In today's special episode, we'll be taking a big history of one of the video gaming industry's most beloved piece of wackiness, action and all the fighting juice that you'll need to strike up against your foes. That's right, gang! I'm talkin' about TREASURE, a company that was formed by former employees of Konami themselves. So, how did it all happen right at the start? That's a good question. Let's travel back to 1988, back before we had its critically acclaimed title, Gunstar Heroes.

Due to the tremendous success of Technos Japan's Double Dragon series, which would later be adopted by ARC System Works, Konami hired over seven employees that would open its short lived division, known as Star Team. It used to be intended for its involvement on beat 'em up arcade games that are based on cartoon licenses from TMNT, the Simpsons, X-MEN (which would later appear in Marvel VS. Capcom) and even Wild West C.O.W. Boys of Moo Mesa. But due to the arrival of Axelay on the SNES, things just went dramatically over the top. Many of Konami's employees were so angry, so sick and so tired that they hollered against their unnamed CEO who were fed up with the same old stuff that they usually do. No offense to those who used to grew up with the Konami games themselves. So, to make matters worse, they decided to open their own company in 1992, and that was when TREASURE was formed. During that year, they were in the works of making Mickey D's Treasure Land Adventure, or called McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure, if you prefer that, and it was just a kid friendly platformer where it was unlike past titles based on the restaurant brand, such as McKids and Global Gladiators. However, we're not simply going to go over that; we're going to discover a genuine gift from the heavens that sparkled the best of 1993. What is it? Gunstar Heroes!

Now Gunstar Heroes is a name of a run and gun whack 'em up action adventure game where players take on the role as either Red or Blue, depending on each controller port. After this, you can select one weapon and choose a stage to get another to combine both into a devastating machine that would annihilate an entire army of humanoid robots. Your mission is to rescue your now possessed brother, who goes by the name of Green, for example, and thwart out the evil plans of General Grey before summoning the biggest monster: Golden Silver. How do you defeat him? By shooting at his quartet of gems! It wasn't good. It wasn't great. It was the best. If not, the "CRAZIEST"! It was met with critical acclaim that not even a single reviewer had their own downsides to it. And not only that; it was like Contra on powdered sugar. It was like the main four colored characters of Final Fight, but have Guy and Cody as Red and Blue; Mike Haggar as Green and Jessica as Yellow. It was genius! Gunstar Heroes was so crazy that when this game came out of the Mega Drive, I didn't even know what to make of it. But overall, I recommend giving this game a try if you're new to it.

But we're gonna have to save that for later use, because we're back on track with this historical topic! Aside from the popularity of Gunstar Heroes, TREASURE would later work on other games, such as Dynamite Headdy, Alien Soldier, Light Crusader, YuYu Hakusho: Makyou Toitsusen; Guardian Heroes; Radiant Silvergun and lots more. After having a successful relationship with SEGA for the past years within the 90's, TREASURE also does games for both Nintendo and Capcom with respective titles like Mischief Makers and Sin and Punishment for the Nintendo 64; Wario World for the Nintendo GameCube and Gaist Crusher for the Nintendo 3DS. Later on, TREASURE would make a few IP's containing sequels from Gunstar Heroes, Sin and Punishment and Gaist Crusher, with names like Gunstar SUPER Heroes, Star Successor and GOD. The developer is also best known for being a co-producer of 3D Gunstar Heroes, with SEGA acting as the main publisher and M2 as the main developer and 3D consultant for their rebranded 3D Classics lineup for the Nintendo 3DS. To this day, TREASURE remains as one of the most popular developers that had given us a crazy feel for being hardcore anytime, anywhere.

What did you all think of the 25th Anniversary? Do YOU have a fan favorite TREASURE game you'd like to share with me? Leave a comment down below and lemme know what it is! In other words, happy 25th anniversary to us crazy geeks.