Data East Corporation, also abbreviated as DECO, was a Japanese video game and electronic engineering company. The company was in operation from 1976 to 2003, and released 150 video game titles. Its main headquarters were located in Suginami, Tokyo. The American subsidiary, Data East USA, was headquartered in San Jose, California.
ArtePiazza Co., Ltd. is a video game development and computer graphics studio based in Japan. Their name derives from the Italian words for "art" and "a public square".
Double Dragon is a beat 'em up video game series initially developed by Technōs Japan and released as an arcade game in 1987. The series features twin martial artists, Billy and Jimmy Lee, as they fight against various adversaries and rivals. Due to the popularity of the game series, a 1993 animated series and 1994 live-action film adaptation were produced; these were widely-panned by critics and audiences.
Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball is a 1993 pinball video game developed by Sega Technical Institute and published by Sega. It is a spinoff of the Sonic the Hedgehog series set in the continuity of the Sonic the Hedgehog animated series. Players control Sonic the Hedgehog, who must stop Doctor Robotnik from enslaving the population in a giant pinball-like mechanism. The game is set in a series of pinball machine-like environments, and Sonic acts as a pinball for the majority of the game.
Spyro is a series of platform video games which features the main protagonist Spyro, a dragon. Since the series' introduction in 1998 with the PlayStation game Spyro the Dragon, there have been numerous sequels and a reboot trilogy. Originally published by Sony Computer Entertainment and created by Insomniac Games, the franchise has changed hands and developers numerous times before the rights to the intellectual property were acquired by Activision in 2008.
The Simpsons is an arcade beat 'em up developed and published by Konami released in 1991. It was the first video game based on the Simpsons franchise to be released in North America. The game allows up to four players to control members of the Simpson family as they fight various enemies to rescue the kidnapped Maggie. The game was ported to the Commodore 64 and MS-DOS soon after its launch in the arcades, and was released as The Simpsons Arcade Game on those platforms. It was also released under that title on Xbox Live Arcade for Xbox 360 and PlayStation Network for PlayStation 3 in February 2012, however it has since been removed from both services. In 2021, Arcade1Up announced that it would be releasing a 30th anniversary edition home arcade cabinet.
Digital Extremes is a Canadian video game developer founded in 1993 by James Schmalz. They are best known for creating Warframe, a free-to-play cooperative online action game, and co-creating Epic Games' Unreal series of games. Digital Extremes is headquartered in London, Ontario. In 2014, 61% of the company was sold to Chinese holding company Multi Dynamic, now Leyou, for $73 million. President Michael Schmalz and two partners retained 39% of Digital Extremes, and will continue to manage it. On May 22, 2016 Leyou exercised a call option and now owns 97% of Digital Extremes for a total consideration of $138.2 million US.
Over one hundred video games based on the Star Wars franchise have been released, dating back to some of the earliest home consoles. Some are based directly on films while others rely heavily on the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom, published in 1994, is the first of two arcade games created by Capcom based on the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop role-playing game and set in the Mystara campaign setting. It is a side scrolling beat 'em up with some role-playing video game elements for one to four players. The game was also released on the Sega Saturn, packaged with its sequel, Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara, under the title Dungeons & Dragons Collection, although the Saturn version limited the gameplay to only two players. In 2013, both games were re-released for modern platforms as Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara.
Cyber Troopers Virtual-On is a series of video games created by Sega AM3. The series was created by Juro Watari. The original series was first published for arcades in January 1996. The game features fast, action-oriented gameplay requiring quick reflexes. It has seen four iterations to date and has been ported to several video game consoles.
Dragon Ball Z: Idainaru Dragon Ball Densetsu is a 1996 fighting video game co-developed by BEC and Tose and published by Bandai for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. Based upon Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball franchise, following the Saiyan arc to the conclusion of the Majin Buu saga, it is the first three-dimensional fighting game in the series prior to Budokai Tenkaichi. Its gameplay consists of three-on-three fights taking place on free-roaming 3D arenas, using a main six-button configuration, featuring special moves as well as three playable modes.
Zen Studios is a Hungarian video game developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software with headquarters in Budapest, Hungary and offices in the United States. It is known for its game franchises, Pinball FX and Zen Pinball, as well as CastleStorm, a tower defense hybrid which received the Apple Store's Editor’s Choice award. The company is considered "synonymous with licensed pinball tables," having produced dozens of tables with characters and themes from the Star Wars and Marvel universes, films like Guardians of the Galaxy, TV series like Archer, South Park, Family Guy and Bob's Burgers, and video game franchises such as Plants vs. Zombies, Portal, Street Fighter, and The Walking Dead.
The Japan Game Awards is the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's awards ceremony, which was created in 1996 as the CESA Awards. While it represents the Japanese video game industry, it is not limited to Japanese video games, but also includes international video games.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is an open world action role-playing video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the fifth main installment in The Elder Scrolls series, following 2006's The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 on November 11, 2011.
Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below is a hack and slash game developed by Omega Force and published by Square Enix. It was released for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 in Japan in February 2015, and in North America, Australia and Europe only for PlayStation 4 in October 2015. It was later released for Microsoft Windows in December 2015. The game received generally positive reviews, with a sequel Dragon Quest Heroes II being released in Japan during May 2016. Dragon Quest Heroes would later be released with the sequel in a compilation for Nintendo Switch in Japan.
The Japanese video game magazine Famitsu assigns scores to video games by having four reviewers each give a score from 0 to 10. The scores of the four reviewers are then added up for a maximum possible score of 40. From the twenty seven games awarded with a perfect score as of 2021, three are for the Nintendo DS and five are for the Wii. The PlayStation 3 also has five games with a perfect score and the Xbox 360 has four, with both consoles having two titles in common. The others are for different platforms with only one title each. Franchises with multiple perfect score winners include The Legend of Zelda with four, Metal Gear with three, followed by Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy with two.
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square Enix. An entry in the long-running Dragon Quest video game series, it was released in Japan for the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation 4 in July 2017, and worldwide for the PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows in September 2018. An enhanced version, Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition, was released for Nintendo Switch in September 2019, for PlayStation 4, Windows and Xbox One in December 2020, and for Stadia in March 2021.
Pinball FX 3 is a pinball simulator video game developed and published by Zen Studios and released for Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 in September 2017 and then released for the Nintendo Switch in December 2017.
