Games - Treasure Co. Ltd

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	Games - Treasure Co. Ltd

Treasure Co. Ltd (トレジャー) is a Japanese video game developer, founded by former employees of Konami on June 19, 1992.

History

Before foundation

The core founding members came from various development teams within Konami Tokyo; the most notable being the teams behind the arcade and NES Bucky O'Hare games. The team behind the arcade version included: Hiroshi Iuchi, primary background artist and director of Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga; Norio Hanzawa (aka NON), primary music composer; and Tetsuhiko Kikuchi (aka Han), primary character designer. The team behind the NES version included: Masato Maegawa, CEO and founder; Kaname Shindoh, graphic designer; Hideyuki Suganami, programmer; and Kouichi Kimura, graphic designer.

Contrary to popular belief, no significant employees were involved in the development of Contra: Hard Corps, Super Castlevania IV, or Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose. However, one to three identifiable employees were involved in the following Konami games:

Aliens (Arcade)
Axelay (SNES)
Bucky O'Hare (Arcade/NES)
The Castlevania Adventure (Game Boy)
Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (Game Boy)
Contra (Game Boy)
Contra III: The Alien Wars (SNES
)
Rocket Knight Adventures (Genesis)
The Simpsons (Arcade)
Tiny Toon Adventures: Babs' Big Break (Game Boy)

This issue is important and confusing because some critics consider the quality of Treasure's games to be inconsistent. For example, games like Silpheed, Stretch Panic, and Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting appear to share the design aesthetics of other game companies, not Treasure, while games like Super Castlevania IV deceptively seem to have been made by Treasure employees while still at Konami.

After foundation

Treasure is known for intense action games, with a lot of creative work put into the gameplay. Their design aesthetic usually involves taking the basic elements of a genre, adding something new to the play mechanics or controls, as well as adding many new and varied elements into the level design. They are also known for their boss levels, which are almost always the focus of the game. On older systems, these featured larged multijointed sprite bosses (using a technique where each arm or appendage was a still picture that was rotated for movement instead of the entire boss being one picture). They were also once notorious for their apparently explicit policy that forbade themselves to develop sequels of their games, although Treasure employees have said on numerous occasions that no such policy existed.

Games developed by Treasure

Items marked with a '*' were not released in North America/Europe/Australasia.

Arcade

Ikaruga (斑鳩) (2001, self-published) *
Radiant Silvergun (1998, self-published) *

Sega Genesis

Gunstar Heroes (1993, Sega
)
McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure (1994, Sega)
Dynamite Headdy (1994, Sega)
Yu Yu Hakusho Makyo Toitsusen (幽☆遊☆白書魔強統一戦) (1994, Sega) *
Alien Soldier (1995, Sega)
Light Crusader
(1995, Sega)

Sega Saturn====

Guardian Heroes (1996, Sega)
Silhouette Mirage (1997, ESP
) *
Radiant Silvergun (1998, ESP) *

Sega Dreamcast====

Bangai-O (1999, ESP)
Ikaruga (斑鳩) (2002, ESP) *

Sega Game Gear====

Dynamite Headdy
Gunstar Heroes

Nintendo 64====

Mischief Makers (ゆけゆけ！トラブルメーカーズ yuke-yuke! Trouble Makers) (1997, Enix
)
Bakuretsu Muteki Bangaioh (爆裂無敵バンガイオー) (1999, ESP) *
Sin and Punishment: Successor to the Earth (罪と罰 tsumi to batsu) (2000, Nintendo
) *

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