Spinja

Last updated

Spinjas is a ratcheted spinning top game created by Tomy and distributed in North America by Parker Brothers in the late 1980s. The game set was sold as a Battle Stadium plastic arena with two Power Winder launchers and two Spinja characters enclosed within the arena, which doubles as a storage case. More characters, launchers, and an oversized playing arena were also made available separately. The objective of the game, similar to Beyblades, is to load your chosen character into the ratcheting launcher and each player would launch their top into the arena at the same time. The tops would ricochet off each other until only one remained spinning or within the arena and that player was declared the winner. Unlike Beyblades, the tops are not customizable and are not associated with any other licensed properties.

Contents

Characters

Spinjas consist of two teams: The Eliminators and The Dread Force; these two warring factions carry out their battles at the Earth's core. [1]

The Eliminators are led by Emperor Gar and his lieutenant, Champion Shotgun. [2] Two groups report to Champion Shotgun: a) The Fire Knights (red) which consist of Volcano, Nightmare, and Iron Top; and b) The Ice Knights (blue) which consist of Trident, Whipshot, and Blowgun.

The Dread Force are ruled by King Dethblo and his "right-hand mutant", Champion Switchblade. [3] They also have two groups known as The Muckers (yellow) which include Bludgeon, Butcher, and Odor; and The Rotters (green) which is made up of the characters Sloth, Slug, and Maggot.

Each team also has a group of four "Stalkers", which act as spies for their respective leaders. Emperor Gar's Stalkers consist of Tangle, Scorcher, Gash, and Blud; while King Dethblo's Stalkers are Mangle, Blowtorch, Klaw, and Gore.

There are a total of 24 characters in the game. The Eliminators and The Dread Force can be distinguished from one another by the colors of their spinning-tips. The Eliminators are steel-tipped and The Dread Force are brass-tipped. Each character is unique and has a slightly different spin due to weight distribution differences.

Spinjas have been re-released in Australia as WWE Spinjas, with different characters, but the same premise and equipment of an arena, and two spinners.

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Beyblade</i> (manga) Japanese manga series

Beyblade, known in Japan as Explosive Shoot Beyblade, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Takao Aoki to promote sales of spinning tops called "Beyblades" developed as a co-production between Takara Tomy and Hasbro. The series focuses on a group of kids who form teams, which battle one another using Beyblades. Originally serialized in Shogakukan's CoroCoro Comic from September 1999 to July 2004, the individual chapters were collected and published in 14 tankōbon volumes and was licensed for English-language release in North America by Viz Media. It was licensed for English releases in Singapore and in Australia and New Zealand by Chuang Yi.

<i>Crash Team Racing</i> 1999 video game

Crash Team Racing is a 1999 kart racing video game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. It is the fourth installment in the Crash Bandicoot series. The game's story focuses on the efforts of Crash Bandicoot, Doctor Neo Cortex, and other ragtag team of characters in the Crash Bandicoot series, who must race against the egomaniacal Nitros Oxide to save the Earth from destruction. In the game, players can take control of one of fifteen Crash Bandicoot series characters, though only eight are available at first. During the races, offensive and speed boosting power-ups can be used to gain an advantage.

<i>Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando</i> 2003 video game

Ratchet & Clank 2: Going Commando, known as Ratchet & Clank 2: Locked and Loaded in Australia and most PAL countries, is a 2003 third-person shooter platform video game developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2. Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando is the second game in the Ratchet & Clank franchise, following Ratchet & Clank. David Kaye reprises his role as Clank while James Arnold Taylor replaces Mikey Kelley as Ratchet.

<i>Jack Bros.</i> 1995 video game

Jack Bros. is an action video game developed and published by Atlus for the Virtual Boy, released in late 1995 in Japan and North America. It is a spin-off from Atlus' video game series Megami Tensei, and was the first entry to be released outside Japan.

<i>Body Harvest</i> 1998 video game

Body Harvest is an action-adventure video game for the Nintendo 64 video game console, developed by DMA Design. It was intended to be a Nintendo 64 launch title, but was delayed due to its original publisher, Nintendo, having issues with the game's violent themes, and eventual dropping of the title, leaving DMA to find a new publisher. It was eventually published by Gremlin Interactive and Midway in 1998.

<i>Ratchet: Deadlocked</i> 2005 action platform game

Ratchet: Deadlocked is a 2005 third-person shooter platformer, developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2 as the fourth installment of the Ratchet & Clank series.

<i>Crash Nitro Kart</i> 2003 video game

Crash Nitro Kart is a 2003 kart racing game for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, and Game Boy Advance; versions for the N-Gage and mobile phones were released in 2004. It is the second racing game in the Crash Bandicoot series after Crash Team Racing and the first game in the series to feature full motion videos.

<i>Beyblade: Super Tournament Battle</i> 2002 video game

Beyblade: Super Tournament Battle, also known as Beyblade V-Force: Super Tournament Battle and Bakuten Shoot Beyblade 2002: Nettou! Magne-tag Battle! in Japan is a Beyblade 2002 role-playing video game. The game was released originally on December 19, 2002 in Japan and was later released in the west in 2003. It is based on the Beyblade V-Force season.

