| Athena | |
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Game flyer |
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| Developer(s) | SNK |
| Publisher(s) | SNK |
| Series | Athena series |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, NES, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum |
| Release date(s) | 1986-1987 |
| Genre(s) | Platformer |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Athena (アテナ Atena) is a platform video game, produced and published in 1986 by SNK. It was later ported to the NES, developed by Micronics. The NES version was the only one released in North America. Conversions were done also for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC in 1987 by Ocean Software under their Imagine label. The game's protagonist, Princess Athena, has gone on to appear in later fighting games by SNK as a secret character or assistant to her descendant Athena Asamiya, a frequent main character in these games.
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Athena was the young, headstrong princess of the heavenly Kingdom of Victory. She was bored of the monotonous daily life in the palace and desired exciting adventures. One day, she opened the "Door Which Shouldn't Be Opened" in the basement of Castle Victory, said to lead to places of death and suffering. Daring to cross the doorway, she fell down to another realm called Fantasy World, which was dominated by the evil emperor Dante. After descending with the help of her flowing dress, which was in turn lost during the fall, the perilous adventures of Princess Athena began as she landed in a wilderness overrun by beast-like warriors and more dangers than she could ever wish for. With no other choice, she set out to face every obstacle on her way to Dante, in order to free this world and make it back alive to her own.
After Athena defeats Dante, it all begins anew in the sequel, Athena: Full Throttle, in which the princess, again bored, opens the "Door Which Shouldn't Be Opened: B", disregarding her loyal maid Helene's advice, and they both fall to Elysium World to face a slew of new villains.
Many of the game's elements are inspired by Greek mythology or ancient Roman culture such as weapons, equipments, items and enemy designs; Princess Athena herself is named after the Greek goddess Athena, while Dante is based on Cerberus.
Upon landing, unarmed and mostly undressed, the princess only has her kicks to fight the monsters, but she can collect the dead enemies's various weapons, and also has the chance to find shields, headgear and armor to cover her body (although these will be lost after withstanding some attacks). Her journey requires leaping and climbing as well as fighting through the land's eight hazardous worlds, each leading up to an oversized enemy that must be dealt with before proceeding to the next area. The use of certain weapons such as a hammer allows Athena to break through stone blocks, sometimes revealing not only armor but magic items such as sandals that, when worn, allow her to make great leaps.
The game features certain role-playing video game elements to complement the platform action. Princess Athena has to defeat the boss of each world by using various mythological weapons, equipments and items. Without some items, she cannot make it through the adventure.
Aside from Psycho Soldier introducing her modern-day descendant, Athena Asamiya, Princess Athena faded out of SNK's spotlight until fourteen years later, when she appeared as Athena Asamiya's 'Another Striker' in The King of Fighters 2000.
Afterwards, she becomes a secret boss in the dream match game SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos as an angelic being guarding the entrance to the Heaven World, which is patterned after the stages from her video game. By contrast, the Capcom character Red Arremer as another secret boss guards the entrance to the Hell World.
Due to her defeat (caused by the player's character) in SVC Chaos, she is sent to the human world (Earth) by Kamisama for further training through the fighting tournament hosted by the organization WAREZ, in SNK's next dream match game NeoGeo Battle Coliseum as a playable hidden character. Although NGBC gives exhaustive background stories to every character, it is not a canonical continuation to any of their original games (neither is SVC Chaos).
Also, aside from the above titles, she appears in the SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash trading card game series, as an SNK character card or as an Action/Counter card, and, in the final Days of Memories game, she makes a cameo as a foreign cousin of Athena Asamiya.
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