Treasure Co. Ltd
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Treasure Co. Ltd (トレジャー) is a Japanese video game developer, founded by former employees of Konami on June 19, 1992.
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History
Before foundation
The core founding members came from various development teams within Konami Tokyo; the most notable being the teams behind the arcade and NES Bucky O'Hare games. The team behind the arcade version included: Hiroshi Iuchi, primary background artist and director of Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga; Norio Hanzawa (aka NON), primary music composer; and Tetsuhiko Kikuchi (aka Han), primary character designer. The team behind the NES version included: Masato Maegawa, CEO and founder; Kaname Shindoh, graphic designer; Hideyuki Suganami, programmer; and Kouichi Kimura, graphic designer.
Contrary to popular belief, no significant employees were involved in the development of Contra: Hard Corps, Super Castlevania IV, or Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose. However, one to three identifiable employees were involved in the following Konami games:
- Aliens (Arcade)
- Axelay (SNES)
- The Castlevania Adventure (Game Boy)
- Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (Game Boy)
- Contra (Game Boy)
- Contra 3: The Alien Wars (SNES)
- Rocket Knight Adventures (Genesis)
- The Simpsons (Arcade)
- Tiny Toon Adventures: Babs' Big Break (Game Boy)
This issue is important and confusing because some critics consider the quality of Treasure's games to be inconsistent. For example, games like Silpheed, Stretch Panic, and Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting appear to share the design aesthetics of other game companies, not Treasure, while games like Super Castlevania IV deceptively seem to have been made by Treasure employees while still at Konami.
After foundation
Treasure is known for intense action games, with a lot of creative work put into the gameplay. Their design aesthetic usually involves taking the basic elements of a genre, adding something new to the play mechanics or controls, as well as adding many new and varied elements into the level design. They are also known for their boss levels, which are almost always the focus of the game. They were also notorious for their explicit policy that forbids themselves to develop sequels of their games (although they have discarded this policy with the release of Advance Guardian Heroes). On older systems, these featured larged multijointed sprite bosses (using a technique where each arm or appendage was a still picture that was rotated for movement instead of the entire boss being one picture).
Games developed by Treasure
Items marked with a '*' were not released in North America/Europe/Australasia.
Arcade
- Ikaruga (斑鳩) (2001, self-published) *
- Radiant Silvergun (1998, self-published) *
Sega Genesis
- Gunstar Heroes (1993, Sega)
- McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure (1993, Sega)
- Dynamite Headdy (1994, Sega)
- Yu Yu Hakusho Makyo Toitsusen (幽☆遊☆白書 魔強統一戦) (1994, Sega) *
- Alien Soldier (1995, Sega)
- Light Crusader (1995, Sega)
Sega Saturn
- Guardian Heroes (1996, Sega)
- Silhouette Mirage (1997, ESP) *
- Radiant Silvergun (1998, ESP) *
Sega Dreamcast
Sega Game Gear
Nintendo 64
- Mischief Makers (ゆけゆけ！トラブルメーカーズ yuke-yuke! Trouble Makers) (1997, Enix)
- Bakuretsu Muteki Bangaioh (爆裂無敵バンガイオー) (1999, ESP) *
- Sin and Punishment: Successor to the Earth (罪と罰 tsumi to batsu) (2000, Nintendo) *
Nintendo GameCube
Nintendo Game Boy Advance
- Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting
- Tiny Toon Adventures: Scary Dreams (aka Tiny Toons: Buster's Bad Dream)
- Astro Boy: Omega Factor (2004, in collaboration with the Sega team, Hitmaker)
- Advance Guardian Heroes (2004, Ubisoft)
- Gunstar Super Heroes (TBA, Sega)
Sony PlayStation
Sony PlayStation 2
- Silpheed: The Lost Planet
- Stretch Panic (aka Freak Out) (ひっぱリンダ hippa linda)
- Tiny Toon Adventures: Defenders of the Looniverse (as of yet unreleased)
- Gradius V (Konami, 2004)
External links
- Treasure HomePage (http://www.treasure-inc.co.jp/) (Japanese)
- SF Kosmo - comprehensive fan site (http://sfkosmo.gamersgraveyard.com/)de:Treasure