It was the first video game series to involve a crossover betweenanimatedgiant robots andlive actiontokusatsu heroes from different established franchises.[1][2] The series makes this possible by using caricaturized versions of the characters (officially referred to as "SD" or "super deformed" characters), which allowed the different heroes and villains to co-exist and interact with each other without the need to reconcile their contrasting styles, settings, or sizes. This also made them appearcute. The first game in the series,SD Battle Ōzumō: Heisei Hero Basho for theFamicom, which mixed franchises that were originally licensed toPopy, was developed as a congratulatory present to Yukimasa Sugiura when he was promoted to president of Banpresto at the time,[1] and was soon followed by series of spin-offs and related games featuring the same cast of characters that developed into the Compati Hero Series. The crossover was also possible due to Banpresto's parent company Bandai holding the merchandising rights for all the properties associated with the series.
The series was successful with children thanks to theSD Gundam craze, but after the release ofCharinko Hero for theGameCube, there were no new games afterward for nearly eight years. Banpresto released a new game in the series titledLost Heroes for theNintendo 3DS and thePlayStation Portable in September 2012.
^abHamamura, Hirokazu.「浜村通信 ゲーム業界を読み解く」 (Hanamura Tsūshin: Gēmu Gyōkai o Yomitoku,"Hanamura Journal: Deciphering the Video Game Industry") (in Japanese). Enterbrain. pp. 203–206.
