Guardian (1986 video game)

Guardian[lower-alpha 1] is a 1986 side-scrolling beat 'em up arcade video game developed by Toaplan and published in Japan by Taito and North America by Kitkorp. In the game, players assume the role of a robot fighting against a multitude of enemies and bosses across six locations on a futuristic science fiction setting. It is notable for marking the debut of Twin Cobra and Hellfire artist Kōetsu Iwabuchi in the video game industry, serving as its graphic designer, as well as for being one of the few titles by Toaplan that has not received any official port to home consoles as of date.

This article is about the 1986 arcade video game. For the 1994 video game, see Guardian (video game). For other uses, see Guardian.
Guardian
Developer(s)Toaplan
Publisher(s)
Artist(s)Kōetsu Iwabuchi
Composer(s)Masahiro Yuge
Tatsuya Uemura
Platform(s)Arcade
Release
  • JP: March 1986
  • NA: May 1986
Genre(s)Beat 'em up
Mode(s)

Guardian was considered a financial flop in arcades for Toaplan. As of 2019, the rights to the title is owned by Tatsujin, a company founded in 2017 by former Toaplan member Masahiro Yuge and now-affiliate of Japanese arcade manufacturer exA-Arcadia alongside many other IPs from the defunct studio.

Gameplay
Gameplay screenshot.

Guardian is a science fiction-themed side-scrolling beat 'em up game reminiscent of Kung-Fu Master, where players assume the role of a robot through six increasingly difficult fictional planets, each with a boss at the end that must be fought before progressing any further as the main objective.[1][2]

The player controls the robot with a four-way joystick and two attack buttons to punch and kick. The joystick is not only used for crouching, but for jumping as well. Punches and kicks are performed from either a standing, crouching or jumping position.[2] Along the way, there are three types of items that appear as flashing crosses: extra energy stock, invincibility and a long-range laser weapon.[1][2] On occasions, a red orb spawns on the ground and when picked up, increases the robot's punching power up to three times.[1][2]

The game hosts hidden bonus secrets to be found, which are crucial for reaching high-scores to obtain extra lives.[1] The title uses a checkpoint system in which a downed single player will start off at the beginning of the checkpoint they managed to reach before dying. Running out of energy will result in losing a live, as well as a penalty of decreasing the robot's power to his original state and once all lives are lost, the game is over unless the players insert more credits into the arcade machine to continue playing. After completing the last stage, the game begins again with the second loop.[2]

Development and release

Guardian's development process and history were recounted between 1990 and 2009 through Japanese publications such as Gamest.[3][4] Kōetsu Iwabuchi designed the game's graphics in his first video game role prior to Twin Cobra and Hellfire.[3] Former Toaplan composer Tatsuya Uemura stated that the title was developed alongside another project intended for the Sega System 1 that was ultimately scrapped.[4] The music was composed by Masahiro Yuge, although Uemura wrote the boss music.[5][6] Guardian was released only in arcades across Japan and North America on March 1986 by Taito and Kitkorp.[7] It was showcased in Japan at the 1986 AOU Show and for the first time in North America during the 1986 ACME show in Chicago before launch.[8][9] On 25 July 2018, an album containing music from the title, as well as from other Toaplan games was published exclusively in Japan by City Connection under their Clarice Disk label.[6] In 2019, Japanese company M2 announced that in 2020 they will release every game by Toaplan (excluding Mahjong Sisters and Enma Daiō) for consoles in Japan including Guardian.[10][11][12]

Reception and legacy

Ichiro Tezuka of Japanese publication Micom BASIC Magazine regarded Guardian as a fun Spartan X-style game due to the enemy variety and attack patterns on each planet.[8] According to Toaplan, however, the title was a commercial failure in arcades.[3][13] The official world record for the game is held by Will Czeswinski with 1,058,420 points.[14] Despite its failure, the game served as an influence for titles such as Locomalito's upcoming Star Guardian.[15] In more recent years, the rights to the title and many other IPs from Toaplan are now owned by Tatsujin, a company named after Truxton's Japanese title that was founded in 2017 by former Toaplan employee Masahiro Yuge, who are now affiliated with arcade manufacturer exA-Arcadia.[16][17][18][19][20]

Notes
  1. Also known as Get Star (Japanese: ゲットスター, Hepburn: Getto Sutā) in Japan.

