman as
6072-480: The belt scroll format, allowing both vertical and horizontal movement along a side-scrolling environment, while also popularizing street brawling in the genre. Created by Yoshihisa Kishimoto , game was inspired by his own teenage high school years getting into daily fights, along with Bruce Lee's martial arts film Enter the Dragon . The Western adaptation Renegade (released the same year) added an underworld revenge plot that proved more popular with gamers than
6204-437: The video game industry after acquiring the struggling Japanese division of Atari in 1974, distributing games such as Breakout in Japan. The company renamed itself Namco in 1977 and published Gee Bee , its first original video game, a year later. Among Namco's first major hits was the fixed shooter Galaxian in 1979. It was followed by Pac-Man in 1980. Namco prospered during the golden age of arcade video games in
6336-403: The 1990s. Beat 'em up games usually employ vigilante crime fighting and revenge plots with the action taking place on city streets, though historical and fantasy themed games also exist. Players must walk from one end of the game world to the other, and thus each game level will usually scroll horizontally . Some later beat 'em ups dispense with 2D -based scrolling levels, instead allowing
6468-551: The 2000s, a sub-genre of 3D hack-and-slash games emerged (also known as "character action games"), adapting the beat 'em up formula to utilize large-scale 3D environments, with popular franchises including God Hand , Devil May Cry , Dynasty Warriors , God of War and Bayonetta . Since the 2010s, traditional 2D beat 'em ups have seen a resurgence, with popular titles such as Dungeon Fighter Online , Dragon's Crown , Streets of Rage 4 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge . A beat 'em up (also called
6600-515: The Famicom's first " killer app ". Namcot also began releasing games for the MSX , a popular Japanese computer. Namco's arcade game ports were considered high-quality and helped increase sales of the console. Namcot was financially successful and became an important pillar within the company; when Namco moved its headquarters to Ōta, Tokyo in 1985, it used the profits generated from the Famicom conversion of Xevious to fund its construction (the building
6732-554: The Japanese dedicated arcade cabinet charts by October 1991, holding the top six positions that month with Starblade at the top. In February 1992, Namco opened its own theme park, Wonder Eggs , in the Futakotamagawa Time Spark area in Setagaya, Tokyo . Described as an "urban amusement center", Wonder Eggs was the first amusement park operated by a video game company. In addition to Galaxian3 and The Tower of Druaga ,
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#17328806696816864-604: The Japanese government in 1976, as Nakamura Seisakusho began returning higher profits; its import of Atari's Breakout was so successful that it led to rampant piracy in the industry. By the end of the year, Nakamura Seisakusho was one of Japan's leading video game companies. Nakamura Seisakusho changed its corporate name to Namco in June 1977. It opened a division in Hong Kong named Namco Enterprises Asia, which maintained video arcades and amusement centers. As Namco's presence in Japan
6996-523: The Namco banner continued opening up in Japan and overseas, such as the family-friendly Play City Carrot chain. Namco saw continued success in the consumer game market as a result of the "Famicom boom" in the late 1980s. By 1989, sales of games for the Famicom and NES accounted for 40% of its annual revenue. During the same time frame, the company's licensing contract with Nintendo expired; when Namco attempted to renew its license, Nintendo chose to revoke many of
7128-466: The TurboGrafx-16 port received mostly negative reviews. Frank Provo GameSpot , who described it as "a blueprint of how to make a bad action game", was critical of its poor English translation, rough character designs, and bland backgrounds. He also disliked the player's hitbox for being too large, which as such made the game too difficult. Provo further labeled the game as "utterly atrocious" and one of
7260-537: The World: The Game (2010). Fable Heroes (2012) is an Xbox Live Arcade only title released in 2012. Saints Row IV (2013) featured a parody of Streets Of Rage entitled "Saints Of Rage", where the player rescues Johnny Gat from a virtual prison. Dragon's Crown (2013) is a 2D fantasy game with a mix of beat 'em up and ARPG elements that were specifically inspired by Golden Axe and Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom . Streets of Rage 4 (2020)
7392-433: The add-on. Sony chose to refocus its efforts in designing the PlayStation in-house as its own console. As it lacked the resources to produce its own games, Sony called for the support of third-party companies to develop PlayStation software. Namco, frustrated with Nintendo and Sega's licensing conditions for its consoles, agreed to support the PlayStation and became its first third-party developer. The company began work on
