Genki (company)
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Parent Daikoku Denki | | |
Website | www |
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Genki Co., Ltd. (元気株式会社, Genki Kabushiki Kaisha) is a Japanese video game developer. It was founded in October 1990 by Hiroshi Hamagaki and Tomo Kimura, who left Sega to form the company. The company is best known for its racing game titles.
Genki was started by a group of creators with the motto of "unconventional''. People who enjoy what they like gather together and continue to provide "interesting!" and "fun!" to everyone.[1]
History
In its early years, Genki released games in different genres, looking for its niche. On one end of the spectrum, there was
They developed two
Genki found its niche in 1994 with the release of Shutokō Battle '94 Keichii Tsuchiya Drift King for the SNES—the first in a long-running series of racing games. Shutokou Battle 2 followed one year later, in 1995, and was also for the SNES.
Within the same year, Genki shifted towards developing 3D games, continuing the
Shutokou Battle
Continuing with the genre that was consistently the most rewarding for them, Genki continued the
In 2002,
GRP: Genki Racing Project
In response to the success of their racing titles, particularly the Shutokou Battle series, Genki established a division dedicated to that genre in 2003 called the Genki Racing Project, or GRP. The GRP's first title was Shutokou Battle Online for Microsoft Windows, which tried to apply an MMO-like aspect to the existing gameplay of the series. The game and its update version were sold only in Japan but were playable from anywhere as free online trial versions (with free registration) were available for download on the game's website.
Less than two months later, the GRP released the
In 2005, Genki released Shutokou Battle: Zone of Control for PlayStation Portable. It was translated and released in the US as Street Supremacy.
Among the various other adaptations of Shutokou Battle lies another unique title marketed as a "Car Tuning RPG", called Racing Battle: C1 Grand Prix, which was released for the PS2 in 2005. Racing Battle was a departure from highway and mountain racing, instead focusing on real-life tracks such as
The last main Shutokou Battle game released was
In late 2006, Genki announced they would end the Shutokou Battle series, and eventually shut down the Genki Racing Project, as a part of a cost-cutting operation.
However, on July 22, 2016, Genki announced that the Project would be rebooted, hoping to have new Shoutoku and/or Kaido Battle games for the next generation. On December 27, 2016, they revealed a countdown for their new racing game project. The countdown ended up being for the 2017 Shoutoku Battle mobile game, Shoutoku Battle Xtreme. However, the servers went offline in November that same year.
Kengo
Kengo (剣豪) is the name of a series of fighting video games developed by Genki. Kengo is considered a spiritual successor to the Bushido Blade game series for the PlayStation.
Genki released four games in the series, between 2000 and 2006, for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360: Kengo: Master of Bushido, Kengo 2, Kengo 3 and Kengo Zero (Kengo: Legend of 9 in North America).
Spectrobes: Origins
In 2009, Genki developed Spectrobes: Origins. The game was the last in the Spectrobes trilogy of games published by Disney Interactive Studios, with the first two games being developed by Jupiter.
Recent works
In 2010, Genki created an alternate reality game division called Genki ARG to replace the discontinued Genki Racing Project. This division was closed in late March 2012.[2]
Around the same time, Genki assisted UTV Ignition Games in the development of their 2011 action game release El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron according to the game's director,[3] helping them with the creation of the acclaimed one-off motorcycle action sequence taking place in Chapter 6: Azazel's Zeal, for which they were left uncredited.
The Shutokou Battle series was revived with a Mobage version for mobile phones released on January 27, 2017. This was the first Shutokou Battle game after GRP was discontinued.[4] On September 28 of the same year, however, Genki announced that they were discontinuing the service, which was shut down by the end of November.[5]
Games
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References
- ^ "元気株式会社オフィシャルウェブサイト". 元気株式会社オフィシャルウェブサイト (in Japanese). Retrieved February 4, 2024.
- ^ "元気ARGサービス終了とサイト閉鎖のお知らせ". Archived from the original on May 23, 2013. Retrieved April 14, 2012.
- ^ Takeyasu, Sawaki. "Sawaki Takeyasu Twitter account". twitter.com. Sawaki Takeyasu. Retrieved June 5, 2023.
- ^ "Shutokou Battle Mobage". Archived from the original on January 19, 2012. Retrieved November 11, 2011.
- ^ "「首都高バトルXTREME」サービス終了に関するお知らせ | 元気株式会社オフィシャルウェブサイト". www.genki.co.jp. Archived from the original on August 9, 2020. Retrieved December 9, 2020.