Introduction Shatterhand was developed by Natsume, with programming by Kazuhiko Ishihara, art from Shunichi Taniguchi, Norihide Mizoguchi, and Sachiko Matsuura, and music by Iku Mizutani and Hiroyuki Iwatsuki, originally releasing in Japan in October 1991 under Angel (a Bandai label) as a licensed tie-in to the live-action tokusatsu series Super Rescue Solbrain. For the Western…
Introduction Mega Man 6 was developed by Capcom and released in Japan in October 1993, but by that point Capcom’s Japanese arm had largely moved on from the aging NES, so for the first time Nintendo of America stepped in to co-fund and publish the game in the West itself, bringing it to North America…
Introduction Mega Man 5 was directed by Ichiro Mihara and produced by Tokuro Fujiwara, with Keiji Inafune once again handling character design, and released in Japan in December 1992 as part of Capcom’s continued annual cadence for the series. Rather than reinvent the formula, the team focused on refinement, again running a public design contest…
Introduction Mega Man 4 was developed and published by Capcom, produced by Tokuro Fujiwara with Keiji Inafune continuing on as character designer, and released in Japan in December 1991 under the studio’s push for annual sequels following the series’ continued commercial success, reaching North America the following month. The biggest gameplay addition was the Mega…
Introduction Mega Man 3 was developed by Capcom and released in Japan in September 1990 and North America that November, arriving under a troubled production: original director Akira Kitamura had left the company, and his replacement, programmer Masahiko Kurokawa, clashed with the rest of the team over the series’ direction badly enough that lead artist…
Introduction Balloon Fight was developed by Nintendo together with HAL Laboratory, produced by Gunpei Yokoi, designed by Yoshio Sakamoto, and programmed in part by a young Satoru Iwata in one of his earliest collaborations with Nintendo before he went on to lead the company as its president. It debuted as the arcade cabinet VS. Balloon…
Introduction Ice Climber was developed by Nintendo R&D1, directed by Kenji Miki with Masayuki Uemura and Shigeru Miyamoto producing, and programmed by Kazuaki Morita and Toshihiko Nakago, releasing in Japan in January 1985 and reaching North America that October on both the NES and the arcade VS. System. It came right after the same core…
Introduction Blaster Master was developed and published by Sunsoft, a studio better known during the 8- and 16-bit era for licensed tie-in games, with directors Hiroaki Higashiya and Koichi Kitazumi, designer Kenji Sada, and composer Naoki Kodaka leading a small team of around five people on what became the company’s one original flagship franchise. It…
Introduction Kid Icarus was developed by Nintendo R&D1 with outside assistance from Tose, directed by Satoru Okada with Yoshio Sakamoto co-directing and streamlining much of the design, and produced by Gunpei Yokoi, arriving on the Famicom Disk System in Japan in December 1986 before an NES cartridge release the following July. The team picked up…
Introduction Battletoads was developed by Rare and published by Tradewest, designed by Tim and Chris Stamper with a soundtrack by David Wise, and built with the explicit goal of giving Rare its own answer to the era’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles craze. It released on the NES in North America and Japan in June 1991,…
Introduction Double Dragon began as a 1987 arcade beat ’em up developed by Technos Japan and distributed by Taito, a spiritual successor to Technos’s earlier Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun that added two-player co-op and the ability to pick up and use a disarmed enemy’s own weapon, quickly becoming one of the genre’s foundational hits. Technos ported…
Introduction Ninja Gaiden was developed and published by Tecmo for the NES, directed by Hideo Yoshizawa with art by Masato Kato, released in Japan in December 1988 and in North America the following March. It ran in parallel with an unrelated arcade beat ’em up of the same name built by a different team, sharing…