7524-464: The appeal of some, while the appeal of others has been deemed to have diminished with time. Although the genre lacks the same presence it did in the late 1980s, some titles such as Viewtiful Joe and God Hand kept the traditional beat 'em up genre alive. The traditional 2D beat 'em up genre has seen a resurgence in Asia, where the South Korean online beat 'em up Dungeon Fighter Online (2004)
7656-433: The basic structure of a beat 'em up, with Lee ascending five levels of a pagoda while fighting numerous enemies and several boss battles along the way, while another Lee film Enter the Dragon (1973) also influenced the genre. The first video game to feature fist fighting was Sega 's arcade boxing game Heavyweight Champ (1976), which is viewed from a side-view perspective like later fighting games. However, it
7788-400: The beat 'em up genre began seeing a revival in the form of popular 3D hack and slash games in the style of Devil May Cry (2001 onwards), including Onimusha , Ninja Gaiden (2004 onwards), God of War (2005 onwards), God Hand (2006), Heavenly Sword (2007), Afro Samurai (2009), and Bayonetta (2009). Featuring a more fantasy themed approach, with longer campaigns and
7920-544: The business grew in size, it used its clout to purchase amusement machines in bulk from other manufacturers at a discount, and then sell them to smaller outlets at full price. While its machines sold well, Nakamura Seisakusho lacked the manufacturing lines and distribution networks of its competitors, which made the production of them longer and more expensive. The company was unable to place its machines inside stores because other manufacturers already had exclusive rights to these locations. In response, Nakamura Seisakusho opened
8052-435: The combat system tends to be more highly developed than other side-scrolling action games . Two-player cooperative gameplay and multiple player characters are also hallmarks of the genre. Most of these games take place in urban settings and feature crime-fighting and revenge-based plots, though some games may employ historical, science fiction or fantasy themes. The first beat 'em up was 1984's Kung-Fu Master , which
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#17328806696818184-495: The comic; Romi Dames as Waya-Hime; and Jennifer Hale as Bravowoman. The web series was later removed from YouTube along with ShiftyLook's channel, and is currently legally unavailable for viewing. Bravoman: Binja Bash! , an endless runner based on the comic, was released for iOS and Android devices on August 30, 2013. The game has since been delisted and is no longer available. Beat%27em up A beat 'em up (also known as brawler and, in some markets, beat 'em all )
8316-487: The company financially. Against Nakamura's protest, Namco signed Nintendo's new licensee contract anyway. While it continued to produce games for Nintendo hardware, most of Namco's quality releases came from the PC Engine and Mega Drive . In 1989, it was reported that Namco was underway with developing its own video game console to compete against companies such as Nintendo and NEC. Electronic Gaming Monthly claimed that
8448-449: The company retrofitted its Ōta manufacturing facility into a small game division and purchased old stock computers from NEC for employees to study. Namco released Gee Bee , its first original game, in October 1978. Designed by new hire Toru Iwatani , it is a video pinball game that incorporates elements from Breakout and similar "block breaker" clones. Though Gee Bee fell short of
8580-455: The company's idea of "hyperentertainment" video games, Namco engineers had drafted ideas for a possible theme park based on Namco's experience with designing and operating indoor play areas and entertainment complexes. Both attractions were commercially successful and among the most popular of Expo 90's exhibitions. In arcades, Namco released Starblade , a 3D rail shooter noteworthy for its cinematic presentation. This led to Namco dominating
8712-463: The company's personal computer and home console divisions to Commodore International founder Jack Tramiel , who renamed his company Tramel Technology to Atari Corporation . Warner was left with Atari's arcade game and computer software divisions, which it renamed Atari Games . Namco America purchased a 60% stake in Atari Games on February 4, 1985 through its AT Games subsidiary, with Warner holding
8844-538: The company's sales expectations and was unable to compete with games such as Space Invaders , it allowed Namco to gain a stronger foothold in the video game market. In 1979, Namco published its first major hit Galaxian , one of the first video games to incorporate RGB color graphics, score bonuses, and a tilemap hardware model. Galaxian is considered historically important for these innovations, and for its mechanics building off those in Space Invaders . It
