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Topic. Not the huge publisher names, like Squenix or Nintendo, but the smaller companies and publisher subdivisions that do the real work.

Level 5 - Dark Cloud 2 and Dragon Quest VIII are two of the best RPGs of this generation, and Level 5, the best cel-shaders in the business, created two excellent gaming experiences with those two. I'm really looking forward to Rogue Galaxy later this year (or maybe early next year).

Team Ninja - I still think that Ninja Gaiden is the best game on the XBox, and the Dead or Alive series is extremely entertaining, if admittedly less hardcore than Virtua Fighter or Tekken. DOA 4 is IMHO the only worthwhile game on the young 360.

Intelligent Systems - They have the entire Wars series (including Advance Wars), the entire Fire Emblem series, the Paper Mario games, and a number of Metroid games (including Super Metroid) on their resume. Amazing.

Game Arts - The only GA games I've played are the first two Grandia games and the first two Lunar games, but those feature among the best story, characters, mythology, and style that you'll find in any RPG. Grandia III has me excited.

Wolf Team/Tri-Ace/Tales Studio - OK, that might technically be three developers, but bear with me: Wolf Team produced Tales of Phantasia in the mid-90s. Then a number of personnel from Wolf Team left Namco and formed Tri-Ace, which goes on to make the Star Ocean series and Valkyrie Profile. What's left of Wolf Team stuck with Namco and ends up making nearly a dozen Tales games and spinoffs, eventually going under the name Tales Studio. So, the Tales series and Star Ocean series can both claim parentage with the original Wolf Team. Not a bad pedigree, eh?

Edit

Treasure. See my explanation down below.

So yeah, I could also write short paragraphs for some others, but these were what's on my mind. Any of you have any favorite smaller-name developers?

This post has been edited by laszlow on 1st March 2006 21:16

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

Though I guess they're one of the bigger names, I can't help but think of Naughty Dog, both from a sentimental standpoint and one concerning the sheer quality of games.

The first game I owned was Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, and I got month upon month of enjoyment from what is now one of my favourite games of all time, and was then the pinnacle of platform gaming, a genre that still ranks amongst my favourites to this day. I later picked up the first two Crash games, which again I enjoyed a great deal. And let's not forget Crash Team Racing, a game I consider to be the best racing game going and one that I still pick up very occassionally, on the off chance that I can actually find it.
I was kinda disappointed to see them giving up the Crash Bandicoot license, but am actually rather glad for it, because we ended up with the Jak and Daxter series, a series that I consider my second favourite to this day, second to FF. All three of the games are some of my favourites on PS2, and while these games, as well as the majority of the platforming genre, are aimed at a more 'all ages' audience, they're just so fun. Again, other than Square-Enix, Naughty Dog are the developers responsible for the games that I have spent the most time playing, though that sentence is kinda clumsy. :\

Pysgnosis back when they were around. Destruction Derby G-Police, and my personal favorite: Colony Wars. This was the company that knew how to make good playstation games.

This post has been edited by Narratorway on 23rd January 2006 03:14

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Arts

Farts

Twarts

I'll just toss out some names that come to mind.

I have to agree with Mimic with Naughty Dog making some crazy platformers, and I LOVED the Jak series as well. Insomniac made the spyro and Ratchet games, and Spyro remained my favorite game on the PS1 for quite some time. Retro gets big props for the metroid prime series, with Intelligent Design getting credit for the older metroid games. Valve gets props for two of the best first person franchises out there (CSS and HL) Ubisoft Montreal has mad some big strides this past year, with Farcry, Pop : TTT, King Kong, and Splinter Cell : CT. Firaxis for hosting Sid Meier's evertything, Rare gets props for being the best N64 developer EVER (Banjo Kazooie, Goldeneye). Capcom Studios 1 & 4 Devil may Cry and Resident Evil respectivley. Konami Tokyo has all the good Konami games (Winning Eleven, Castlvania, Metal Gear Solid. Criterion has burnout and I'm looking forward to BLACK somewhat.

Eh, I feel like I messed that up. I put the studios instead of the developement teams. Ah, well.

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"We're not tools of the government or anyone else. Fighting... fighting was the only thing I was ever good at, but at least I always fought for what I believed in." - Frank Yeager (a.k.a. Grey Fox)

The first one I can think of is Gamefreak, for the Pokémon series.

After reading FallingHeart's post, I can add the following.

Rare: for the Donkey Kong Country series.
Konami CEK: for Castlevania: Circle of the Moon.

I don't know what games any other ones have made, so I can't say much.

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

Atlus a.k.a Megaten because of its series Shin Megami Tensei.
Nippon Ichi has the wackiest and fun tactics games.
Bandai simply because of the Super Robot Wars, the toughest tactic games.

In no particular order...

-HAL Laboratories: The great people behind the Kirby games as well as the Mother/EarthBound series (which was co-developed by APE Studios), both Super Smash Bros. and Melee, and the Adventures of Lolo games.

-Rareware: Mainly for the first two Donkey Kong Country titles, but also 'cause of Battletoads, Goldeneye 007, Banjo Kazooie and Jet Force Gemini.

-Marvelous Interactive (previously Victor Interactive and Pack-in-Video): The good ol' Harvest Moon series, simply enough.

-Atari: It was once a big-name developer/publisher, but these days it's rather forgettable. Moreover, the present Atari isn't even the same company older gamers may remember; instead, it was bought by Hasbro years ago and then sold off along with the rest of their interactive division to Infogrames, who later changed their own name to Atari Inc. Anyhoo, some of the most nostalgic games by Atari are, in my opinion, Centipede, Adventure and Pong Breakout, among others.

