| Bravoman | |
|---|---|
 Arcade flyer | |
| Developer(s) | Namco |
| Publisher(s) | Namco |
| Director(s) | Norio Nakagata |
| Composer(s) | Norio Nakagata |
| Series | Bravoman |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, TurboGrafx-16, Mobile phone, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 |
| Release |
|
| Genre(s) | Beat 'em up |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer (alternating turns) |
| Arcade system | Namco System 1 |
Chōzetsurin Jin Bravoman[a] is a 1988 beat'em up arcade video game developed and published in Japan by Namco. Described as a "comical action game", the player controls the titular character, a bionic superhero with telescopic limbs, as he must defeat the villainous Dr. Bomb ("Dr. Bakuda" in Japan) before he takes over the world. Bravoman can use his arms, legs and head to defeat enemies, and can also crouch and jump over them. The game ran on the Namco System 1 arcade board.
Conceived by Namco composer Norio Nakagata, Bravoman is a homage to 1960s tokusatsu films, parodying common tropes found in the genre, and Nakagata's love for synthesizer music. Many former staff members from Toei Animation were hired for the project, leading to the game's distinct art style influenced by anime. Bravoman's real identity, known as Hitoshi Nakamura, is a caricature of Namco's then-president Masaya Nakamura, who the game was dedicated to. It is Namco's only video game to use pressure-sensitive buttons, which were reportedly easy to break. It was ported to a handful of systems, including the TurboGrafx-16, Japanese mobile phones, and the Wii Virtual Console.
In Japan, Bravoman was widely successful, receiving high praise for its gameplay and humor. It received much more negative coverage from western publications, who disliked its mechanics, difficulty, and inferiority to other games in the genre. The game spawned a shooter spin-off, Pistol Daimyo no Boken, in 1990. Bravoman has since gained notoriety from its revival through the now-defunct ShiftyLook division of Namco Bandai Games, who produced a webcomic and animated series based on the game. ShiftyLook also produced an endless runner based on the comic, Bravoman: Binja Bash!, for cellular devices. A true sequel was in production towards the end of the 1980s, but was cancelled when the developers grew concerned that its concept would not work as a game.
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