8976-563: The company. Viewing the majority-acquisition as a failure, in 1987 Namco America sold 33% of its ownership stake to a group of Atari Games employees led by Nakajima. This prompted Nakajima to resign from Namco America and become president of Atari Games. He established Tengen , a publisher that challenged Nintendo's licensing restrictions for the NES by selling several unlicensed games, which included ports of Namco arcade games. Though its selloff made Atari Games an independent entity, Namco still held
9108-527: The console was never released, it allowed Namco to familiarize itself with designing home video game hardware. Tadashi Manabe replaced Nakamura as president of Namco on May 2, 1990. Manabe, who had been the company's representative director since 1981, was tasked with strengthening relationships and teamwork ethics of management. Two months later, the company dissolved its remaining connections with Atari Games when Time Warner reacquired Namco America's remaining 40% stake in Atari Games. In return, Namco America
9240-422: The country's largest arcade game companies. The Atari Japan purchase was not an immediate success, in part due to the medal game fad of the 1970s. While Nakamura Seisakusho saw some success with imports such as Kee Games 's Tank , the Japanese video game industry's decrease in popularity did not make them as profitable as hoped. The market became more viable once restrictions on medal games were imposed by
9372-532: The deal. In part due to employee theft, Atari Japan was a financial disaster and nearly collapsed in its first few years of operation. When Takumi stopped showing up to work, the company was handed to Hideyuki Nakajima, a former employee of the Japan Art Paper Company. Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, whose company was already struggling in America, chose to sell the Japanese division. His fixer, Ron Gordon,
9504-566: The earliest arcade boards to utilize true 3D polygonal graphics. Nicknamed "Polygonizer", the company demonstrated its power through the Formula One racer Winning Run . With an arcade cabinet that shook and swayed the player as they drove, the game was seen as "a breakthrough product in term of programming technique" and garnered significant attention from the press. Winning Run was commercially successful, convincing Namco to continue researching 3D video game hardware. Video arcades under
9636-615: The early 1980s, releasing popular titles such as Galaga , Xevious , and Pole Position . Namco entered the home market in 1984 with conversions of its arcade games for the MSX and the Nintendo Family Computer , later expanding to competing platforms, such as the Sega Genesis , TurboGrafx-16 , and PlayStation . Namco continued to produce hit games in the 1990s, including Ridge Racer , Tekken , and Taiko no Tatsujin , but later endured financial difficulties due to
9768-476: The early 1990s, following the success of Capcom's Street Fighter II (1991) which drew gamers back towards one-on-one fighting games, while the subsequent emerging popularity of 3D video games in the late 1990s diminished the popularity of 2D-based pugilistic games in general. Another notable game from this era is Gang Wars , released in 1989. Sega's Die Hard Arcade (1996) was the first beat 'em up to use texture-mapped 3D polygon graphics , and it used
9900-418: The end of the 1980s, but was cancelled when the developers grew concerned that its concept would not work as a game. In Bravoman , the player controls the titular character, a bionic superhero who possesses telescopic limbs, in his mission to stop the evil scientist Dr. Bomb from taking over the world. Bravoman can punch, kick, and headbutt enemies to defeat them; the game uses pressure-sensitive buttons, where
10032-736: The enemies are defeated. Each level contains many identical groups of enemies, making these games notable for their repetition. In beat 'em up games, players often fight a boss —an enemy much stronger than the other enemies—at the end of each level. Beat 'em ups often allow the player to choose between a selection of protagonists—each with their own strengths, weaknesses, and set of moves. The combat system typically tends to be more highly developed than other side-scrolling action games. Attacks can include rapid combinations of basic attacks ( combos ) as well as jumping and grappling attacks. Characters often have their own special attacks , which leads to different strategies depending on which character
10164-432: The enemy, making him unable to defend himself against successive punches. Rather than one-hit kills, the player needed to hit enemies multiple times, "beating them up," in order to defeat them. Compared to earlier side-scrollers, the environment was expanded to a scrolling arena-like space, while the combat system was more highly developed, with the player able to punch, kick, grab, charge, throw and stomp enemies. In 1987,