-Activision: Founded by and originally made up entirely of ex Atari programmers, it's sorta obvious I'd mention it, coincidentally enough. Favs from these people include Frostbite, Keystone Kapers, Pitfall! and Earthworm Jim. Clearly I'm more a fan of their golden oldies.

-Namco: Big ones are the Pac-Man and Katamari series, in addition to Tekken 1 & 2, Galaga, Dig Dug and Mario Superstar Baseball. I dunno if they would be considered too "big", although they did apparently do all the work behind these.

-Intelligent Systems and Retro Studios: Metroid and Metroid Prime series, yo! As far as the incredible Fire Emblem series is concerned, thanks go to Intelligent Systems alone.

Any others have momentarily slipped my mind...

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Words of Wisdom:

If something can go wrong, it will.

If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.

If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong. - Murphy’s Law

Boing! Zoom! - Mr. Saturn

Lets see: Square-Enix, Nintendo, SonicTeam, Tales Studio, Namco, and Blizzard.

I forgot one more: Treasure. Treasure just knows how to make well-designed action games. Astro Boy: Omega Factor and the two Gunstar Heroes games are some of the best 2D action you'll ever find, and Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun are probably two of the very best top-down shooters ever made.

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

Quest - I think anyway, Ogre Battle/Tactics Ogre

Tri-Ace - needs no reason.

Game Arts - Grandia.

Squaresoft, if I may be so bold.

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I'm not buyin' anythin'!

Some are major. Sorry.

Midway

Ubi-Soft (Way of the Samurai came out before they hit it big, and it's one of my fav's)

Square (pre-Enix days)

Konami (NES games from them rocked)

One label I'm not too fond of? Rockstar.

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Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them.

~Pacifist Badge, 1978

I'd say independant developers, such as hobbyist like myself.

Making a game as a hobby means not being constrained by tight deadlines or a budget (unless you hire artists/composers and plan to sell your game.) This is a very big advantage because projects will often die out or switch hands halfway through when a commercial dev team fails to complete it on time or runs out of finances.

Endless Saga has been in the works for about a year, but I ended up having to take an extended break because my appartment burned down. Things like that can kill a commercial project. Indie developers just end up coming back with fresher ideas.

'Course, there's no money to be made in indie game dev, so there's a fine line between realism and idealism..

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"Judge not a man by his thoughts and words, but by
the quality and quantity of liquor in his possession
and the likelyhood of him sharing."

Konami
-TMNT; MGS
Jaleco
-Don't remember the games right now, but I know they kicked ass back in the day. Rival Turf and Super EDF for SNES where good games
Midway
-MK; NBA JAM
Square and all it absorbs
- hmmm, that one they call Final Fantasy; Xenogears; Chrono Trigger
Bungie
- HELLO!
Rockstar
- Need4speed; Gran Theft Auto; Midnight Club
Namco
-TekkeN; PAC MAN; the 1 & only RIDGE RACER series for the psONE
Capcom
- Resident Evil; Mega Man; Street Fighter
Maxis
- Sim City

This post has been edited by SaffireWeapon on 21st February 2006 05:06

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PS3 tag: TipoDLuffy

"...quite possibly the greatest game ever made"

I'm just gonna quickly pick 7, so...

Konami (Metal Gear series etc.)

Namco (So many fun games!)

Maxis (The "Sim games", of which I've played, and enjoyed, quite a few)

Rockstar (Not everyone likes them, but they are the basis for a lot of new, and rubbish, games. GTA in itself is quite fun, but not about to inspire me to chill wi' ma homies smokin' dope, then go kill some random people to get "respect". Gangsters suck, but it's a good game.)

Capcom (Street Fighter games are quite fun, but they've churned too many out really. Also, Street Fighter Alpha 3 is the only game EVER to date to give me a blister. Damn super combo move things. *shakes fist*)

Team 17 (Worms is great! Although I believe that Worms 2 was the best installment, as I loved the cartoony graphis, and the fact that I can kick so much but at it. 3D is a bit harder to use, but still fun.)

Lionhead (The Black and White series (so far) is fantastic! They even have plans for 3, 4 and 5!)

Any thoughts?

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The frosty one.

For me, the crown has to go to Oddworld Inhabitants, for making some of the most artistically, aurally, and aesthetically pleasing games around, and coupling them with solid plotlines and FANTASTIC gameplay. Even their worst game, Munch's Odyssey, still brings back fond memories and I replay it every now and then.

Team Andromeda and Smilebit get props for the Panzer Dragoon series (I've only played Orta and the original game, which was an unlockable, but Orta is one of my favorite games, and supposedly Saga is one of the greatest games ever made), another set of beautiful games (and the ending themes for Orta and Saga are fantastic).

Sony, while not exactly "small," made ICO and Shadow of the Colossus, whose awesomeness I don't even have to explain.

And finally, I'll have to agree with the rest of you on Level-5, though I haven't played Dark Cloud 2. (is DC1 a good game? And is it necessary to play it to understand its sequel? Someone PM me)

Oh, and you gotta love indie stuff. My favorite freeware right now is Rumble Box, if you've heard of it. It's simple, but the physics are well-designed (it won an award for them in this year's Slamdance Film Festival, actually), and the gameplay is addicting.

This post has been edited by Spiffyness on 1st March 2006 21:05

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The island bathes in the sun's bright rays
Distant hills wear a shroud of grey
A lonely breeze whispers in the trees
Sole witness to history

ICO-You were there-

Sega -- Shining Force

Taito -- Bubble Bobble

Team 17 -- Worms

Quest -- Ogre Battle/Tactics Ogre

Capcom -- Street Fighter, Capcom vs. SNK