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History of the Super Robot Wars series. Part No. 1. The birth of a super -flame

Hi all! Many people dream of seeing their favorite characters in one joint project. However, such fantasies are almost unrealistic due to huge problems among copyright holders. What time is, they are always present.

In cinematography from recent events, this is the association of Disney, 20th Century Fox and Sony Pictures to create films with heroes from comics. But in 1988, as many as six companies gathered for the production of the great animated film “Who set up Roger’s Rabbit”: Disney, Universal Pictures, MgM, Republic Pictures, Turner Entertainment, Warner Bros.

Naturally, in the game sphere, too, could not be without such unique phenomena. For example, the ubiquitous company Disney in 2002, without much faith in success, helped Square Enix to implement the game Kingdom Hearts, where Disney characters were along with the heroes of Final Fantasy.

But at the moment I want to talk about the Super Robot Wars franchise, which has been releasing various games with furs and robots from various universes for 30 years. The SRW series even got into the Guinness Book of Records for the largest number of intellectual property licenses in RPG Games. With a general calculation, this number turned out to be 274. And if you plunge into the history of the emergence of a SRW franchise, you can notice that if it were not for a series of successful events, the project would end even on the draft version of the first game. Actually, the subsequent narrative will go about this.

Banpresto and founder Super Robot Wars

As I said in the first part of the History of Bandai toys, in 1980, Naoharu Yamasin, who founded Bandai, handed over his position to his eldest son, Makota Yamasin. However, the son was not happy with such a reward and showed all his negativity in radical reforms to manage the company. Because of this, many employees began to believe that these actions purposefully led Bandai to bankruptcy.

Even despite some successful and profitable projects, the type of Gunpla models, Makoto Yamasin at the 39th Bandai foundation ceremony in 1989 spoke about the concept of Bandai Land. He stated that he was going to refuse sales of ordinary toys and seeks to create an entertainment company, like Disney. In some situations, Makoto stated that he considers himself Japanese Walt Disney and from this he believes even more in further success.

Yes, all this sounded pathetic, too ambitious and even absurd. In this case, the market for children’s toys really experienced a crisis. Small companies were closing, and large ones tried either to stay afloat, or as Bandai invaded other areas of activity.

Naohara and Makota, Snow White and Mickey Mouse

And here it is worth turning to the company Banpresto. It was founded in 1977 and had a different name – Hoei Sangyo. At that time, she could not boast of anything. The production was imprisoned for the sale of arcade games, but since there were always not enough resources, most of the projects were copies of well -known originals.

So the company survived until 1982, after which the name was replaced by Coreland Technology, and close ties with the SEGA company were established. And although the quality of the games released has increased significantly, the finances still sang romances. The last game before the final renaming of the company in Banpresto was Cyber Tank, released in 1988.

Meanwhile, Bandai drew attention to Coreland Technology. This happened after the managing director of Bandai Yukimas Sugiura began to promote the idea of popularizing animated characters through alternative game entertainment. For example, Yukimas planned to use a machine gun with soft toys called Ufo Catcher, which was born in 1965, but gained frenzied popularity only in 1985.

Yukimas was a significant figure both in Bandai and in the gaming sphere itself. In 1971, he was one of the founders of the subsidiary of Popy, and it was he who came up with how to improve toy belts from the Kamen Rider series. Plus, helped Katsukhis with Murakami with the launch of sales of Chogokin models. And when in 1983, Bandai absorbed Popy, Yukimas began to own a large number of shares in the maternal company.

To implement this venture, they began to look for a medium -sized company, which already had experience in this area. Moreover, she should not be wildly known so that financial disagreements would not arise. Thus, the choice fell on Coreland Technology. Investments flowed through the river, everyone was at first satisfied, but then an unexpected incident crawled out from behind the wings.

After some time, the Bandai leadership learns that Coreland Technology has a 1.5 billion yen debt, that in Russian equivalent at the current rate is 933 million rubles. Where the financial and legal departments of Bandai looked at at that moment – it is completely not clear. From here two ways to solve this problem flowed:

Quit Coreland Technology to the mercy of fate, having lost all the means invested in it, which would lead to sad consequences during the raging crisis;

How easy it is to guess, Bandai chose the second path. Since 1989, the newly made company became called Banpresto, and its first president was elected none other than Yukimas Sugiura, the same managing director, because of which this epic began. Another confirmation that the initiative is punishable.

Although if we consider other sources, an alternative picture loom. After the debt is detected by Coreland Technology, part of the Bandai management believed that with the help of invested funds this company should be reconfigured for the production of other non -game products. But Yukimas tried to convince everyone that he could keep Coreland in the field of games, and even ready to give his shares in Bandai, if only his venture was not rejected. And after long discussions, his idea was still supported.

