Battle Series

Banpresto is well known for turning out dozens of anime-based games over the years, but one of their most productive lines died a quiet death in 1999 and is virtually unknown out of Japan: the “Battle” games, which prominently featured characters from the universes of Gundam, Ultraman and Kamen Rider. The first “Battle” game actually came out several months before the first entry in the more well-known Super Robot Wars series, and they certainly took off faster, with more than a dozen titles being produced (most likely with help from other developers) in the next five years.

A notable amount of the games were a sub-series of sorts: the Great Battle games, which commonly featured three protagonists (a Gundam, a Kamen Rider and an Ultraman) and were almost always-action based (whereas most of the regular Battle games were sports-based…..compare with the Kunio-kun games). Somewhere along the line, an original fourth character was added: Roa, a blue-haired guy who seems to be quite handy with a gun.

• SD The Great Battle
• Last Fighter Twin - Shallow beat-em-up
• Great Battle Cyber
• Tekkyu Fight! The Great Battle Gaiden
• The Great Battle III
• The Great Battle Gaiden 2
• The Great Battle IV - Enjoyable creative but consistently repetitive side-scroller
• Super Tekkyu Fight - Odd Bomberman clone without the actual, you know, bombing
• The Great Battle V - Spaghetti Western-themed, with GBIV sidescrolling levels and shooting sequences ripped off from Wild Guns
• The Great Battle VI
• The Great Battle Pocket

Roa cameos: Battle Pinball, Battle Racers, Battle Soccer 2 (minor)

• SD Battle Annual Wrestling Match - Heisei Hero Basho - Possibly the first anime robot sumo wrestling game made - bears further investigation
• Battle Commander - One of the few non-sports games, seems to be an RTS with three different “tribes” of Gundams
• Battle Dodge Ball
• Battle Soccer - Field Champion
• Battle Baseball
• Battle Dodge Ball 2
• Battle Soccer
• Battle Crusher
• Battle Pinball - Four multi-screen pinball tables featuring the Great Battle stars and their many enemies
• Battle Racers - Blatant Mario Kart ripoff, competent but not very noteworthy outside of obscene difficulty later on

Several other games released during the heyday of Battle seem to possibly be related, despite the lack of “Battle” in their titles. Among these are Gaia Saver and Hero Senki for SNES, as well as Versus Hero for Game Boy.