10296-592: The era in Japan, remaining towards the top of sales charts for the rest of the decade. Namco's continued success in arcades provided its arcade division with the revenue and resources needed to fund its research and development (R&D) departments. Among their first creations was the helicopter shooter Metal Hawk in 1988, fitted in a motion simulator arcade cabinet. Its high development costs prevented it from being massed-produced. While most of its efforts were commercially unsuccessful, Namco grew interested in motion-based arcade games and began designing those at
10428-600: The freedom of movement in Kung-Fu Master , and it successfully experimented with adding plot to its fighting action. It was also among the first martial arts games to be successfully developed for and ported across different home systems. Sega 's My Hero (1985) adopted the gameplay format of Kung-Fu Master , but changing the more traditional martial arts setting to a more contemporary urban city environment with street gangs. Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun , developed by Technōs Japan and released in 1986 in Japan, introduced
10560-413: The game was a good companion piece to Vigilante and Splatterhouse , writing: "Given the choice between the three, I'd likely give a slight nod to Bravo (even if it doesn't do anything particularly well beyond its kookiness). But it's worth considering a purchase of any one of them to get a sense of that part of Hudson company history." A sequel titled Kaettekita Bravoman was in development around
10692-555: The game was dedicated to. The game's title is a nod to a nickname given to a fellow employee of Nakagata worked with in the past. Bravoman was released in May 1988 in Japan, running on the Namco System 1 arcade hardware. It was ported to the TurboGrafx-16 in October 1990, being the game's first appearance outside Japan. Developed by Now Production , it features numerous changes to the game, such as new and altered stage designs, additional enemy types and Bravoman's attacks being changed due to
10824-413: The game's anime-like artstyle and characters. Bravoman is Namco's only video game to utilize pressure-sensitive buttons, where the harder the player pushed them the stronger their attack was in the game. These buttons were notoriously faulty and fragile, to the annoyance of Namco technicians. Bravoman's real identity, Hitoshi Nakamura, is a caricature of company founder and president Masaya Nakamura , whom
10956-599: The gameplay off eating and designed its characters with soft colors and simplistic facial features. Puck Man was test-marketed in Japan on May 22, 1980 and given a wide-scale in July. It was only a modest success; players were more accustom to the shooting gameplay of Galaxian as opposed to Puck Man ' s visually distinctive characters and gameplay style. In North America, it was released as Pac-Man in November 1980. Pac-Man ' s simplicity and abstract characters made it
11088-423: The genre. The game spawned a shooter spin-off, Pistol Daimyo no Boken , in 1990. Bravoman has since gained notoriety from its revival through the now-defunct ShiftyLook division of Namco Bandai Games , who produced a webcomic and animated series based on the game. ShiftyLook also produced an endless runner based on the comic, Bravoman: Binja Bash! , for cellular devices. A true sequel was in production towards
11220-427: The harder the button is pressed, the stronger the player's attack is. Bravoman can also jump over enemies and other obstacles in his way. He also has a health meter at the bottom-left of the screen, which will deplete when he is hit by an enemy or projectile. Most enemies leave behind small items known as "Fuku" when defeated. Collecting ten Fuku will cause Bravoman's robotic friend Lottery Man to appear, who will give him
11352-539: The idea of constructing a rooftop amusement space for its store in Nihonbashi, Tokyo. It consisted of horse rides, a picture viewing machine, and a goldfish scooping pond, with the centerpiece being a moving train named Roadaway Race . The space was a hit and lead to Mitsukoshi requesting rooftop amusement parks for all of its stores. Along with Taito , Rosen Enterprises, and Nihon Goraku Bussan , Nakamura Seisakusho became one of Japan's leading amusement companies. As
11484-403: The industry possessed a predominately male playerbase. Toru Iwatani began work on a maze video game that was targeted primarily towards women, with simplistic gameplay and recognizable characters. Alongside a small team, he created a game named Puck Man , where players controlled a character that had to eat dots in an enclosed maze while avoiding four ghosts that pursued them. Iwatani based
11616-556: The industry, and its advancements in technology. On June 1, 1955, Japanese businessman Masaya Nakamura founded Nakamura Seisakusho Co., Ltd. , in Ikegami, Tokyo. The son of a shotgun repair business owner, Nakamura proved unable to find work in his chosen profession of ship building in the struggling post- World War II economy. Nakamura established his own company after his father's business saw success with producing pop cork guns . Beginning with only ¥300,000 (US$ 12,000), Nakamura spent