Be that as it may, Yukimas had to turn a holey carriage into a spaceship, bringing a stable flow of money. Many would break from such pressure, but not Yukimas. He began to realize his ideas. Ufo Catcher slot machines were filled with soft toys from the Mobile Sout Gundam, Ultraman and Kamen Rider series. Moreover, they were designed not for children and adolescents, but for 20 year olds who often played on such machines. And it worked!

Over the next two years, Banpresto has received a stable profit from these points. According to some reports, 70 million toys were won in one year, the average cost of the attempt was 200 yenam, and if you consider that the coveted toy could not get the first time, then the total amount becomes quite decent for the company, barely reduced ends meet.

Here it is worth noting another significant fact. The characters of the three franchises were next to each other, even in a small transparent box. At that time, the division of licenses looked as follows:

Ultraman belonged to Tsuburya Productions, Shogakukan and Bullmark. However, the latter went bankrupt in 1977, which was a heavy blow to the franchise, since it was this company that produced toys. Sudden help came from Bandai, which lent her subsidiary Popy, which became known after the creation of the toys of the Chogokin series.

Kamen Rider belonged entirely to TEEI. Nevertheless, under certain conditions, Popy could also sell toys in this franchise.

Compati Hero – Father SRW

In any case, due to the still existing crisis on children’s toys, it was impossible to count on further high and constant profit. Thinking for some time over the current situation and the new possibilities opened, Yukimas again conceived an ambitious project. Given the fact that Poppy and Banpresto have experience in software development, there is a good chance to create a game where there will be characters from the Gundam, Ultraman and Kamen Rider series.

And here the long and https://winztercasino.uk/ heavy beliefs of the leaders of other companies began to compromise to create a game, which will bring a lot of profit to everyone due to a huge number of fans from each side. It is worth realizing the fact that in Japan until the 90s almost no one tried to create a game crossover with characters from different companies due to hard copyright.

By the way, Yukimas did not look for easy ways and decided not to limit himself to three franchises. The next candidates, he examined the heroes of Super Sentai. They belonged to Toei Company and Nihon Educational Television (in the future renamed TV Asahi). Bandai helped them, selling various toys in the Super Sentai series somewhere since 1979. And in the 80s, this franchise was just at the peak of popularity, so it would be foolish not to try to agree with TOEI and NET.

During his work in Popy, Bandai and Banpresto Yukimas, overgrown with large ties that he actively used to implement his project. In an interview, he said that this game would be the most welcome gift at the celebration of his anniversary as the president of Banpresto. And that no other things or money will be able to arouse the same joyful feelings.

And after the long struggle of Yukimas, he finally achieved approval from each leader, after which the process of design and development began. There were no less problems.

The producer under the pseudonym Jeepp Hikkorage, who joined Banpresto during the production of this game, believed that the characters should seem equal to many characteristics. For example, take at least the same size. Gundam bugs were at least 18 meters high, the Heroes of Ultraman – from 40 meters, the characters of Kamen Rider were mainly in the limit of average human growth, and in Super Sentai were both ordinary people and hefty bellows. Naturally, a lot of questions and ideas arose, how to realize all this.

Most of all I liked the Sudrdode format (SD), which is why it was he who preferred. This style was created by a high school student named Koji Yokoi. Once he sent his illustration to Model News from Bandai. She was very interested in the editor -in -chief, and during the subsequent agreements, Koji began on a permanent basis for Model News to draw small scenes with the participation of SD armor. Over time, Kodzi became the chief designer of the SD Gundam Series department and has developed many SDs.

SD Format and SD Gundam World Gachapon Warrior Scramble Wars

So, Bandai used this style not only when developing GunPla models, but also in some games. The very first was the SD Gundam World Gachapon Warrior Scramble Wars of 1987, where super -formed armor moved on a large field, and at the collisions participated in a miniature duel.

In the case of the first crossover, the battle was left alone, but they chose the completely opposite genre. The new game was to become not a military strategy, but sports. It is even more interesting that the sumo was chosen as martial arts. Therefore, for each of the franchises (Kamen Rider, Gundam, Super Sentai and Ultraman) have made commands of 5 people. Plus, the fifth group who personifies Banpresto was added as a pleasant bonus. After all, it is she who is the starting point where this project launched.

And then, then no one had already realized that SD Battle Grand Sumo Heisei Hero Place laid the foundation for a new series of games called Compati Hero, which in turn formed the basis of the Super Robot Wars franchise. I will not dwell on the gameplay of this game to avoid self -reproach. I wrote about her and other seven games from the Compati Hero series in the article “Gundam against Godzilla! Compati Hero franchise. Part 1.”

