Grobda (グロブダー) was released for arcades in 1984 by Namco, and is a multi-directional shooter. It is a spin-off of Xevious, as the player controls the eponymous Grobda, who appeared in the former as an enemy. The objective is to clear each level, or "battling", by destroying all enemies within them. Grobda has a shield that can protect it from enemy fire for a short while.
The game was designed by Masanobu Endō, the creator of the original Xevious. It ran on the Namco Super Pac-Man hardware, with a DAC that allowed for synthesized speech. It was ported to many home computers in Japan, such as the Sharp X1 and PC-6601, and is also included in several Namco collections. Elements from Grobda would later appear in other mainline Xevious games, such as the Frosser enemies in Xevious Arrangement and the shield mechanic in Xevious Resurrection.
Gameplay[]
A screenshot from Grobda.
The player controls a tank in an arena filled with numerous indestructible obstacles - and several enemies such as tanks. When the player kills an enemy, it will cause an explosion and other enemies that happen to be in the way at the time will share the same fate as the first one. But if the player's tank is too close to the explosion it will also be killed. The player's tank has a shield that offers temporary protection from enemy fire, but constant firing from enemies will make it disappear. Each level is called a "battling", and there are 99 in total. If all 99 battlings are beaten the high score table will show that you have beaten 100 battlings. There is also a level select screen.
Development[]
Ports[]
The arcade version was ported to PS1 for Namco Museum Volume 2, as well as Namco Museum Battle Collection, which includes a more accurate port. It also ported on the Wii Virtual Console in Japan, released on November 10, 2009.