Athena (video game)

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Athena
Image:Athena game flyer.png
Game flyer
Developer(s) SNK
Publisher(s) SNK
Series Athena series
Platform(s) Arcade, NES, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum
Release date 1986
Genre(s) Platform
Mode(s) Single player

Athena is a platform arcade game, produced and published in 1986 by SNK. It was later ported to the NES. The NES version was developed by Micronics. Only the NES version has been released in North America. Conversions were done for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC in 1987 by Ocean Software under their Imagine label.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom and defensive warfare, has grown bored with the luxurious life her fellow-deities live on Olympus, and sets out in search of adventure.

[edit] About Goddess Athena

Athena
Game series SNK vs. series
The King of Fighters
First game Athena (video game)
Voiced by Mie Itō
Haruna Ikezawa
Information
Birthplace Kingdom of Victory
Blood type O
Fighting style Sword and Magic
Weapon Sword
Likes flowers
Dislikes monsters

Princess Athena (アテナ姫?), also known as Goddess Athena, is a fictional character from the SNK's arcade game Athena (being the protagonist of this game), which was later ported to several platforms. She is also the ancestor of Athena Asamiya from Psycho Soldier game and The King of Fighters series.

[edit] History

Athena is selfish princess of the Kingdom of Victory, which inhabits a mysterious world. She was bored with the monotonous life day by day in her castle and desired exciting adventures. One day she opened the Door Which Shoudn't Be Opened in the basement of Castle Victory, and fell to another world called Fantasy World which was dominated by an evil emperor Dante, a creature based on Cerberus.

After Princess Athena defeated Dante (in the sequel Athena: Full Throttle), she is again bored with the peaceful days without adventures. This time she opens the Door Which Shoudn't Be Opened: B, disregarding the advice from her loyal maid Helene, and they both fall to the Elysium World to face a bunch of new villains.

The game features traditional RPG elements. Princess Athena has to beat the boss of each stage by using miscellaneous mythological weapons, equipments and items. Without some items, she can not make it through the adventures. Everything in the game is inspired by Greek mythology or ancient Roman culture including weapons, equipments, items and enemy designs. Needless to say, Athena herself is named after the Greek goddess Athena.

[edit] Appearances

After the first adventure, Princess Athena faded out of SNK's stages until fourteen years later, she appears as Athena Asamiya's Another Striker in KOF 2000.

Then she becomes the secret boss of the dream match game SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom as an angelic being guarding the entrance to the Heaven World, which is supposed to be one of the stages of her arcade game. Contrarily, the Capcom character Red Arremer as another secret boss guards the entrance to the Hell World.

Due to her defeat (which is caused by player's character) in SVC Chaos, she is sent to Earth, the human world, by Kamisama for further training through the fighting tournament summoned by WAREZ in SNK Playmore's next dream match game Neo Geo Battle Coliseum as a playable hidden character. Although NGBC's background stories are exhaustively given to every character, it's not a canonical continuation to each game's own title, neither is SVC Chaos.

Also, apart of those titles, appears in the SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash trading card game series, as an SNK character card or as an Action/Counter card.

[edit] Trivia

  • Princess Athena's basic apparel is a red bikini which became a hot topic soon in Japan, and made her an iconic character in bikini, probably the second most representative in Japanese fiction works, after Lum Invader of Urusei Yatsura.
  • Princess Athena's bikini fashion also appears in Athena Asamiya's maximum special move in KOF '97 due to its reputation.
  • To defeat the evil emperor Dante, Princess Athena must need the help from a Titan goddess who will give her a crucial item in a hidden stage. Without it, Dante would be invincible and there would be no way to beat him. The Titan goddess also appears in SVC Chaos, beside Athena during her opening pose until the fight begins.
  • Princess Athena's exceed moves in SVC Chaos are inspired by the materials of her original arcade game, in which some enemy (even some stage boss) becomes her ally after she conquered the whole world. The weapons and equipments also appear in her exceed moves, such as Lion's Shield, Shell Necklace and Wings of Pegasus.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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