11748-405: The late 1980s. It was to feature Bravoman, now divorced, unemployed, and homeless, fighting to win back the love of his wife and return to his former glory. It was scrapped during the concept stages as the team was not sure if the concept would work as a game. An arcade spin-off, Pistol Daimyo no Bōken , was released in Japan in 1990. Starring the titular Pistol Daimyo, a boss from Bravoman , it
11880-428: The manufacturing facility was largely reserved for its Disney and anime rides, Nakamura also used it to construct larger, more elaborate electro-mechanical games . The first of these was Torpedo Launcher (1965), a submarine warfare shooting gallery later titled Periscope . Its other products included Ultraman -themed gun games and pinball -like games branded with Osomatsu-kun characters. The name Namco
12012-504: The money on two hand-cranked rocking horses that he installed on the roof garden of a Matsuya department store in Yokohama . The horses were loved by children and turned a decent profit for Nakamura, who began expanding his business to cover other smaller locations. A 1959 business reorganization renamed the company Nakamura Seisakusho Company, Ltd. The Mitsukoshi department store chain noticed his success in 1963, and approached him with
12144-413: The new levels for sometimes being frustrating or overly long. The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly wrote that the game had responsive controls and had a strange yet interesting theme, but that its concept was done many times already and in better quality. They were also critical of the game's constant voice overs for being generally annoying and overused. The Wii Virtual Console re-release of
12276-458: The original Bravoman game: Bravowoman, a no-nonsense female superhero, and Braveman, a self-obsessed television actor based on the North American box art for the TurboGrafx-16 version of Bravoman . The series concluded with its 300th strip on March 16, 2014, shortly after the announcement of ShiftyLook's closure. The comic is no longer available for viewing, though its first 130 strips received
12408-401: The park featured carnival games, carousels, motion simulators, and Fighter Camp , the first flight simulator available to the public. The park saw regularly high attendance numbers; 500,000 visitors attended in its first few months of operation and over one million by the end of the year. Namco created the park out of its interest in designing a Disneyland-inspired theme park that featured
12540-448: The parodies and spoofs of Japanese pop culture and movies. They also liked the game's level variety, randomness, and colorful graphics. The character of Bravoman was given the first place award for Best Character based on reader vote, while the game itself was placed at the 23rd spot for the best arcade games of all time up to that point. The TurboGrafx-16 conversion received more mixed coverage. Japanese magazine Monthly PC Engine said it
12672-676: The player selects. The control system is usually simple to learn, often comprising just two attack buttons. These buttons can be combined to pull off combos , as well as jumping and grappling attacks. Since the release of Double Dragon , many beat 'em ups have allowed two players to play the game cooperatively —a central aspect to the appeal of these games. Beat 'em ups are more likely to feature cooperative play than other game genres. The beat 'em up or brawler genre includes several sub-genres: Beat 'em up games have origins in martial arts films , particularly Bruce Lee 's Hong Kong martial arts films . Lee's Game of Death (1972) inspired
12804-411: The player to roam around larger 3D environments, though they retain the same simple-to-learn gameplay and control systems. Throughout the level, players may acquire weapons that they can use as well as power-ups that replenish the player's health . As players walk through the level, they are stopped by groups of enemies who must be defeated before they're able to continue. The level ends when all
12936-519: The player's character could be upgraded, using money stolen from defeated enemies. The Streets of Rage series was launched in the early 1990s and borrowed heavily from Final Fight . Streets of Rage 2 (1992) for Sega's Mega Drive/Genesis was one of the first console games to match the acclaim of arcade beat 'em ups. Its level design was praised for taking traditional beat 'em up settings and stringing them together in novel ways, and its success led to it being ported to arcades. The beat 'em up
13068-451: The preferential terms it originally possessed. Hiroshi Yamauchi insisted that all companies, including Namco, had to follow the same guidelines. The revocation of Namco's terms enraged Nakamura, who announced the company would abandon Nintendo hardware and focus on production of games for competing systems such as the PC Engine . Executives resisted the idea, fearing it would severely impact
