Guardian Heroes

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Guardian Heroes
North American Sega Saturn cover art
Developer(s)	Treasure
Publisher(s)	Sega
Designer(s)	Tetsuhiko Kikuchi Masaki Ukyo
Composer(s)	Katsuhiko Suzuki Norio Hanzawa
Platform(s)	Sega Saturn, Xbox 360
Release	Sega Saturn JP: January 26, 1996 NA: April 24, 1996[1] PAL: June 20, 1996[2] Xbox Live Arcade WW: October 12, 2011
Genre(s)	Beat 'em up, hack and slash, Action role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Guardian Heroes^[a] is a 2D side-scrolling beat 'em up video game in the vein of Final Fight or Golden Axe, but with RPG elements. The development team called it a "fighting RPG".^[3] Guardian Heroes was developed by Treasure and released in 1996 for the Sega Saturn video game console. A sequel was released in 2004 for the Game Boy Advance entitled Advance Guardian Heroes.

The game allows players to alter the storyline through their actions, such as choosing between a number of branching paths, leading to multiple endings, and killing civilians and enemies, leading to changes in the Karma meter.^[4][5] The music was composed by Nazo² Suzuki and Norio Hanzawa. Hideki Matsutake, a former member of electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra, is credited as playing the synthesizer for the score. It is considered a cult classic of the beat 'em up genre.^[6]

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