<i>Gotcha Force</i> 2003 video game

Gotcha Force is a fighting / third-person shooter video game developed on HAL Laboratory Sysdolphin engine and published by Capcom for the GameCube in 2003. The game consists primarily of collecting gacha toys and battling with them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crash Bandicoot (character)</span> Fictional video game character

Crash Bandicoot is the title character and main protagonist of the Crash Bandicoot series. Introduced in the 1996 video game Crash Bandicoot, Crash is a mutant eastern barred bandicoot who was genetically enhanced by the series' main antagonist Doctor Neo Cortex and soon escaped from Cortex's castle after a failed experiment in the "Cortex Vortex". Throughout the series, Crash acts as the opposition against Cortex and his schemes for world domination. While Crash has a number of offensive maneuvers at his disposal, his most distinctive technique is one in which he spins like a tornado at high speeds and knocks away almost anything that he strikes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battling Tops</span> Board game

Battling Tops is a children's game invented by Eddy Goldfarb and first manufactured by Ideal in 1968. In the game, players launch spinning tops into an arena with the aim to have the final standing spinning top. The game has similarities to gasing pangkah, a traditional Malay sport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beyblade</span> Spinning and battling tops

Beyblade is a line of spinning-top toys originally developed by Takara, first released in Japan in July 1999, along with a related manga series. Following Takara's merger with Tomy in 2006, Beyblades are now developed by Takara Tomy. Various toy companies around the world have licensed Beyblade toys for their own regions, including Hasbro in most Western countries, Sonokong in South Korea, and Takara Tomy for most Eastern countries.

<i>Godzilla: Unleashed</i> 2007 video game

Godzilla: Unleashed is a 3D fighting video game based on Toho's Godzilla franchise. It was developed by Pipeworks Software and published by Atari. The game was released in North America on November 20, 2007 for PlayStation 2; and on December 5 of the same year for the Wii. A Nintendo DS version, titled Godzilla Unleashed: Double Smash, was also released in North America on December 5, 2007.

<i>Ratchet & Clank</i> Series of platform video games

Ratchet & Clank is a series of action-adventure platform and third-person shooter video games created and developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for PlayStation consoles, such as PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5, with the exclusion of Size Matters and Secret Agent Clank, which were developed by High Impact Games for the PlayStation Portable. The series was exclusive to Sony platforms until Rift Apart received a Windows port in 2023. Despite this however, the intellectual property is still owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment. An animated feature film adaptation was released on April 29, 2016.

Spin Fighters were die-cast metal top toys that were manufactured by Bandai in China from 1993 to 1997. The tops were loaded into launchers, which were then tightly wound by fingertip, and subsequently released into the Spin Fighters Battle Arena or onto a flat surface. The tops battled until the last top spinning was the winner. Spin Fighters tops were about 1 inch across, came in black and gold colors, and bore a prismatic sticker with a character from a TV show or video game. Usually, the black tops represented the "bad guys" and the gold tops represented the "good guys". Spin Fighters were sold two to a package, one gold and one black. Power Launchers and Battle Arenas were available separately or bundled. The tops can be disassembled and worn on jackets, shirts and hats, through any small button hole. Production of Spin Fighters ceased around 1997.

Battle Strikers was a line of magnetically controlled customizable spinning tops. The toyline was released in 2009 by MagNext Toys and Megabloks from Mega Brands.

<i>Marvel Contest of Champions</i> 2014 video game

Marvel Contest of Champions is a 2014 fighting video game developed and published by Kabam. It was released on December 10, 2014, for iOS and Android. The fighting game is primarily set in the Marvel Universe. The game is strongly based on the events of the limited comic book series Contest of Champions. An arcade version was released in 2019, developed by Raw Thrills and exclusive to Dave & Buster's locations.

<i>Rivals of Aether</i> 2017 video game

Rivals of Aether is a platform fighter game created by Dan Fornace, and released for Microsoft Windows in March 2017, for Xbox One in August 2017, and for Nintendo Switch in September 2020. It received positive reception from critics, who commended its deep gameplay.

<i>Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart</i> 2021 video game

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is a 2021 third-person shooter platform game developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The sequel to Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus (2013) and the ninth main installment in the Ratchet & Clank series, it was released for the PlayStation 5 on June 11, 2021. A Windows port, developed by Nixxes Software, was released on July 26, 2023. The game received positive reviews from critics, with particular praise given to its visuals, combat and technical advancements, and had sold over 3.97 million units by June 2023.

References

  1. "THE ELIMINATORS vs. THE DREAD FORCE at war at the earth's core!" - Spinjas instructions booklet, page 1.
  2. "EMPEROR GAR leads this heroic band of steel-tipped warriors who protect him and his kingdom at the center of the earth." - Spinjas instructions booklet, page 1.
  3. "KING DETHBLO[...]has built his mutant army of brass-bottomed mercenaries to help him wrest the throne from his cousin Gar. The vicious, malicious CHAMPION SWITCHBLADE is his right-hand mutant[...]" - Spinjas instructions booklet, page 2.