13200-473: The principled combat sport of other martial arts games. Renegade set the standard for future beat 'em up games as it introduced the ability to move both horizontally and vertically. It also introduced the use of combo attacks; in contrast to earlier games, the opponents in Renegade and Double Dragon could take much more punishment, requiring a succession of punches, with the first hit temporarily immobilizing
13332-439: The project was to create an arcade game based on things he personally enjoyed, such as synthesizer music and films from the 1930s. Nakagata was heavily inspired by Japanese tokusatsu movies and kaiju monsters such as Godzilla . Much of the game's content was made to parody common tropes found in tokusatsu films and other video games. Toei Animation assisted in character design and sprite animation, after taking an interest in
13464-489: The protagonist's special powers) to "reinvigorate" its traditional 2D scrolling formula. Releases such as God Hand in 2006 and MadWorld in 2009 were seen as parodies of violence in popular culture, earning both games praise for not taking themselves as seriously as early beat 'em up games. Classic beat 'em ups have been re-released on services such as the Virtual Console and Xbox Live Arcade ; critics reaffirmed
13596-426: The release of Double Dragon , designed as Technōs Japan 's spiritual successor to Kunio-kun ( Renegade ), ushered in a "golden age" for the beat 'em up genre that took it to new heights with its detailed set of martial arts attacks and its outstanding two-player cooperative gameplay . It also had a continuous side-scrolling world, in contrast to the bounded scrolling arenas of Kunio-kun , giving Double Dragon
13728-564: The remaining 40%. The acquisition gave Namco the exclusive rights to distribute Atari games in Japan. Nakamura began losing interest and patience in Atari Games not long after the acquisition. As he started viewing Atari as a competitor to Namco, he was hesitant to pour additional funds and resources into the company. Nakamura also disliked having to share ownership with Warner Communications. Nakajima grew frustrated with Nakamura's attempts at marketing Atari video games in Japan, and had constant disagreements with him over which direction to take
13860-493: The restaurant industry by acquiring the Italian Tomato café chain. It also released Sweet Land , a popular candy-themed prize machine . One of Namco's biggest hits from the era was the racing game Final Lap from 1987. It is credited as the first arcade game to allow multiple machines to be connected—or "linked"—together to allow for additional players. Final Lap was one of the most-profitable coin-operated games of
13992-456: The role. Manabe instead served as the company's vice chairman until his death in 1994. The company's arcade division, in the meantime, began work on a new 3D arcade board named System 22 , capable of displaying polygonal 3D models with fully-textured graphics. Namco enlisted the help of Evans & Sutherland , a designer of combat flight simulators for The Pentagon , to assist in the board's development. The System 22 powered Ridge Racer ,
14124-452: The same kind of stories and characters present in its games. Wonder Eggs contributed to Namco's 34% increase in revenue by December 1992. Namco also designed smaller, indoor theme parks for its larger entertainment complexes across the country, such as Plabo Sennichimae Tempo in Osaka. Manabe resigned as president on May 1, 1992 due to a serious anxiety disorder, and Nakamura once again assumed
14256-519: The simple combo attacks in Renegade and Double Dragon , the combo attacks in Final Fight were much more dynamic, and the sprites were much larger. Acclaimed as the best game in the genre, Final Fight spawned two home sequels and was later ported to other systems. Golden Axe was acclaimed for its visceral hack and slash action and cooperative mode and was influential through its selection of multiple protagonists with distinct fighting styles. It
14388-423: The struggling Japanese economy and diminishing arcade market. This led to the 2005 announcement of a merge with toy maker Bandai , which was completed in 2006 as Namco Bandai Holdings ; Namco's former video games division was merged into a subsidiary of the holdings company, Namco Bandai Games, now called Bandai Namco Entertainment . Namco is remembered in retrospect for its unique corporate model, its importance to
14520-594: The subtle differences between the titles. While critics saw Dynasty Warriors 2 as innovative and technically impressive, they held a mixed opinion of later titles. These later games received praise for simple, enjoyable gameplay but were simultaneously derided as overly simplistic and repetitive. On the urban-themed side of the genre was the Yakuza series (2005 debut), which combined elaborate crime thriller plots and detailed interactive environments with street brawling action. Rockstar Games ' The Warriors (based on
