Ninja Gaiden is a media franchise based on action video games by Tecmo featuring the ninja Ryu Hayabusa as its protagonist. The series was originally known as Ninja Ryukenden in Japan. The word "gaiden" in the North American Ninja Gaiden title means "side story" in Japanese. The original arcade version, first two Nintendo Entertainment System games and Game Boy game were released as Shadow Warriors in PAL regions. As of 2008, the series has shipped over 7.7 million copies.
Hack and slash, also known as hack and slay or slash 'em up, refers to a type of gameplay that emphasizes combat with melee-based weapons. They may also feature projectile-based weapons as well as secondary weapons. It is a sub-genre of beat 'em up games, which focuses on melee combat, usually with swords.
Onimusha is a series of video games developed and published by Capcom. It makes use of the historic figures that shaped Japan's history, retelling their stories with supernatural elements. Most of the games are of the action-adventure genre, a combination of third-person hack-and-slash combat and puzzle elements. The player protagonist wields the power of the Oni, enabling them to fight the Genma, the main enemy in the series. As of June 2024, the series has sold a total of 8.7 million copies worldwide, making it Capcom's tenth best-selling franchise, behind Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, Street Fighter, Mega Man, Devil May Cry, Dead Rising, Dragon's Dogma, Ace Attorney, and Marvel vs. Capcom.
Dead or Alive is a Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fighting games developed by Team Ninja and published by Koei Tecmo. The gameplay of the series is primarily composed of fast-paced hand-to-hand combat in a 3-Dimensional playing field that began with the first game released in 1996, followed by five main sequels, numerous updates, spin-offs, printed media, a film adaptation, and merchandise.
The following article is a broad timeline of arcade video games.
Team Ninja is a Japanese video game developer, and a division of Koei Tecmo, founded in 1995 as Tecmo Creative #3, and was a division of Tecmo. It was founded by Tomonobu Itagaki, and the team is best known for franchises such as Ninja Gaiden, Dead or Alive and Nioh.
A beat 'em up is a video game genre featuring hand-to-hand combat against a large number of opponents. Traditional beat 'em ups take place in scrolling, two-dimensional (2D) levels, while a number of modern games feature more open three-dimensional (3D) environments with yet larger numbers of enemies. The gameplay tends to follow arcade genre conventions, such as being simple to learn but difficult to master, and the combat system tends to be more highly developed than other side-scrolling action games. Two-player cooperative gameplay and multiple player characters are also hallmarks of the genre. Most of these games take place in urban settings and feature crime-fighting and revenge-based plots, though some games may employ historical, science fiction or fantasy themes.
Ayane is a fictional character in the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden franchises by Team Ninja and Tecmo. She debuted as a hidden unlockable character in the PlayStation version of the fighting game Dead or Alive in 1998, and has appeared in all of its sequels where she served as the protagonist of Dead or Alive 3, and has appeared in all of the series' spin-offs.
Onimusha Blade Warriors is a 2003 fighting game developed and published by Capcom for the PlayStation 2. A spin-off of the Onimusha series, Blade Warriors is a 2D fighter game featuring many of the characters of the Onimusha franchise.
Ninja Gaiden is a side-scrolling, hack & slash, platform-action video game developed by SIMS and released by Sega for the Master System in 1992, with license from Tecmo.
Soundelux Design Music Group is an American sound studio located in Hollywood, California.
Koei Tecmo Holdings Co., Ltd. is a Japanese video game, amusement and anime holding company created in 2009 by the merger of Koei and Tecmo. Koei Tecmo Holdings owns several companies, the biggest one of those being its flagship video game developer and publisher Koei Tecmo Games that was founded in 1978 as Koei. Known as Tecmo Koei until the names were reversed in 2014, the company had occasionally used the "Koei" and "Tecmo" brand names on new video games for marketing purposes until 2016.
M2 Co., Ltd. is a Japanese video game developer and publisher, best known for handling emulation of re-released games, such as some Sega Ages titles, Virtual Console titles for Nintendo systems, the 3D Classics series for the Nintendo 3DS and their ShotTriggers range of classic STG games. M2 has also created entirely new titles such as WiiWare games for Konami under the ReBirth moniker and more recently a new GG Aleste game. In addition, M2 currently holds the rights of Aleste series and all NEC Avenue and NEC Interchannel games on TurboGrafx-16 and variants, previously owned by Lightweight.
Marvelous Inc. is a Japanese video game developer and publisher, and anime producer. The company was founded in 1997 but formed in its current state in October 2011 by the merger of the original Marvelous Entertainment with AQ Interactive, and Liveware.
Senran Kagura is a multimedia franchise created by Kenichiro Takaki and developed primarily by Tamsoft and Marvelous. The series debuted in Japan in 2011 with the release of Senran Kagura: Shōjo-tachi no Shinei for the Nintendo 3DS and debuted abroad in 2013 with Senran Kagura Burst. The franchise has since expanded into numerous video games, manga adaptations, anime series, and merchandise.
BigHit Series are video games for the Korean Sony PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable consoles that have been officially re-released at a lower price by Sony and third parties that meet specific criteria. While the term "BigHit series" only applies to selections in South Korea, equivalent programs exist in North America, PAL territories and Japan and Asia.
AltJapan Co., Ltd. is a Tokyo based company specializing in the translation and localization of Japanese entertainment. It is particularly active in manga and video game localization. It specializes in Japanese-to-English and English-to-Japanese translation, but also handles European language localization as well. It has worked on titles for companies including Capcom, Koei-Tecmo, Namco-Bandai, Konami, Taito, Square-Enix, and Platinum Games. Credits include Dragon Quest VIII, the Ninja Gaiden series, the Dynasty Warriors Gundam series, Lollipop Chainsaw,Lost Planet 3, and the 2014 remake of Strider.
PlayStation Experience, also known as PSX, is an annual event for the video game industry presented by Sony Interactive Entertainment used to reveal and advertise PlayStation games and game-related merchandise. The event is open to the public and showcases various panels and many unreleased games, with playable demos.
Omega Force is a Japanese video game developer and a division of Koei Tecmo, founded in 1996 by Akihiro Suzuki and Kenichi Ogasawara, and is best known for the Dynasty Warriors video games.
