Dynamite Headdy

The player can find a wide variety of "heads" which act as power-ups that provide different effects and alter gameplay. Headdy received positive reviews from critics, who highlighted the game's originality and creativity in distinguishing it among other games in the platform genre. They also commended Treasure for demonstrating their technical expertise with impressive graphical effects and building on the success of their earlier game Gunstar Heroes (1993). Cited as one of the best games on the Genesis, and has since been included in multiple compilations of Genesis games. An 8-bit port was released for Game Gear, which itself served as the basis for a Master System port released in Brazil.

• Title — Dynamite Headdy • Developer — Treasure • Publisher — Sega • Producer — Koichi Kimura • Director — Hiroshi Aso • Artist — Koichi Kimura Makoto Ogino Kaname Shindoh • Programmer — Masato Maegawa • Composer — Katsuhiko Suzuki Yasuko Koji Yamada Aki Hata Norio Hanzawa • Platforms — Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, Game Gear, Master System • Released — Genesis/Mega Drive Game Gear Master System • Genre — Platform • Modes — Single-player

• Illustration — Headdy fighting with Trouble Bruin early in the game Dynamite Headdy is a platform game in which the player controls Headdy, a puppet with a detachable head. The story follows Headdy in his adventures to save his world from the evil puppet King Dark Demon, who is transforming all the puppets of the world into his evil minions. To succeed, Headdy must overcome the King's army, which features the likes of Trouble Bruin and the key masters which serve as stage bosses. Headdy can jump and throw his head in any direction to attack enemies. His head can also be used to grab hooks and pull himself up to other platforms. Headdy's health is represented by a spotlight in the corner of the screen which changes colors. If the player does not pick up restorative items to heal themselves after suffering damage from enemies, they will lose a life. During his adventure, Headdy will find power-ups which change the design and function of his head. These 17 power-ups range from increasing damage, such as spinning fireballs around his head, to providing invincibility, restoring health, increasing speed, etc. Some of these power-ups last for only a short time. Other than heads, the player can also find health restoratives, extra points, and extra lives throughout the levels. By finding the Liberty Head, players can enter a Bonus Stage in which the player must shoot basketballs into the correct hoops. Unlike other platform games where falling into a bottomless pit results instant death, if Headdy falls off, he will bounce back up which allows the player to put him back on a platform, though Headdy will still sustain some damage.

After developing Gunstar Heroes, Treasure was divided into four teams to work on four separate projects: Alien Soldier, Light Crusader, Yū Yū Hakusho Makyō Tōitsusen, and Dynamite Headdy. Development of Dynamite Headdy started in August 1993. Inspiration for the game came from Koichi Kimura, who wanted to work on an original project. Up to this point in his five-year career, Kimura had only worked on projects using the pre-existing works of others. Kimura lead development, and president of Treasure, Masato Maegawa, served as head programmer. Kimura designed Dynamite Headdy to be commercially viable. He wanted the main character to attack with a part of its body, so he felt a puppet that could throw its head would be appealing. Not wanting Headdy to be a stereotypical lone hero, Kimura added support characters that appear in every stage. The game's visual design was inspired by Western animation and the work of film director Terry Gilliam. After deciding to publish a localized version for overseas markets, Maegawa was told by Sega of America to make the game more difficult. This was because Sega did not want customers completing the game too easily on rental. Maegawa happily obliged, and the North American release was made about twice as difficult. In addition to changes in difficulty, most of the dialogue in the game was removed, and several of the character and boss sprites were changed. Dynamite Headdy was originally released in Japan on August 5, 1994 for the Sega Genesis, with North American and European releases following in September and October respectively. A port was released for the Game Gear, and a Master System port based on the Game Gear version was released exclusively in Brazil. A 32X conversion was planned but canceled. The game was included along with Gunstar Heroes and Alien Soldier in Sega Ages 2500: Gunstar Heroes Treasure Box, a compilation released for the PlayStation 2 in 2006 in Japan. The compilation includes all versions of Dynamite Headdy released on all three Sega platforms across all regions. The game saw a digital re-release on the Wii via the Virtual Console in July 2007. It was also included in Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and was released on Windows through Steam on May 2, 2012. In 2018, it was included in the multi-platform compilation Sega Genesis Classics. In 2021, Dynamite Headdy was added to the Nintendo Classics service.