14652-555: The system lacking pressure-sensitive buttons. The TurboGrafx-16 version was digitally re-released onto the Wii Virtual Console in 2007, followed by the arcade version in Japan in 2009. Bravoman was ported to Japanese mobile phones on October 28, 2010 for the EZweb , i-Mode and S! Appli network services, featuring new stages and remastered visuals and audio. Bravoman later joined the Hamster Corporation's Arcade Archives series on
14784-458: The system, which was nearing completion, featured hardware comparable to the then-upcoming Nintendo Super Famicom . According to company engineer Yutaka Isokawa, it was produced to compete against the Mega Drive, a 16-bit console by Namco's arcade rival Sega. With the console industry being crowded by other competing systems, publications were unsure how well it would perform in the market. While
14916-433: The two-player cooperative mode and continuous belt scroll format central to classic beat 'em ups, and 1991's Street Fighter II , which drew gamers towards one-on-one fighting games . Games such as Streets of Rage , Final Fight , Golden Axe and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are other classics to emerge from this period. In the late 1990s, the genre lost popularity with the emergence of 3D-polygon technology. In
15048-458: The variety seen before in multiple characters now being present in the one and only main character. Giving the player multiple weapons and movesets based on a variety of martial arts and different weapons. These games are also known as "character action" games, which represent an evolution of traditional arcade action games. The subgenre was largely defined by Hideki Kamiya , creator of Devil May Cry and Bayonetta . A best-selling Japanese series
15180-534: The worst games available for the Virtual Console. Nintendo Life ' s Corbie Dillard was also critical of the game. He said that, outside of its good soundtrack, it was bland in design and suffered from poor visuals and sometimes unresponsive controls. Dillard only recommended Bravoman to hardcore side-scroller fans. Lucas M. Thomas of IGN was the most positive towards the game, specifically towards its presentation for its wackiness and bizarre nature. He said
15312-399: Was Data East 's fighting game Karate Champ (1984) which popularized martial arts themed games. Kung-Fu Master (known as Spartan X in Japan), designed by Takashi Nishiyama and released by Irem in 1984, laid the foundations for side-scrolling beat 'em ups. It simplified the combat system of Karate Champ , while adding numerous enemies along a side-scrolling playfield. The game
15444-511: Was a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company founded in 1955 which operated video arcades and amusement parks globally, produced video games, films, toys, and arcade cabinets . They were one of the most influential figures in the worldwide coin-op and arcade game industry; Namco produced several multi-million-selling game franchises , such as Pac-Man , Galaxian , Tekken , Tales , Ridge Racer , and Ace Combat . In 2006, Namco merged with Bandai to form what
15576-485: Was able to gain a foothold in the Japanese film industry. In early 1994, Sony announced that it was developing its own video game console, the 32-bit PlayStation . The console began as a collaboration between Nintendo and Sony to create a CD-based peripheral for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988. Fearing that Sony would assume control of the entire project, Nintendo silently scrapped
15708-437: Was also a popular genre for video games based on television series and movies, with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Batman Returns a surprise success, and encouraged many more beat 'em up games based on the characters . Taito 's arcade game Riding Fight (1992) combined beat 'em up gameplay with a pseudo-3D chase view and hoverboard racing gameplay . The "golden age" of the genre eventually came to an end during
15840-502: Was also released to critical acclaim and has renewed interested in both the series and genre. Dragon's Crown sold over a million copies by 2017, while Streets of Rage 4 has sold over 2.5 million copies as of April 2021 . Also other well known classic franchises gained new titles such as Battletoads (2020) and The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors (2019) and River City Girls (2019). The beat 'em up genre has also seen
15972-412: Was an excellent port of the arcade original, and liked its new levels and refinements to the gameplay. Maru PC Engine also liked the port for its accuracy, but criticized its difficulty for being too high and making the game unnecessarily frustrating. Famitsu applauded Namco for their efforts in translating the arcade game to an underpowered console, but criticized the difficulty for being too high and
