Carddass (Franchise)

Carddass (カードダス Kādodasu) is a name given to cards sold by card vending machines owned by Bandai and a video game series published by Banpresto, Tom Create and Namco Bandai Games. The name comes from AMeDAS (Automated Meterological Data Acquisition System), a system in Japan used for gathering weather data. The aim behind this naming is to make Carddass an information source for kids. The main feature of the video games is having a story that crosses over several popular Japanese and American franchises, allowing characters from different titles to team up or battle one another, similar to Super Robot Wars.

History

The first Carddass, released in 1988, is based on the Saint Seiya anime series. In the past, Carddass was for trading and collection only. But since trading card games like Magic: The Gathering have become popular in Japan, more and more Carddass were made in the form of trading cards that can be played in a game.

Many popular anime, manga, comic books, tokusatsu, video game and American animated series have been made into Carddass, including Bleach, Cartoon Network, Chrono Trigger, Code Geass, DC Comics, Digimon, Disney, Doraemon, Dr. Slump, Dragon Ball, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Fullmetal Alchemist, Getter Robo, Gin Tama, Gundam, Hunter x Hunter, InuYasha, Kamen Rider, Kinnikuman, Mario, Marvel Comics, Mazinger Z, Mega Man, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, Naruto, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Nicktoons, One Piece, Pokémon, Ranma ½, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Rurouni Kenshin, Sailor Moon, Saint Seiya, Slam Dunk, Sonic the Hedgehog, Soul Eater, Street Fighter, Toriko, Ultraman, Yu Yu Hakusho, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Zatch Bell!.

A digital version of the game, Data Carddass, was introduced in 2005. This series revolves around arcade machines that can read specially designed cards to access in-game content, such as weapons, characters or clothes. Later AR Carddass was introduced, which uses augmented reality features in smartphones, and the Net Carddass that contains online functionality.

The first video game in the franchise was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System on April 20, 1990, later spawning numerous games that were released on various consoles and handhelds. Due to the nature of crossover games and licensing involved, the games started to be released worldwide in 2000.

Video Games

• Carddass Battle (1990)
• Carddass Cyber (1992)
• Carddass Gaia (1994)
• Carddass Great Battle (1997)
• Carddass Operations (1999)
• Carddass Sunrise (1999) (Sub-Game)
• Carddass Breaker (2001)
• Carddass Neo (2002)
• Carddass Sunrise 2 (2002) (Sub-Game)
• Carddass Time (2002)
• Carddass: Sunrise World War (2003) (Sub-Game)
• Carddass Alpha (2004)
• Carddass Party (2004) (Sub-Game)
• Carddass Century (2006) (Sub-Game)
• Carddass Portable (2006)
• Carddass Crusade Warriors (2007) (Sub-Game)
• Carddass Spirits (2007)
• Carddass Advent (2007) (Sub-Game)
• Carddass Crusade Warriors 2 (2009) (Sub-Game)
• Carddass Wars (2009)
• PlayStation All-Stars Carddass (2011) (Sub-Game)
• Carddass World (2011)
• Carddass Crusade Warriors 3 (2011) (Sub-Game)
• Carddass Party Nitro (2011) (Sub-Game)
• Carddass Phantasia (2012) (Sub-Game)
• Carddass Overworld (2012)
• Carddass 3D (2013) (Sub-Game)
• Carddass Crusade Warriors Reborn (2014) (Sub-Game)
• Carddass Generation (2014)
• Carddass Xeno (2016) (Sub-game)
• Carddass Genesis (2017)
• Carddass Nexus (2020)

Movies

• Carddass Daishugō (1994)
• Carddass Max (2003)
• Carddass Next (2004)
• Carddass Universe (2008)
• Carddass Heroes (2009)
• Carddass Treasure (2010)
• Carddass Super (2011)
• Carddass Taisen (2012)
• Carddass Zero (2013)
• Carddass Uncaged (2014)
• Carddass Grand Prix (2015)
• Carddass Climax (2016)
• Carddass Frontier (2017)
• Carddass Memories (2018)
• Carddass Miracle (2019)
• Carddass Silver (2020)