Here I will only say that one copy of the SD Battle Grand Sumo Heisei Hero Place personally presented Yukimas, and after some time on April 20, 1990, the game was released in a small circulation for the nintendo consoles. Naturally, for many it was a surprise that this game began to be in demand. But for Yukimas, a perfect occasion appeared to start new negotiations on the release of new crossovers.

By the way, Makoto Yamasin told the Banpresto leadership so that their company would not compete with the development department of the game software in Bandai itself. In response, he received approximately the following words: “Bandai did not work with such crossovers before, which means there will be no rivalry”.

After the game about Sumoist Heroes on Compati Hero in 1990, two more games were released: SD Hero Total Battle! Evil Army and SD The Great Battle New Challenge. But I will talk about them another time, and now I’m moving to the very first game on the still emerging franchise.

SD Hero Total Battle! Evil Army (left) and sd the Great Battle New Challenge (right)

Super Robot Wars (1991)

In fact, Banpresto had enough resources for the development of Super Robot Wars. Most of the team generally outsourcing, and only the tiny studio of Winkysoft, founded in January 1983, could help with the development. Her team made simple games for both personal computers and portable devices. Closer to 1990, Winkysoft began to work as a subcontractor for Banpresto.

Of course, WinkySoft developers have done high -quality and cardinal work for that time. Initially, in the draft version, the game was called Super Robot RPG, where the main characters were to explore the locks. As an alternative, the Winkysoft team suggested using a large location divided into fields.

Winkysoft released a similar game in 1988 called Akanbe Dragon, where dinosaurs fought with various animals. True, it is more like chess due to limited movement of the characters, but the duel, like in SD Gundam World: Gachapon Senshi Scramble Wars, opened in a separate window. So in Super Robot Wars, to reduce labor costs, all the battles were also brought from a global card into a separate space.

Two types of gameplay in Akanbe Dragon

In addition, minimalism reigned here. The player saw the traced SD models of his hero and enemy. Below them were placed cells responsible for health, and prescribed small sentences imitating verbal skirmish during the battle. Unfortunately, since the game was planned on Game Boy, and it was tight with the resources, the emptiness that arose could not be filled with animation of the blows, so almost all of them looked rustic.

All actions, including the choice of attack, were called in a small window on the main field. And here it was possible to fulfill what was not yet used in other games. Masahiko Sakata, responsible for WinkySoft for design and script, proposed a unique concept of “belief”. He wanted the player to persuade the enemies to go to his side.

For everything to go smoothly, a positive hero needs a high indicator of charisma, while an enemy character must have low loyalty and health indicators. At the same time, they decided that the bosses could not be recruited, but their loyalty is always equal to 0.

And the most interesting thing is that this function worked in the opposite direction. Enemies can also approach the player’s character and start agitating to go to the dark side. With successful action, the ex -brother became an enemy, and from here the difficult choice came from: to destroy him or play the tug of Canatus, persuading him to return home.

Interestingly, fans have revealed a number of features that will help to better conduct a belief. For example, if the boss has health 1 HP, and your fur, on the contrary, is filled to the limit, and even charisma goes off, then there is a chance to break the rules when you can’t take a unit with a loyalty of 0. In addition to this, it was noticed that to convince the enemy from the same fraction as your character is a little easier. Therefore, if you want to call Gandama, it is advisable to send your Gandam to negotiations. But that’s not all! The success of the belief is reduced by about 10 % in one captured tower. As a result, first go to the desired unit, and only then fulfill the main goal of the mission.

As the project developed, it was decided that the central characters were Gandama. After all, Mahi of this franchise was added from almost all the published anime until 1991. They missed only Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket, but turned on the Gundam F91, which was released just a month before the release of the game.

So other bellows are secondary allies, so in this game the robots from the anime Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger, Getter Robo and Getter Robo G were added to them to help them. In the future, this will be the main inseparable trinity, passing from one part to another.

As a result, it turned out that this game required copyright from Sunrise, Toei Animation and Dynamic Productions. The latter was created by the author of Mazinger Z Go Nagai and his comrades, including the creator of Getter Robo Ken Ishikawa. And since their work was animated by the Toei Animation studio, they acted almost on the same conditions.

Different hybrid robots refused. We decided that there would be fuckers of only two main categories: Super and Real. And although the latter is the vast majority, nevertheless, for pathos in the name, they left the word Super.

This game has two more features. So she was the very first after Compati Hero, she also decided to draw full eyes to all the furs. That is, they all became alive, and there were no personal pilots, as in the original series. Plus, the 1991 Super Robot Wars had a multi -user regime that did not appear in the following parts for a long time. You can use it when connecting two Game Boy consoles through a special wire.

As for the main gameplay of the first part, then the player must pass 13 missions, capturing certain towers on the map, while destroying enemies at the same time. There can be 12 units in the detachment, but at first only 5 are available. Before the first mission, you need to select one of the three commands: Gundam, Mazinger Z and Getter Robo G.