16104-409: Was based on Hong Kong martial arts films . 1986's Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun introduced the belt scroll format employed extensively by later games, while also popularizing contemporary urban settings, while its Western localized version Renegade further introduced underworld revenge themes. The genre then saw a period of high popularity between the release of Double Dragon in 1987, which defined
16236-435: Was based on two Hong Kong martial arts films: Jackie Chan 's Wheels on Meals (1984), known as Spartan X in Japan (where the game was a tie-in), and Bruce Lee's Game of Death , the latter inspiring the five end-of-level boss fights and the plot structure, variations of which were used in subsequent scrolling beat 'em ups. Nishiyama, who had previously created the side-scrolling shooter Moon Patrol (1982), combined
16368-476: Was consolidated into Namco in 1995; its final game was a PlayStation port of Tekken , published in March in Japan and in November worldwide. Tekken was designed for Namco's System 11 arcade system board, which was based on raw PlayStation hardware; this allowed the home version to be a near-perfect rendition of its arcade counterpart. Tekken became the first PlayStation game to sell one million copies and played
16500-476: Was given Atari's video arcade management division, Atari Operations, allowing the company to operate video arcades across the United States. Namco began distributing games in North America directly from its US office, rather than through Atari. Namco Hometek was established as the home console game division of Namco America; the latter's relations with Atari Games and Tengen made the company ineligible to become
16632-507: Was given the task of finding the buyer for Atari Japan. After being turned down by Sega and Taito, Gordon's offer was accepted by Nakamura for ¥ 296 million ($ 1.18M), though Nakamura informed Bushnell his company was unable to pay the money by the deadline. With no other takers for Atari Japan, Bushnell ultimately allowed Nakamura to only pay $ 550,000 and then $ 250,000 a year for three years. The acquisition allowed Nakamura Seisakusho to distribute Atari games across Japan, and would make it one of
16764-435: Was introduced in 1971 as a brand for several of its machines. The company grew to having ten employees, which included Nakamura himself. It saw continued success with its arcade games, which had become commonplace in bowling alleys and grocery stores. The company also established a robotics division to produce robots for entertainment centers and festivals, such as those that distributed pamphlets, ribbon making machines, and
16896-438: Was met with a mixed reception upon release. The same year, Italian studio NAPS team released Gekido: Urban Fighters for the PlayStation console, which uses a fast-paced beat 'em up system, with many bosses and a colorful design in terms of graphics. In the early 2000s, game reviewers started to pronounce that the genre had died off. By 2002, there were virtually no new beat 'em ups being released in arcades. After 2000,
17028-558: Was nicknamed "Xevious" as a result). The Talking Aid, a speech impairment device , was part of the company's attempts in venturing into other markets. By the time the Video game crash of 1983 concluded in 1985 with the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Atari had effectively collapsed. After enduring numerous financial difficulties and losing its control in the industry, parent Warner Communications sold
17160-442: Was released in North America by Midway Manufacturing , the video game division of Bally, where it became one of its best-selling titles and formed a relationship between Midway and Namco. The space shooter genre became ubiquitous by the end of the decade, with games such as Galaxian and Space Invaders becoming commonplace in Japanese amusement centers. As video games often depicted the killing of enemies and shooting of targets,
17292-512: Was steadily rising, Nakajima suggested to Nakamura that he open a division in the United States to increase worldwide brand awareness. Nakamura agreed to the proposal, and on September 1, 1978, established Namco America in Sunnyvale, California . With Nakajima as its president and Satashi Bhutani as vice president, Namco America's aim was to import games and license them to companies such as Atari and Bally Manufacturing . Namco America would release
17424-535: Was the impetus for Nintendo's decision to create a licensing program for the console. Namco signed a five-year royalties contract that included several preferential terms, such as the ability to produce its own cartridges. A subsidiary named Namcot was established in 1984 to act as Namco's console game division. It released its first four titles in September: Galaxian , Pac-Man , Xevious , and Mappy . Xevious sold over 1.5 million copies and became
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