Culture Brain Appreciation Thread
Dec 23, 2014 16:03:34 GMT -5
Post by 1983parrothead on Dec 23, 2014 16:03:34 GMT -5
On October 5, 1980, the very obscure and underrated Culture Brain was founded as Nihon Game. Their first game they developed and released was under the "Taiyo System" label, known as Monster Zero. Unfortunately, it hasn't been dumped successfully, and most ROM hackers are too lazy to fix it.
Later on, they started the Hiryu no Ken franchise with Hokuha Syourin Hiryū no Ken (lit. "North Faction Shaolin - Fist of the Flying Dragon") and the Super Chinese franchise with Chinese Hero. The Hiryu no Ken arcade was released in North America by Data East USA as Shanghai Kid:
Around the time they started porting their arcade games mostly (if not only) the Family Computer / Nintendo Entertainment System console, they began changing their name to Culture Brain, while founding their North American branch. They also became notable for their "Ultra Baseball" franchise licensed by NPB, starting with Choujin Ultra Baseball, and their standalone game, Arabian Dream Scheherazade:
Like several third party developers under the Nintendo umbrella, Nintendo of America forced Culture Brain USA to modify their games and their names to make them appealing to overseas customers. Various Hiryu no Ken titles were released from the literal title Flying Dragon to the completely different and confusing Flying Warriors, Fighting Simulator and Ultimate Fighter titles. Ultra Baseball was localized as Baseball Simulator 1000, Arabian Dream Scheherazade was modified from anime to cartoon style and renamed as The Magic of Scheherazade. Now for the Super Chinese franchise, its name came from the Japanese Famicom port of Chinese Hero (known in English as Kung-Fu Heroes). Like other Culture Brain titles, zany names and modifications were applied to the Super Chinese series that don't make enough since, like Little Ninja Brothers, Ninja Boy and for the canceled North American release of Super Chinese Fighter, Galactic Defender. I remember first seeing the Super Chinese franchise with Super Chinese Fighter being mentioned in a GamePro magazine my big brother was subscribed to. Chinese kung-fu and ninjitsu are completely different other than being Asian martial arts.
When Culture Brain USA ended its business, the main Culture Brain in Japan saw Sega's Virtua Fighter becoming influential enough to make Culture Brain start releasing similarly-designed titles in the Hiryu no Ken franchise, like Virtual Hiryu no Ken, Hiryu no Ken Twin, and SD Hiryu no Ken Densetsu (featuring Jack and Ryu from the Super Chinese franchise in the later). Natsume only distributed Hiryū no Ken Twin outside of Japan simply as Flying Dragon for the Nintendo 64.
Other franchises Culture Brain developed and released were the Oshare Princess titles, the Hamster Monogatari (started as Ferret Monogatari) titles, and the Konchuu Monster titles. Nowadays, Culture Brain is still in business, even releasing from old games for Wii U, to new games for Nintendo 3DS.
Later on, they started the Hiryu no Ken franchise with Hokuha Syourin Hiryū no Ken (lit. "North Faction Shaolin - Fist of the Flying Dragon") and the Super Chinese franchise with Chinese Hero. The Hiryu no Ken arcade was released in North America by Data East USA as Shanghai Kid:
Around the time they started porting their arcade games mostly (if not only) the Family Computer / Nintendo Entertainment System console, they began changing their name to Culture Brain, while founding their North American branch. They also became notable for their "Ultra Baseball" franchise licensed by NPB, starting with Choujin Ultra Baseball, and their standalone game, Arabian Dream Scheherazade:
Like several third party developers under the Nintendo umbrella, Nintendo of America forced Culture Brain USA to modify their games and their names to make them appealing to overseas customers. Various Hiryu no Ken titles were released from the literal title Flying Dragon to the completely different and confusing Flying Warriors, Fighting Simulator and Ultimate Fighter titles. Ultra Baseball was localized as Baseball Simulator 1000, Arabian Dream Scheherazade was modified from anime to cartoon style and renamed as The Magic of Scheherazade. Now for the Super Chinese franchise, its name came from the Japanese Famicom port of Chinese Hero (known in English as Kung-Fu Heroes). Like other Culture Brain titles, zany names and modifications were applied to the Super Chinese series that don't make enough since, like Little Ninja Brothers, Ninja Boy and for the canceled North American release of Super Chinese Fighter, Galactic Defender. I remember first seeing the Super Chinese franchise with Super Chinese Fighter being mentioned in a GamePro magazine my big brother was subscribed to. Chinese kung-fu and ninjitsu are completely different other than being Asian martial arts.
When Culture Brain USA ended its business, the main Culture Brain in Japan saw Sega's Virtua Fighter becoming influential enough to make Culture Brain start releasing similarly-designed titles in the Hiryu no Ken franchise, like Virtual Hiryu no Ken, Hiryu no Ken Twin, and SD Hiryu no Ken Densetsu (featuring Jack and Ryu from the Super Chinese franchise in the later). Natsume only distributed Hiryū no Ken Twin outside of Japan simply as Flying Dragon for the Nintendo 64.
Other franchises Culture Brain developed and released were the Oshare Princess titles, the Hamster Monogatari (started as Ferret Monogatari) titles, and the Konchuu Monster titles. Nowadays, Culture Brain is still in business, even releasing from old games for Wii U, to new games for Nintendo 3DS.