After that, it will be given the opportunity to appoint a leader in a detachment who can slightly increase the strength of the attack, health, speed and charisma. If this character is killed, the game will end. Moreover, if members of the detachment die during the battle, then they cannot be revived, but additional copies may appear on the enemy side in subsequent missions.

Of other parameters, there is also “protection” and SP energy, which are spent on replenishment of some characteristics like health, strength or loyalty and is available only to the leader of the detachment. Some robots have transformation skills, for example, Gandah can go into a fighter mode.

In terms of weapons, not everything is simple. Each gun has its own accuracy and power indicators that depend on the location. The affordable arsenal is replenished at the first entry into the tower for locations, but you can distribute finds only when leaving the card. A maximum of 3 combat devices is fucked per unit.

Plus, tools are divided into hand -to -hand and long -range. If you attack from afar, then the enemy will not be able to counterattack, so this method exceeds close battle. But do not forget that it works in the opposite direction: your characters will not be able to answer a blow, even if they have a long -range gun.

By the way, movement also depends on the area. Each fur has a parameter showing where it is easier to move. There are three of them in total: earth, air, water. Accordingly, the earthly type will receive a fine, being on a cell with water, which is expressed in a decrease in the permissible area for the transition.

Well, there were no special bells. Gilgilgun, who takes control of the majority of residents and begins the war, attacks the planet of reasonable robots and begins the war. The remaining heroes learn that special waves broadcast from the towers affect the mind of their comrades. Two main tasks follow from here: to destroy the sources of control of the mind and defeat Gilgilgun.

Super Robot Wars HD (2014)

In 2014, the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita released the remake of the very first part of 1991. The main gameplay features were left unchanged. For convenience, they added a parameter with turning on/off the animation of the blows, made it possible to convince the bosses and allowed all the furs to use skills from SP glasses, although the leader still has special unique techniques. The characters Full Armor Gundam and Cybuster were introduced, which, although not new, were absent in the original part.

The picture is now juicy and colorful, since all the backgrounds and characters are redrawn in a modern manner. The most important addition is 13 new missions that begin after the victory over the creature of Gilgilgun.

This time, the heroes will fall into space and meet both the reborn fur of Gilgilgan and the new final boss named the battle of Noah. The developers made a real challenge to the players, giving 99 health units, which was the highest rate among enemy units. Plus, due to proximity to its base, the indicator is made up for 30% each move. So it was possible to please the old fans and please the new.

A little about copyright

By the way, the early introduction of the 1991 Super Robot Wars game of the Armor from Gundam F91 is still a rare case. After several new parts, Super Robot Wars Banpresto introduced a special rule. If the anime is broadcast on television, then these characters should not wait in the game for about two years so that the fans do not run into spoilers. Although there were more avoided copyright problems. There are a lot of difficulties due to their hard observance.

For example, now there are more than 60 Super Robot Wars franchise games, but less than 10 had an additional release outside of Japan. Take the relatively recent Super Robot Wars X and Super Robot Wars V, which are on the Steam trading platform, but are available for the regions of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean.

So the sale of Super Robot Wars 30 and in the Russian region is a real fairy tale! After all, if at least one company categorically opposes to demonstrate its characters, musical compositions or something else in other countries, then there are extremely few exits from this situation: to agree and leave the game in the homeland or lose a license, and with it part of potential buyers.

Yes, for some it may seem strange or implausible, but such problems were even between TEEI Animation and Dynamic Productions. The former in the 70s without the permission of Dynamic Productions exported animation products to Europe, Asia and America. And in the 80s, Dynamic Productions already wanted to make an OVA under the name DAI-Mazinger secretly from TOEI. It was not possible to do this, and there was a rather large scandal.

So if conflicts arise between the studios within the same franchise, then what can I say when several different companies unite together and each of them wants to snatch a piece.

Super Robot Wars 2 (1991)

So, the game on April 20, 1991, the game Super Robot Wars, released on the consoles of Game Boy, became a real hit. And here the leadership of Banpresto had a dangerous thought: “Why not make the second part by December of the same year?”. Negotiations with Sunrise, Toei Animation and Dynamic Productions began again. And if the latter allowed to add characters from the Ufo Robo Grendizer anime, then difficulties arose with Sunrise. Gandamov, of course, will be provided again for use, but the characters and fuckers from Aura Battler Dunbine remained in the single use of Sunrise.

After that, there was even a rumor that Banpresto decided to get around the refusal by changing the design of the Dunbine combat fur and calling it Cybuster. No matter how you look, there are still certain similarities. However, this is all the time, claiming that the original robot from Banpresto would still appear in Super Robot Wars 2. Especially besides Cybuster, furs called Granzon and Valsion, who also did not have the original source, were added to the game.