Guardian (1986 video game)
A 1986 beat 'em up featuring a robot across six planets.
Guardian is a 1986 side-scrolling beat 'em up arcade game developed by Toaplan and published in Japan by Taito and in North America by Kitkorp. Players control a robot fighting enemies across six futuristic locations. The game is notable for marking the debut of artist Kōetsu Iwabuchi, who later worked on Twin Cobra and Hellfire.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Toaplan
- Publisher
- Taito (JP); Kitkorp (NA)
- Artist
- Kōetsu Iwabuchi
- Composer
- Masahiro Yuge; Tatsuya Uemura
- Platforms
- Arcade
- Released
- March 1986 (JP); May 1986 (NA)
- Genre
- Beat 'em up
- Modes
- Single-player, multiplayer
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
Guardian is a science fiction side-scrolling beat 'em up reminiscent of Kung-Fu Master. The player controls a robot through six increasingly difficult fictional planets, each ending with a boss. The robot is moved with a four-way joystick and attacks with two buttons for punch and kick; the joystick also handles crouching and jumping. Attacks can be performed from standing, crouching, or jumping positions. Three types of items appear as flashing crosses: extra energy, invincibility, and a long-range laser. A red orb on the ground increases punching power up to three times. Hidden bonus secrets help achieve high scores for extra lives. A checkpoint system restarts a downed player at the last checkpoint reached. Running out of energy costs a life and resets power to the original state; losing all lives ends the game unless more credits are inserted. Completing the last stage starts a second loop.
Development and release
Development history was recounted in Japanese publications such as Gamest between 1990 and 2009. Kōetsu Iwabuchi designed the graphics in his first video game role. Former Toaplan composer Tatsuya Uemura stated the title was developed alongside a scrapped project for the Sega System 1. Masahiro Yuge composed the music, with Uemura writing the boss music. Guardian was released in arcades in Japan and North America in March 1986 by Taito and Kitkorp. It was shown at the 1986 AOU Show in Japan and the 1986 ACME show in Chicago. A music album including the game was published in Japan by City Connection under Clarice Disk in July 2018. M2 published every Toaplan game except Mahjong Sisters and Enma Daiō for consoles in Japan, including Guardian. The game appeared in the Kyukyoku Tiger-Heli compilation for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in 2021, and in the Toaplan Arcade 1 compilation for Evercade in 2022.
Reception and legacy
Ichiro Tezuka of Micom BASIC Magazine called Guardian a fun Spartan X-style game due to enemy variety and attack patterns. Toaplan considered the title a commercial failure in arcades. The official world record is held by Will Czeswinski with 1,058,420 points. The game influenced titles such as Locomalito's Star Guardian. Rights to the title are now owned by Tatsujin, a company founded in 2017 by former Toaplan employee Masahiro Yuge, which became part of Embracer Group in 2022.
More in Taito Games of the 1980s
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