Asmik Ace, Inc., formerly Asmik Ace Entertainment, Inc. is a Japanese film production and distribution company. In the past, the company has distributed video games. It was formed in 1997 through a merger between the Asmik Corporation and Ace Entertainment, both in Japan. The name Asmik comes from its three founding companies: Ask, Sumitomo and Kodansha. The company is headquartered on the third floor of the Lapiross Roppongi building in Minato, Tokyo, and is a wholly owned division of Jupiter Telecommunications (J:COM).
In the history of video games, the fourth generation of video game consoles, more commonly referred to as the 16-bit era, began on October 30, 1987, with the Japanese release of NEC Home Electronics' PC Engine. Though NEC released the first console of this era, sales were mostly dominated by the rivalry between Sega and Nintendo across most markets: the Sega Mega Drive and the Super Nintendo. Cartridge-based handheld game consoles became prominent during this time, such as the Nintendo Game Boy, Atari Lynx, Sega Game Gear and TurboExpress.
Contra is a 1987 run and gun video game developed and published by Konami for arcades. A home version was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988, along with ports for various home computer formats, including the MSX2. The arcade and computer versions were localized as Gryzor in Europe, and the NES version as Probotector in the PAL region.
Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers is a 1993 competitive fighting game produced by Capcom and originally released as an arcade game. It is the fourth game in the Street Fighter II sub-series of Street Fighter games, following Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting (1992). It refines and balances the existing character roster from the previous versions, and introduces four new characters, including Cammy and Dee Jay. It is the first game on Capcom's CP System II hardware, with more sophisticated graphics and audio over the original CP System hardware used in previous versions of Street Fighter II.
1995 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as Dragon Quest VI, Mega Man 7, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, and Tekken 2, along with new titles such as Mario's Picross, Battle Arena Toshinden, Chrono Trigger, Rayman, Twisted Metal, Star Wars: Dark Forces, Destruction Derby, Wipeout and Jumping Flash!
1994 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as Super Metroid, Donkey Kong Country, Final Fantasy VI, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Super Street Fighter II Turbo and Virtua Fighter 2 and Doom II, along with new titles such as Daytona USA, Ace Driver, Alpine Racer and Tekken.
1993 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as Dragon Ball Z: Super Butōden, Mortal Kombat II, Secret of Mana, and Super Street Fighter II, alongside new titles such as Star Fox, FIFA International Soccer, Doom, Gunstar Heroes, Myst, Samurai Shodown, Ridge Racer, NBA Jam, Disney's Aladdin, and Virtua Fighter.
1988 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as Dragon Quest III, Super Contra, Super Mario Bros. 2, Mega Man 2, Double Dragon II: The Revenge, and Super Mario Bros. 3, along with new titles such as Assault, Altered Beast, Capcom Bowling, Ninja Gaiden, RoboCop, Winning Run and Chase H.Q.
1986 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as Super Mario Bros. 2, along with new titles such as Arkanoid, Bubble Bobble, Castlevania, Dragon Quest, Ikari Warriors, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Out Run and R.B.I. Baseball. The year's highest-grossing arcade video games were Hang-On in Japan, Hang-On and Gauntlet in the United States, and Nemesis (Gradius) in London. The year's best‑selling home system was the Nintendo Entertainment System (Famicom) for the third year in a row, while the year's best-selling home video games in Western markets were Super Mario Bros. in the United States and Yie Ar Kung-Fu in the United Kingdom.
The Super NES Mouse, sold as the Super Famicom Mouse in Japan, is a peripheral created by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released in 1992, on July 14 in Japan, in August in North America, and on December 10 in Europe. Originally designed for use with the game Mario Paint, the Super NES Mouse was sold in a bundle with the game and included a plastic mouse pad. Soon after its introduction, several other titles were released with Mouse support.
Captain America and the Avengers is a beat 'em up arcade game developed and released by Data East in 1991. It features the Avengers team of Marvel Comics characters in a side-scrolling brawling and shooting adventure to defeat the evil Red Skull. The game received ports for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy and Game Gear. A different Data East game was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Legend is a side-scrolling hack and slash beat 'em up video game developed by Arcade Zone and originally published in North America by Seika Corporation in April 1994 and later in Europe by Sony Electronic Publishing on December 21 of the same year for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the first game to be solely developed by the duo of Carlo Perconti and Lyes Belaidouni at Arcade Zone, who both would later go on to found Toka and HyperDevbox Japan respectively.
Street Fighter is a Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fighting games developed and published by Capcom. The first game in the series was released in 1987, followed by six other main series games, various spin-offs and crossovers, and numerous appearances in other media. Its best-selling 1991 release Street Fighter II established many of the conventions of the one-on-one fighting genre.
Bionic Commando, originally released as Hitler's Resurrection: Top Secret in Japan, is a platform game released by Capcom for the Family Computer and Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988. It is based on the 1987 arcade game Bionic Commando.
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on July 15, 1983, as the Family Computer (Famicom). It was released in US test markets as the redesigned NES in October 1985, and fully launched in the US the following year. The NES was distributed in Europe, Australia, and parts of Asia throughout the 1980s under various names. As a third-generation console, it mainly competed with Sega's Master System.
Super Contra, known as Super Contra: The Alien Strikes Back in Japan, is a run and gun video game by Konami, originally released as a coin-operated arcade video game in January 1988. It is the sequel to the original Contra and part of the Contra series. The game stars Bill Rizer and Lance Bean as they are sent to thwart another alien invasion from the vicious Red Falcon.
Contra III: The Alien Wars is a 1992 run and gun video game developed and published by Konami for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It is the third home console entry in the Contra series after Contra (1988) and Super C (1990) for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). In PAL regions, it was retitled Super Probotector: Alien Rebels and the player characters were replaced with robots. The player is tasked with fighting off an alien invasion of Earth across six stages. Four stages feature side-scrolling action traditional to the series while two are presented from an overhead perspective. It is the first Contra title to have been directed by Nobuya Nakazato who later directed other games in the series. He designed Contra III to feature more comical elements, a more cinematic soundtrack, and tighter stage design than its predecessors.
Captain Commando is a 1991 beat 'em up game originally developed and published by Capcom as an arcade video game, and later ported to several other platforms. It was the seventeenth game produced for the company's CP System hardware. The game stars the titular superhero who was originally conceived as a fictional spokesman used by Capcom USA in the company's console games during the late 1980s. The game was included in Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle compilation title, which was released digitally for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows in September 2018.
Nightmare Busters is a 2013 run and gun action video game developed by Arcade Zone and Super Fighter Team for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the first new game for the console in North America since Frogger (1998), fourteen years after being discontinued in North America. A mobile phone version called Flynn's Adventure was released in 2004. A revival titled Nightmare Busters: Rebirth was announced in 2021 for consoles and PC. The game follows the leprechaun twin brothers Flynn and Floyd on their journey to stop Tyrant from infiltrating and turning children's dreams into nightmares. The player is tasked with fighting off enemies by using playing cards and magic attacks across six stages, populated with an assortment of obstacles.
In the video game industry, a console war describes the competition between two or more video game console manufacturers in trying to achieve better consumer sales through more advanced console technology, an improved selection of video games, and general marketing around their consoles. While console manufacturers are generally always trying to out-perform other manufacturers in sales, these console wars engage in more direct tactics to compare their offerings directly against their competitors or to disparage the competition in contrast to their own, and thus the marketing efforts have tended to escalate in back-and-forth pushes.
