G.rev

G.rev
Yūgen gaisha
Industry Video games
Headquarters Japan
Website http://www.grev.co.jp/

G.rev Ltd. (有限会社グレフ, Yūgen Gaisha Gurefu), short for G.revolution, is a Japanese video game developer. The company was founded by former employees of Taito's arcade division who had worked on G-Darius and RayStorm, and is known primarily for their arcade shoot 'em up games.

History

G.rev was founded with the mission of developing arcade shooters, but they realized the cost of development was more than their initial investment capital. To generate revenue, they took on contract work for Taito and Treasure, co-developing the popular shooter Ikaruga with the latter. This relationship would remain fruitful, with G.rev assisting again on Gradius V, and Ikaruga director Hiroshi Iuchi assisting on G.rev's own Strania. G.rev's first independent release was a puzzle game, Doki Doki Idol Star Seeker, a Mine Sweeper-like arcade puzzle game, created with low investment and high returns in mind.

With the money in place to develop a full-fledged arcade shooter on their own, the team, under direction of president Hiroyuki Maruyama, set out to develop Border Down a spiritual successor to the Taito arcade classic Metal Black. Border Down was met with wide acclaim among shooter fans following the release of its Dreamcast port, with particular praise paid to its unique beam mechanics and "border system", which put players on different paths if they died. They followed this success with Under Defeat, a helicopter shooter praised for its gritty wartime atmosphere. Its port to Dreamcast would be one of the last games released on the system.

Their next release was the unique hybrid game WarTech: Senko no Ronde, which combined shooter-like firing patterns and themes in a projectile-based fighting game similar to Taito's Psychic Force series. With the Dreamcast shooter support diminishing, they chose to port the Sega NAOMI game to Xbox 360, remaking the game's graphics and adding gameplay enhancements along the way. This release, Senko no Ronde Rev. X, became the first G.rev game to be released in North America as WarTech: Senko no Ronde. The American release was met with mixed reviews that praised the title's innovation but criticized the brief length and high pricepoint. Some of the gameplay enhancements of Rev. X were carried over to the arcade release Senko no Ronde SP.

Following the formation of Gulti, another small developer formed by veterans of the shooter genre, G.rev proposed a collaborative effort, as Gulti didn't have the capital needed for a full-scale shooter of their own. The two companies created Mamoru-kun wa Norowarete Shimatta, an overhead-view, multi-directional shooter with a Japanese fantasy theme, initially released on the NAOMI. The title was ported to Xbox 360 and a widescreen version made it to PlayStation 3 much later.

The company's next title was Senko no Ronde DUO: Dis-United Order, a sequel to their earlier crossover title. This time, G.rev chose to develop for the more powerful Taito X2 hardware, allowing the graphical quality of the arcade version to match the later Xbox 360 port. Unlike its predecessor, the title was not released outside Japan.

G.rev continued to develop on the Taito X2 hardware, releasing Strania: The Stella Machina, a vertically scrolling shooter that allows players to arm two different selectable/upgradable weapons at once. For the first time, G.rev decided to forgo a retail release, instead releasing an Xbox Live Arcade, and promising some of the usual bonus features like an alternate course as future downloadable content. The home version was released simultaneously across all regions, giving Western gamers their first G.rev title since Wartech.

Games developed

Arcade Games

Game Year Hardware Publisher(s)
Border Down 2003 Sega NAOMI G.rev
Senko no Ronde 2005 Sega NAOMI Sega
Under Defeat 2005 Sega NAOMI Sega
Senko no Ronde SP 2006 Sega NAOMI Sega
Mamoru-kun wa Norowarete Shimatta! 2008 Sega NAOMI G.rev
Senko no Ronde Dis-United Order 2009 Taito Type X² G.rev
Senko no Ronde Dis-United Order Ver 2.0 2009 NESiCAxLive G.rev
Seisou Kouki Strania 2011 NESiCAxLive G.rev
Under Defeat HD+ 2013 RingEdge 2 G.rev

Console Games

Game Year System Publisher(s) JP NA EU
Doki Doki Idol Star Seeker Remix 2002 Sega Dreamcast G.rev Yes No No
Border Down 2003 Sega Dreamcast G.rev Yes No No
Under Defeat 2006 Sega Dreamcast G.rev Yes No No
WarTech: Senko no Ronde / Senko no Ronde Rev. X 2006 (JP)
2007 (NA & EU) 		Xbox 360 Sega (JP)
Ubisoft (NA & EU) 		Yes Yes Yes
Senko no Ronde DUO 2010 Xbox 360 G.rev Yes No No
Strania 2011
2015 		XBLA
Microsoft Windows		 G.rev Yes Yes Yes
Under Defeat HD[1] 2012 Xbox 360
PlayStation 3 		G.rev (JP)
Rising Star Games (NA & EU) 		Yes Yesa Yes
Kokuga 2012 (JP)
2013 (NA & EU) 		Nintendo 3DS G.rev Yes Yesb Yes
Game Center CX: 3-Choume no Arino[2] 2014 Nintendo 3DS Bandai Namco Games Yes No No
Dariusburst Chronicle Saviours[3] 2016 PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Microsoft Windows Kadokawa GamesYes Yes Yes
Senko no Ronde 2 2017 PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows Kadokawa Games Yes Yes Yes
Notes

^a North American Xbox 360 version released in 2014.
^b Not released in Canada.

Mobile Games

Game Year Platform Publisher(s)
Star Seeker 2002 Mobile Taito / G.rev
Fairyland Story 2003 Mobile Taito
Densha De Go! 3D 2003 Mobile Taito

Games published

Game Year System Developer(s) JP NA EU
Mamoru-kun wa Norowarete Shimatta! 2009 Xbox 360 Gulti Yes No No
Gunhound EX 2013 PlayStation Portable Dracue Yes No No

Other works

References

  1. ↑ http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-10-26-under-defeat-hd-coming-to-ps3-xbox-360
  2. ↑ http://www.destructoid.com/damn-you-japan-it-s-game-center-cx-3-on-3ds--260712.phtml
  3. ↑ Maruyama, Hiroyuki. "突然の発表". グレフ通信 blog版 (in Japanese). G.rev. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
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