| Treasure Company |
Article Index for Treasure |
Website Links For Treasure |
Information AboutTreasure Company |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT TREASURE COMPANY | |
| companies established in 1992 | |
| japanese video game companies | |
| amusement companies of japan | |
| konami | |
| video game developers | |
Treasure Co. Ltd (トレジャー) is a Japan ese Video Game Developer , founded by former employees of Konami on June 19 , 1992 . Treasure is best known for classic-style action games that employ innovative gameplay systems. Their greatest commercial successes have been games like '' Wario World '' and '' Mischief Makers '', but they are better known for their critical successes, such as '' Gunstar Heroes '', '' Ikaruga '', '' Radiant Silvergun '', and '' Bangai-O ''. HISTORY Before foundation Treasure employees were never a real "team" at Konami; they were mostly fairly young, had only been with the company for 2 or 3 years, and no more than 4 of them ever worked on any one game while at Konami. Many of them had never worked with each other before coming to Treasure. The core founding members came from various development teams within Konami Tokyo; the most notable being the teams behind the '' and '' Ikaruga ''; Norio Hanzawa (aka NON), primary music composer; and Tetsuhiko Kikuchi (aka HAN), enemy character designer. The team behind the NES game (which was entirely different) included: Masato Maegawa, CEO and founder; Kaname Shindoh, graphic designer; Hideyuki Suganami, programmer; and Kouichi Kimura, graphic designer. At the time of Treasure's formation, they had around 20 employees, a number which has swelled only slightly to around 30 (though they frequently work with many freelancers who are not employees) Popular myth has falsely attributed many classic Konami games to Treasure staff members' resume. It is important to note that only one to three identifiable employees were involved in the following Konami games (as well as others):
After foundation Treasure is known for intense action games, with a lot of creative gameplay mechanics and flashy boss encounters. Their design ethic 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 very often the focus of the game. 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). They were also once notorious for their apparent policy that forbade developing sequels of their games, although Treasure employees have said on numerous occasions that no such policy existed. Treasure's games are very similar to the ones they produced when they first started. Because of this, while their early games were considered very progressive, and praised for their innovation and graphics which pushed the hardware to its limit, their later games were perceived as old-fashioned or "retro." To this day, only five of their games have had true 3D gameplay. Of those five, ''Wario World'' and '' Sin And Punishment '' were noted for their gameplay conventions that echoed many 2D games, '' Stretch Panic '' received very mixed reviews, and ''Dragon Drive: D Masters Shot'' was a major critical failure. Treasure has never acknowledged ''Dragon Drive'' on their website, and while their name appeared in the credits, it was removed from the box, leading many to believe that they were particularly unhappy with this release. Although they are perhaps best known for their creative and humorous original franchises, they have also produced many licensed games, including ''McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure'', ''Hajime no Ippo: THE FIGHTING'' and '' Wario World ''. At the time of this writing, licensed games and sequels have made up their last 11 releases, with ''Stretch Panic'' being their most recent original (Advance Guardian Heroes and Gunstar Super Heroes were sequels). Treasure is often called a "cult developer" because, while they have a dedicated and loyal following among fans and critics, they very seldom experience mainstream financial success. In the west, their best selling games were '' Mischief Makers '' and '' Wario World '', while critical masterpieces like '' Gunstar Heroes '' and '' Gradius V '' were financial flops. GAMES DEVELOPED BY TREASURE
EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|