Carddass Electronic Encyclopedia

Super Hero Taisen is a series of games and TV series by the Japanese gaming company Banpresto, which is now a Japanese division of Bandai Namco Entertainment. The main feature of the franchise is having a story that crosses over several popular TV shows, cartoons, comics, anime, manga and video games, allowing characters and mecha from different titles to team up or battle one another. The first game in the franchise was released on April 20, 1991. Later spawning numerous games that were released on various consoles and handhelds and some series and movies.

Gameplay
All the games follow a basic structure: when a stage begins, the character receives introductory dialogue between playable characters, leading to the scenario on the battlefield. To complete a scenario, the player must accomplish scenario objectives. Some scenarios are longer, with multi-part missions or have new objectives added as the story unfolds. On battlefield, the player and enemy take turns to order their units with commands available, such as movement, attacking, forming squads and casting "Spirit Commands", a set of magic-like spells unique to each characters. Once the scenario is cleared, more dialogue is exchanged between characters before the player is taken to an intermission menu. Here, units can be upgraded or optional parts installed, characters' stats and skills can be changed or upgraded, and other maintenance actions can be performed before the player continues on with the game.

Many games also have hidden features that can only be gained through a special sequence of events or completing optional challenging objectives. Some of these bonuses include extra stages, different endings, captured enemy machines and or weapon and special upgrade for specific units, such as the IWSP Pack for the GAT-X105 Strike Gundam. Characters that would normally be killed may not die as well. In some games, these are called "Skill Points" and the difficulty of the game increases accordingly.

Story
In all of the games, a team of heroes or just one hero connect to the overarching storyline which ties together the events of the constituent anime for the games. Some featured series also has their plots intertwined: in Super Hero Taisen Alpha, the White Fang from New Mobile Report Gundam Wing allies with Paptimus Scirocco's rebellion from Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, resulting in the two enemy forces working together. The stories play out the events of the game, anime or cartoon, albeit altered. It is said that the events of each game are caused by incursions known as Dimension Quakes that constantly merging and separating the various universes, ensuring canonicity. One noteworthy aspect of the Super Hero Taisen games is that certain events of a series, manga, or game can change, resulting in a alternate ending.

Battle
Battles in Super Hero Taisen are turn-based. The player usually gets to move their forces first, one at a time, then control switches to the game's AI.

When a unit attacks, the target reacts by blocking (increasing defense against the attack), or evading (reducing the attack's chance to hit), or countering (striking back with their own attack). Once chosen, the battle animation is played out. If the player unit is not destroyed and successfully damaged the enemy, then the unit gains experience points. And if the enemy is destroyed, the player will also receive money and optional parts. In later games, "Support Attacks/Defense" (where an adjacent unit that has not taken its turn yet can make a free attack/jump in front of an ally and take reduced damage) and simultaneous attacks by two or more units were introduced.

All battles are carried out either the terrain of land, air, sea or space, which affects the performance of machines, pilots and weapons in various ways. For example, most Gundam characters excel in space combat, but suffer major handicaps underwater without underwater proof armor, and techniques requiring an atmosphere, such as the Mazinger Z's "Rust Hurricane", are unusable in space. The battlefield also contains objects which grant various effects. For example, besides providing repair and energy refill, a military base also provides land units with defense bonus but will hinder them from moving freely.

In addition to standard mecha and vehicle units, the player often has one or more "Battleships", air- or spacecraft units such as the White Base, SDF-1 Macross or Daiku-Maryu that in addition to powerful long-ranged attacks, can also dock other units to refill energy, repair damage, and in some games, even switch between active and non-active units onto and off the battlefield. Battleships are powerful units, but losing one in battle is often an instant-loss situation in many stages.

Units
Units in-game are generally separated into two categories: "super-type" and "real-type". Super heroes are heavy units with exceptionally high hit points and armor, and powerful melee weapons with high energy cost, but at the near expense of evasion and accuracy. On the other hand, real heroes are light units which are faster and more agile and evasive, while possessing long-range, high-accuracy weapons and powers that consume ammunition, but at the near expense of hit points and armor. Some units are treated as "support units", regenerating hit points and/or energy to allies, while battleships and carriers serve as transports or to resupply all units, while also providing powerful fire support.

Though every unit takes a single grid on the tactical map and has little visual difference in battle animations, a larger unit gains defensive and offensive bonus against smaller units, but carry a disadvantage to evasion and accuracy. In later titles, certain attacks can bypass the size attribute, nullifying the effect of size in combat.

Some units have other unique characteristics: for example, Getter Robo can transform into different forms with new weapons and different attributes and Ben Tennyson can turn into different aliens.

Other
As larger storage media became common from fifth generation consoles, fully animated battle sequences complete with detailed graphics, whether larger 2-D sprites, or 3-D graphics, such as Super Hero Taisen Alpha, were implemented with voice acting. The voices were provided by the same voice actors, if available, as the one most recent. All games contain cutscenes. Since many of the voice actors featured have worked in various projects, the games include in-jokes concerning their other roles: Amuro Ray from Gundam and Misato Katsuragi from Evangelion flirt often, referring to their voice acting roles as Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon, respectively.

Since Super Hero Taisen 3, many games feature a database of every character and unit appearing in the title. The database entries are written in the context of the character/unit's original story, regardless of how it is altered in the game. Players usually gain access to the profiles of units and characters already encountered during gameplay and must play through the game several times in order to complete it.

Games

 * Super Hero Taisen (Video Game)
 * Super Hero Taisen 2: The Legend of the Chaos God
 * Super Hero Taisen EX
 * Shin Super Hero Taisen
 * Super Hero Taisen 3

Timeline

 * Super Hero Taisen (Video Game)
 * Super Hero Taisen 2: The Legend of the Chaos God
 * Super Hero Taisen EX
 * Shin Super Hero Taisen
 * Super Hero Taisen 3