References
  1. Get Star arcade flyer (Taito, JP)
  2. "GET STAR" (in Japanese). Shooting Star. Archived from the original on 2019-10-21. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  3. "東亜プラン". Gamest (in Japanese). No. 49. Shinseisha. September 1990. pp. 68–69. (Translation by Shmuplations. Archived 2019-11-07 at the Wayback Machine).
  4. Iona; VHS; K-HEX (June 2009). "東亜プラン FOREVER". Floor 25 (in Japanese). Vol. 9. (Translation by Gamengai. Archived 2020-10-10 at the Wayback Machine).
  5. Abeto, Kobatsu (September 1989). "東亜プランインタビュー". PSG (in Japanese). Vol. 10. FSG. (Translation by Shmuplations. Archived 2017-05-31 at the Wayback Machine).
  6. "CDST-10067 | Toaplan ARCADE SOUND DIGITAL COLLECTION Vol.8". vgmdb.net. VGMdb. Archived from the original on 2019-12-08. Retrieved 2019-12-07.
  7. Akagi, Masumi (13 October 2006). タイトー (Taito); 東亜プラン (Toa Plan); Sun Corp (Kitkorp - Sunsoft); G. アーケードTVゲームリスト 国内•海外編 (1971-2005) (in Japanese) (1st ed.). Amusement News Agency. pp. 43, 50, 136, 154. ISBN 978-4990251215.
  8. Tezuka, Ichiro (May 1986). "Video Game - AOU 1986 アミューズメント • エキスポ速報!: タイトー - ゲットスター". Micom BASIC Magazine (in Japanese). No. 47. The Dempa Shimbunsha Corporation. p. 241.
  9. "Dedicated games, merchandisers mark ACME". Play Meter. Vol. 12 no. 5. Skybird Publishing. April 1986. pp. 16–30.
  10. Wong, Alistair (December 7, 2019). "M2 To Bring Nearly All Toaplan Games To Modern Home Consoles". Siliconera. Curse LLC. Archived from the original on 2019-12-07. Retrieved 2020-07-04.
  11. Romano, Sal (December 7, 2019). "M2 to release nearly every Toaplan game for console starting 2020 in Japan - Mahjong Sisters and Enma Daiou not included". Gematsu. Archived from the original on 2019-12-07. Retrieved 2020-07-04.
  12. Muñoz, José David (December 8, 2019). "Snow Bros. Truxton y más juegos de Toaplan llegarán a PS4, Nintendo Switch y Xbox One". Hobby Consolas (in Spanish). Axel Springer SE. Archived from the original on 2019-12-08. Retrieved 2020-07-04.
  13. Lambie, Ryan (21 June 2018). "Toaplan: the rise and fall of Japan's greatest shooting game company". Den of Geek. Dennis Publishing. Archived from the original on 21 June 2018. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  14. "Guardian". arcade-history.com. Archived from the original on 2016-04-09. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  15. david (July 2014). "Zona Indie: Star Guardian". RetroManiac (in Spanish). No. 9. RetroManiac Magazine. pp. 268–271.
  16. "ライセンス事業" (in Japanese). TATSUJIN Co., Ltd. 2019. Archived from the original on 2018-12-25. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  17. Bravo, Roberto (12 September 2018). "Nueva compañía "Tatsujin" asegura tener gran parte de las IPs de la extinta Toaplan" (in Spanish). Gamercafe. Archived from the original on 2019-10-21. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  18. "Tatsujin". exA-Arcadia. 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-10-21. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  19. Bravo, Roberto (25 January 2019). "Tatsujin, los dueños de Toaplan, anuncian que están trabajando para exA-Arcadia" (in Spanish). Gamercafe. Archived from the original on 2019-10-21. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  20. "［JAEPO2019］TATSUJINやナツメアタリの参入が発表されたexA-Arcadia。出展コーナーの模様を紹介". 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). Aetas Inc. 26 January 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-10-21. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
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